SE Asia or India for a month?

[Inthebathagain]

Next summer I'm giving myself a month abroad to celebrate my 50th. I'll be travelling alone.

I'm very well travelled in SE Asia. I've spent 2 x 1 month there with my then under 10s. I feel confident getting around by myself and am thinking about going back to take in all those parts that you couldn't easily take younger children to.

But I've been desperate to get to India and trace my Indian roots. I've only been there once, and that was Mumbai as part of a organised work trip. The one trip a few of us did independently on the train felt like really hard work!

Any thoughts as to which would be the better choice? Is travelling around India independently pretty easy once you get the basics?

I am not sure I would advise someone unfamilar with India to travel alone.
I do, but I am of Indian heritage, speak two of the languages and go there frequently. Flying between cities will be fine. But I would advise a good tour company. You could do 15 days in India and 15 in SE Asia.
Also Sri Lanka is fabulous.

India, absolutely!
In contrast to previous comment, I have travelled to India, alone, three times now, to different places. I’ve travel sensibly but adventurously. I’ve never had any problems travelling in India and find people overwhelmingly willing to help and engage, it’s one of the things I love about India - friendly locals everywhere.

Well that's good to hear @CeraUnaVolta. It's not for everybody, certainly.
Most Indians are very friendly. Some, not so.

I’ve been to India nine times. I’m a white woman and I always go alone and have the best time, usually Kerala. If I go up north to Goa or Rishikesh I’ll get an internal flight, I found the trains quite hard work to navigate alone

All so good to hear too@Wolfpinkola. Some recent incidents have put me off travelling alone in India to isolated places. The south and Kerala would be better for sure.

India is pulling me more as it's the unknown, so it's good to hear your experiences.

I'd be taking in kolkata, Jaipur, Amritsar, Delhi, Taj Mahal and Mumbai at the least.

@Wolfpinkola @CeraUnaVolta have either of you travelled SE Asia too, in order to compare please?

If you want to see lots of different places in India, contact Erco Travels (ercotravels dot com). They arranged a fantastic custom tour for us (four centres in two weeks), including all of the flights and transfers. Plus as they are based in India you aren't paying a markup to someone in London (who just sends your request through to an Indian agency anyway), nor will you pay VAT.

I have no connection with this company other than as a very satisfied customer. It was probably the best holiday we've ever had, certainly from a logistics point of view.

@Inthebathagain In SE Asia, I’ve travelled Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia. I can’t advise on tour companies as all of my travel is done independently and mostly alone. SE Asia and India, all I found easy to travel around, but different - no harder or easier, just different.

I found the trains in India to be challenging- booking a ticket in advance was very frustrating. I prefer south east Asia with Vietnam as my favourite destination. One year our trips was: Hoi an, Hue, Hanoi, Luang Prabang, Bangkok and HK - four weeks. I also love Cambodia.

I went to India - the Taj Mahal was breathtaking. Also, Sri Lanka is amazing too if you’re in that neck of the woods.

I would do SEA as I dont think India is safe for a lone female traveller. I've never been to India myself because of the safety concerns, but we holiday in SEA regularly and look forward to it all the time. I'm sure india is absolutely lovely as well but personally, I hear mixed reviews about it from my friends so I think it could be somewhere you'd either love or hate.

That's really helpful, thank you.

I've never done a tour company either. All independently travelled with my kids. They loved waking up and helping me plan where we'd go onto.

The India trip would also be independent travel, so the "different" explanation is helpful. I understand!

This is really interesting! @CeraUnaVoltado keep us updated on your plans and afterwards!

I would suggest Sri Lanka and if you do India then do it with a tour group it's a bit scary as a woman alone

I’d do South Korea and Japan.

I would say for pure holiday, SE Asia but if you have Indian roots that you are desperate to explore that feeling won't go away as you get older, so you may as well do it now. I've never been to India without family but if I was going to, I'd do a backpacker type tour group. I haven't been on holiday with Intrepid Travel for 30 years but that type of tour which they do for older people may be good.

No desire at all to do S Korea, Japan or Sri Lanka.

Hence being very clear I'm choosing between SE Asia and India.

So did you persevere with the trains in India, or find alternative means of getting around please?

Cambodia wins for me, hands down. First visit there was 2007. Fell in love with PP, then ended up taking the children back to explore SR, Kampot, Koh Rong, Battembang.

And Laos is stunning too. We did a trip down the Mekong from Thailand into Laos. DS's woke up on his 11th birthday to see elephants having their morning bath in the river below.

I'll be honest, Vietnam is my least favourite. Hue was beautiful, and kids loved Ba Na Hills but there were too many people trying to rip me off when they saw I was travelling alone with 2 small people.

India without a second thought.

As India is pulling you do it for your 50th and South East Asia for your 60th or before.

Does it have to be summer? India is in monsoon season then - some parts more than others but even the “drier” parts like Jaipur are very humid and sweaty then.

I love India but having travelled there in summer and in November I’d pick somewhere else for a summer time trip.

Mind you large parts of SE Asia are wet then too, but not if you pick carefully - best bets are east coast islands of Thailand, east coast Malaysia, Borneo, central coast of Vietnam, all of Indonesia.

I'm a teacher @minipie , so yes, it does need to be UK summer.

SE Asia was occasionally rainy and humid during our travels there, but the joy of travel outweighed the weather.

SE Asia

Ok understood! I’ve been to both regions in summer and found India far harder work climate wise than SE Asia. Malaysia/Indonesia had perfect weather in summer (except W coast Malaysia which was a bit grey and stormy). In Thailand I remember quite a few downpours but nice in between, whereas in India I remember being exceptionally sweaty most of the time. Goa and the mountains were better but the regions you’re mentioning were very hot and humid.

I still had a great trip though - if that’s the only time and it’s where you really want to go, then do it, but be prepared to use air conditioned taxis a lot and not have too fast a pace to make it tolerable.

Pack plenty of diarrhoea remedy. I found I dis very dirty (this was the Golden Triangle area). I also found the cities and towns overwhelming.

SE Asia and Sri Lanka much better.