Home /Start Here
Start here

Pick a region, pick your months, and India gets simple.

You cannot see India in one trip, and trying to is what ruins most first visits. Choose one of six regions, match it to the months you can travel, and give it long enough. Everything below is what I would tell a friend.

  • 108 published guides
  • 18 state guides
  • No affiliate links
Choose a regionI know my dates

Written by Ashvinee Nagle · How these guides are written

High-altitude desert landscape and ancient monastery in Spiti Valley
Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh
The framework

Four decisions to make before you book anything

Most first-trip planning goes wrong in the first hour. Answer these four in order and the rest of the trip mostly plans itself.

  • 01

    When will you come?

    October to March works almost everywhere. April to June is punishing in the plains and at its best in the Himalayas. July to September is monsoon — worth it in Kerala and the Konkan, hard in most other places.

    Dates first, region second

  • 02

    How long do you have?

    7–10 days is one region done properly. 12–15 days is two that contrast. Under five days, pick one city and a day trip. India in a week is the mistake almost every first-timer makes once.

    One region per 7–10 days

  • 03

    What do you want to see?

    Palaces and desert: Rajasthan. Slow and green: Kerala. Altitude: Himachal, Uttarakhand, Kashmir. Beaches: Goa or the Konkan. Rivers and ritual: Varanasi. Tigers: Madhya Pradesh.

    A feeling, not a checklist

  • 04

    What should you know?

    Get an airport SIM (Jio or Airtel) before anything else. UPI is accepted more widely than cash — Google Pay or PhonePe. Keep small notes for autos. Cover shoulders and knees at temples. Book cabs by app rather than off the street.

    SIM, UPI, small notes

Step one

Six regions. Pick one and stop scrolling.

Counts are live — every number below is guides actually published on this site, 108 in total. Where a region is thin, it says so.

The decision device

Which region fits you

Find your travel window down the left, your kind of trip across the top. One answer per cell — because a shortlist is just the same decision handed back to you.

Travel window First trip to India Been before Slow travel, 3+ weeks
Dec – FebPeak season. Book two months out. WesternRajasthan at its best. Cool mornings, no heat, every fort open. SouthernTamil Nadu temple towns in the only months that are comfortable. CentralMadhya Pradesh for tigers, then east to Kolkata and the Bengal towns.
Mar – MayThe plains overheat from late March. NorthernHimachal and Uttarakhand come alive as the plains empty out. NorthernKashmir: tulips in April, meadows in May, ahead of the summer crowds. NortheasternAssam before the rain arrives, while the grassland is still open.
Jun – SepMonsoon. Cheapest and greenest. SouthernKerala in the rain: ayurveda, empty hills, low-season houseboat rates. NorthernSpiti and the high Himachal valleys — the months the roads are open. WesternThe Maharashtra Sahyadris are at their best in heavy rain.
Oct – NovThe widest choice of anywhere on this list. NorthernPost-monsoon clarity. Agra and the plains before November's smog. EasternDurga Puja in Kolkata, then the tea slopes around Darjeeling. SouthernKarnataka coast to Hampi to Kerala over three unhurried weeks.
The calendar

When each state is worth the flight

Rows are per state, not per region — season is only consistent at state level. Himachal and Delhi are in the same region, yet October is the only month both are at their best.

Best months to visit, by state · swipe for Jun–Dec →

Best months to visit, by state
State Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Northern
Delhi BEST BEST OK SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP OK BEST OK BEST
Uttar Pradesh BEST BEST OK SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP OK BEST BEST BEST
Uttarakhand SKIP OK BEST BEST BEST OK SKIP SKIP BEST BEST OK SKIP
Himachal Pradesh SKIP OK OK BEST BEST BEST OK OK BEST BEST OK SKIP
Kashmir OK OK BEST BEST BEST BEST BEST BEST BEST BEST OK OK
Punjab BEST BEST OK SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP OK BEST BEST BEST
Chandigarh BEST BEST OK SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP OK BEST BEST BEST
Western
Rajasthan BEST BEST OK SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP OK BEST BEST BEST
Goa BEST BEST OK SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP OK OK BEST BEST
Gujarat BEST BEST OK SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP OK BEST BEST BEST
Maharashtra BEST BEST OK SKIP SKIP OK BEST BEST OK BEST BEST BEST
Southern
Kerala BEST BEST OK SKIP SKIP OK OK BEST BEST BEST BEST BEST
Karnataka BEST BEST OK SKIP SKIP OK OK OK BEST BEST BEST BEST
Tamil Nadu BEST BEST OK SKIP SKIP SKIP OK OK OK OK SKIP BEST
Andhra Pradesh BEST BEST OK SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP OK BEST BEST BEST
Central
Madhya Pradesh BEST BEST OK OK SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP BEST BEST BEST
Chhattisgarh BEST BEST OK SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP BEST BEST BEST
Eastern
West Bengal BEST BEST OK SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP OK BEST BEST BEST
Northeastern
Assam OK OK BEST BEST OK SKIP SKIP SKIP OK BEST BEST OK
Arunachal Pradesh OK OK BEST BEST OK OK SKIP SKIP SKIP BEST BEST OK
  • BEST — go now
  • OK — workable with caveats
  • SKIP — go elsewhere
Region by region

What is in each region, and what is written up

Every place named below is a guide that exists on this site. Nothing here is a shortlist of somewhere I have not been. Open a region to see its states.

Northern · 32 guides

Northern India

  • BEST Plains Oct–Mar
  • BEST Mountains May–Sep
  • 10–14 days

Plains and cities run October to March. Anything above 2,000 m runs May to September. Those windows are close to inverse, which is why this region carries two season bands and why the calendar above goes state by state.

Show the 7 statesHide states
Western · 23 guides

Western India

  • BEST Nov–Feb
  • OK Sahyadris Jun–Sep
  • 10–14 days

Rajasthan for heritage, Goa to stop moving, Gujarat for the emptiest landscape in the country. One narrow season: April to June reaches 45 °C, though the Sahyadris are at their best in heavy rain.

Show the 4 statesHide states
Southern · 26 guides

Southern India

  • BEST Oct–Mar
  • OK Kerala monsoon Jun–Aug
  • 9–12 days

Kerala and Tamil Nadu pair well over twelve days; Karnataka is the strongest single-state trip in the country. The monsoon is a reason to come to Kerala, not a reason to cancel. Tamil Nadu runs on a different calendar again — its rain arrives in October and November.

Show the 4 statesHide states
Central · 13 guides

Central India

  • BEST Oct–Mar
  • 6–9 days

Madhya Pradesh alone justifies a week: Bandhavgarh for tigers, Khajuraho and Orchha for the carving, Gwalior for the fort. Park gates close through the monsoon, so this is a cool-season region. Chhattisgarh next door is the least-visited state in central India — Bastar’s waterfalls, caves and weekly tribal markets, with almost no other visitors.

Show the 2 statesHide states
Eastern · 8 guides

Eastern India

  • BEST Oct–Mar
  • 7–10 days

Coverage here is all West Bengal so far — the city, the hills, the Sundarbans and the smaller Tagore and terracotta towns inland. Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand are not yet written up.

Show the 1 stateHide states
Northeastern · 6 guides

Northeastern India

  • BEST Oct–Apr
  • 10–14 days

Assam carries the place guides — Kaziranga and Manas for wildlife, Majuli for the river island, Sivasagar and Jorhat for the Ahom history. Arunachal Pradesh has a full state guide but no individual place guides yet, and it needs an Inner Line Permit before you go. Allow two weeks for the pair, and check permit rules before booking anything in Nagaland too.

Show the 2 statesHide states
Before you book

Mistakes first-timers make

  • Distance

    Five regions in ten days

    Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Goa and Kerala in ten days means five of those days are travel days. Two regions maximum. Three bases, ideally.

  • Timing

    Rajasthan in May, Delhi in November

    45 °C and a smog ceiling respectively. Time the trip to the region rather than to the fortnight your leave happens to fall in.

  • Booking

    Locking in every night before you land

    Book the first night and the last. Leave the middle loose — plans change once you are actually moving.

  • Bias

    Defaulting to the north

    The south is easier to travel, calmer and just as rewarding. There are 26 guides for it here, against 32 for the north.

  • Money

    Cash-only planning

    UPI is accepted at chai stalls. Carry ₹2,000 in small notes for autos and temple donations rather than queueing at ATMs.

The honest bit

Most first trips go north by default, and that is worth questioning.

The Golden Triangle is what almost every itinerary sells, and it is genuinely worth seeing — but it is also the hottest, busiest and most hassled corner of the country, and it is where first-timers most often come home tired rather than glad they went.

There are 26 guides on this site for the south and 32 for the north, and the south is the easier place to travel on almost every measure: shorter distances, better roads, calmer streets. If this is your first trip and your dates are flexible, it is worth at least pricing the other option before you book the obvious one.

Free

Tell me your dates and I will tell you where to go

Send your dates, your rough budget and what you want out of the trip. You get a straight answer, usually within 48 hours. No booking links and no commission — if a place is not worth your time, you will be told.

Plan my trip

Keep reading

Or start from a guide instead

If you already know roughly where you are going, skip the framework. All 108 destination guides sit in one place, and each of the 18 state guides opens with the state at a glance and the handful of places that capture its range.

Browse all destinations

Share this guideX / TwitterFacebookWhatsAppCopy link
Ashvinee Nagle, writer of Travel India

Written by Ashvinee Nagle

I travel India slowly and write it down honestly - practical guides and real itineraries from someone who lives here.

About Ashvinee →

More from Travel India