5 Common Mistakes Travelers Make When Visiting India for the First Time

Your 3 Months First Time India Itinerary looks good for a 1st time visitor !

Excellent tips! Been travelling and living in India for 8 years now and this advice is spot on. Especially the not rushing and landing in South India. South India is such a gem, I cannot recommend it enough! I live in Bangalore so I might be (totally am 🙂 prejudiced in favor of the South, but my best travel experiences have been down here, too. Especially for solo women travellers, please, please land in South India and start here. It will make your trip that much better!

A fantastic post. Were off to India for the first time in April and we really don’t have any idea what to expect. This post has been very helpful to us and we will take your advice with us. Thanks for sharing 🙂

Going to visit friends,however im in a wheelchair am I crazy? I relize its not a handicapped ass. Country.susan

Just returned from 3 weeks in India. (first time there) Wish I’d seen your blog, first. I loved it enough (or, at least saw potential to love) that I’m already planning my next adventure, there, for next year. If only I’d seen your tips, first, could have avoided some pitfalls. Instead, I did all the things your suggested to avoid and came home worn out, needing a vacation to recover from the vacation. i saw oodles of things but feel zapped and regretful I missed out on the main thing I went there for… an immersion into the culture and the people. We spent so much time traveling to and fro, waiting in lines to see the iconic features, we missed those more intimate moments I crave when traveling. I was scheduled to spend the last week in Goa, doing yoga by the ocean, which sounds amazing, but I was so worn out at the end of 3 weeks (for the very reasons you mention: dense population where everyone is in a hurry to push past you, first, unless they’re trying to sell you something, where they’re relentless in that pursuit)… it’s truly overwhelming/exhausting when you weren’t expecting it. It took so much out of me that I canceled the week in Goa to come on home. If only I’d seen your post, could have at the least known to expect the pushiness and gone into it with clearer eyes, prepped to use my firm voice vs trying to be nice, which just as you stated, did nothing but make them think it was interest. I was literally followed for over a mile by one vendor, and chased up 360 steep temple steps by another vendor, plus every time we walked into a shop, just simply glancing at an object prompted 4-5 salesman to poof, appear out of the woodwork & start working it so hard, with tea being served and before you knew what was happening 25 carpets being layed out or an entire jewelry case being displayed with someone to wrap it around you. No glancing at a shawl or else there are literally 50 of them in varying qualities and colors, within seconds, being shoved in front of you. I had never seen anything like it. And, being from the Southern USA, we’re know for polite manners and a hospitable nature, so in India, that translates to being sitting ducks. Every single exchange that would have taken 20 seconds to 1 minute turned into an hour of just trying to free ourselves of a situation without being mean to these otherwise very nice people. It was truly overwhelming, and eventually purely exhausting. It cost us so much of our precious time, there. I do want to return, but on very different terms. Next time, going into it knowing i’ll need a suit of armor. Avoiding those situations where a quick glance through store or hopes of strolling through an iconic street bazaar, just window shopping becomes a force of wills where their will is way stronger. They need to make the sale. And, it was easier for us to just say yes. But, saying yes doesn’t stop it, like we thought. Just made us even more of a target. If the other vendors see you buy something, it then becomes more like a feeding frenzy. Similar to feeding the birds on a beach, then all of a sudden, there are hundreds of them. Swarming. Relentlessly. You have to go indoors just for cover. lol If only I’d gone to Goa first, maybe I’d have been strengthened by the yoga and the ocean waves to withstand all of this. Or, at least, I wouldn’t have been so worn out, so quick, to have to cancel a portion of my trip. Not sure. Just know next time, I’ll take your advice. I’ll front-load my India trip in a slower, easier area then work my way North, fully expecting to be accosted, where I’ll know to truly just ignore. It’s the absolute only way to handle it. Eyes averted, don’t even look or glance and if they still come at you, the answer is just a firm hard NO. Not ‘no, thank you.’ Which truly is perceived as interest, somehow. Also, for women traveling without male counterparts, that’s another set of cultural mores to learn. We were simply looked at oddly, when together. But, those times I strayed off alone, it was literally frowned upon. Disapproving head shakes. I saw it but didn’t understand it. Now, I do. So, it will not stop me from exploring this wonderful, intriguing, utterly beautiful region of our globe, but I will learn more and go into it with eyes wide open, next time. Simply understanding it better will allow me to brush it off, as it happens, vs trying to make sense of something which makes no sense outside of their culture context. To us, seems they’d sell more if they didn’t run off good patrons. They won’t get there any faster by bulldozing the person right in front of them, when we’re all waiting in the very same line, behind the others in the very same line. But, for some reason, it makes them feel better to be pushing on the back of the person waiting in front of them. Accomplishes nothing. But, must make them feel as if they’re at least trying to make progress? I still don’t get it. But, it just is how it is. So, go into it knowing that. As you put it, you must adjust yourself to India, not expect India to adjust for you. Well, we didn’t expect India to adjust to us, but we did spend too much time trying to figure out all the odd anomalies. Next time… NO. Just practice that one word. No to the vendors. No to trying to figure out the un-figure-outable. Just accept it. Then, proceed to enjoy the beautiful colors and intoxicating aromas. Did deep into one area vs spreading yourself thin over a larger area. Thank you for all the wonderful tips. I’m about to read your other article about ‘women traveling in India.’ I believe I’ve learned just enough to understand the funny looks and disapproving headshakes, while venturing off alone, but also hoping to learn more from your article. I will go there again. Its worth the trouble. But, next time, more enjoyment, less tiresome expenditures of energy which will be fruitless. Why? Doesn’t matter. It’s just India. And, its worth it.