OK, completely OT as I'm not going to ask what the best seats for a couple on the upper deck are!

Off to DEL in November for 2 weeks, was originally planning to spend most of the time travelling around Rajasthan but am having second thoughts as I'm exhausted - I basically fancy chilling out for 5 solid days somewhere.

Is there anywhere nice to relax by the sea in India? Somewhere which hasn't gone 'full moon trance party' / weird hippies etc. ?

Or if staying in Rajasthan, is there a slightly crumbling palace hotel with a reasonable pool? I stayed in just such a place 15 years ago - enormous room and thousands of staff but in a charming state of gentle decay. Have such places all been turned into Oberois by now?

Goa is always a good option for a beach holiday.

Isn't that ruled out by the OP's "Somewhere which hasn't gone 'full moon trance party' / weird hippies etc. "?

Park Hyatt Resort & Spa - Goa....

The Devi Garh is located about 45 minutes outside of Udaipur. Rooms start from USD300 per night for a garden terrace, to USD1000 for a palace room.

Have stayed there two times now and loved every minute of it.

Five days might be a bit too long, as there really is nothing to do except lounge on the day beds (at we think the best bar in the world), or do yoga, or sit by the pool, or eat or sleep or...

Link is here:

http://www.deviresorts.com/

And tripadvisor scores almost all 5's. There are only 9 garden suites and a handful of the palace rooms - all up about 40 for a huge palace.

Flights to Udaipur are on Jetairways or Indian Airlines ex DEL or BOM. I flight a day in each direction.

Regards

lme ff

Udaipur is delightful. I proposed while bobbing about on Lake Pichola, which was brave as if she had said no the swim back wouldn't have been fun. Devi Garh has had rave reviews from a colleague.

[Mod hat on]

We will give this a run here to garner advice from the regulars, then I will move over to the India forum for their input and the future reference of other FT'ers

Swanhunter
BAEC Mod

[hat off]

Fly south to Trivanduram and taxi straight to the beach town of Varkala and stay in the Taj Garden Retreat. Then catch a luxury house boat in Alleppey for two nights and finish up in Cochin, the Taj Malabar is extremely nice!

Thank you so much for your suggestions.

I'm definitely veering towards Udaipur as the 'staying put' place now - Devi Garh looks amazing and has availability!

Many people forget how cold it gets in Delhi and Rajasthan in the North of India during the winter.

You have to fly down south for a bit of sun and beach to chill. Avoid Goa at all costs.

Go down to Cochin in Kerala which is slightly south of Goa. As per Paul's Mertons documentary last night, it truely is "God's country" because it is lush and green and food is in abundance and people are extremely laid back. Too much so at times.

I stayed at the Marari Beach over New Year's a couple of years ago and lovely it. It is pricey but rustic. If you truely want to get away from the rat race, this is the place. And it is haven after touring Delhi and Rajasthan in the North. Wrote this review about my stay. However, spend the day on a houseboat going past of the rice paddies around Appelley - this is truely the most chilling experience I have had ever.

Just remember, Udaipur is a dammed up river, not a proper beach. Watch James Bond in "Octopussy" to see the Lake Palace Hotel in the middle of the lake. I would agree that Udaipur is relaxing if you get away from the main town but you only get sufficient sun for about 2/3 hours to lie by the pool at mid-day in winter.

Also get first class seat on JetAir and avoid Indian Airlines. Got a three course breakfast on the 35 mins flight from Udaipur to Bombay!

Let me second the Devi Garh recommendation. We stayed there for three nights this past March and found it to be fabulous in terms of comfort, service, and ambiance. You do need to know though that it's about a 35-minute drive from Udaipur proper.

I second the advice to avoid India Airlines. You might also check out Kingfisher Airlines, which was our favorite domestic Indian airline during a trip to the subcontinent this past February to March.

Kerala has been known as 'God's country' for long before Paul Merton

My mother went to Kerala earlier in the year and loved it ^The food is fantastic!

Off Thread post even - to anyone who has attended a BA FT do in London.

Can you imagine sending MCS? off for a couple weeks in India? Poor boy would starve.

Well - thank you all. The suggestions to get down south were very exciting (and I very nearly booked flights this afternoon after reading KenJohn's post!) but the allure of Devi Garh won out in the end.. booked!

What a wonderful forum this is - thanks all

Well am glad someone has started a thread about travel in India. My 11 year old daughter has just been asked to take part in the 2009 Commonwealth Karate championships in Chennai, India (this year is was in Edinburgh so only 1hr drive away...). Still somethings to sort out before the final announcements (security is one of the main ones I believe).

Lucky for me that BA fly there so thats a big plus as far as am concerned but the problem is that the event is right at the end of June so thats the start of the Scottish school holidays and the time we normally fly off somewhere for nearly 3 weeks of doing the tourist thing.

So BA CW out, thats the easy bit but what to do after the event? I just dont have a clue apart from maybe flying from Chennai over to Dubai then back to the UK. Ok I know Dubai will be hot as hell in July but I also know that we just have to stay in nice air con places, then again with two females going its mostly about shopping..

So any other ideas from folk now that my North West USA trip has to be binned for 2009 (there was I looking forward to pushing my USA states total up by another few....)

regards
J