Travel to Pune?
 

I'm planning a return trip to India for the fall after having just visited this past Spring. My friends have moved to Pune recently and will likely visit them there.

Being so close to Mumbai, it seems air travel from BOM is relatively infrequent . While the flight times are reasonable (finally) they hardly connect with anything from the States, Europe or even SE Asia.

Would it be unheard of to fly into BOM and get a car hire service to Pune? It's about 80 miles from what I can tell and that seems like a reasonable drive. Especially since I hired a car from Delhi to Agra. I was thinking of flying into BOM and then driving to Pune and then just flying OUT of Pune.

Any ideas?

Driving to Pune would be the most sensible thing to do. The expressway's a boon to frequent BOM-PNQ travelers, and obviously takes a way lot less in terms of time, as compared to flying (though I know at least one person who prefers to fly !!!).

Just a thought. May be useful to see if you can fix up the car hire before you reach BOM - though I think Avis/Hertz/Others may have a facility available in the arrivals hall (they do in the Domestic terminal).

If you want to book online - the indian franchises of

Avis - www.avis.co.in
Hertz - www.carzonrent.com
Sixt = www.sixt.co.in

I think there's europcar as well. These are of course a bit more expensive than the local players but .. newer and better maintained cars, driver guaranteed to speak english etc.

Thanks for the info... I hope I was clear with my phraesology "car hire." I want to hire a car and driver, not rent a car to drive myself!

Self service driving never did catch on in India. Hertz / Avis etc will all supply you a driver.

Thanks hserus. @AZJ - this was presumed :D ! You will get a car with a driver...don't expect a "chauffeur" though ;-)

No no... I don't expect a chauffeur. When I was in India back in April/May, I hired drivers in multiple cities and it worked out great. I just wasn't sure if this was something normally done between BOM and Pune.

I've done this in the past. Note that the driver will have no clue how to navigate the other city. Take a driver from BOM to PNQ and he'll not be able to drive you to your destination without a lot of direction from you or people along the side of the road or the people you are visiting. With this in mind give yourself LOTS of extra time.

My last trip between the two was via air and that is the way I'd do it again. Much quicker taking everything into account.

I concur.

The drive should take no more than 3 - 4 hours depending on where in Pune you are going. It's a relatively pleasant drive. A mid-size sedan or an (S)UV will probably cost you approximately Rs. 3,000 - Rs. 4,000.

Hmmm... my time is short so I think I'll just fly and try to do it all in one day without having to overnight in BOM or DEL. It's going to be hard to do though.

If you fly LH business class they have MUC-PNQ business jets. That's the best way to avoid wasting several hours twiddling your thumbs in bombay and pune rush hour traffic.

Or fly into some city like MAA or DEL and then fly into PNQ from there, rather than connecting BOM-PNQ

I do this leg all the time when I visit India. Sometimesa it is better to drive than to fly but getting out of Bombay to the expressway and getting into Pune is still very slow and bad.

If you want a name of the car hire company that is very good, PM me and I will send their infor to you. I use them all the time and they speak English and are very puctual.

Agreed - but with DEL you have to change airports, which involves a long ride over from international to domestic.

As hserus advises, MAA or BLR would be your best bets, due to the fact that the aiports are the same building, handling both international and domestic, as I understand - maybe even HYD? (But then you might not get good connections via HYD, but might be worth a try!)

I would prefer this option, as one gets to fly the intercontinental segment a bit longer, which allows a bit more of sleep time (if one can sleep on board), as compared to BOM, and then you eliminate the possibly terrible BOM traffic and mayhem!

Right.