3 weeks is not near enough time for all the amazing places to see in India! But you'll have a brilliant time anyway. In the time you have, I would recommend maybe doing a round route which takes you from Delhi to Varanasi, which is an AMAZING city to visit, completely fascinating, then west to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, and then into Rajasthan which was one of my favourite states - places there I recommend would be Jaipur (people will tell you otherwise about the city but I thought it was well worth a visit,) Jodhpur, and Udaipur. also Pushkar though this is a real traveller's ghetto and a bit ruined. From Bikaner in Rajasthan, head up to Amritsar and stay in the Golden Temple complex which has free accommodation for foreigners - the temple's amazing and you can do a trip from Amritsar out to the Indian/Pakistan border at Attari, where they do a really funny closing the border ceremony every day. From Amritsar you can take a bus up to Dharamsala (home of the Dalai Lama), well worth seeing, and in the beautiful Himalayas, and from there it's a 12 hour bus ride back to Delhi. People will say bad things about Delhi but it's got its charm and you'll probably like it better the second time round, at the end of your trip, if you did it that way.
Only thing about going in July is you're hitting the monsoon season in most places - look up where might be best to go at that time of year.
OR you could go to south India -Kerala is a beautiful state with some lovely places to visit, the backwaters and Cochin especially. Karnataka to the east of Kerala has the ancient city of Hampi which is lovely, and further south, go to Mysore (it charmed me!). From Mysore you can head down to Ooty, a hill station in the mountains in Tamil Nadu (you can take the mountain railway back down, that was featured in a 'Passage to India'). In 3 weeks you could see some good places in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Nothing is really bad in India! It just takes getting used to, that's all. As you have such a short time and don't want to spend too much time acclimatising, I would say spend minimal time in cities first of all (ie if you fly into Delhi, move straight on, say to Rajasthan, go to smaller places first and build up to the cities, which are brilliant but more in your face) - or if you go south, fly in to Bangalore, which is probably India's most modern, westernised city, so won't be such a culture shock to start with.
You can travel India in so many different ways, so if you want to experience full on everything, you can - if you want just little bits of that plus some insulation from the onslaught, you can do that, - it's all pretty cheap. I did a combination of things according to how I was feeling - for instance if you're taking a long overnight train journey (more than 12 hours), it's worth paying a bit more and getting an A/C 2 or 3 bunk (air con carriages and a bit cleaner), shorter journeys which are more entertaining, go in Sleeper class (you still get a bunk but no sheets or air con, but lots of friendly families to help you out!). Sometimes it can be hard to get train seats at short notice depending on where you are, so as you have limited time, it might be worth booking some of these in advance. If you go on to www.irctc.co.in, you can book tickets online - the site doesn't always work properly, but if you persist it should be ok. But most guest houses and hotels can book train and bus tickets for you - the great thing about India is it's well travelled so things are much easier than people would have you believe! It's very set up for travellers. Trains technically reserve a number of tickets for tourists - this isn't the case everywhere, but if you find yourself being told there's no room on a particular train you want to catch, ask about tourist tickets. Book well in advance for the train journey from Varanasi to Agra if you take that route.
Mostly you don't need to book accommodation in advance, as as soon as you arrive anywhere, a million rickshaws will be clamouring for your business and to take you to guest houses where they get commission - be careful as sometimes the places are crap but a lot of rickshaw drivers know the places that are in Lonely Planet and will take you there if you ask.
If you find yourself in a town with an Indian Coffee House, go there - the food is good and cheap. Eat at cheap Indian canteens, where you get great Thalis and dosas. The food's SO delicious in India, you'll spend all your time wanting to eat. Don't be afraid of getting food poisoning - if you eat where the Indians eat, or from good street stalls, you should be fine - nothings a certainty of course, but just take sensible precautions. I was there 6 months and only got ill once (from a tourist restaurant).
Nothing is done in a hurry in India, so keep that in mind so you don't get stressed out, and see everything as an adventure and experience. People really do embellish their tales of India so don't go there thinking it's all going to be tough and frustrating. India's a magical place and is full of charm - I'm jealous! Have an amazing time
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