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Inexperienced couple needs help to plan a road trip in India

5th January 2022, 15:21 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

Since my fiancée is an Army officer, we need to plan our overnight stays at the Indian Military Cantonment facilities for safety reasons & also to keep this trip cost effective.

BHPian fjcruiser08 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hi Team-BHP,

My fiancée and I are planning a road trip - from Ahmedabad to Calcutta - in late January ’22. I am kinda new to India (Indian but didn’t really live here much) and she’s an Indian Army officer but with zero road travel and civilian life experience. So essentially, we both are noobs at road-tripping in India. Also, we don’t have a lot of time to plan ahead. So I thought maybe the experienced folks here could help us out a bit with the itinerary and suggestions since we don’t have as much of a clue where to visit.

Here are a few considerations

We don’t have an exact date for departure from Ahmedabad or for arrival in Calcutta - tentative departure is towards the end of Jan (22/23/24).
We can be on the road for up to 15 days depending on how well we plan this.
We intend to slow-travel with multiple stops on the way at areas of interest (mostly nature reserves, wildlife sanctuaries, historical places, anything that’s not too touristy/crowded).
A major consideration is that we need to plan our overnight stays at Indian Military Cantonment facilities as much as possible for safety reasons as well as to make this cost-effective.
Our idea is to drive during the daytime and spend the night at the Officers’ Mess, visit nearby areas of interest the next day, spend another night back at the Mess, then hit the road again the day after; rinse and repeat till we make it to Calcutta.
It doesn’t matter if this requires us to travel extra miles out of our way or spend more days on the road than necessary because getting to Calcutta isn't the primary objective.
We would prefer to stick to major highways and avoid back roads as much as possible.
If the itinerary calls for a stay at a private hotel or resort for a night, that’s not a deal-breaker.
It will be just the two of us in a 2021 Mahindra Thar, if that matters.

And that, I believe, is about it. Feel free to ask any questions if I left out any pertinent info.

With your help, we hope to come up with a safe workable plan for our trip.

Thanks in advance (and I hope am not posting this in the wrong place).

TL;DR: Mostly inexperienced couple seeking help plan a road trip across India that is optimised for overnight stays at Military/Defence/Central Govt. facilities and hit as many visit-worthy places along the way as possible.

Here's what BHPian VT-RNS had to say about the matter:

Hello,
Here is an itinerary that comes up:
Day 1: Ahmedabad to MHOW (Indore). Big Army Center, situated outskirts of Indore.
Day 2: MHOW (Indore) explore Maheshwar, Omkareshwar
Day 3: MHOW (Indore) explore Mandu, Ujjain & Indore city itself (great food, some good history)
Day 4: Travel to Panchmarhi (hill station) or in the Satpura Tiger Reserve (STR)
Day 5: Safari in STR or enjoy the hill station
Day 6: Safari in STR or enjoy the hill station
Day 7: Drive to Jabalpur (Big Army base)
Day 8: Enjoy Bhedaghat
Day 9: Enjoy Kanha Tiger Reserve
Day 10: Drive from Jabalpur to Panna National Park or Khajuraho (you can make either one of them as a base to explore both).
Day 11: Explore Khajuraho temples; they are brilliant and should not be crowded. Best weather too! A couple of other things nearby to explore.
Day 12: A day of Safari at Panna National Park.
Day 13: Drive to Prayagraj (Has AF if not Army)
Day 14: Drive to Varanasi (Has some presence of Defence but not sure which)
Day 15: Drive to Bodh Gaya / Gaya for the Buddhist Temples & History
Day 16: Explore the temples and enjoy the peace
Day 17: Drive to Shantiniketan
Day 18: Explore Shantiniketan
Day 19: Arrive in Kolkata
I have personally not driven from Khajuraho onwards to Prayagraj/Varanasi/Kolkata. So Day 13 to Day 19 is more of a plan in my head than first-hand experience. That said, many travelogues cover these areas and I am sure you can find enough info.
Honestly, depending upon your preferences, another adventure could be to move from Jabalpur to Vizag/East Coast of India and explore AP, Orissa coasts and then reach Kolkata. But I expect that to increase the number of days (and add many Kms too, though I doubt that to be a deterrent).
Keep us posted on your final itinerary and look forward to reading a travelogue!

Here's what BHPian TorqueMonster had to say about the matter:

Why not visit the North East states and then come back to Calcutta. Sikkim and Assam are 2 areas which you can visit and have a great time. You will also have army cantonments in these states due to the relatively high military presence. You own a Thar so the car is certainly more than capable for almost all terrain. 15 days are more than enough to cover all major areas.
There are countless travelogues on this forum that tell in detail about how to travel the North East. Here is one and another which I found to be very detailed and which covered a lot of areas.
These threads cover multiple areas, out of which you can visit at least quite a few places over a period of 15 days. You can see which all areas have a cantonment and decide your plan. But for your plan, the North East seems totally fit. You can check cantonment availability and other factors and chart out a plan.

Here's what BHPian Geo_Ipe had to say about the matter: