India

Best time to visit

Best time to travel

October to March suits many northern and central routes, but the Himalaya, monsoon coasts and tropical south follow different seasons.

Travel tips

Travel by Ildy tips

• Carry a light scarf: shoes come off at temples, mosques and gurdwaras, shoulders and knees should be covered, and heads must be covered at Sikh gurdwaras such as the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
• In Darjeeling, taste first-flush tea at an estate in spring: the year's first plucking, from roughly March to April, gives the lightest, most floral cups of this GI-protected tea.
• Plan Nagaland for 1–10 December, when the Hornbill Festival gathers the Naga tribes at the Kisama heritage village near Kohima for dances, crafts and food.
• At Jaipur's Jantar Mantar, the giant Samrat Yantra sundial is about 27 metres tall and was built to tell local time to within roughly two seconds.