Hi Gitika, 1. I am considering that you are applying for tourist visa. Each country has its own requirements in terms of documents you will find the specific documents on the website of each consulate. Generally required are photograph, pan card, passport copy, maybe bank statement last 3 months, some will ask for return or onward air ticket and local hotel reservation travel insurance may be a letter from your employer or latest salary slip. Their main concern is that you should be able to take care of yourself incase of a accident or medical issues and you are not trying to become their citizen or use their country to try to illegally migrate to any of the first world countries. 2. Visa is generally a sticker applied to a page on your passport so you will have it. Incase of a evisa for example of Singapore you will be given a separate sheet of paper print, you can keep with your passport. Visa contains details of your passport and how many times you can enter the country and the validity of your visa. 3. General practise is to keep your passport and visas with you. 4. You cannot force any country to give you a visa when you want. Some countries offer this facility of getting a visa before you travel or visa on arrival, then in this case you can get your visa before you travel. But if only visa on arrival is there then you have to go that route. 5. Biometric information is taken at the consulate or visa facilitation center of specific country so it is a different database for each country. and you must go through it every time you apply for visa for a different country. 5. Please check details of each package on what sightseeing or shopping areas are included. you have to ask your package provider for details of extra charges for any extra excursion you want to do even if it is shopping in a different mall. 6. In today's world of internet, Google and you tube there is very little that we cannot find out or know about a new place or city. Please do your research you will be better off knowing something about the city/ town you are visiting. I hope that this if help to you BR Mani
Dear Gitika, May I suggest that you take it a little slow. Since you plan to visit Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore please check their tourist visa information available on their websites. Also check out the websites of SOTC or any other package provider to get some idea of what is being offered. Do a little bit of research on the cities you will visit as a part of the package in terms of places to see and shopping or life experience etc. Once you have done the above you will have some better idea of what is required, what you can expect to see and experience. You will be better placed to ask more specific questions that will help you and also reduce your anxiety. Enjoy your travels BR Mani
Hi Mani thanks for your elaborate level of info and explanation on various things. As you said I think I need to travel the Indian places or interstate travel rather than going abroad. Can u pls suggest out of your own experience which are the nearby places that can be visited as part of South Indian tours which are best for South Indian tours. Also any packages covering the Andaman, pondicherey and goa. Pls suggest which the best cities worth seeing in India and which have routes by nurses rather than trains. Regards Gitika
@Cielo and @mani75 Pls suggest me all the South Indian and north Indian worth seeing best cities that have highest number of places in store for us to see. Regards Gitika
Hi Gitika, Since I don't know your interest I am going to list some of the places I have visited in South India. Bangalore Mysore Coorg Chickmanglure Jog falls Ooty Coonoor Kochi North India New Delhi Amritsar Shimla Manali Nainital Almora Ranikhet Kausani Bageshwar - largest town from where you leave for trek to Pindari Glacier Corbett national park Haridwar Rishikesh Varanasi Agra Lucknow Kanpur Jammu Srinagar Western India Maharashtra Mumbai Pune Lonavala Matheran Mahableshwar Panchgani Mahad - Raigad fort Igatpuri - Bhandardhara Satara Wai Ratnagiri Ganpatipule Alibaug Nashik Aurangabad Ajanta Ellora Daman Silvassa Gujrat Ahmedabad Rann of Kutch Gir sanctuary Rajkot Jamnagar Somnath Lohthal Rajasthan Jaipur Jodhpur Jaisalmer Ranakpur Kambhalgarh Ajmer Ranthamore - met two tigers Madhya Pradesh Indore Bhopal Jabalpore East India Calcutta Siliguri Darjeeling Gangtok North Sikkim There are many more places left to see in my list. I usually pick a starting city and build my trip around it depending on the no of days I have and the kind of trip I want to have. We usually like to do minimum tourist attractions and walk around the town just soaking in the atmosphere. Let me know your interest and I will try to help you. With regard to covering Andaman Pondicherry and Goa at one go I don't think it's feasible. I cannot recommend any company for travel within India as i plan and we go independently. Enjoy your travels Mani
@SunPa Don't be. Due to various reasons I haven't been able to take off on a real holiday for 2 years+.I am looking forward to summer of 2018 when I will be able to take a long vacation. Till then I spend a lot of time online reading other people's trip reports and fantasising about my next plan. Please make the time and travel nothing is more satisfying for the soul This is a bug we children got from our father and are happy to say it's been passed on to our children too. I love it when my son discusses possible holiday destinations with me. He has been a part of most of the trips above and remembers quite a few experiences from them. I am very pleased to have this connection with my child. Enjoy your travels BR Mani
Awww I just meant that I was impressed by your list. I dont live in India so I really long to visit places there. The vacation to India is so packed - that we find it hard to really visit places, I have managed to squeeze in some, but really yearn for more. I guess I am your type of traveler but not half as much. I have traveled in SE Asia a bit. I do "research", personal blogs that I can connect to help, then I plan out - we prefer it is free and easy, nothing is a must, as long as we can all make it and enjoy, it is great. nothing is more satisfying for the soul How true, it is as if I find a bit of myself in the places I visit. I live in a concrete jungle so a travel especially to the hills , makes me feel so refreshed. For someone like you who has the wanderlust, I understand what a struggle it must be to stay put. Just one more year , hang in there
Hi Gitika, If you could specify a little about your interests such as - Mountains, beaches, adventurous treks, snow, islands and so on, I'll be able to provide you with options in lengths and breadths of India - I have done from Kashmir to Kanyakumari each and every state, every town of India. My favorite ones are the places in Himalayan belt and Northeastern states.