DO’S
- Do cover yourself with travel insurance for thefts, loss and medi-claim. Do exchange money only through authorize banks or money changers.
- Change money only at Authorized Foreign Exchange Outlets / Banks / Hotels and insist on receipt.
- It is advisable to avail paid taxis/auto-rickshaws (three wheeler Taxis), wherever available at the airports and railway stations. For metered taxis insist on paying by meter or ask for a fare chart.
- Use Licensed guides for sightseeing who owns a valid ID card.
- Keep valuables in hotel locker / safe deposit valid and get receipt.
- Always take safe and packages drinking water and consume fresh fruits and food.
- Do immunize yourself against various diseases like typhoid, malaria, hepatitis and tetanus that are prevalent in India.
- Respect the religious and sacred places of worship. Always take off your shoes while entering there. Some Hindu temples and Gurudwaras don’t allow you to enter unless you cover your head. So take care of that.
DON’TS
- Don’t accept any food or drink from your fellow passengers at any circumstances and equally do not offer your food to any other.
- Don’t act confused while traveling. Keep a posture of a person known to the region.
- Don’t accept lavish hospitality extended by strangers/unknown persons especially while shopping for jewellery and expensive items.
- Don’t consume street food and raw food salad, fruits etc.
- Do not offer to shake the hand of a person of the opposite sex unless they offer first.
- Do not take pictures of people without asking permission. Photography within airports, of military installations, bridges and at “sensitive” border areas are not permitted.
- Do not take offers of spiritual salvation and magic remedies from saints, god men and quacks. There is no way you can distinguish the genuine ones from the crooks.
- Don’t encourage beggars.
- It is quite a closed society. So avoid wearing clothes that are too revealing and too scanty.
Here is a list of some important dos and don’ts for comfortable and enjoyable travel in India.
- A proper VISA to enter and stay in India is a must. Practically every foreign national requires VISA to enter India.
- Always go with prior reservations at the hotels and arrangements of transportation, guide, safari’s etc. with the help of your travel agent or directly with the hotels.
- Travellers should get properly inoculated against Yellow Fever if coming through infected regions.
- It is advisable to cover yourself with travel insurance for thefts, loss and medi -claim.
- Carry proper maps of the places proposed to visit in India, as signboards are often absent. Try to reach a station during daytime if traveling on your own. In Any case avoid persistent touts and taxi-wallahs at airport/stations/bus stand to help you find your hotel. Always use tourist assistance desk for proper advice.
- Women traveling alone in certain deserted places should avoid walking at odd hours i.e after 2000 hrs in the night at any place.
- Don’t ever enter a temple, tomb, dargah or Gurudwara with shoes on and/or scantily dressed. One should cover his/her head with a cloth while in a Gurudwara or Dargah. Parikrama or walking around the sanctum sanctorum should always be in clockwise direction.
- Do not wear black clothes while visiting a Jain temple. Leather articles are forbidden to be carried in Hindu and Jain temples. Taking photograph of the deity in a temple is normally not permitted. It is always written on the board where the photography is prohibited.
- While changing money, insist on getting encashment certificate.
- Do not encourage beggars. You will mostly find in front of any monuments in India.
- Do not checkout of the hotel in hurry. While checking out it has been noticed in some hotels, the extras are unreasonably charged which the guest hurriedly pays without cross-checking.
- Do not leave your cash and valuables in your hotel rooms. Keep your cash divided in different pockets or security lockers available at the hotel.
- Take care of contamination of water and food problem. Always drink safe mineral water and take well-cooked food.
- Buy at genuine shops only. Bargaining is a popular practice in India and necessary too.
- Do not visit places which encourage orthodoxy, social injustice and inhuman practices (like visiting a sati temple).
- Don’t eat anything offered by fellow travelers on train or road travels. It might have sleeping pills. Always travel reserved class in trains.
- Always chain and lock your luggage under your berth in a train.
- Don’t photograph women without permission.
- Use licensed guides for sightseeing.