Travel Advice

This isn’t a legal document; it’s the practical stuff we’d tell you over a coffee if we were planning your trip together in person. It’s general practical travel guidance, not medical, immigration, or legal advice, it doesn’t replace official government guidance or professional advice, and it doesn’t override anything in our Booking Conditions. Where something here and a current official source disagree, the official source wins; think of this as the page we wish every travel company actually wrote, instead of burying this in a PDF you get two weeks before departure.

Sourced from the NHS, TravelHealthPro (NaTHNaC), UK government guidance for visiting friends and relatives abroad, gov.uk foreign travel advice for India, and gov.uk guidance on taking a child abroad. Genuinely check these yourself closer to your travel date too; advice changes, and ours gets refreshed periodically, not hourly.

When to go: weather by region

In short: October to March is the easy window across most of India; exactly when depends on your region, and Ladakh runs on the opposite calendar to everywhere else.

India’s climate splits broadly into three seasons: a cool, dry winter (roughly December to February), a hot pre-monsoon summer (April to June), and the monsoon itself (June to September), heaviest on the south-west coast and across central India. How that plays out depends a lot on where you’re headed:

• Rajasthan and the Golden Triangle (Delhi, Agra, Jaipur): best November to March, warm and dry; May and June can push past 40°C, so we’ll steer you away from that window if we can.
• South India (Kerala, Goa, Tamil Nadu): best December to March; the south-west monsoon (June–August) brings real humidity and rain, especially to Kerala and Goa.
• The Himalayas and Ladakh: the reverse of the rest of the country, accessible only roughly May to September, when the high mountain passes are actually open. See our altitude note below if that’s your route.
• The Northeast: a similar pattern to central India, driest and most comfortable November to March.

Whichever region you’re headed to, we’ll flag the practical weather considerations on your specific itinerary; this is a general guide, not a substitute for checking closer to your dates.

Source: Selective Asia’s regional weather guide.

Health and vaccinations

See your GP or a travel clinic at least 4–6 weeks before you travel. Everything below is general practical background, not personal medical advice; what’s actually right for you depends on your itinerary, the season, your age, your medical history, pregnancy, and other individual factors that only a GP or travel-health professional can properly weigh up. Check current TravelHealthPro and NHS guidance too; some vaccines need more than one dose, spaced weeks apart, so this isn’t something to leave to the last minute.

• Routine UK vaccinations (MMR, diphtheria-tetanus-polio) should be up to date regardless of where you’re going.
• Depending on your itinerary and circumstances, a travel-health professional may discuss vaccinations or other prevention measures such as hepatitis A and typhoid: typhoid especially if you’re staying with family, eating widely, or heading somewhere off the usual tourist track.
• Also worth raising, depending on your route: hepatitis B, Japanese encephalitis (rural areas, monsoon season, longer stays), rabies (rural travel, limited access to medical care), and a tetanus booster if it’s been over 10 years.
• Malaria: current TravelHealthPro guidance identifies malaria risk in particular parts of India and low or no risk in others: as examples from that current guidance, risk tends to be higher in states like Mizoram, Odisha, and Tripura, and lower in places like Goa or the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The assessment can vary by location, season, and individual circumstances, so check the current country guidance and speak to a travel-health professional rather than relying on examples here; they’ll advise on antimalarial tablets if your itinerary needs them.
• Mosquito-borne disease more broadly (dengue, chikungunya, and, in some areas, Japanese encephalitis) is a real consideration across much of India. Cover up, use repellent, and take extra care around dawn and dusk. Dengue and chikungunya mosquitoes bite mainly in daylight, so this isn’t just an evening precaution.
• Food and water: stick to bottled or properly treated water, and be a little cautious with street food and salads early in your trip while your system adjusts: not because it isn’t wonderful (it is, and part of the point of coming), just because a sudden change in gut flora can genuinely take the edge off the first few days.

If you’re heading to Ladakh or anywhere around 2,500 metres and above (Leh itself sits at about 3,500m), altitude is a genuine consideration, not a formality; current TravelHealthPro guidance puts the threshold for altitude illness risk at around 2,500m. Give yourself a day or two to acclimatise before any serious exertion, drink more water than feels necessary, and go easy on alcohol for the first 48 hours. General warning signs to watch for (not a diagnosis, just things to take seriously) include headache, nausea, dizziness, and poor sleep. Mild symptoms usually settle with rest and time; if they’re getting worse rather than better, that’s the signal to descend and seek medical help, not push through. Following this advice reduces risk, but it can’t guarantee you won’t be affected; we’ll flag altitude specifically on any itinerary that includes high-altitude routes.

If you’re travelling to reconnect with family, or with roots in India

This is worth its own section, because it’s genuinely different advice, and it’s the one piece of guidance most general travel sites skip entirely.

If you (or your parents) grew up in India, or you visit regularly to see family, official UK travel health guidance is specific and a little counter-intuitive: growing up somewhere, or visiting often, doesn’t protect you from diseases like malaria or typhoid. Official travel-health guidance specifically recognises people visiting friends and relatives as a group who can underestimate travel-health risks; familiarity with the destination doesn’t remove risks like these. The advice for what’s officially called “VFR travel” (visiting friends and relatives) is the same as for anyone else, and arguably matters more: get your pre-travel check-up even if this is a trip “home,” keep routine vaccinations current, finish a full course of antimalarials if you’re prescribed one (starting before you leave and finishing after you’re back, not stopping once symptoms don’t appear), and if you do fall ill while you’re there, see a doctor locally rather than waiting until you’re back in the UK.

None of this is meant to make a trip to see family feel clinical. It’s the opposite, really: knowing this in advance means you can relax into the trip instead of getting caught out by something a “typical tourist” itinerary would have flagged for you automatically.

If you’re travelling with family, including children

Depending on the circumstances, immigration or border authorities may ask for evidence of parental consent or evidence of your relationship to a child you’re travelling with; if only one parent is travelling with a child, a signed letter from anyone else with parental responsibility, including their contact details and details of the trip, is usually a sensible thing to carry. If you’re travelling with a child who has a different surname to you (a single parent, a grandparent, a family friend hosting a child on holiday), it’s worth carrying evidence of your relationship too: a birth certificate, and a marriage or divorce certificate if relevant. Full details are on gov.uk; it’s worth a five-minute read before you travel, not a five-minute panic at border control.

Beyond the paperwork: pack for the age group you’re actually travelling with, not the itinerary’s average pace; young children and grandparents often want a slower day mid-trip, and we’re always happy to build that in if you tell us early rather than midway through.

Local customs and etiquette

In short: dress modestly at religious sites, be thoughtful with your camera, and a little cultural awareness goes a long way.

Official UK government guidance asks visitors to respect local dress and customs, particularly at religious sites and in rural areas; modest clothing (shoulders and knees covered) is expected at temples, mosques, gurdwaras, and other sacred spaces, and you’ll often be asked to remove your shoes before entering. At most temples, offerings and prasad (blessed food) are traditionally received with the right hand, and touching shrines or statues directly is usually reserved for priests, not visitors; if in doubt, watch what others around you are doing, or just ask; nobody minds a respectful question.

Photography: be cautious near military installations, government buildings, airports, and railway stations; photography here can be misunderstood and, in some cases, cause genuine legal trouble. Elsewhere, it’s good practice to ask before photographing people directly, especially around religious sites and ceremonies.

Public behaviour: current UK government guidance advises that public displays of affection are best kept low-key, smoking is restricted to designated areas in most public spaces, drinking alcohol in public parks and similar spaces is generally not allowed, and vaping products are currently banned. Laws like these can change, so treat this as a starting point and check the source below closer to your travel date rather than a permanent list. None of this should make you anxious; it’s the same kind of everyday awareness you’d bring to any country that isn’t your own, and our guides are always happy to talk you through what’s normal for wherever you’re headed.

Source: gov.uk foreign travel advice for India: local laws and customs.

Getting around

Internal transport in India covers a lot of ground quickly; trains, domestic flights, and private drivers all feature depending on your route. Smaller local carriers can change schedules at short notice, and this is genuinely less predictable than UK domestic travel, so it’s worth building a little slack into your plans, especially around connections. Where we become aware of a material change affecting your confirmed itinerary, we’ll let you know and work with our partners on the available options: see our Booking Conditions for how changes to a confirmed trip are handled.

Money, connectivity, and practicalities

Card acceptance varies a lot by location; carry some cash, particularly outside major cities, and let your bank know you’re travelling to avoid a blocked card at an inconvenient moment. A local SIM or eSIM makes a real difference for maps, translation, and staying in touch, and we’re happy to point you toward options as part of your itinerary.

Electricity: India uses plug types C, D, and M, running at 230V/50Hz: the same voltage and frequency as the UK, so a simple plug adaptor is all most UK travellers need; you won’t need a voltage converter for standard UK electronics.

If something goes wrong: who to contact

In short: come to us first for anything trip-related: we’re with you through our on-the-ground partners. Here’s who else to know for a genuine emergency.

If something goes wrong with your trip itself (a missed transfer, an on-the-ground issue, anything our guides and partners can help resolve), contact us directly, and see our Booking Conditions for how we handle changes and emergencies once you’ve travelled. Your confirmed itinerary will include Rooetd’s in-trip contact arrangements and appropriate emergency contact details.

For anything needing the UK government directly (a lost passport, an arrest, a serious accident, a death), the British High Commission, New Delhi (Shantipath, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110021) is your first point of contact; the FCDO handles most enquiries through their online contact form rather than by phone, and there are British consulates in other major Indian cities too.

For current emergency numbers and government assistance arrangements, always check the latest gov.uk India travel advice: for convenience, at the time of writing, the general emergency number for police, fire, and ambulance across India is 112, and India runs a Tourist Helpline on 1363.

Source: Incredible India: official emergency numbers. But treat the official source as the one that governs if it ever differs from what’s printed here.

Government travel advice

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) publishes regularly updated advice on safety, entry requirements, and local conditions at gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/india: worth checking both before you book and again shortly before you fly. Where we become aware of a material change in official travel advice that affects a confirmed trip, we’ll consider what information or assistance we need to provide and will contact affected travellers where appropriate: see our Booking Conditions for what happens next.

A note on our itinerary and accommodation descriptions

Where we describe an itinerary’s pace, or a hotel’s tier (“Authentic Guesthouses,” “Premium Heritage,” and so on), those are our own team’s honest assessment, based on time actually spent there: not an official star-rating system. Standards of accommodation, hygiene, and infrastructure vary by region and are often different from the UK; we work only with ground partners we trust, and we’ll always be upfront if something on your route needs a different mindset than a five-star hotel would.