Love Travel Guides truly are beautiful and it is like being shown around by a good friend who introduces you to all the best spots.
However, while all inclusions are high quality experiences, some can be quite expensive, so it’s good for the travel toolkit, but best used in conjunction with other guides and tips.
Sharrell Cook does a good job of describing and appreciating the Love Travel guides. In fact her GoIndia website is very useful in lots of ways.
Best of the West – Highlights of West India Foodie Itinerary Ideas
Mumbai
Why Go?
Workers from across India, seeking to make it ‘big’ in the bright lights, bring authentic regional food to Mumbai including India’s best range of creative street food (like Vada Pav, Behl Puri and Pao Bhaji).
Try Parsi cuisine, originally from Persia…most fun at Britannia and Co.
Don’t miss the dabbawallah unwritten delivery system that takes thousands of home cooked lunches to workers every day.
Visit local food markets and Sassoon Dock fish market.
All set against stunning colonial architecture…and surprisingly innovative and creative high density living in Mumbai’s many ‘slums’.
Check out:
Reality Tours and Travel – Excellent, great value tours around Mumbai that include the famous Mumbai street food, the dabbawallah delivery system and a socially responsible, sensitive Dharavi slum tour.
Where to Stay?
Colaba is the best area to stay, and a night in the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel (while quite expensive) is a once in a life time experience.
Another good spot in Colaba is the Ascot Hotel – more budget friendly prices, but still an excellent location.
How to get there?
Mumbai is a major airport in India and good airlines often have specials. Check out Singapore Airlines for regular specials.
Jodhpur
Why Go?
Dine with fantastic rood top views of the mighty Mehrangarh Fort and beautiful ‘Blue City’.
Head to the clock tower to try regional snack food favourites including the famous rich lassi, have lunch with a local village family and experience a delicious Rajasthani thali at Gypsy Dining Rooms.
Where to Stay?
But also consider Castle View Home Stay for an amazing view, very thoughtful and kind host and great prices.
How to get there?
Mumbai to Jodhpur return $186 Jet Airways (online booking).
Jaisalmer
Why Go?
Dine roof top on the massive, sandcastle-like fort that rises out of the desert, above this ‘Golden City’ and enjoy regional Rajasthani dishes in between visiting gorgeous havelis and perhaps enjoying a camel safari.
Where to Stay?
Gorgeous, well priced rooms with window seats, each a different colour and lovely roof top spot for drinks and breakfast.
How to get there?
Hire a good sized car (e.g. Toyata Innova) from one of the many car and diver businesses.
(About 4.5 hours from Jodhpur. Stop for a snack or lunch at Manvar Resort and Desert Safari Camp or Samsara Resort long the way).
Goa
Why Go?
A distinct Portuguese influenced cuisine in a setting of post colonial architecture featuring whitewashed churches and colourful villas as well as beautiful beaches.
Lunch at a spice plantation, visit local Mapusa market on a Friday and marvel at the lush greenery of rice paddies and coconut palms.
Where to Stay?
Anjuna
(home to the famous Wednesday Flea Market)
or Marbella Guest House (Candolim)
How to get there?
Mumbai to Goa return $152 Jet Airways (online booking).
Worth a stop, en route between Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, is Pokaran Fort. It’s a good spot to enjoy meeting fellow local tourists and stretch your legs.
A few more interesting spots to visit around Jaisalmer that take you into the countryside, include….
Gadjisar Lake
Barabagh Royal Cenotaphs
The Sam Sand Dunes
Suryagarh Hotel, 16km out of Jaisalmer, is beautiful, but isolated in the desert.
While rooms can be quite affordable, especially in the low season, food and drink is expensive, at Australian prices.
That said, the dining is very, very memorable….and there’s a few ways to stay in budget.
Welcome drinks and snacks are amazing and extremely generous.
Then, through your stay, little treats and sweets arrive mysteriously in your room.
Breakfast is included in the room price and is incredible, including a ‘chaat bar’ (make your own snacks) and traditional Indian sweets, as well as Indian breakfast foods and marsala chai served in a variety of traditional ‘tea cups’.
The setting for breakfast is lovely and peacocks wander around the courtyard.
Dinner is silver service, glamourous and romantic in the courtyard and very, very good.
Safed chicken, rice, misi roti $AUS25 Bundi ladoo
If you have enjoyed the arrival snacks and sweets that arrive in your room, then really, one main, bread and rice is enough for two people…and helps to compensate for otherwise steep prices.
The complimentary sweets are very lovely too.
Another tip to stay in budget is to take some pre-dinner drinks and snacks out with you (a welcome tip from a fellow traveller).
Gin is $AUS3 for 750ml (a bargain)
There’s no substitute for staying in the fort wall in Jaislamer, but if you’re looking for something different, Suryagarh, 16 km out of town, looks amazing….and it is.
Rooms start from about $AUS14o for a double (which is all you need) in low season, $AUS 200 for a suite.
Suite
There are nice facilities and walk ways.
And the property looks lovely as the light changes in the evening…..
…when there is also some traditional music and dancing to watch before dinner.
But it is really isolated. (It was good to know to take some drinks and snacks). Rooms have no view (which is why a double is enough, the extra space in the suite is not all that pleasant for sitting) and it’s easy to get ‘cabin fever’. Outside the room, there’s no air-conditioning, so when it’s hot, it’s really hot. And the walkways are latticed after the ground floor, so it’s easy to feel a bit imprisoned.
Best to get to the hotel late afternoon. It’s not a place to spend the day at.
In fact the best parts are arriving, the evening and breakfast…in fact the food is absolutely delicious. But that deserves a whole story of it’s own…..
If you stay at Hotel Garh Jaisal Haveli, in Jaisalmer, it’s handy to know about Lake View Restaurant, at Hotel Surja Guest House, almost next door.
Hotel Garh offers a great breakfast, but doesn’t normally serve dinner. So at the end of a long day, to just go next door and enjoy an inexpensive but delicious meal with a drop dead view, can be perfect.
Catering especially for backpackers, the restaurant is great value and Raj’s hospitality and helpfulness invaluable.
Indoor seating Outside seating The ‘music wallah’
Start the day in Jaisalmer with a traditional breakfast from one of the very popular vendors just outside the first fort gate in Gopa Chowk. (So popular, that it pays to pre-order.)
Dal Makarni and Pakwan and Dal Chakori, especially ordered from the most popular breakfast stalls in town.
If it the right time of year, the mangoes are amazing. Also sold easily in Gopa Chowk.
A great place for a sweet stop is Dhanraj Ranmal Bhatia.
One of the highlights of Jaislamer, are the old havelis, just outside the fort wall.
Patwa-ki-Haveli is the best, and needs a good look inside. But Nathmal-ki-Haveli is also worth going in to.
Exploring the old city of Jaisalmer is a real treat, both inside the fort wall and in the streets below. The Palace museum is not as good as the one in Jodhpur, but don’t miss the havelis, especially Patwa-ki-Haveli.
Fine Eating 