India Travel Guide
Visas and Immigration - Health - Climate

Entry – Transport - Currency - Dress – Language

India Travel Guide

Visas and Immigration

All visitors, except those from Nepal and Bhutan, must have valid passports stamped with current visas.

A visitor is required to have a tourist visa to enter India. If you wish to return to India within 60 days of departing you need approval from the Indian mission in your own country and on arrival you would have to register with the Foreigners Regional Registration Office wihin 14 days of arrival.

Your hotel will take care of this service upon check-in.

However, if you are also visiting Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka or the Maldives you can re-enter India within 60 days of departure and if you have a multiple entry visa you will not have to report to the FRRO.

As a precaution, contact the nearest Indian embassy or consulate in your home country before making your travel plans.

All Indian consular offices issue visas. Business travellers are advised to apply for a multiple-entry business visa, which is valid for one year.

Special visas can be issued for trekking, botanical expeditions, and sports or journalism related activities.

Visitors may move freely throughout the country, except to restricted or prohibited areas.

Health

It is a wise precaution to check on health requirements before you leave, either with your doctor, the relevant government health office or through a good Internet health information site.

Travellers should take medical advice on vaccinations at least three weeks before departure.

Those travelling from a yellow fever area should hold a yellow fever certificate.

Standards of hygiene are excellent in the hotels on your itinerary and in the best restaurants in the cities.

It is advisable to drink only bottled water which is readily available in the best hotels and restaurants.

Hotels in your itinerary will have a doctor on call. Hospital care is modern and good in cities. Health facilities may be more limited in rural areas.

Travellers are advised to take out medical insurance.

Climate

India has three major seasons: winter, summer and the monsoon

. The winter months (November to March) are pleasant in most of India, with bright sunny days and cool nights.

In the northern plains however, the minimum temperature at times drops steeply.

The Himalayas and its foothills receive snowfall, sometimes till early April.

In most parts of western, southern and eastern India, December and January are pleasantly cool but never really chilly.

During the summer months (April-August), northern India is fairly hot, with daytime temperatures around 45 °C.

Most hill resorts, like Shimla, Mussourie and Nainital - the summer capitals during the days of the colonial Raj - are busy with Indian tourists beating the heat of their hometowns.

The southwest monsoon usually hits the southern tip of India in early June, and tracks north over the next two months.

Most of India receives its major share of rainfall between June and September, the south-eastern areas, in addition, get the north-east monsoon rains between mid-October and the end of December.