Looking for super budget travel ideas? You have come to the best location where I not only share my plans but also execute it and share the practical findings!
To test my 21days 21 cities plan, I did a pilot trip where I covered 4cities in 4 days following the tips mentioned in the parent post and guess what, it works!!
Table of Contents
4 cities in my plan
Before attempting the 21 day challenge, i selecteed 4 cities in Maharastra itself (as i stay in Mumbai) to check the praticality of this plan.
The four cities were:
- Nanded
- Jalgaon
- Nagpur
- Igatpuri
why these cities?
I did some research and found these cities fulfill my criteria of travelling i.e:
- Train travel of around 10hrs
- Sightseeing spots near station or by public transport
plan for covering 4 cities in 4 days that does not need hotel booking
Here is the actual executed itinary to cover 4 cities where I travelled at nights that gave me ambple sleep & rest, woke up in a new city in the morning.
You can follow this as is.
How to pack luggage for this kind of travel?
I took my 65ltr sack to carry most of my stuff and also a small bagpack where I kept my toiletries , towel, fresh pair of undergarments and cloths.
Tip: Carry a thing towel (gamcha) that dries easiely.
Upon reaching the station, check in the big sack in cloak room and keep the small backpack with you.
Tip: Carry a “S” shaped hook with you as most of the time toilets do not have a hook for hanging. I hang my small bag in “S”, complete my business and out. Bathrooms do have hooks for cloths.
Day 0: Starting from Mumbai
I got confirmed ticket in train starting from Panvel to Nanded. It is around 16hr travel.
Day 1: Nanded
Train: Pnvl Ned Express (17613), starts at 4pm and reach around 9am
The train reached on time at Hazur Sahib Nanded station, I looked for cloak room and deposited my big sack there.
Now for freshen up, there were two options:
first one was in waiting room where charge is Rs.30 for the toilet and bath but it did not look very clean, so I explored for other option.
There is an AC waiting room that charge Rs.30 for 1hr, it includes charges for using bathroom. I used this option and within 1hr I was ready for the day.
The washroom and toilet were “Ok” clean.
Nanded sightseeing: Nanded is a religious place for Sikh and there are many Gurudwaras there. Right outside the station, I got a free shuttel from statioin to Langar Saheb Gurudwara.
I visited Gurudwara and had prasad at langar.
Nearby there is Godavari river ghat, that was my next stop and I relaxed some time at the ghat. You can bath at the ghat as well!
I explored Nanded on foot only that included the main Gurudwara (Takhat Sachkhand Sri Hazur Sahib), city market, few other ghats at river Godavari.
My train to next city was at 1055pm. Sleeping time!!
Day 2: Jalgaon
Train: TPTY HSR SPL (07717), starts at 1055 pm from Nanded and reach Jalgaon at 8am.
Here also I followed the same routin of keeping luggage at cloak room. Here paid toilet is outside plateform 1. Waiting room is on platform 3.
Jalgaon sightseeing: I enjoyed local food (bhakari + bharit).
Visiting Ajanta caves was on my top list, so took bus towards Aurangabad from bus stand (around 1.5km from station).
Bus dropped me at the entrance of Ajanta caves. From there to reach caves, MSRTC bus service is available that charge Rs.25.
There is entry charge to the caves that cost Rs.45/-
Tip: Carry currency as wi-fi is not available. Also keep water bottel handy, though there are water points there)
Next train to next city was at 940pm. Sleep time!!
Day 3: Nagpur
Train: Sevagram Exp(12139) dropped me at Nagpur around 6am.
The AC waiting room in Nagpur is free and washroom also quite clean. I checked in my luggage and freshendup.
I took metro to Zeromile station and visited the milestone that is at the center of India.
From there I went to Deekshabhumi and spent an hour there.
Sitabuldi is the city center with malls.
Next train to new city at 915pm, sleep time!!
Day 4: Igatpuri
Train: (12140) Sevagram Nagpur to Igatpuri
Reached Igatpuri around 9am. Igatpuri is a small station, bathing facility not availalble. cloak room facility at at the reservation counter outside platform 1.
From station, China Gate (Vipasana entry) is walkable distance. Visited the place and spent few hours there. Then went to railway day lake, spent few hours there and back.
Conclusion:
This was my 4 days 4 cities trip where I did not book any hotel for stay. At the end of the trip, I was pretty tired but that may be due to excessive walking and not due to lack of rest.
So with the success of 4Days4Cities, I will soon be undertaking 21Days21Cities gtrip.