This was published 6 years ago
Readers' tips: You need lots of spare time to buy a train ticket in Spain
Try and buy your train tickets online in Spain.Credit: Shutterstock
TRAVELLER ASKS
Let us know your best advice for getting the most out of a holiday in India.
TIP OF THE WEEK
Weeks spent travelling through Rajasthan, India, proved a memorable experience for reader Ursula Tursky.Credit: Dmitry Rukhlenko - Travel Photos / Alamy Stock Photo
ALL THE RAJ
In March and April this year we spent five weeks in India, travelling from New Delhi and Agra through Rajasthan and one week in the Darjeeling region.
It was interesting to learn about India's pollution controls (in Delhi commercial diesel cars must be off the road after five years) and to stay in heritage hotels run on their own renewable energy and safe water supply to avoid plastic bottles.
However, our two days at the Country Retreat Farm Stay in Bankli, situated between Udaipur and Jodhpur, provided not only comfortable accommodation with an en suite and two delicious meals a day, but also the best insight into country life in India.
Our hospitality-trained host felt the pull back to the family farm, which he runs with the help of two farming families. To meet them and learn about their traditional housing and income arrangements and to be taken to their local temple proved most fascinating, although they could not understand why we had come so far to find out about farming life in Rajasthan.
With breakfast in the boot, the host took us to a lake to observe hundreds of pelicans, storks and flamingos. In the evening we went with a trekker by jeep through the nearby hills to see leopards.
Even if we had not come across these aloof creatures, negotiating the amazing stone formations and water holes of the Aravalli mountains remains indelibly imprinted in our memory.
Ursula Tursky, Essendon, VIC
PAIN IN SPAIN
If you wish to buy a ticket at a major station in Spain, rather than on the net, you will need lots of spare time and the patience of Job.
We fronted at Barcelona main station for tickets to Madrid and found a ticket number system with a lead of 50 ticket numbers before ours. Six ticket-service windows, only two staffed by glacially slow, bored men.
We sat on grim benches with more of the damned for an hour and a half, before finally reaching a window, where it took 10 minutes of bureaucratic nonsense and each of two identical tickets had to be bought separately. It would have been longer but many in the queue got fed up and simply walked off.
However, we found tourist class quite comfortable and the high speed inter-city trains a revelation after Australia.
Brian Macdonald, Watsonia, VIC
THUMBS UP
I enjoyed reading Catherine Marshall's article on Finger Lakes in New York State (Traveller, September 24).
Another good place to break up a long Amtrak ride from the Big Apple to Niagara Falls, Ontario, is the wonderfully historical upstate city of Schenectady on the Mohawk River.
This once stockade town has a fantastic history, with a blend of the old and the new, including Proctors Theatre, a former vaudeville house, where we saw the comedienne Kathy Griffin earlier this year.
George Zivkovic, Northmead, NSW
SHANGHAIED IN SHANGHAI
If you stay one day in Shanghai before boarding your cruise ship the second day you don't require a China visa. However, we were not informed of this fact and paid $196.
Furthermore, if you catch the Maglev train from Shanghai airport to Shanghai CBD in order to then catch a taxi to your hotel in the CBD beware of formally-dressed men who say they are agents of the cruise line. It also pays to avoid taxis with no meter as the fare can end up costing triple.
Sally Rippingale, Clemton Park, NSW
DO DROP IN
My husband and I, whilst not grey nomads, love doing driving holidays through our beautiful country. We always pop into local visitor information centres for up to date local advice.
Generally, we find they are staffed by dedicated and knowledgeable people (often retirees) who are super helpful. In Albany, Western Australia, we were told of a beach on the road less travelled that was simply stunning.
T. Podmore, Cremorne, NSW
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