As a tourist, you go to explore the culture of a country and get to know the people of that country. And let us tell you, India is a developing country but its citizens are mature, and you can guess from their hospitality.
The question remains: is India safe to travel to? Of course, traveling to India like any other country is safe, but you have to prepare yourself.
India can be overwhelming, it can be a little scary too. And if you’re going to travel here, it’s going to challenge you at some point or another.
Today we will share with you some of the information that will help you make the most of your India trip because even though this might not be the easiest place for a first-time traveler, by preparing yourself for some situations in advance you let India leave a lasting impression on you and an exact answer of ‘Is India safe to travel?’
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Petty Problems and Simple Solutions
Travelers coming to India do search a lot about this country as they do for others, and during this, they come across many myths and misconceptions about India that they found empty.
We are not going to discuss those myths as they are baseless, but what we will do is look for the genuine problems that tourists face here in India and what you can do to avoid them so that you can answer YES to the question: is India safe to travel?
1. Indian People Stare
In India, you are going to get used to people staring at you. And honestly, it’s not malicious. It is just curiosity.
A lot of Indians, especially rural Indians have never seen or met a foreigner before. So they are going to stare at you.
Yeah, it even happens in the big cities where they have seen foreigners before. Simply because you’ve got a lot of domestic tourists from outside of these big cities coming in and it’s usually them who want the photo of the foreigner or who are staring.
Selfie mobs do not sound like much of a problem, right? But when one person asks, sometimes it can turn into a queue.
Which then people go, oh what’s happening over here? People get inquisitive and they come over and see what’s happening and this starts turning into a big crowd.
Just say NO – the most important word in India and more than that in your life. It’s not rude, it is just a way to liberate you from the crowd’s hustle.
Read: India travel Tip
2. Be Assertive
You have to be assertive here in India and that goes with saying no, right?
If someone’s pushing in front of you in line, you have to be assertive. You got to tell them not; there is a line, do not push in front of me. If you don’t be assertive, you’ll get pushed to the back of a line.
Someone will always be pushing in front of you or pushing you around and this is because strength respects strength here in India.
The only solution is to stand your ground as you do in your homeland and every day in your life.
Read: Delhi Travel Guide
3. Scams and Touts
You are at risk of losing your money or valuables if you fall victim to tourist scams. Although you’re not guaranteed to experience any of the following tourist scams, it’s best to be prepared. Here are some general scams:
- Asking for donations or money to get blessings at the temples.
- When you exchange your currency with the local ones you find Indian currency counterfeit.
- The taxi driver tells you that your hotel does not exist and offers you another hotel, usually theirs or their relatives’ home, with a hefty fee.
Politely refuse donations and expensive blessings, get acquainted with Indian currency and try to arrange transportation directly through your hotel to avoid the above scams.
4. Staying in Super Cheap Hotels
Now, look! when you book a super cheap hotel like a 500 rupee hotel in India. What kind of quality do you expect from it? What kind of service and what kind of staff do you think this hotel is hiring?
Yeah! The quality is terrible, and the servicemen are young uneducated boys. So, the hospitality and everything is just going to be bad and we’ve seen it so many times on YouTube women especially staying in cheap hotels and having a bad experience.
Those bad people target girls. So yeah, you get what you pay for here in India. There is no country where that is more true.
You can stay at a super cheap hotel, but we guarantee your experience will not be good. And as a female, you should not be staying in these unsafe hotels. So if you are traveling alone try and stay at a hostel.
Somewhere where there are a lot of other people around or staff or family in an Airbnb.
These are best for solo travelers here in India.
5. Don’t Travel Alone
Take a guided tour if this is your first time in India. If you’re naive or an inexperienced traveler, you really should follow this advice.
The benefit of a guided tour is they are going to ease you into India; they will teach you how to survive here in India.
Do not just come and think you can handle it because India is a real culture shock and you’re going to see it the second you walk outside of the New Delhi Airport.
But then on the flip side, India is the most incredible country in the world and you are gonna have an incredible time and a very very memorable time.
If you stay at a hostel you will find other like-minded people who will want to spend the day with you and want to travel around with you. You get a lot of solo travelers staying at these hostels here in India.
You’ll meet people and you’ll be able to travel around the cities and go to all the tourist sites in a group rather than going alone.
Read our latest article: 15 Travel Experiences in India You Need to Have in 2022
