Must See India Blog

Travel made simple: Economic Times

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Rana) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:19:00 +0000

Must See India was featured in High Flier section of Economic Times yesterday (Nov 10, 2009). The story Travel Made Simple documents the journey of 3 entrepreneurs and articulates how www.mustseeindia.com is making life simple for travelers.

Some quotes from the article:

When people are planning their holidays, they want to plan it properly, knowing as much before they hit the road .... This hunger for information is good news for start-ups as they have a growing set of people who want to avail their services.

We try not to reinvent the wheel... We take the best offering out of the market and integrate it ... to provide a seamless offering, which helps travelers to get the maximum value of the time they spend in planning. This is what differentiates us.

(Click to enlarge)

To read the entire article, hop onto http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/et-high-flier/Travel-entrepreneurs-cashing-in-on-tourism-growth/articleshow/5213942.cms

Website for lost & found items at Indian airports

noreply@blogger.com (Karan Nahata) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 05:35:00 +0000

Have you ever lost any item on an Indian airport ?

If yes, here is a website for lost & found items at airports in India

http://www.cisf.gov.in/airports.htm

It is very easy to forget your laptop/phone or other hand baggage at the security check. You can find such lost items here. A good effort by Ministry of Home Affairs for air travelers in India.

Note - The site works well in all browsers except Firefox. Firefox users will have replace any '\' (backslash) in the link URLs with '/'(forward slash).

Keeping an eye on Swine Flu (H1N1)

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Rana) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 05:23:00 +0000

Since Swine Flue (H1N1) has been spreading fast in India, we thought it was important to keep our visitors informed of its status in India. We're maintaining a Swine Flu status page through which you can track travel advisory for India.

Let us keep ourselves informed and not spread the panic. It is curable. Government needs our help to get it under control. Let us play our part and kill this menace.

Photo: http://newshopper.sulekha.com/topic/slideshow/swine-flu/874793.htm

Madhya Pradesh Tourism ads

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Rana) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:30:00 +0000

It's good to see state governments in India promoting tourism. After launching the Bioscope ad 3 years back, Madhya Pradesh Tourism Department have come up with the Eyes ad.

Interestingly, the first ad invited tourists to come and ‘see’ Madhya Pradesh, while the second ad narrates the tourist’s tale after he has visited the place. The creative idea for the new ad was, quite literally, taken from the word ‘sightseeing’.

Check out the cool ads:

1. Bioscope

2. Eyes

Source: afaqs

Incredible India commercial

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Rana) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 07:17:00 +0000

The latest Incredible India commercial. Awesome!

Source: Amnigos

Must See India interviewed by yourstory.in

noreply@blogger.com (Sanjay Goel) — Wed, 27 May 2009 19:56:00 +0000

“Travel should be about fun; not logistics and unending planning. We want to put back the fun in travel and hence envision to create a platform where travelers can come together, share their experiences, help each other” enthuses Karan adding that their future plans include new features to help realize their target of a million visitors per month by the end of 2010.

Check out must see india team interview by yourstory.in

Must See India on KillerStartups

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Rana) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 04:36:00 +0000

KillerStartups has reviewed Must See India.

Roger posted a question for us -

Is the site open to user contributions - IE, guides, reviews and the like?

As I mentioned in the comment, user engagement is one of our core focus. We have user reviews on most of the pages. We are adding new features to get user opinions in even more helpful way. We'll be rolling the updates in current month. Stay tuned!

Seven Wonders of Karnataka

noreply@blogger.com (Sanjay Goel) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 20:15:00 +0000

NDTV has just unveiled 7 wonders of Karnataka based on the user polls. Here's the list:

7. Halebidu
6. Belur
5. Srirangapatnam
4. Caves of Badami
3. Gol Gumbaz
2. Hampi
1. Shravanabelagola

The list of nominees is here, and here's the video about each of these places:

Great to see promotion of Karnataka Tourism and discovery of all these great places by media.
Keep Travelling!

Wow! That's fast

noreply@blogger.com (Sanjay Goel) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:30:00 +0000

The biggest challenge we see in today's world web applications is to show lots of information while keeping the site high speed and handle the load as the traffic increases. With the amount of traffic, information and features ever increasing on mustseeindia.com, we do have our share of performance issues.

Not for long. We are proud to say that our users would now notice significant speed improvements when browsing mustseeindia. We are also proud to say that we have had zero downtime in the whole month of December last year, which has been the biggest month for us in terms of traffic.

One last thing. Although mustseeindia works perfectly fine on all major browsers, we recommend firefox. Because we believe it is the best and safest browser available today.

Bookings are live now!

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Rana) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:36:00 +0000

In our quest to become one stop solution for travel in India, we are pleased to announce hotel, bus and flight bookings at Must See India. With this, you can
- Book hotels online in even the smallest of destinations at very reasonable prices.
- Book buses online in even remote places in India.
- Book flights across India on all airlines.

We would like to thank our partners - Inasra, RedBus and MakeMyTrip.

Printable Driving Directions

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Rana) — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 16:01:00 +0000

We have it, finally!

Lots of people asked for printable version of driving directions. For one reason or the other, it just kept slipping in our priority list. You can now print map and detailed driving directions using the "Print Driving Directions" link on right hand side above the map.

Checkout printable directions from Bangalore to Ooty.

Top Holiday Destinations of 2008 (as per Google)

noreply@blogger.com (Sanjay Goel) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Google has just released the top searched holiday destinations of India as part of its 2008 Year-End Google Zeitgeist. Goa tops the list, followed by Kerala and Kashmir. Other destinations on the list are Shimla and Manali.

We at MSI are heartened to see these destinations making the top list. In our own list of top 10 destinations, all these destinations rank pretty high. Goa leads our list in the best beaches in India as well as is part of the top honeymoon destinations list; Kashmir, Shimla and Manali are part of best hill stations in India; and Kerala has always been our top honeymoon destination.

Here's the complete list:

Goa - MSI best beaches and best honeymoon destination.
Kerala - MSI best honeymoon destination.
Kashmir - MSI best hill station in India
Dubai
Singapore
Australia
London
Shimla - MSI best hill station in India
Switzerland
Manali - MSI best hill station in India

New Year Destinations

noreply@blogger.com (Sanjay Goel) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:53:00 +0000

New Year Day and the period around this important day are the time to welcome the freshness in life with the rose covered New Year Dawns and pocketful of funs, celebrating with dear and near. December culminating with New Year bash is the most exciting and inviting for travel in India. Typically the whole of Indian region are very comfortable with cool and pleasant climate all through December and New Year week. The hill stations and beaches in India offer unique opportunities and experiences for the travelers looking for hassle free, body relaxing and mind blowing comforts. The north Indian destinations and north east places are snow clad during this period. The west and central regions offer chilly cool climate by the New Year day. The Southern regions are unbelievably pleasant with very moderate and cool climates. The religious destinations in India, especially the south Indian religious places thrive with many festivities and Ayyappa pilgrimage rituals. December and New Year period are the ideal period for those who look for cooler and chilly climates. This is perfect for people looking for snow skiing and like to see lakes and landscapes covered with snow and ice formations.

The period around the New Year Day are the best for the romantic tours and also pretty ideal for honeymoon vacations. The coolest period of the year accompanied with dust free and unpolluted environments. The people looking for secluded stays with fantastic private moments prefer to have visits in Indian Destinations during the months of December and January.

North

Come to Jammu to enjoy the feast for eyes with unimaginable beauty of snow. There are many attractions in Jammu to view and enjoy during the winters. Himachal Pradesh has been in the top list of beautiful tourist designations. The chilly climate and the snow bound landscapes add the attraction of the places. Visit Manali to experience the nature’s beauty and gifts. Mcleodganj offer you the best scenic attractions in the world during the winters. The New Year celebrations in Manali and Mcleodganj are renowned with its majestic views and pretty nice climates.

Visit the Golden Triangle Delhi, Agra and Jaipur during the New Year Period. Bid farewell to the year 2008 and welcome the fortune filled 2009 with a bash of celebrations in these places. In Delhi, the night clubs, the Parks, the cinema halls and the discotheques are lively during the nights of New Year Eve and New Year Day.

West

Goa is the best New Year destination in India. The New Year Eve celebrations in Goa beaches are mesmerizing with breath taking celebrations. The churches in Goa vibrate with midnight prayers and the celebrations coinciding with Christmas. The New Year is welcomed with colorful fireworks and grandeur illumination all over the city and beaches. The New Year cuisines prepared specially during the period are most delicious and special tourist attractions. Adorned with eye catching decorations the beaches invite you to spend the whole night without closing the eye lids for a moment. Air of festive moods prevails everywhere in Goa during the New Year Eve and New Year Day.

Gujarat destinations are considered as the most vibrant New Year Destinations. Ahmedabad is the entry point to many exotic tourist destination sin Central India. The excellent museums and the cottages modeled in the Gujarat architectural styles are really wonderful.

Central

Khajuraho offers an ideal New Year destination for those interested in Wild life and the architectural locations. The climate is superb with unpolluted atmosphere during December. The pleasing lush green landscapes and the breath taking architectural marvels are very attractive in this place.

Orchha is one of the most attractive winter destinations. The comfortable climatic conditions, the eye pleasing attractions, the adventurous activities and the fun filled travels are in the grandeur offers of Orchha for the distinguished travelers.

South

South Indian destinations are the ideal locations with very pleasant climate during the December month. Temperatures are in the range of about 15 deg to 30 deg in this region. Nights are bit cold and the days are comfortably warm. The hill stations in the south, Ooty and Kodaikanal are mesmerizing with New Year celebrations and the dinners arranged in the hotels in and around the cities. The hill stations are highly imposing with multi colored lights, dances and music performances. The week long New Year celebrations in these hill stations are in fact just great. Invite the New Year amidst the fire works all over with reverberating band music in these scenic hill resorts.

Dandeli near Bangalore, Devabagh beach in Karnataka, Kovalam beach in Kerala and the tourist attractive Kumarakom in Kerala are all astonishing in the New Year. Enjoy the New Year Sunrise in the most comfortable and soothe providing house boats in Kochi and Kumarakom. The tourists can enjoy the lavish and grandeur New Year Eve celebrations in the serene beach sides in Kovalam, Varkala and Devbagh.

To have honeymoon privacy, spend the cool and calm nights in the secluded resorts in Lakshdweep and also in Andaman – Nicobar Islands. Enjoy the marvelous New Year Rise from the soft sands of the beaches in Andamans.

North East

Come to Guwahati and Shillong to have a lifetime experience of chilly snow covered New Year celebrations. The tourist resorts in these admirable destinations provide all kinds of mind blowing New Year celebrations and enjoyments for the enthusiasts.

Beaches in Orissa are always been in the travel map of tourists looking for excellent New Year Vacations. The serene beaches in Bhubaneswar lit colors for the days and night during the New Year Eve. The scenic beaches are adorning the most attractive decors in this period.

India has been the prime destination for the New Year celebrations. New Year Eve parties in these places take the visitors to the ultimate enjoyments of food, drinks, dances, jazz and music. Indian hospitalities, spicy food and beverages are very inviting for all kinds of tourists.

(Photo Courtesy: Suman Chatterjee, yearsofsleeping)

Best Places for November

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Rana) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:59:00 +0000

November is considered as one of the best month for a nice vacation tour all through India, from north to south and east to west. Monsoon has already been withdrawn from most parts of the country. The regions affected by slight showers of the last phase of monsoon add to the natural beauty of lush green breath-taking scenic locations.

North and east regions of India prepare for the chilly winters and snow bound climates in November. This month offers the cool and tranquil environment for the enthusiastic travelers to northern and eastern regions of India. West and central regions are thriving with many fairs and festivals in November. November finds the maximum priority in the tourist schedule in these regions. Southern peninsula regions are attractive and best with panoramic views and pleasant climate. November is the month for all kinds of tourist activities, especially for bird watching and enjoying the Mother Nature's Gift of panoramic views. One can see many species of migratory birds in the wildlife sanctuaries across India.

South
Kumarakom looks marvelous in the November. Located in the isles of imposing Vembanad Lake, it offers mind blowing experiences to the tourists. House boats can take the tourists among the unbelievably beautiful mangrove forests, lusting paddy fields and eye catching coconut groves. One can enjoy the travel through the enchanting backwaters and waterways. Kumarakam bird sanctuary is the habitat of variety of bird species and one can spot praise worthy migratory birds in this place.

Kodaikanal and Ooty are two eye pleasing and enchanting hill stations in the southern region of India. These places are the embodiment of natural beauty and pleasant cool climate. The rejuvenating effects, the body receives during the stay in these hilly resorts are amazing. These places are thriving in November with colorful flowers and flower shows. These are ideal locations to have a pleasant stay for days to keep away the tiresome life of the past days of the year.

Visit in November the Andaman and Nicobar islands. This is a perfect romantic location for those interested in spending private moments away from the city crowds. Andaman and Nicobar islands offer marvelous tourist attractions and amazing water sports activities. This is a wonderful honeymoon destination for the young couples to spend the lighter and happy moments in the life.

The festivities of Hampi festival during the first week of November are eye catching and the great quest for enjoying the culture and celebrations of dance and music can be perfectly satisfied in Hampi during November.

East
Gangtok invites the people to its lap with all its mesmerizing beauties. Adventurous and attractive places in and around Gangtok provide you a refreshing treat. November is considered as good for trekking in snow clad hilly terrains in Gangtok.

Darjeeling hill region is also one of the most popular destinations in November. Perched on the lush green and inviting foothills of Himalayas, Darjeeling is ideal for people looking for a tranquil and exquisite stay. Darjeeling carnival adds attraction to the marvelous beauty of the landscape with spectacular festivities and fairs. Enjoy the toy trains in this legendary hill station to have a wonderful experience for the life time.

Come to the cultural capital city of India, Kolkata during this month for memorable experiences of colors and festivities. The film fraternities throng to the city during November to enjoy the classical and perfectly directed enjoyable films from all over the world. Kolkata film festival is acclaimed as one of the major film festivals in the World.

Central
Gwalior, the royal city of Madhya Pradesh, is inviting in November. An instant feel of the culture, history, amazing landscape and the hospitality of the people is perfectly obtained in Gwalior. Gwalior festival, a tribute to great Musician Tansen, is a great attraction in November. Tourists can fill their mind with the soft flow of classical music in this month.

November is the best period to visit two world known picnic spots namely Bandhavgarh National Park and Bandhavgarh Fort. The Vindhyachal hilly regions and Satpura ranges offer the beautiful panoramic views and are very attractive to enthusiastic travelers seeking natural majestic environments.

North
Capital city of Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow, looks proud with charm and colorful adornments during clear days of November. Lucknow festival, celebrating Lucknow's dynamic and living culture, is a crowd puller. Excitement of this ten day mega festivities with colourful procession, sarangi and sitar recitals, kathak dances, traditional art forms and ghazals makes the illuminated nights in to days for the people. Festive atmosphere is vibrant with traditional village games, kite flying and cock fighting.

Varanasi, the holy city, is the perfect option for religious visits during November. Ganga Mahotsav celebrated in November with festivities and religious rituals is a major attractive event in Varanasi. Cool atmosphere and clear sky provide the tourists all supports to carry out the out door activities and temple visits during this season. Take a holy dip in Ganges and get yourself sanctified.

Visit the picturesque Chakrata in November to have an exciting vacation in an eye catching hill resort. This is the best season before the cold winter periods to spend mesmerizing moments at the majestic green lawns and hilly terrains. The sloppy regions of Chakrata are renowned for trekking and skiing. Enjoy here the grandeur natural beauty in November with trekking expeditions.

West
Aurangabad with pleasant climate and calm, cool environments offers best views of Mughal monuments in November. Ellora caves offer the views of ancient Indian sculptures embedded with valuable Indian history and culture. Ellora festival in November provides the visitors invaluable pleasures and mind filling knowledge bases of Indian architecture and culture. Do not forget to purchase world famous woven Himroo shawls from Aurangabad during the visit.

Karjat is amazing in November offering perfect sights of Ulhas valley, Bahiri points, Kondana caves and the foothills of enchanting hill station Matheran. November is considered as the best period to spend in renowned health resorts in Karjat.

With many colorful celebrations all around and with naturally pleasing environments, November hosts the peak tourist season in India. This is considered to be the best time without the hassles of rains, snows and chilly weather. Outdoor tourist activities are in the peak during this month.

(Photo Courtesy: John, Saket Jain)

Best Places for October

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Rana) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:43:00 +0000

In India, October is marvelous with highly attractive festivals like Navarathri, Deepavali and Id-ul-fitr. Most of the Indian tourist destinations can be visited during this month. One can see all kinds of tourist activities during this period. The post monsoon season beginning with October make the natural ambiance cool and pleasant. This is the period when the foliage looks marvelous with fresh tender green leaves. The landscapes adorns with the lush green grass lawns and bushy plants.

All over India, the celebrations of Diwali festival begin with Dhanteras, marking the first day of Diwali Festival extending to five days. North Indian cities are highly attractive during this festival. This is a festival devoted to Laxmi, the goddess of wealth. The business communities in Gujarat, Delhi, Haryana and other parts of the country celebrate it with much enthusiasm.

North
Jodhpur in Rajasthan is a marvelous tourist destination with many eye catching attractions in and around. Jodhpur is inviting in October with the attractive Marwar Festival, an annual event showcasing the art and culture. This is a huge regional festival devoted to dance and music. Maand festival is a part of this cultural fest and is scheduled for October 13 -14.

Kota is the embodiment of beauty and this attraction gets multiplied during the Dussehra festival period. The Dussehra festival in Kota is very famous with its grandeur celebrations, pomp and show.

Chandigarh reverberates during October with majestic Pinjore Heritage Festival. This will be held at the famous Yadvindra Gardens and is aimed at recalling the heritage of beautiful Mughal Gardens.

Jaisalmer is very pleasant after the hot summers during October and offers a best time for outings. Leh and Ladakh are very beautiful in October and is the last season to enjoy the beautiful flowering gardens before the chilly snow bound winters. Delhi is also thrilling with Deepavali celebrations and national festival of Gandhi Jayanthi in October.

South
Mysore Dussehra is the pinnacle of celebrations in the south India. Beautiful gardens, imposing palaces and scenic natural attractions make Mysore a special destination during October. Munnar, the famous hill station in Kerala, offers the pleasant atmosphere with imposing scenic views of eye pleasing locations. October offers a cool climate and is the flowering season. Lusting greeneries of Tea plantations are very attractive.

October is also the ideal period for tourist activities in Kodaikanal. This is the right time to visit this nature’s gifted place before the ambiance becomes chilly. Tirupati adorns all marvelous attractions to the tourists in October with the Rayalaseema festivals and the religious celebrations of Brahmotsavam.

East
The tourists like to keep the mind filled with the grandeur festivities of Navaratri shall make a visit to Kolkata and Darjeeling. The Durga Pooja festivities are mind blowing and eye pleasing in these places.

Pleasant warm climate in Bodh Gaya offers a best period in October for the religious and nature loving tourists. Maha Kala Cakra puja and the Buddhist festival add the beauty of the place. Simlipal is very much attractive in October with fresh air and enchanting waterfalls. The imposing meadows, breathtaking landscapes and forests add the beauty of the place. The grandeur beauty of the surrounding dense woody forests offers eye pleasing views for the enthusiastic visitors.

North-East
Gangtok is the prime tourist destination in north east during October. The people who love cooler climates can pay a visit to Gangtok during this period. Gangtok is attractive with light showers and thousands of tourists visit the city during this period.

Guwahati is beautiful with simmering showers in October. The famous Kathi Bihu celebrations are very attractive for the tourists to Guwahati.

Central
Kanha thrives in October with attractive panoramic views after monsoons. The foliages blossoms during this period and the Wildlife Park in Kanha is open for visitors in October.

October offers a cooler and pleasant climate in Mandu offering grandeur styled romantic sight seeing. This is a perfect period for honeymoon trips. Ujjain is like a beautiful bride with charming features in October. It offers a pleasant but warm climate.

West
The adventurous tourists may visit Khandala for challenging activities like rappelling and mountaineering. The atmosphere is warm and the undulated mountain regions flourish with lush green vegetation after plenty of rains. Goa is always a paradise for tourists. Beaches in Goa are ready with all inviting features during October. Many church festivals celebrated with gaiety add the attraction in the cities of Goa.

Silvery sands, ancient monuments and vast expanse of beautiful palm trees add the beauty of Daman during October. The beaches in Daman reverberate with plenty of tourists and many festivities during this period.

Saputara attracts many tourists to its breathtaking attractions of marvelous waterfalls and Pushpak Ropeways. Saputara is the perfect location to enjoy the mind blowing sunrise and sunset. This place is imposing in October offering spectacular scenes for nature lovers. This is the ideal time to have boating in the Saputara Lake.

October is the ideal time for all kinds of tourists to visit attractive destinations in India. This season is preferred by many tourists as the tourists inflow start growing from October and is the perfect time to visit the beautiful places without the crowd.

Best Places for September

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Rana) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:04:00 +0000

During September, Monsoon in Indian sub-continent is in the withdrawing face. Monsoons have already brought in relief to the hot summers and the climate has become cool. September is the month of Vinayak Chaturthi festival. It is a great religious festival and is very attractive with religious rituals and Ganesh Idol immersions in various parts of India. Preparations for grandeur Navaratri celebrations start in this month.

North
Northern Region of India is pleasant with cooler climate and intermittent mild showers in inviting September. Ladakh festival assumes imposing significance in the Jammu and Kashmir region. Buddhist’s festivals are remarkable in many regions in Himachal Pradesh. Manimahesh Fair in Himachal Pradesh adds to the attractions.

Ladakh is grandeur in September. The majestic mountain that passes in and around Ladakh is open for tourists during September. Ladakh’s snow-covered beauty, landscapes, enchanting silence, higher altitude resorts, rafting, trekking and mountaineering are all attractive in this period. Leh appears to be in its best during this month.

Abbott Mount offers all colors of charming vacation to the tourists in September. One can enjoy the perfect and clear views of the Himalayan Ranges from this place in this period. Shimla is unique with its unparalleled glittering beauty during September. September is the recommended time to visit before the chilly climate set in.

Mount Abu is a favorite tourist spot during September in Rajasthan. Sunset point and honeymoon points attract lots of tourists to Mount Abu. There are many imposing places like Mcleodganj, Nainital, Mori and Gulmarg offering extolling sights in September.

South
Southern regions in India are at the fag end of monsoons during this month. The climate is moderate with medium rainfalls. Onam celebrations, many boat races and fairs make Trivandrum attractive in September. Ooty is enthralling in September with cool pleasant climate and intermittent showers. Boating in the lakes, pristine panoramic views, botanical and flower gardens, and lusting green tea gardens are all inviting to the tourists during September.

Bangalore is attractive for tourists in September. September replenishes the gardens with coloured flowers and lush green vegetations in Bangalore. The temple town of Tirupati adorns beautiful colors by the end of September for the celebrations of Brahmotsav. This year, celebrations are from October 1 to October 9. This is the ideal time to visit temple before the huge crowds of thousands flocking during the celebration period.

Shivanasamundram is very attractive with mesmerizing waterfalls after the monsoons. September is good for outdoor visits in Chennai, Coorg, Coonoor and Malampuzha.

Central
Central region in India are thriving with moderate climate during this month. September is a good time to visit the verdant places Pachmarhi and Mandu. These are places where nature has found delicate appearance in numerous charming ways. Bhimbetka is beautiful and offers eye catching views in this month.

West
On the western side, the atmosphere is moderate after the monsoons. The village of Shirdi is full of fragrance with the devotional intensity of celebrations and rituals. The temple town thrives with the preparations of the Navaratri festivals during this period. Visit Saputara during September and enjoy the fantastic sightseeing and the grandeur ropeway facility, Pushpak ropeway. The waterfalls are marvelous after the monsoons and enjoy the boating extravaganza in the Saputara Lake in the backdrop of lusting greenery and charming surroundings.

The cooler climate with intermittent mild showers adds the beauty of natural settings of Alibag. Bhandardara is in its best during September. Chiplun and Karjat are amazing in this month.

North-East
This is the best time to visit northeastern states is in the later half of the year, after which chilly climate prevail in. The natural settings of Agartala multiply in the post monsoon rains in September. Agartala, with its verdant forest cover, near perfect green backdrop, great tourist sites and laid back attitude presents a sight of an ideal destination for tourists.

September is also an ideal time to see the natural settings of amazing beauty in Darjeeling. September thrives with the activities for the grandeur Durga Pooja celebrations in the first half of October. This is the perfect time to have enjoyments of trekking, lake views and outdoor activities.

Pleasant climate with moderate temperature make the visit to the Santiniketan in September a marvelous event. It is nice to visit the Santiniketan. Poush Mela is an annual fair and festival that takes place in Santiniketan and the festival marks the harvest season, occurring in the month of September. Kalimpong, Imphal and Ranchi are also perfect destinations to visit during this month.

September is the beginning of the tourist season in majority of the tourist destinations in India. Post monsoons starting with September adorn the landscapes with lush green vegetations and eye catching scenic beauties. September presents mostly unpolluted environments after the monsoon rains and ideal for many tourist activities. Enjoy the lovely September!

Introducting Month and Tag filters

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Rana) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 06:13:00 +0000

Searching for that perfect destination that suits all your needs can be tough. We take pride in the fact that we provide you a varied list of options. However, too many choices can spoil the fun too! It can sometimes become difficult to choose one among the many.

To help that process, we have introduced month and tag filters on destinations and city getaway pages. These are in addition to the theme filters and aim is to give you finer control to choose and compare destinations.

The month filters help you to narrow down to a destination recommended for that particular month. To look out for destinations recommended for a particular month (say "September"), select that month from the drop down on left.

To search for destinations for a particular activity (say "Honeymoon"), click on one of the tags on the table on the right. This will give you a filtered list of destinations as per the selection of month and activity.

Check out this page on the website.

As always, our focus has been on a very simple UI. The small [x] icon at the top right of the month and tag can be clicked to remove that criteria.

We are eager to know how well we are solving the pain points and making travel easy for our users. Do let us know your thoughts, it helps us improve further.

Aamir Khan as Brand Ambassador

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Rana) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:18:00 +0000

Happy Independence day to all of you!

It was good to hear that Tourism Ministry has roped in Bollywood hero Aamir Khan to promote tourism in India. Khan will promote for both domestic and international travelers.

The Bollywood hero has been roped in by the tourism ministry to be the face of its brand campaign 'Incredible India' to showcase the country's rich heritage and culture and the message, 'Athithi Devo Bhava' (guest is god).

More than the involvement of Aamir Khan, I was pleased to see that tourism is finally getting attention of government. A cursory look at the India's tourist places is enough for anyone to figure out that tourism has never been a top agenda for governments in India. While almost every other country understand the importance of tourism, India hasn't realized the full potential even after 61 years of independence.

In my visits to European countries and US, and even Thailand, it was pleasing to see how they take care of the tourists and various tourist places. Every important place has a tourist information center ready to help visitors with information, maps and other resources. Tourist sites are well maintained. Convenience and security of tourists is thought of.

It'll take a lot of time for central and state governments In India to reach the level of engagement governments in other countries show, but I see this as a positive sign. If we can address a few more critical issues of visitor safety, maintenance of tourist places, sufficient infrastructure, I have no doubt India will emerge as one of the top tourist destination in the world.

Must See India at Startup Saturday

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Rana) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 10:17:00 +0000

We presented at Startup Saturday at Bangalore last Saturday. Those who missed, check out the update at HeadStart.

Overall, it was great discussion. It was good to see that lots of people found the quality of information excellent while many saw potential in the trip planning tool. From our side, we are working on both the sides equally vigorously as they complement each other and are equally important in providing a complete solution to travelers. On the other hand, it also means that there is scope for improvement on both parts so that more users find them useful while planning travel in India.

Another important discussion point was the positive role of community and how it can be extremely helpful in travel planning. It was mentioned that sometimes fellow travelers can give you tips which no book or site covers. We are big believers of this concept and aim to utilize this power of community to augment our own research. One of the features that'll go live later this week is selective hand-picked blogs from internet world. This is one of the many steps from our side to bring the community power to other travelers.

The two biggest gaps that we are set out to fill in current Indian travel space are the lack of
1. Exhaustive information
2. End-to-end solution

To plan your travel, you need good set of information. For this, we rely on two sources - our own research and other travelers. We spend enormous amount of time researching and reviewing articles and are planning to add external blogs apart from the ones from users on our site.

While there are many sites which are individually good, an end-to-end solution is lacking. We see ourselves as a service above the existing solutions and that is why our approach is to be as inclusive as possible and not to replace your current preferred sites (like Flickr, Picasa, Blogger). Our features like collection of photos from Flickr for each destination, ability to link them on trip pages, blog import - are aimed at this vision.

Finally, I would like to reiterate our goal - to make it easy to travel in India. We are set out to

save your time by providing all information and tools at one place
give you peace of mind by making sure you have complete and reliable information
make your travel fun

We have quite a few exciting ideas in our feature list, and coupled with the HeadStart discussion, you'll see lots of new things coming out in next few days. While we roll out new features, we'll be interested in knowing how we are doing - do get in touch with your wish list and feedback.

3 Cheers to Collaboration!

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Rana) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 05:18:00 +0000

One of the main reason people travel is to have fun - to experience new things, to relax, to spend some "Me time". And when there are multiple people traveling with you, the fun multiplies.

Making travel arrangements is nuisance, sort of necessary evil. Coordination, planning, booking - who wants to do that? It would be really nice if somebody else can take care of those and we can just go! Ah, ideal world :)

Alas, until we achieve that kind of magic-ness, we have to take care of such things ourselves. While more often than not, it's a few people in a group who make all the travel arrangements, almost everybody chips in with their contribution and help the group. Somebody does the research and find out about cool waterfall that "must" be visited, while somebody else dials a few numbers, negotiates and closes the lodge bookings. A few others help with the sandwiches, recharges the camera batteries. A couple of souls agree to drive Maruti in the backyard 6 hrs. That's the social creature in us. That's who we are.

And once we decide to do it, it becomes the part of fun. We enjoy that too.

In an online world, we call this collaboration. People come together, help each other out, have fun and along the way create something great that we cherish rest of our lives.

Collaboration is one of the core ideas around which this site is built. We want to carry on that fun to the online world, and along the way help in your travel arrangements. And how?

When you plan an outing, you can create a trip on Must See India. You can invite people going out with you and track their responses of whether they are going or not. There's a dicsussion board where you can discuss trip related items - what all places to go, options for accomodation. All trip members can contribute to all parts of the trip - be it trip details, photos, travelogues. (Toddlers are excluded, until law permits them to have an email account.)

To maintain sanity, we've kept a few things reserved to the so called moderator - the person who created the trip. Moderator has extra rights to invite people, delete photos and change trip privacy. While this can be restrictive in some cases, in any collaborative effort, it is required for one person to have the deciding power in case of conflicts. We're working on additional set of features to reduce the responsibility off the shoulders of one person and make it easier for others to facilitate as well.

While more features will get added with time, this is the soul of Must See India, and will remain at the center of all activities.

It has been a good July month for us, with starting of the public beta and lots of people participating in it. People have been sending us feedback and we have working hard to get it implemented sooner. We are sending out new invites almost daily. If you haven't got it yet, do get in touch, we'll be more than happy to extend you one.

The more and more people try it out, the better we sleep. After all, what's more incredible than to see happy customers.

We have a new home!

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Rana) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:18:00 +0000

This weekend we shifted our servers to a new location. We have heard great things about SoftLayer and moved with them.

The biggest issue we had with our previous hosting was reliability. It randomly dropped requests. One of the irritating thing was it requiring restart after every code change and we didn't had permissions to do it! But then, it was $6 per month. It would be cruel to expect more than that :)

Moreover, with the kind of traffic growth we had in recent months, we felt it moral obligation to move to a better one!

We hope to provide better services with full control of servers. We are already noticing better speed. Way to go!

8 months

noreply@blogger.com (Vikas Rana) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:03:00 +0000

That's the time it took us to go for a public beta. Despite the early delivery, the baby is doing excellent :)

Yes, we are ready for the big game.

I left Trilogy/Versata last Oct to embark on a journey that I always wanted to take on - start my own company. It was a dream. Somehow, the timing felt just right. I was finishing on a very exciting part of my career at Versata - the Versata University (VU), a fresher training program. It were action packed 3 months. I didn't really wanted to go back to less exciting enterprise stuff. I was toying with the entrepreneurial idea for a few months now. It felt like a natural step to take on something bigger.

8 months later, I am very excited to be a part of this venture. I am enjoying myself more than ever. While the idea has evolved quite a bit since the time I started, the vision is still the same - we still want to be the no. 1 travel application in India.

Thanks to all who supported us in the alpha and early beta stage. The bugs you sent were indeed very valuable. I hope you all enjoyed the journey so far and continue to support us in future.

We realise that this is just the beginning - we have a long way to go. We are working hard to make sure we create an application that is useful to you. Something that solves your travel pain-points, an application you can use reliably. There's lot of brain-storming going on daily basis. If you have more ideas on how we can achieve that, please do get in touch with us, our lines are always open! You can write to us at feedback@mustseeindia.com

Back to work now!