SIM-Card
When traveling longer, a SIM-Card might be a good idea to have internet access independently of WiFi availability. I got mine from Vodafone. All you need is to visit the closest shop with the address of your hotel, your passport and visa or copies of them, a passport picture and some time. I paid around 10€ to have 1GB a day for 28 days. You can probably also go to other providers, but Vodafone shops are quite spread across India.
Transport within cities
As a foreigner you are an easy victim to be screwed over for the price of a ride and many rickshaw drivers will refuse to put on their meter. Always negotiate the price before getting into rickshaws or taxis that you get off the street. A better option are Ola or Uber. Those are apps on which you can book a taxi or rickshaw. You put in your location and where you want to go, it gives you the price and searches for drivers close by who will take you. On Ola you also have rickshaws that you can book. We found that Ola is mostly a little cheaper than Uber, but not both are equally available depending on the city you are in and in smaller cities/villages you won’t be able to use this service. You can also pay by cash, so no credit card details are necessary.
Transport between cities
We booked most of our trains/buses over makemytrip or redbus. The more you book, the more you get a discount on future bookings and it is very popular in India, so you might find connections that you would not have otherwise. However, these are mostly buses run by private companies, so they might be more expensive. If you wanna check out cheaper options you have to check the local, government websites which also provide transport.
Hotels/Accommodation
Most of our accommodation we found over the already mentioned makemytrip. Even for 3 or 4 star hotels we paid no more than 7€ per person per night. Other options are the better known hostelworld and booking.com.
Meeting locals
I recommend getting a profile on Couchsurfing. It is a platform on which you can stay for free with people while traveling. It is of course one way for accommodation, but even if you don’t feel comfortable of spending the night at a strangers house, you can search for people who just want to meet up and show you their city. It can range between grabbing some dinner together to a wild night out or them organizing your entire stay in their city. It is up to you.
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