india long term help please

novelli

Can anyone help us
We are a voluntary organisation and are doing a project out in India (Goa) starting this november.
We are taking some volunteers over there who will stay for 6 months, at the beginning of the project myself and a doctor will also be travelling over there and staying for 5 weeks, to do some training for some orphanages there.
We are going to rent a house for the volunteers.
What we had planned to do was to all book one of the thomsons 2 week holiday with accomodation in hotel, then the volunteers would move over to the house and we would stay at hotel (arranging private booking with them).
We then just would not use the return flight, and when we do come home we would either book a flight home seperately or book another thomsons and not use the flight out there, just the return. this seemed the cheapest way to do it.

BUT we now understand we cannot stay in India for more than the two weeks if we are booking the charter flights and would have to book scheduled(or the other way round), im totally confused now!! having rang round several airlines, we are being quoted prices of around 5-600 just for each return flight, which will include no accomodation for myself and the doctor.
Why cant we book a two week holiday and decide to stay on for longer?? surely lots of people do that dont they??

Any ideas anyone??
thanks

novelli

Can anyone help with this, I am slowly losing the plot trying texplain to various airlines what we need

candygirl

aww thought you were looking for volunteers then, i was about to offer!!think its a different kind of visa if youre staying longer but when i went on holiday there it was still for 6 months so not sure you'll haveto ring the indian high commission in london. ps if you need any more volunteers i'm serious!!

littlepockets

there is nothing to stop you from not using the charter flight return ticket and instead booking your own flight when your there.The travel agents in india will be able to book this for you, though do book early as at certain times the flights can get busy.
It might be that on your visa application you stated the duration of your stay as 2 weeks ? though visa's are valid for 6 months but do check with the Indian High Commission whether volunterly work can be done under a tourist visa. Their link is http://www.hcilondon.net//visa/index.html.

alanrowell

A couple of years ago the Goan authorities were supposedly going to restrict the amount of time you could stay to the length of the package holiday.

They wanted to get rid of the long stay druggie/trance party folk who'd arrive on a charter at the start of the season, miss their return flight & book a charter flight home at the end of the season

novelli

thanks guys
I will have a look on the commissions website.
it was the tour operators and airlines that were telling us we couldnt do it, but i suppose they would as they wouild rather sell us higher priced tickets??

So will immigration not want to see our onward travel plans when we get there, as we wont have any??
can someone explain the difference between charter and scheduled flights?? (blonde)
Does anyone know cheapest way to get any flights

thanks

Donnie

I don't understand what it has to do with the airline. I'm not even sure why you spoke to them about your plans. Just make sure that you have a visa valid for your stay.

billlew

Right here goes, my understanding is that you can't stay longer than 28 days with a charter flight/package.
What we did last xmas when we stayed for 5 1/2 weeks, we got a return charter flight (dormhouse with 1 nights accomodation), which we managed to get for £95, 14 days. We didn't use the return, we told the company on arrival in Goa that we wouldn't but they wasn't interested. We declared on the immigration form our return plans flying out via Mumbai and the dates, no questions asked, everything was accepted.
Before we left the U.K. after trawling the net for months using expedia & opodo to keep an eye on prices, we purchased a single flight fom Goa to Manchester with expedia using BMI airline, There was a change at Mumbai & a change at Heathrow. The single was £273.
I've just done a quick search on expedia and Mumbai to London single on 12th April 2007 is £172 with Virgin Atlantic and £173 with BMI. Return going on 1st November back 12th April 2007 comes out at £366 and £368 respectivily.
Mumbai to Goa is very easy to do either by budget airline Spicejet, FlyKingfisher, A/C coach by road or the Konkan railway.

littlepockets

billew is right about the flight options. Quite easy to travel from Goa to Mumbai where most international flights depart from. Just book well in advance. Immigration may want to see your onward travel plans and may ask to see your tickets thats why I think it is important that you ensure your Visa allows you to do voluntery work and that your open and truthful about your plans there.

cundall

billlew again is correct..

By the way you can get a chartered flight for 4 weeks. Just so you know there is a rule that is not inforced which is you fly into GOI internationally you must fly out internationally though i know its not enforced as i know many people have done it. If you get a chartered flight out you can only book a charted flight out with the same company! Though you can use any sheduled airline from BOM. Say if you book with thomas cooks you can just go to their office in panjim or Margo (wrong spelling though its the main city of south goa) and book a one way flight though remember that the last flight is April! It gets hot them so most people have gone.

again for travel from GOI to BOM you can go by cheap airline (been by kingfisher which were great and air deccian though they are just ok) or by train which takes 8 hours for the express or you can go by AC bus which is only 400 rupees though note thats a chair and not a bed but its not bad as its overnight.

Spikey_2

What kind of a project is it?