RutzIndia.com's tour packages for Hyderabad travellers are fly-and-drive: a short flight to Chennai, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar or Varanasi, then one private car and chauffeur for 4 to 8 days. Five circuits are offered. The car fare is the greater of driven km or 250 km a day, times the per-km rate of your chosen class.
How a fly-and-drive package works
None of our multi-day circuits starts in Hyderabad itself, and we would rather say so plainly than pretend otherwise. The Deccan around the city is flat and the nearest of these five circuits begins some 570 km away by road. What Hyderabad does have is a busy airport with frequent flights to each of the gateway cities. So each package on this page works in three pieces:
- A chauffeur takes you from home, office or hotel to Rajiv Gandhi International at Shamshabad.
- You fly to Chennai, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar or Varanasi, usually in about an hour and a half or less.
- A second chauffeur and car meet you in the arrivals hall at the far end and stay with you until the return flight.
The desk can book the Hyderabad airport run, the package car and, if you ask, the hotels as one reservation. The flights themselves you book with the airline, because fares change hourly; send us the flight numbers and we align everything else.
The Hyderabad end: getting to Shamshabad
The airport is about 30 to 35 km from Banjara Hills and HITEC City. The PV Narasimha Rao elevated expressway from Mehdipatnam and the Outer Ring Road make the run predictable most of the day, but the approaches around Gachibowli and Mehdipatnam jam in the evening peak, so for an evening departure the chauffeur will suggest leaving earlier than you expect. For the transfer alone, see Hyderabad airport taxi; for a day or two in the city before or after, the Hyderabad car rental with driver and Hyderabad taxi service pages price the 8-hour and 4-hour blocks. On your return we track the inbound flight and wait 30 minutes free after a domestic landing.
Four gateways, five circuits
Chennai: South India in 6 or 8 days. The car meets you at Chennai airport and heads straight down the East Coast Road to Mamallapuram. From there the six-day circuit runs through Puducherry, Chidambaram, Thanjavur and Tiruchirappalli to Madurai, where you fly home. The eight-day version continues over the Pamban bridge to Rameswaram and on to Kanyakumari, ending at Trivandrum airport. Madurai and Trivandrum both have flights back to Hyderabad, some of them non-stop, which is what makes these one-way circuits workable from here; check the current schedule before you fix the dates. For the Chennai end, read Chennai airport taxi and our Chennai origin page.
Bangalore: Karnataka in 5 days. Land at Kempegowda airport and the chauffeur takes you south-west to Srirangapatna and Mysore, then into Coorg's coffee hills and up to the Hoysala temples at Belur and Halebidu, before returning to Bangalore for your flight. The Bangalore origin page covers the six-day Ooty variant as well.
Bhubaneswar: Odisha in 4 days. A short circuit with little driving: Bhubaneswar's temple lanes, the Udayagiri caves and the Dhauli stupa, the Konark Sun Temple and Puri on the coast, all within about 65 km of each other. The Odisha Tourism site lists festival dates. A five-day version with Chilika lake is the Odisha package, 5 days.
Varanasi: the Buddhist circuit in 6 days. The ghats and a dawn boat on the Ganga, Sarnath where the Buddha first taught, then into Bihar for the Mahabodhi temple at Bodhgaya, Rajgir's Vulture's Peak and the ruins of Nalanda. You fly back from Varanasi or Patna. The longer Buddhist circuit, 8 days adds Vaishali, Kushinagar and Sravasti and finishes in Lucknow. If you want Varanasi alone, Varanasi taxi service covers local days.
Would you rather drive the whole way?
It is possible, and some Hyderabad families prefer it, especially with elderly parents who dislike airports or with luggage for a long stay. The realistic numbers: Hyderabad to Bangalore is about 570 km on NH44 through Kurnool and Anantapur, a full day; Hyderabad to Chennai is roughly 630 km through Nellore or Kurnool, also a full day. Both add a travel day each way, billed at your class's per-km rate. Odisha and Varanasi are too far to be sensible by car from Hyderabad for a four or six-day holiday. If you want a road trip without flying, the better idea is a shorter circuit closer to home, described below.
Planning the day you fly
A fly-and-drive trip lives or dies on the first and last days, so a few habits help. Pick a morning departure from Shamshabad if you can: you land by lunch, the far-end chauffeur has daylight for the first sightseeing, and a delay does not wreck the evening. Keep checked luggage to one medium case each if you are in a sedan, since boot space on a compact car is finite and you will be living out of it for a week. On the return, book a flight at least three hours after the last planned sight; Madurai's temple, for instance, closes its inner shrine for the afternoon, and Bodhgaya to Varanasi is a five-hour drive. Your chauffeur times the last day backwards from the airline's check-in cut-off, not from the departure time.
If you are travelling with parents, tell us about wheelchairs or mobility needs when you book. Airport assistance is arranged with the airline, but we can make sure the chauffeur parks as close as the rules allow and that the car has room for a folding chair.
Where you will stay at the far end
The overnight towns are fixed by each itinerary, and the travel desk can suggest hotels in any category. Along the Tamil coast that means heritage and beach hotels at Mamallapuram, guesthouses in Puducherry's White Town or larger hotels on the edge of town, and business hotels near the temple towers in Thanjavur and Madurai. In Odisha, Bhubaneswar's newer hotels suit the first night and Puri's sea-facing hotels line the beach road. On the Buddhist circuit, Varanasi offers riverside heritage stays on the ghats as well as hotels in the Cantonment, and Bodhgaya has many simple monastery guesthouses alongside regular hotels. Ask the travel desk for an itemised quote if you want rooms booked with the car.
Timing: festivals and the seasons at the far end
What matters is the weather where the car meets you, not in Hyderabad. Tamil Nadu's temple circuit is best from December to February; October and November bring the north-east monsoon and occasional cyclone warnings to the Coromandel coast. Pongal in mid-January is colourful but books out hotels in Madurai and Thanjavur. Karnataka is pleasant from October to March. Odisha is comfortable from October to March; Puri's Rath Yatra in June or July draws enormous crowds and room rates climb for weeks around it, while the Konark dance festival is held in early December. For the Buddhist circuit, November to February is both the best weather and the pilgrim high season, when monasteries in Bodhgaya host large gatherings and hotels fill. Hyderabad's own summer heat in April and May is a good reason to head for Coorg or the Nilgiris then.
Which car will meet you
The car at the gateway city comes from the same fleet standards as everywhere else: within four model years, air-conditioned, with a full-time chauffeur who knows that region's roads. A compact sedan at Rs 72 per km suits two people; an Ertiga at Rs 84 per km takes three or four; an Innova Crysta at Rs 114 per km is the family choice and handles the rougher Bihar stretches of the Buddhist circuit comfortably. A Fortuner is Rs 168 per km, and groups of nine or more can book a Tempo Traveller at Rs 156 per km; the Hyderabad Tempo Traveller page is useful for large family groups starting from the city. The fleet page lists every class.
How the fare is calculated
On each package the car is billed on the larger of two numbers: the kilometres the itinerary drives, or 250 km for every day of the trip. That figure is multiplied by the class's per-km rate. Short circuits such as Odisha's four days bill the daily minimum; longer ones such as South India in eight days bill their real distance. The chauffeur's night allowance is Rs 3,000 a night, tolls, interstate permits and parking are charged at cost, and 5% GST is added. Because the package starts and ends at the gateway airport, you do not pay for a car to drive empty from Hyderabad. The Shamshabad transfers are separate short bookings at the Hyderabad airport rate.
Road trips from Hyderabad that need no flight
If you would rather leave from your own door, a single outstation hire takes you to Warangal's Kakatiya fort and thousand-pillar temple, to Srisailam on the Krishna, or to Vijayawada and Amaravati on the Hyderabad to Vijayawada route. Hampi is a long but popular three-day drive. Telangana's own attractions are listed on the Telangana tourism site.
Booking both ends
Use the web booker to reserve the package car and see the fare before you pay, then add the Shamshabad transfer. If you want hotels, breakfasts, entry tickets and guides priced together, send your flight times and preferred hotel category to the travel desk for a written quote. Cancellation is free until 72 hours before pickup, 10% within 72 hours, 50% within 48 hours and 100% within 24 hours or on a no-show; details are on the cancellation policy. The full list of starting cities is on the tour packages hub.
