The most expensive destinations in India

The city of Panaji has been found to be the most expensive place to book a hotel room in India, based on the results of a survey by TravelMag.com.

Panaji, Goa (Photo: Frankx via Flickr)

The survey looked into average hotel rates across 20 popular tourist destinations during the month of December 2016, with Panaji – the capital of the state of Goa – emerging as the most expensive. Only hotels with 4 stars or above and with a central location or within easy reach of a beach were considered for the survey.

December was used as a measure because this period represents India’s high season for tourism. It is typical that during this period, most hotels in popular towns, cities and resorts raise their prices to their highest level of the year.

Visitors to Panaji this December can expect to pay an average rate of $104 for the most affordable double room. Slightly cheaper are Mumbai ($101), India’s biggest and most heavily populated city, and the Indian capital of New Delhi ($97).

Other notable inclusions in the survey’s findings were the highly popular beach town of Calangute in North Goa, which came in as the 6th most expensive destination, with an average rate of $84 per night for the cheapest double room.

At the cheaper end of the scale are Bengaluru, the capital of India’s southern Karnataka state, and Amritsar, located in the northwestern state of Punja. In both destinations visitors should find a 4-star hotel for well below $50 per night.

The table below compared 20 destinations in India for hotel stays throughout December. The prices shown reflect the average rate for each location’s cheapest available double room in hotels rated at least 4 stars.