Traveling to India for Ayurveda - 10 suggestions

[Guest guest]

Most ayurveda lovers and tourists visit India during September to

February every year. The purpose of the visit is to learn ayurveda,

to get ayurvedic - panchkarma treatments, to relax, and to have some

leisure time with joy with local sight seeing. There are thousands

of websites offering various courses, treatments and claiming for

the best quality. There is no specific standardized method to select

proper center for the tourist. Our best suggestion is for ayurveda

visitors to follow this basic things;

 

1. Decide your travel period first, avoid monsoon.

 

2. Decide the region, you want to visit in India. India is such a

vast country and having very different climatic, social conditions.

Try to explore new regions, where most tourists don't go, this way

you can avoid overcrowded centers. Remember Ayurveda is in all

corners of India. It does not belong to any one region, any one

community, tradition or family. You can find good, genuine ayurveda

doctors and centers all over India.

 

3. Real India lies in villages. Ask your tour operator to include

visit to real village, forest, riverside etc.

 

4. Contact yr selected ayurveda center and clearly know the

facilities for accommodation, food, treatments, local traveling etc.

before you finalize it.

 

5. Select your priority for panchkarma treatments. Your options are

panchkarma for wellness or for real health problems (Therapeutic).

Ask for daily treatment plan, training plan from the center,

accordingly.

 

6. Most important: Inquire for the doctor's details, such as he/she

is full time available or not, doctor's qualification etc.

 

7. Inquire for Total prices, including all other / supplementary

expenses. Sometimes basic charge for treatments or training is less,

but you pay more for additional / supportive facilities ; i.e.

accommdaiton, food, local transport, other charges etc.

 

7. Inquire and decide for the mode of payment before you finalize

the center.

 

8. Please select your priority first - Treatments / training or

sight seeing. Many visitors can not control their wish to have all

together, which is not good. During or immediate after Panchkarma

treatment program, one should avoid excess traveling.

 

9. Take care for illness - epidemics. Prevent yourself from Malaria,

G.I. Tract infection and related complains or epidemics in the

region of India, you have selected to visit.

 

10. Inquire for local festivals, try to accommodate the dates with

your visit, so that you can enjoy Indian traditions and social

customs too.

 

Best wishes,

Dr. Prerak Shah

(The author is practicing Panchkarma in Gujarat for 20 years and

traveling around the world to conduct ayurveda training workshops.

Every year many students and patients are visiting his center in

Ahmedabad. The above suggestions were made during his last visit to

Europe during July 2007.