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NRI Travel Guide

Travel tools

Door-to-Door Trip Cost

Your postcode to their PIN code, both ways — getting to the airport, three weeks of parking, and the last leg in India that no flight search prices.

Trip Cost Calculator

Budget an annual trip home — flights, gifts, family events and the things that always cost more than you planned.

India Customs Duty Calculator

What you'll pay landing at an Indian airport — the ₹75,000 allowance most pages still get wrong, liquor and gold limits, cash declaration thresholds, and how to declare before you fly.

Treatment in India vs Abroad

The all-in cost of flying to India for surgery, against what you'd pay at home — with the safety and ethics the brochures leave out.

Explore related topics

Send Money to India

IST Time Converter

NRI Banking

NRIWallah team

Updated September 2026

A trip home involves more planning than an ordinary holiday: flights at the right time of year, a way to stay reachable on both your numbers, rupees in your pocket, and customs rules on what you bring. This page covers the practical side, with tools to budget each part.

Flights

Fares to India follow the calendar of Indian festivals and Western school holidays. Diwali, Christmas and New Year, and the summer holidays are the most expensive; late winter and early autumn are usually the cheapest. Flying mid-week is often cheaper than at weekends. Compare dates across airlines on a fare search site, then check the airlines’ own sites too.

Direct flights save several hours; one-stop routes through the Gulf, on Emirates, Qatar Airways or Etihad, are often cheaper. Our trip cost calculator prices the whole trip, and the door-to-door calculator adds the journeys to and from each airport.

Staying connected

Keep your home SIM active if banks or other services send one-time passwords to it, but roaming data is usually expensive. The cheaper option is an Indian eSIM set up before you fly, or a Jio or Airtel SIM bought at the airport with your passport and OCI card or visa. Keeping an Indian number active all year makes Indian banking and government services easier; see the homepage FAQ on keeping an Indian mobile number.

Money

  • UPI is the easiest way to pay almost anywhere in India, and it can work on an NRE or NRO account; see UPI for NRIs .
  • Cards are accepted in most shops and restaurants. If a terminal offers to charge you in your home currency, decline and pay in rupees; the conversion rate it offers is usually poor.
  • Cash is still needed for auto-rickshaws, small shops and tips. Withdrawing from Indian ATMs usually beats exchanging money at the airport. Compare rates on our INR converter before you go.

Customs on the way in

Under the Baggage Rules 2026, NRIs and OCI cardholders arriving by air can bring in ₹75,000 of goods duty-free, including up to two litres of alcohol. Gold, cash above the declaration limits and anything beyond the allowance are treated separately. Our customs duty calculator works out what you would pay.

Travel insurance

Take medical cover on every trip. Private hospitals in India are good but not cheap, and flying someone home after an emergency can cost a great deal. Look for high medical limits, repatriation cover and cover for any conditions you already have. If you travel more than once a year, an annual multi-trip policy usually costs less than separate policies.

Before you fly

  • Passport valid for the whole trip, and OCI card or visa in order
  • Travel insurance bought
  • Bank told about your travel dates
  • eSIM or Indian SIM arranged
  • Copies of your passport, OCI card and insurance stored separately from the originals
  • Prescription medicines in their original packaging, with a letter from your doctor
  • Travel adaptor: India uses round-pin sockets

Common questions

Not with an Indian passport. If you have taken another citizenship, an OCI card gives you visa-free entry for life; old PIO cards should by now have been converted to OCI. Other foreign nationals need a visa or an e-visa.
As a rough guide, two to three months ahead for quieter periods and three to four months for Diwali, Christmas and the summer holidays, when fares climb sharply in the last few weeks. Set a fare alert so you see the price move rather than guessing.
There is no limit on bringing foreign currency into India, but you must declare it to customs if you carry more than USD 5,000 in notes, or more than USD 10,000 in total including travellers’ cheques. You can take up to ₹25,000 in Indian rupees in or out.
Yes, through the Indian High Commission, embassy or consulate where you live, which in many countries uses an outsourcing partner to take applications. Start on the Passport Seva portal for overseas applicants, and allow a few weeks for normal processing.