NCnurse

My husband and I just started planning a trip to India for October 2025. We were planning on travelling the second half of October, but realize Diwali is also during this time.
Has anyone been there during the festival? Is it difficult for a tourist to travel? Thanks in advance to any insight.

Moderator1

Welcome to Fodors. Your topic has been moved to the Asia board and tagged for India

MmePerdu

I was in India twice during Diwali. The first time was due to ignorance on my part, the 2nd time stupidity. I just forgot & there I was again. Don’t get me wrong, I know it’s a happy holiday for those who celebrate & for visitors who don’t mind crowds with fireworks up close & getting colored powder thrown at them. I don’t like those things, hence I was not amused.

If by “travel” you mean getting from place to place then, no, not any more difficult than usual. The difficulty is going out & about without getting doused in dye & it’s a very noisy several days. Explosion noise. I coped by not going out. I don’t recommend it but also realize for some it’s great fun.

progol

MmePerdu, are you thinking of Holi? I’m not aware of this kind of celebration for Diwali.

jacketwatch

I agree. We were there once during Diwali and what was describe. Sounds like the Holi festival.

As for Diwali expect it to be noisy. I couldn’t sleep one night because there were constant fireworks. Finally remembered that I had earplugs from the airline with me so I put those in and then it was much better.
I would recommend if you are there to have some sort of noise canceling headphones or earplugs.

You have constant fireworks going off there does tend to be a smoky haze over the city in the morning afterwards. We were in New Delhi and you could definitely tell about this. The haze was practically palpable. If you have any breathing difficulty or asthma to take this into consideration.

we did not find getting around to be especially difficult though at least in Delhi getting around is a bit difficult anyway because it’s so crowded.

MmePerdu

Indeed, the colors are for Holi. My trips to India were generally in the fall so I suspect I’m conflating the 2 holidays. In any case I’d say if possible avoid Indian holidays where fireworks are included. Staying indoors is no help with the noise. Astonishing.

jacketwatch

Actually, it was noisy at night due to the constant crackling of fireworks. I found that the earplugs that we had from the airplane were pretty good to eliminate that. We were able to sleep.!Now if you want to buy noise canceling headphones then I’m sure that would work very well.

If you are in a hotel, then the higher up you are the less noise you hear. That is another factor as well.

A bigger problem would be the haze over where you are from the smoke of the firecrackers going off basically all night. New Delhi already has bad air quality certainly would not help.