9-Day Culinary and Cultural Heritage Tour of India

First of all I want to thank our agent for leaping us organizing our trip. He was very nice, helpful and professional.

We had a great trip in India, from November 4th to 14th 2015. What we really enjoyed with our travel agency is that the drivers and the guides were courteous, polite, nice and always on time. The car was great,  very clean and very comfortable for the 2 of us. We enjoyed the daily calls from our travel agency to make sure everything was great. All the temples/ mosques or other buildings or museums were worth visiting. We used good and reliable domestic flights ( IndiGo and jet airway ). Always having a travel agency representative in the hotels or at the airports waiting for us, helping us with hotels or flight formalities were a nice help and a nice asset. Our travel agency clearly tried to make things as smooth as possible, which is always a challenge in India..............

However we think there is still room for the company to improve, especially in communication with us. As an example, they told us at the last minute that our Bollywood show was canceled because of Diwali festival. We cannot understand that this can be a last minute announcement. If they had checked before they would have noticed that that show was canceled in advance. Same thing for our cooking class which was marked for lunch on our program, and while we were driving to that class, we were told that the class was rescheduled in the evening. In parallel the cook told us that the class had always been scheduled for the evening. This show that they do not check a few days ahead to make sure that their timetable is correct. As a consequence we totally lost an whole morning in Agra, staying at the hotel waiting for the class, instead of visiting that great city. Same problem with our timing on the day we left Varanasi, flying to Delhi then driving to Agra. We left Delhi at 1 pm( totally on time vs schedule ) drove 4 hours to Agra, where we were supposed to visit the Agra fort. But the Agra fort closes at 5 pm. So this timetable was not working. As a consequence the day after, we had only 5 hours to visit the Taj Mahal, the Agra fort , drive to Fakepur sikri and visit the palace. We visited those 3 exceptional monument while running and felt extremely frustrated! Most probably the 3 most beautiful things to visit in India and we had only 5 hours. In parallel our guide that day was our least favorite. He was not very kind with us, just telling we have to go, we have to go...those 5 hours were the biggest failure of our trip...in Agra, we went to a choky Donny dinner. we had no idea what it was  about,and thought it was only a restaurant with specialties from Rajastan. but in fact it is a huge fair, with the restaurant inside. If we had known about it, we would not have wore fancy clothes, as we eat sitting on a cushion and there is dust everywhere...those are little details, but the travel agency should better describe this in the timetable. Clearly explain how many hours of driving between 2 cities, some details like what to wear at special places, check in advance all our reservations ( Bollywood show, cooking class) because a last minute change is really frustrating , make sure we can do everything in one day to avoid running while visiting monuments. My agent had told me to buy souvenirs in Jaipur( carpets, clothes...) but did not tell us why. In fact in Jaipur everything is much cheaper because there is much less taxes than in other cities. This should be clearly explained beforehand to everyone, to avoid buying in Delhi which is very expensive and not the same quality as in Jaipur!!!! Another problem is the luggage limit on domestic flights . We took a flight from Jaipur to Delhi on our last day, before heading back to Newark. Unfortunately on Jetairway, you can only have 1 luggage per person, 15kg/ luggage. We had to pay $150 extra to travel, which represent 4% of our total trip. The travel agency should warn us in advance or consider another company when they know that we have all our luggage with presents with us just before heading back to the US.....the hotels were very good ( The hotel in Delhi is very modern and comfortable ), the hotel in Agra was our favorite, the hotel in Rajputana was very good too, but surprisingly in the middle of Agra . The hotel in Varanasi was not a good choice, as it is very old, dated, very noisy and the food ( breakfast and lunch) is really not good.our favorite guide was our guide in Agra, he is really great, explaining everything, very friendly. Our Diwali event in a restaurant, organized by our agency was great and memorable. Our cooking class was amazing . The travel agency should work much more with the chef in Agra. Not only the cooking class was good, but it was just the 2 of us with the chef and it was followed by a dinner with the chef and his wife, eating all the dishes we had prepared. We felt very welcomed and special....so to sum up, it was a great trip but the communication between us and the travel agency should be improved, the schedule should be checked in advance by them to make sure it is realistic....

My friend and I just came back from India on a 12 day tour of five cities, New Delhi, Udaipur, Jaipur, Agra, and Varanasi. This travel agent worked with me to customize the itinerary to fit my requirements. Together we created a perfect trip. (And, my agent was extremely patient with us as we made innumerable changes to the itinerary!) 

What made it exceptional was the level of detail and coordination that my agent and his team did to ensure that his company representatives met us at each city, introduced us to our drivers, and took us to the hotel and checked us in. The representatives then introduced us to our guides.  Nothing was left to chance, including giving us a local phone with the numbers of representatives already entered. It was perfect!

The local guides were great, very professional, and passionate about the history and culture of their city. Plus, they were fun! We had the right combination of touring the cities, palaces, forts, and shrines balanced with shopping and relaxing at the hotels.

The trip was a learning experience. This travel company was very helpful in creating an itinerary that fit us and our budget and any additions we wanted to make. We traveled to Delhi, Varanasi, Agra, and Jaipur. We learned a lot with the different tour guides assigned to us in every city we visited. The hotels were also nice and they treated us well. We were able to contact them with any issue through out the trip and did their best to accommodate us. Having a private driver is a must when going to India, it was so convenient. We recommend the man who was our driver through most of the trip. He was great and we enjoyed his presents.

Our accommodations were excellent. We had a fantastic time in Rajasthan and Agra. Our travel company exceeded our expectations of the trip. Everything was well planned from start to finish. We were received at Delhi airport; and until we reached our departure airport at Jaipur, everything was taken care of. This allowed me and my family to just focus on having fun. At every hotel, we had a local representative from the company receive us and take us to the lobby, while the bags were being sent to our rooms. Th prep also arranged our check-in into the hotel while we sipped our welcome juice in the beautiful hotel lobby. The rep also explained our itinerary for the next 2 days there. The guide would arrive promptly as per the time decided. The guides selected were great; gave us information while in the car and at the site; and even took us shopping to the local stores. Having a personal guide throughout allowed us to just enjoy our sightseeing. The guide took care of our tickets, and entry into the very crowded monuments. We had a 11 stare tempo traveller with us during the entire trip; this was extremely comfortable and my kids had flexibility of walking around in the tempo on long rides. It was also good on the bumpy roads between Agra and Ranthambore. Our accommodations were excellent too. The hotel in Agra and especially the hotel in Ranthambore were gorgeous. The people were extremely friendly and accommodated us very well. The hotel in Jaipur was beautiful; they even allowed us late check-in during this busy time free of charge. Our hotel rooms were upgraded by our agent in 2 of the 3 hotels, which were just beautiful. Our tour designer and his team were very responsive to our needs right from the time we decided to go with their company until our trip was done. Someone would call me at least every other day to check and see if everything was going ok. I even changed my itinerary a day before and our tour designer not only made the change, but also arranged for a guide to go with us at our recommended time. All in all, it was truly a luxurious experience. We felt like the Rajasthani royals!!