Romantic Tour of North India for Couples

We gave an outline of the cities we wanted to visit and requested a specific brand of hotels in New Delhi, Agra, Ranthambhore, Jaipur and Udaipur and a Palace in Jodhpur be booked for our visit. One other specific request our planner organised for us was to lunch at a Lodge under the Banyan tree, which is located in the countryside outside Jodhpur – this was a fabulous experience which I can highly recommend.

Our travel planner organised our driver for our entire trip around Rajasthan. Our driver was excellent.  As my sister and I were travelling with our elderly mother who was 86 at the time, we were concerned about travelling in India. Our driver is a very safe and careful driver. His English is extremely good and he cared for our safety. Any fears that we may have had before coming to India about the driving and getting about were totally removed through our driver’s professional and caring approach to us. When we were without a local guide, our driver was also very knowledgeable in providing us information about India’s history and customs.

We were also very happy with the local guides the planner organised to take us around their cities- Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Jodhpur and our guide when travelling to and visiting the Ranakpur Temple. All these guides were very knowledgeable, charming and professional. Our travel planner also booked our safari trips to the Tiger reserves in Ranthambhore. Our safari drivers and guides were very good.

We left India feeling very satisfied with all the arrangements made for us by our travel planner of this tour company and can recommend him to you.

Overall, we were very pleased with our trip.  Our guides were all knowledgeable about history and culture and they ensured we were carefully looked after.  They advocated strongly on our behalf and were flexible with respect to changes in the schedule based on time and activities.  The information we received beforehand adequately prepared us for our activities.  For example, I read some reviews where people were angry they didn’t see tigers or other wildlife at Ranthambhore, but our information made it clear the area is a reserve and not a zoo and had very different topography than in Africa.  We appreciated that being custom travel, we were able to include a stop at Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary, which was a wonderful experience to see birds migrating from Russia and China.  The hotels were mostly modern; we loved the historic place of Nahargarh Ranthambhore and the Hotel Fategarh.  We completely adored our driver who was with us from New Delhi until we left Jaipur.  He not only maintained a clean and comfortable vehicle, he made sure we always had sufficient water and he had hand sanitizer, wipes, and candies.  He was very flexible and took us to a Royal Enfield motorcycle showroom at our request.  He worked to help us find a new battery for our camera; he ultimately spoke with a shop owner who arranged to have a battery from another shop delivered to our hotel room.  He also secured an excellent rickshaw driver for us in the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary who used his binoculars and my phone to take excellent pictures of wildlife for me.  We spend many hours with our driver and as we traveled, he educated us about many factors in Indian life.

Our trip to India was everything we hoped it would be and more.  Our travel agency did a fantastic job planning the trip with us and making sure everything went smoothly.  First, the owner listened to us.  She has traveled extensively in India and knows a great deal about the country, from hotel options, to restaurants, to sights to see, both well-known and off the beaten track.  She has her own opinions, that she is willing to share to help her clients plan, but most importantly she listened to us, worked to understand the type of travelers we are, and tailored a trip that worked perfectly for us.  She willingly adjusted the itinerary and discussed options with us to be sure we were seeing what we wanted to see.  Her in-country colleagues handled things on the ground seamlessly - from recognizing us at the airport at 2:30 in the morning, to making sure our check-ins and check-outs at each hotel went smoothly, to arranging each pick-up and drop-off at the time we wanted, to making dinner reservations for us.  Our driver was wonderful and felt like part of the family.  We have worked with many agencies, and this company is at the top of the list - for knowledge, for flexibility, for creativity, for responsiveness, and for service.

As for India - it is a place everyone should visit.  Our trip took us to Delhi, Agra, Ranthambore Park, Jaipur, the Thar Desert, Jodhpur and Udaipur.  The sights were beyond incredible (yes the Taj Mahal is the most beautiful building in the world, and yes, there are few things more exhilarating than a wild tiger six feet from your jeep), and the people of India are warm and welcoming and have mastered the art of the service industry.  Because of her connections, our agent added some marvelous things to the trip, like dinner with the proprietors of a small hotel who shared their fascinating opinions after a cooking lesson and a visit to a block printing artist at his home in Udaipur.  We loved our trip!!!

My wife and I just returned from a fantastic trip to India arranged by a tour company that we found through Zicasso. This agency is based in Delhi and provided a flawless trip for us. We didn't make it easy for them. We spent a week in North India and a week in the South. Our first week was disrupted by terrible weather in the USA but the travel company rescued our entire itinerary with a couple of compressions and some early morning departures. And they did this in 45 minutes!

We visited Delhi, the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Jaipur and Agra in the north. Then we flew to Chennai (Madras) and spent 2 days in Tiruvannamalai to visit the Ramanashramam there. Then we went to Pondicherry and returned to Chennai stopping in at Mamallapuram for the 7th century temples. We enjoy 'boot camp' touring so we stuffed in as many temples, churches, towns etc as we could.  

All of this in 9 days, 6 hotels, 2 drivers and myriad of guides all of whom were excellent. The level of service and hospitality was astonishing throughout. We were careful to eat at the hotels or at restaurants recommended by the guides so we had no trouble with upset stomachs etc. Not a single connection, reservation etc went wrong so we were mightily impressed.

The trip planner planned a two-week trip for my wife and I in October 2018. We wanted to go to India to see tigers on Safari and we ended up adding another week to visit Delhi, Jaipur, and Agra. The trip went off without a hitch. The guides were great, the accommodations were first class, and the logistics could not have been better. One of our internal India flights were cancelled at the last minute by the airline and the trip planner's representative in India had us on another flight right away. The trip planner even made dinner reservations at a couple of top restaurants we wanted to eat at.

We did see tigers (5) and the lodges we stayed at were amazing. We spend a lot of time traveling from lodge to lodge and got to see the rural side of India and daily life of the villagers.

I would recommend both tour company and going on Safari in India to anyone wanting to get a bit our of their comfort zone and see a side of India that is a bit off the beaten path. Thanks again.

Buddy and Pam P.