Nepal for Seniors: Day Hikes, Culture, Landscapes and Luxury

This travel agency is based in Siem Reap, Cambodia and run by an American as well as talented Cambodian staff. It was planned relatively late compared to the departure date as a solo trip because a previous trip taken with my spouse got interrupted and I had some extra time.

The bottom line is that I was very happy with the trip and would gladly use them to plan travel to this region again. Below, I describe more specifics about my view of their services, including one preventable hiccup. Despite this one glitch (that was far from a major tragedy), it was a terrific and memorable trip with high-quality accommodations, guides, and planning.

Accomodations

The hotels they suggested in each place were excellent choices. The hotel in Kathmandu was a historic and interesting building with character but also had all the mod cons and was an oasis in a very chaotic and dusty city. In central Bhutan, the choices are more limited but the places they picked fit my needs and budget well and were fine for me. I loved the hotel in Siem Reap. Amazing service and luxury in a central location.

Guides and Drivers

The guides and drivers in all places were very good to super. I had been to Bhutan before. The country has first-class guides and my guide was even better than the guide on my previous trip. Just a really nice guy who did his best to show me an area of his country that was new to me. He was very good at organizing yet also able and happy to fit in additional stops on the fly, assuming they were feasible. The guide and the driver also found very good places to eat - a big improvement over my travels 10 years ago. It was an honor to stop and have our picnic lunch at the home of my very kind and good driver. On our more difficult hike, they were extremely patient and very helpful with this in-shape American 50-year old who isn't quite used to the air or such steep uphill climbs.

My guide in Cambodia was also excellent. Both he and the driver showed and taught me more about their country, as well as giving good advice when I wanted to spend some time navigating Siem Reap on my own. A real highlight was when a Khmer-American who is an expert on Angkor gave me a tour and accompanied me to lunch afterward.

The guide in Nepal was fine, though not quite as fluent in English. He was a bit younger, though still knew a lot, and it was interesting to get a youthful perspective on the country. The car was a relatively aged Fiat but in good condition and the driver was excellent. My impression is that Nepal is a bit more difficult for tourism and I didn't see tons of other tourists going around in massively better vehicles (car import taxes are extreme) or with better guides. Like all of my guides, he took far better photos with my camera than me (and he was thrilled to play with it).

Itinerary and Responsiveness

Originally, I had thought of going to Laos but was happy they steered me to Nepal instead. It was a whole lot more interesting than I expected - I was more keen in Nepali history and culture than trekking. I'm glad I went because it was both interesting and fit in well with the rest of my itinerary as Kathmandu is one of the places you can stop at on the way to Bhutan.

The itinerary was generally put together very well. The amount of time in each place was really just right. I had been concerned that I would not have enough time in Bhutan's Bumthang Valley but they got it exactly right and the plan was very good.

There was only one major hiccup. I had expressed concern about spending a night in Nagarkot, a hill town in the Kathmandu Valley, with great views of the Himalaya because the smog in the valley prevents views in the season I was traveling according to Lonely Planet. Unfortunately, Lonely Planet was right in this case as the smog killed all views even in fine morning weather. Getting to the hotel also proved one of the more unpleasant and long car journeys. The ride back turned out much better, as we broke it up by visiting Bhaktipur before returning to Kathmandu.

I was pleased they left appropriate (but not ridiculously long) amounts of time for flight changes within Asia, as this prevented worries over making flights and gave me time to store and to retrieve a bag with souvenirs in the Bangkok Airport (very easy, btw). When I was able to take an earlier flight to Siem Reap, they arranged to have me picked up at that flight with no problem at all.

Additionally, during the planning stage, the agency was very responsive to my wishes yet also good at making suggestions and explaining alternatives. My travel agents kindly hosted me to a fun high tea in Siem Reap.

It would have been a fine trip if not for the terrible weather. The monsoon season was supposed to be over, but it rained on most of the days I was in Pokhara. The Annapurna range was not visible-in the rain, so there really was not much of a vista for the hikes. With the slippery ground we also had to cut the hikes short as well.

In general the travel company and its local representatives are helpful. The local guides are very accommodating and just really nice to work with.

Fair to medium experience with this travel company. Had used a Zicasso referral for travel to Peru last year, but this year's trip to India and Nepal with this company was a disappointment.. Some of the guides had such thick accents that it was difficult to understand their presentations. Further, it seemed odd to my adult daughter and I that there were no women guides for the entire India, Nepal tour. Occasionally after significant air travel in India, the tour company did not even suggest a pause for a meal before moving on to another historic site.  I think this company could do a better job of explicating what will be seen next, what to wear on your feet if you're going to walk through a muddy area. This may sound insignificant, but it is the kind of incidental information that helps people enjoy their trip. The hotel we were assigned to when we first arrived in New Dehli had poor air quality in th lobby. Since New Dehli had poor air quality overall, it seemed odd that they kept the door open to the outside. The rooms were comfortable at the hotel but our guide or our travel company gave no suggestions of authentic inexpensive places to eat after out long trip. The day after we arrived we were taken to a restaurant that was probably the most inauthentic Indian eatery. The restarant was empty except for statues of armored knights. This tour group seens like a one size fits all. As non luxery tourist wanting to enjoy a rare mother, daughter trip to India, we were both disappointed.

My daughter was so worry about the quality of the hotel we were assigned while in Kathmandu, that she asked our agent if we could upgrade to the Hyatt. He said he couldn't did it as we had already paid for the assigned hotel. As it turns out, the hotel was fine, but we were not pleased with our Kathmandu guide. The hotel was kind enough to find a young Nepalese man to accompany us on a half day walk into the hills surrounding Kathmandu. Except for our guide in Jaipur, no one gave us good recommendations for restaurants. Our guide in Veranasi was good, as well as the guide in Jaipur. The drivers were all great and kind.

My four rating reflects some disconnect between the agreed itinerary we set up with our travel company and what happened on the ground in India and Nepal. I'm not sure if that was the travel company problem or that of its partner and its subcontractors. That said, any issues we raised were addressed quickly and mostly to our complete satisfaction. 

Overall, I'd say that travel in this part of the world is difficult. Traffic in the cities is impossible! Also, we found poor air quality most everywhere, but particularly in Delhi and to some extent in Agra. I had visited the Taj nearly 38 years earlier and a comparison of photos from that trip and our latest underline the air quality problem. (Nevertheless, the Taj is magnificent!) While the travel was difficult and sometimes pretty exhausting, the trip lived up well to our expectations. We wanted an adventure and we got it! I am particularly interested in Eastern philosophies and religions and it was a bonanza on that count. I learned much.  The temples and palaces were amazing, and I loved the vibrant colors everywhere, from saris to spices.  Our travel agency was good to work with in setting up our trip, patient and accommodating. We worked on the itinerary for a number of months. The guides, transfer agents, and drivers in both India and Nepal were generally terrific. Not once during the entire time was anyone other than perfectly punctual.  Some seemed exceptionally well informed -- including our guide through Mumbai's Dharavi slum, who had lived there himself for more than a dozen years. We nicknamed our guide in Mumbai "sadhu" -- both because of his appearance (rail thin, beard, long hair) but also the depth of his knowledge about Hinduism and his ability to communicate that in terms we could grasp. We spent six days travelling by car with our driver who we came to appreciate enormously as our friend and guardian. As for hotels, we loved the hotels in Katmandu and Udaipur. We were only slightly less impressed with the hotel in Varanasi. The hotels in Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur, were quite good. The hotel in Pushkar was fine though located a little far from town. The hotel in Pokhara, Mumbai, and  in Bangalore were acceptable but not more. 

From the moment my husband and I arrived, and throughout the entire trip there was a company representative awaiting us, guiding us to every destination with kindness and professionalism. We knew we wanted a custom-built trip and we didn't have a lot of time to work with, so this company was a great fit for our needs. We also didn't want to take a big group tour and be stuck on a bus with a bunch of strangers but be able to stay as long as we wanted at separate destinations and ask whatever questions we wanted. We saw Kathmandu, New Delhi, Agra, and Varanasi all over the course of 10 days and while it was busy, it was never an overwhelming pace. We were even able to add an additional destination at the end of our trip to see Sarnath, for no extra cost. Our guides were extremely well informed and when we would ask a question at times we would marvel at the depth of information about the country and the culture that they would share with us. I can't say enough good things about the accommodations of our hotels, the hotel restaurants, the drivers, and especially the guides. Our entrance fees into all of the monuments, our two internal flights, a train ticket, all the gas to transport us, not to mention the long days with guides and drivers- we feel like we got a bargain for the price we paid for the trip of a lifetime! Thank you to all of our wonderful guides who we will forever remember- you touched our lives!