Testimonials – some excerpts
Hi Ram
I just wanted to let you know that Denise and I are back safe and sound, and to thank you for organising such a wonderful trip. Everything went like clockwork, and we were very impressed with almost everyone who took care of us. A couple of special mentions:
Keshev – was so very helpful, kind and cheerful. It was always good to see his smiling face waiting for us when we arrived back in Delhi and he took very good care of us.
Bhagwan Singh – our driver through Rajastan. Not only was Mr Bhagwan (as we called him) an efficient and careful driver, but he went out of his way to make sure we saw some wonderful sights along the way. He very quickly learned what we were interested in photographing and didn’t hesitate to point things out to us. He took good care of us with regular stops and was a delightful travelling companion.
Benjamin Giri – the weather we had in Darjeeling was truly awful, but Benjamin managed to help us make the most of it and was a very interesting and knowledgeable guide.
There was only one guide we were not truly impressed by. He was very knowledgeable but didn’t listen to what we wanted and changed our itinerary without explaining the implications. However, that was only one day out of 28 so we can’t co, mplain.
The hotels were almost without exception wonderful. However, there were two that you might like to consider removing from your recommendations in the future.
The Surya Pride in Dharamshala was in dire need of renovation. The reception and dining areas were lovely, but the rooms were not great. We had to be moved because of the noise of the air conditioning on the first night, and on the second there was a great deal of noise – banging doors and shouting – all night.
The Park Hotel in Kolkata was terrible. We were upgraded to a suite, which had a double bed. When we advised we had booked a room with twin beds, we were given a smoking room, which was not acceptable to us. So Denise had to sleep on a trundle. The staff in reception were rude and dismissive, service was very slow, the wifi did not work properly and required someone to come to the room to resolve it, the mini bar was not cold, and the music from the nightclubs downstairs was quite loud late into the evening. I would not recommend this hotel to anyone. Jitu from Club Side Tours suggested the Oberoi is a better choice.
That said, we had a most wonderful holiday and we both plan on returning to India soon.
Thanks again for all your help.
Warm Regards
Hi Ram,
Was a magnificent trip made very very special by our driver Mr Singh…
He went out of his way all the time to make sure we were comfortable and happy with everything…
The Palaces, Forts , elephant ride, camel ride and Taj Mahal were all highlights of a wonderful trip full of so many amazing things…
Thanks again for organising the trip for us…
Much appreciation…
Regards and cheers…
Dear Ram
Thank you for organising a fascinating trip through Rajasthan and Kerala for us. It was truly an amazing experience, a journey in three very contrasting parts with Bodhgaya and Varanasi before joining you for Rajasthan and Kerala. We truly experienced the “Land of gods”, not just in Kerala!
We were met by a company representative and had guides in each place we visited and were often farewelled by the company rep as well. Delhi rang a couple of times during the trip to check on how all was going. For independent travellers it was sometimes a little restrictive but comforting to know there was someone there to assist.
As you can see from the photos it was a trip of contrasts from the deserts of Rajasthan to the beauty of the mountains in Kerala. We had the same car and driver in each state and though their English was not great both did their very best for us. Driving or better, being driven in India is an experience! Sometimes Deb found it better to close her eyes but I became accustomed to the ways of drivers and vehicles on the roads and watched the world go past with the colourful trucks, the animals wandering casually across major roads, bustling towns, teeming with life and the changing landscapes. We even saw Sadhu in one town we passed through.
The forts of Rajasthan were magnificent and lived up to their reputations! Each had something special about it that made the long hours in the car worthwhile. We were blown away by the ruins of Chittorgarth! We became committed drinkers of Massala chai but had to constantly remind restaurants that some westerners actually enjoy spicy food. Medium seemed to be best, you could certainly taste the spices but also the flavour of the ingredients. Surprisingly the vegetarian foods became a staple and certainly made us reflect on the role of meat in our diet at home.
Where Rajasthan was forts and Hindu and Jain temples, Kerala was the mountains and waterways.They complemented each other very neatly. You could see the devastation caused by the flooding in Kerala with landslides, damaged bridges and potholed roads but these didn’t detract from the beauty of the landscape.
The hotels were very good. The one in Chittor was undergoing renovations and was the odd one out. To reach our room which was the worst of the trip, we had to climb to the roof cross over to the other side and down a set of stairs. It was, however, the recommended hotel in Lonely Planet and in its heyday must have been a wonderful building!
The length of time in the car was always at the higher end of that in the tour notes and mostly longer. A couple of times it was the break that caused the extension. For example in Osana we visited a temple but there were so many worshippers that it took forever to reach the temple but it was an experience to join the throng and interact with them. In Ranakpur, we had to wait 1/12 hours until westerners were allowed into the Jain temple but what a temple it was! More often than not, the drive simply took longer. But which fort would we have left off the list? None!
It would have had at least 20 kilos of luggage for the flight from Kovalam to Delhi. it put a little dampener on Deb’s shopping in Kerala, knowing we only had 15 kilos. The hotels were all situated on the outskirts of the towns we visited. It meant a rickshaw ride into the city centres, if we wanted to look around after touring. Sometimes we did and sometimes we took the soft option and stayed at the hotel. I’m guessing that was the compromise between quality and price.
We are more than happy to recommend you to any traveller thinking of their own Indian odyssey. Feel free to use any of the phots attached.
Once again many thanks for an amazing experience!
Regards
Namaste Ram
Once again you have excelled yourself with our Kathmandu and India trip. We had a wonderful time and the arrangements you made worked perfectly. We found Yatra Exotic Routes, your choice of local agent in India, to be highly professional and very easy to work with. They looked after all our needs and additional requests. We had a great time and have returned with many happy memories of some exceptional places.
Even though I had visited some of the places on a previous trip, I saw them in a different light and had my memories refreshed.
Thank you again for your work in making our holiday special.
Kind regards and best wishes
Our India trip was fantastic and everything went to plan perfectly.
Your link with Yatra Exotic Tours was very good. Everything was well organized and all representatives did a good job. The standard of our accommodation everywhere was very acceptable. We had an excellent driver for the 15 days and he looked after us well. Our tour guides all did a great job.
The standout accommodation was PhilipKutty Farm. Also the food there was the best.
Your selection of itinerary and accommodation suited us well. Thank you very much.
Kind Regards
Sheila & Greg Sleep
Hi Ram,
We had a wonderful trip thank you. Our driver Sunil was reliable and a very careful driver.
We would love to do another trip in India but are thinking of maybe Sril Lanka next year. Do you have any contacts for drivers there?
Kind Regards
Dear Ram, Thank you for organising such a wonderful trip for us to India. Everything went smoothly – the hotels and guides were very good, the drivers (particularly Rakesh who was with us for 9 days) were professional and we felt safe at all times in spite of what we thought was chaos on the roads.
“My thanks to you for arranging my trip and please pass on my thanks to Mr. Jalal in Srinagar. It was great to find travel agents who go out of their way to make holidays a success for visitors”
“Ram – we have had a wonderful holiday thank you. Your organisation worked so well. We were met at every stop as arranged by very well spoken representatives who explained what was happening, where we were going etc. A quick run through for feedback for you…”
“Hi, Ram, yes you are right, we had a wonderful trip.Thank you very much for organizing it so efficiently. We didn’t have even the slightest hick-up. People were very professional and always on time / remember, we had doubts about it/. The drivers were fantastic…”
“Dear Ram,The trip was very successful & the scenery wonderful. Everything went to plan. There was not a problem. Pickups were always on time, The guide escort we had in Sikkim was very good & likewise the lady in Calcutta…”
“I’d just like to pass on my thanks to your organisation for managing our recent trip (last Nov) to India. In particular to the staff involved who ensured we were always on time, well fed and safe. We found all of them to be very helpful and our trip was most enjoyable largely to their efforts.”
“We wanted to send you some feedback about our trip, which we thoroughly enjoyed. All of the connections worked very well-every one was there at the right time in the Right place and they were helpful and efficient and welcoming.”
“Based on our experience the best way to see India is with a combination of private car hire including Drivers and excellent gujide, train and domestic air flights. We used the services of Ram World Travel, York St, Sydney, who specialise in India and the services and attention to detail was excellent”.
“We[re home and in between unpacking washing etc. while the memories are fresh just wanted to thank You and your company for our wonderful trip-all so well organised, no slip ups at all and of course what Can I say about “our special driver”.
“Dear Ram, Thank you for the letter of welcome. Firstly I must thank you wholeheartedly for the Excellent work you and all your colleagues in India put in to make the trip such a resounding success. All aspects of that organisation whoked totally smoothly from the ourset, the triumvirate of “hosts” comprising agent driver and guide at each location made the complex of my itinerary come to life.”
“I am writing to thank you for the excellent organisation of our recent 33 day holiday in India. Four of us wanting a special experience for the celebration of our 60th birthdays, decided India was the place we wanted to visit and following a great deal of research and negotiation we had a most memorable trip.”
“Yes we had a great trip thanks very much and well looked after and organised. Many Thanks for that. Gill would describe India as curry, colour, and contrasts”
“Dear Ram,
Yes, we did have a wonderful tour of south India, thank you. Thank you for your organisation – we very much appreciated being met at the airport, the quality of the car and driver, and on-going discussions with the staff of Top Travel in various cities.
The driver in particular – ROSHIT – was wonderful. He was a good, careful driver; he spoke very good, clear English; and he was considerate of our needs. I highly recommend him.”
Well our trip again was most successful thanks to you & your colleagues, Mr. Kumar of Divine Voyages & those folk of Purity in Assam. Everything went to plan, always someone there to greet us at airports,punctual & obliging. Our drivers Vikram & Dilip were excellent & given Indian driving conditions (far different as you know from conditions here) we survived.Our guides in the various locations were well versed & always keen to provide us with a good service.
We can now understand why the visit to Assam had to be put back after seeing the flood levels at Kaziranga this year after the wet season.
Our accommodation in the modern hotels in Delhi & Guwahati was exceptional & the nights at the old palaces in Jaipur & Jodhpur were great. The Varanasi Hindustan was average but it grew on us. In Assam , Manas & Nameri we liked very much, particularly the staff at Bansbari Lodge. All in all we enjoyed the experience of the elephant & jeep safaris.A wonderful & scenic part of the world.
People here in Australia cannot quite grasp the fact that this is our fifth visit, but we have been doing a good sell job for Incredible India. We know Marty & Jill share our thoughts as do Narelle & Murray from their previous visit.
Finally Jet Air provided a good service,mostly on time with good aircraft & staff. Singapore Airlines did their usual great service but Silkair were light on in service & space in small aircraft.
That’s about as brief a summary we can offer. Again thanks for your expertise & please pass on our congratulations as you see fit.
Dear Ram
My son & I returned from India last week after a very enjoyable 30 days of travel and exploration. This was in no small part the result of your excellent planning and advice. We were highly satisfied with all the travel arrangements through Yatra Exotics Tours. All the relevant documentation (i.e. accommodation vouchers) was available on our arrival in Bangalore and there were no problems with any of our bookings on arrival.
At each stage the pre-arranged drivers were waiting for us and they were punctual in getting us to each destination as set out in our itinerary. Driving on Indian roads is always a challenge and at times not for the faint-hearted, but we arrived safely each day. Our two drivers (for Karnantaka and Kerala) were also very good in ensuring that allocated guides were always available to explain the various temples and historical sites.
We would like to note that most of the properties that were stayed at were outstanding and would recommend them without hesitation:”
Kind regards
Hi Ram
I was very impressed with all aspects of our trip to India so much so that my husband and another couple are keen to share my experiences in a trip next year.
I would be interested in a similar itinerary with one or two changes. The tour company were excellent, the hotels were all exceptional and if possible I would like to have the same driver as we had.
At the present there would be four of us with the possibility of one other couple.
Regards Marion
Hello Ram,
Our trip that you provided was amazing.
I would be more than happy to recommend the same tour to all our friends!
There was not one thing that we could have been unhappy about.
Our driver, vehicle ,guides, and beautiful accommodation was the best.
It was such an amazing adventure, thank you very much
Kind regards,
Judy Jones.
Hi Ram,
Thank you for your message.
Our tour and guides were all fantastic (other than a few infrequent guides who were very underwhelming and didn’t seem like they even wanted to be working).
Special mention to our driver, Jagge, who drove us around Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. He was truly an asset to our family and made our tour fun, enjoyable, safe and interesting. He was willing to engage in our conversation and questions about India and life in India on our long drives between the three cities which was wonderful. We honestly could not praise him more
Our tour was fantastic.
Dear Ram, Thank you for your welcome home.
Everything went according to the itinerary you provided us with. An excellent reception in Cochin with good guides in Kerala & an exceptional driver by the name of Praveen who provided us with safe journey & entertainment en route. Hotels were good & the service exceptional, Fragrant Nature in particular. Houseboat crews did a great job. Our visit to Kerala was very well received by us all.We had two birthdays to remember during this time (Edna’s was a little early) & the staff responded beautifully when birthday’s were mentioned.
Our start up in Sri Lanka was soured by the fact that the guide we were to have for the total time there spoke very poor English & apparently was not in good health & as a consequence we had to ask that he be replaced We had him for the tour of Colombo which quite frankly was a great waste of time. The copy of the itinerary he handed out had all the dates offset by one day which concerned us in that we thought our hotel stays may have been incorrect. Although we had pre-paid our entry into sites he asked for payment so that meant he was not conversant with the arrangements in place.After a number of phone calls ,Murray was able to secure a replacement guide who handled matters very well with a very good command of English. Pradib was on top of his job despite being called in from Colombo on the 2nd day of our visit. We retained the use of the original driver & he did a great job. We really appreciated his services. With the exception of the Colombo Ramada all the hotels were very well received. The former was not very welcoming & we would not recommend it.The Cinnamon chain were very good but Nisala Arana in Bentota capped the tour off beautifully.Jetwing Yala was a very interesting place with a wonderful outside dining area with excellent cuisine.
Vehicles were good & plenty of drinks available but given the distances/ traffic in Sri Lanka we were glad to get out of the bus.
In a nutshell, the family enjoyed a full on trip to Southern India & Sri Lanka.
Thanks again for your efforts from the the Boyd/Stillman families.
Hi Ram
We really enjoyed our trip to Agra and Rajasthan. The driver was great. He was very skilled and was also prompt and courteous at all times.
Durga was also a good guide.
Thanks very much.
Kind regards