TAJ MAHAL TRAVEL

Client Name : Mr. Nick Wilson
Year : 2003
E-Mail : wilson53.freeserve.co.uk

Comments on Our Tour of Rajasthan November 2003

General Organization: Excellent from the time we were picked up at the airport to the time we were dropped off back at the airport. Every arrangement made always happened to time. Bhawani was always on time and Rajesh was always where he was needed with the car and always on time.

Flexibility: The organization of our days proved too as flexible as we had hoped. Within five minutes of meeting Bhawani at Pushkar, we had asked him to change our first day with him by requesting a trip to Ranthambore. He took this in his stride and reorganized the day, even obtaining a jeep for our tour and arranging for three tigers to be visible! Everyone was tired but happy when we arrived at Kota at about 10.30pm. Late in the tour, Bhawani suggested we visit Keoladeo Ghana National Park as a contrast to all the forts and palaces we had been seeing. This was a most successful visit. We enjoyed seeing all the birds and the large areas of water after the rather dry landscape of Rajasthan.

Activities and Tours: We enjoyed all the tours we had in the many places we visited. All the guides were knowledgeable and interesting, although one or two were a little hard to understand (Bundi and Jaisalmer). We enjoyed our train journey and would have been happy to use the railway on other occasions if it had been possible. The Pushkar Fair was wonderful. We enjoyed the village safari at Jodhpur. We felt that the Village Theme Restaurant at Jaipur could have been left out, as we had seen most of what was on show earlier on our tour. Also, the meal provided at the Village was not a tasty delight at all. All in all, it was a wonderful holiday with enormous variety. We consider that it would have been difficult to improve on it. Our guide and driver, Bhawani and Rajesh were very attentive, constantly looking after our every need. We had great fun with them and they seemed to understand our sense of humour. We really enjoyed our days/evenings with them. We enjoyed most of our meals - we did find that we much preferred to have a la carte meals and not the buffet style - only because we liked to choose from such a good variety of Indian food. Our lunches organized by Bhawani as we traveled each day were very good too. Our driver, Rajesh, was extremely helpful - he never seemed to mind sorting out our luggage in the car, he always made sure we had enough water to drink. His car was immaculately clean every morning and he was always smartly dressed. He obviously took pride in his job.

Comments on our Overnight Stays:

Park Hotel, Delhi - Adequate city hotel. No complaints.

Swiss Tents, Pushkar - Never been in a tent with a toilet and shower plumbed in. An unusual and enchanting experience.

Umaid Bhawan, Kota - Magnificent building. Good service. A pity we did not have more time to enjoy the facilities, such as a game of snooker, for instance.

Bijaipur Castle - Very friendly, especially the Maharajah. Good atmosphere. A must on any itinerary. The visit to the village was fascinating without the attention of hawkers, beggars. Our guide was obviously proud of his village. Unmissable.

Jagat Niwas - First rate, particularly for its atmosphere and situation, overlooking Lake Pichola. Great place to breakfast with the views over the lake and well situated for the interesting parts of Udaipur.

Ajit Bhawan, Jodhpur - Splendid rooms that we much preferred to the cottages in the garden. Super pool but not much time to use it.

Narayan Niwas Palace, Jaisalmer - Comfortable hotel with lovely courtyards and view from the roof. We were almost the only people in the hotel, so the music and dance show had little atmosphere.

Mud Huts, Jaisalmer - We really enjoyed this experience, the camel ride to the dunes, the dinner, watching the dancing and listening to the music and the night in the mud huts. The desert noises meant little sleep, but it was an unforgettable experience. We also enjoyed the morning camel ride and visit to the village the following day (just the four of us). The owner of the Mud Huts was especially friendly and helpful.

Gajner Palace, Gajner - This was a fabulous hotel situated on a lake, with a wonderful suite of rooms and lots of interesting gardens and courtyards. Strangely quiet. The management staffs were not very helpful.

Bhairon Vilas, Bikaner - A most unusual hotel with quirky decoration but simply wonderful colors and design. The owner was very friendly. We loved his shop of Colourful clothing. The rooms were amazing and a contrast to the formal styles of our other hotels.

Desert Resort, Mandawa - This was a wonderful oasis to find after a particularly bumpy journey. The mud hut accommodation was first class and the swimming pool was much appreciated.

Kuchaman Fort - Another outstanding and dramatic place to stay with the jeep approach and departure. Very interesting to look round, great views and the strangest pool we have ever swum in.

Jaipur Palace - This was the most disappointing of all our hotels. Comfortable enough but no character and badly sited. Clarks Shiraz, Agra - A modern hotel that was comfortable enough on our short stay.

We enjoyed meeting you, Durjay, at the beginning and end of our holiday. Thank you for the dinner on the last night.

All in all, we had a holiday, which exceeded our expectations. We will have no hesitation in recommending India as a holiday destination to all our friends and in particular Compass as the company to travel with.

Nick and Tricia Wilson