Excellent Tour Operator-Excellent Driving Service-Guide services less consistent

Jan, 2020

We chose Ganpat and his Incredible Tour to India company to plan our two week tour of Delhi, Varanasi, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Pushkar, Jaipur and Agra.

A lot of places in not a lot of days, so we wanted a good operator who could get us from place to place safely and efficiently, with an interesting itinerary to allow us to see as much as possible, for a fair price. They met and exceeded every expectation and I would highly recommend their services for a similar tour of Rajasthan and nearby areas.

You can break down a tour into two broad categories, as we learned on this trip. 1) logistics and care and; 2) guide services. Five stars to Ganpat and his Incredible Tour to India on category one, I'd give four stars on category two, but as you'll read below, the tour operator has less control over that part.

Logistics and Care: Ganpat is incredibly responsive. He gave us a quote within hours of our first email, with great suggestions on how to change what we had first asked for in terms of hotels and itinerary. All of his suggestions especially on hotels turned out to be very good. His price was fair and in line with other quotes we received from other operators. Anytime we used WhatsApp to ask him a question or get clarification on something, he answered within minutes. He also provided us with a mobile phone in India to use in case of emergencies, but we didn't really need it or use it. He booked all hotels and domestic airline tickets, and everything went very smoothly (we lost a day to plane delays in Delhi due to smog, but that's not his fault and he did a good job adjusting the itinerary to make sure we saw everything anyway).

When we had a bad experience with a clothing shop in Delhi, he contacted them to make sure they got things right. Dinner at Ganpat's house toward the end of the tour was an interesting and unique experience and a nice touch. All in all, zero complaints on his services.

The driver he assigned to us, Ravindra Singh, was amazing. We traveled in a clean, sizeable SUV. In spite of his very limited English skills, we communicated well enough, and he took care of us like we were his own children on this trip. Always willing to help with whatever we needed, always on time, always safely driving, good sense of humor, aware of all the good spots for eating and clean bathrooms in route, attentive at all times, he even provided us home made treats made by his wife. I've never been more hydrated as he offered bottle water multiple times a day. We came to be really affectionately attached to him by the end of the trip and very much appreciate all that he offered.

The second category, guide services, is more complicated in that in some of these places, there are hundreds of guides available for each set of tourists, and they work on a mandated rotating basis, and the tour operator doesn't always get to choose the guides. We had some guides that were very good. Durga in Delhi, Brij in Varanasi, and the guides whose names I can't remember in Udaipur and Agra were standouts.

On the other hand, the guide in Pushkar was a straight up scam artist pretending to be a priest for a sizeable "donation to the temple". Every guide, good or bad, will on multiple occasions try to get you to go shopping for something at a store of his choice where he can earn a commission for doing so. Sometimes we gave in and went, sometimes we had to say firmly say no once and they backed off, sometimes we had to say no six times or more before they backed off. The worst of the bunch would then get angry and the quality of their guide service would diminish when they realized they wouldn't be getting a commission that day. Seems to be just part of the deal traveling in this part of the world. Some of the stores were legit, others were straight up scams like the guy pretending to be an artist in one of them. So just be prepared to say no firmly and repeatedly if you don't want to shop, or have a well researched ahead of time place to demand to be taken to instead if you do. That said, the good guides were very good.

Still a five star review because Ganpat had a guide ready for us and on time at every stop, he planned a great itinerary, adjusting it on the go when needed in very good ways, and was always immediately responsive, and provided an all star driver. Definitely recommend.

Two Week Tour of Delhi, Varanasi, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Pushkar, Jaipur and Agra with Incredible Tour To India | Best Tour Operator for Golden Triangle with Rajasthan Tour | Travel to Rajasthan with Incredible Tour To India

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