Like many of you curious travellers, I have travelled, for the most part, alone and completely on my own to nearly 40 countries around the world. Were these ‘bucket list’ journeys that I could proudly check off my list? Absolutely not, they were all places I longed to see, researched about, and then enjoyed each experience I encountered along the way.

In 2015 I started to plan a long-awaited journey to India and, for the first time in my life, I realized very quickly that travelling through India on my own was probably not going to be very easy and certainly not the best way to experience the country. The fact of the matter is that everything in India can be very difficult to do without some help. For example, renting a vehicle may be a feat in and of itself but then try to figure out where you will park your vehicle, let alone navigate through the chaotic streets of India, not easy at all. So, getting around India by yourself is a full-time job and will give you very little time to enjoy the incredible sights, sounds, and experiences that await you in India, and that’s just the first problem with trying to do India on your own. Take it from someone who went to India and had the time of my life – yes, my favourite trip ever – guided trips to India are the absolute best way to travel and see the country. Save your solitary travel for places like Europe which are easy to navigate on your own and definitely book an all-inclusive guided tour for an absolutely magical time in India.

The key to having a perfect guided trip to India is to find the absolute best tour company that suits your needs. With so many companies boasting they are the most knowledgeable and experienced, you really need to do your research. The best way to find a great tour company is to start by speaking to them on the phone, checkout their reviews and testimonials, and try to talk to the owner of the company. Once you have a good lead on a tour company, have a look at how much variety there is in their itineraries and read the day to day events to see who offers the most interesting extra events and experiences that sets them apart from the other companies. Once you have narrowed down your search for the best itinerary you will have built a relationship with the company, ideally the owner will have spoken to you by now, and if you have a good feeling about them, it’s time to book your amazing guided tour of India.
One of the greatest aspects of booking a guided tour of India with a tour company like the award-winning Explore India Journeys, is that they do all the planning for you. The travel specialists will do everything from booking your flights, airport transfers, accommodations, meals, and all touring transportation, to ensuring that all special events, excursions and entry tickets are all set up for you – to just name a few – leaving you with peace of mind as well as time to enjoy in the anticipation of your tour to India.

It is a beautiful day when your fabulous colour itinerary arrives by special delivery to your door. As you open the package you see the brightly coloured photos of all the spectacular places you will see on your guided tour of India and you will be in awe of what you are about to experience. How wonderful it is to have every detail, every spellbinding moment written out for you so that you know exactly what your guided tour of India has in store for you. For me, having everything planned and booked was one of the most delightful aspects of booking a guided tour of India because it gave me a thrill to know that it was going to be a seamless unfolding of magnificent events and I didn’t have to go through all the headaches of trying to plan it all myself. In fact, there were many parts of my guided tour to India that would have been impossible for me to organize because a lot of what a travel company like Explore India does, is plan things that the average tour company can’t even do. Can you imagine sitting on a hillock, listening to beautiful sitar music while you’re having a picnic lunch looking out at an unobstructed view of the majestic Taj Mahal? I can tell you; I had this fantastic experience and would not even have known it was possible had I not travelled on the award-winning Journey of the Senses Tour with Explore India.

The beauty of a tour company like Explore India is that there are so many interesting guided tours to choose from. As I mentioned, the sign of a great company is when they offer a variety of all-inclusive tours to suit all different types of traveller’s desires and needs. I happened to become immediately intrigued with the Journey of the Senses tour with Explore India but others might have an interest in the cuisine in India so then they could choose a tour which has lots of cooking lessons and dining out like Explore India’s Culinary Tour of Delectable India. Whether it’s a specific interest you would like to explore or an all-around highlights of India tour, a great tour company will have many guided tours to choose from, complete with full details of each day of your tour, and you can pick what you like – and, they will have experience in taking travellers to those places. Anyone can write up great itineraries, so be sure to ask a lot of questions to be certain that the tour company really knows what they are promoting.

While small group tours are very popular, a custom guided tour of India is also a great option. Perhaps you have a limited amount of time or would like to travel with just your family, no problem, custom guided tours of India are also very popular and companies, like Explore India, are experts at crafting the perfect custom private guided tour of India as well. As like any of their other tours, everything is done for you and you will also, like all small group tours, be accompanied the entire time by one of India’s best English-speaking guides. Another advantage of booking a guided group tour is that the guides chosen are the best in India, they are trained in the hospitality industry but they are typically historical experts on India and are able to answer almost any question asked by a traveller. The genuinely interested guides work for companies like Explore India and are the best guides you can find – don’t chance it on hiring someone on your own because most often these types of guides are simply able to drive you from place to place much like a taxi would do and offer very little in educating you about what you are seeing.

There are so many wonderful things about going on a guided tour of India but one of my greatest takeaways is that I met some fabulous friends on my tour. To give you the background of my story, I was planning to spend my 50th birthday, in 2016, in Kerala aboard a houseboat and then decided, as noted earlier, that it was best to go on a guided tour of India first and then head to Kerala for my birthday. I arrived in Delhi a few days prior to the start of the tour so that I could explore a little bit on my own. Well, by the time the tour day arrived, I was feeling a bit lonely and I was also wondering who would be on my tour. I had the stereotypical travellers in my mind as I pictured myself being the youngest on my tour by far and how I would fit in as I was also travelling alone.

The day before the tour started, I was sitting in the beautiful lobby of the Taj Hotel in Delhi and a lady, about my age, was sitting across from me. She looked interesting, young for her age, and, as I wished that I was travelling with someone my own age, my Explore India tour director ran over to us and introduced us – he then noted that she and her husband were going on a private tour and would be back later. Too bad, I thought to myself, and said “I wish you were on my tour” – and, to my surprise, she answered back that she and her husband were on the Journey of the Senses Tour starting the next day and they were just going on a private day tour that day. I was so happy and so was she. Once we settled down after sharing an immediate connection and joy that we were on the same tour, her husband came over and I met him too. Now, several years later, we have enjoyed several vacations, birthdays, and Christmas together and I’m so grateful not only to have met and experienced India with them on the guided tour, but I found two life-long friends as well.
Because guided tours of India are so popular now, all age groups are realizing that if you’re going to travel to the exotic, chaotic and enchanting land of India, you might as well have the best experience possible and do it in style and comfort with a recognized guided tour of India tour company like Explore India. Gone are the days when people are waiting until their retirement or their ‘golden years’ to see and enjoy a country like India. People from all over North America are spreading the word that India is a fabulous travel destination and to go on a small group tour or even a custom private tour is the best way to see the country. All inclusive tours are the most popular because everything is included such as airfare, world class accommodations, typically three fabulous meals per day, entrance to all the sites, transfers from airport to hotel, all land transportation, and all inner India flights as well. What more could you ask for?

Well, there is one more thing, on an all-inclusive guided tour of India, with a company such as Explore India, you are going to be treated to many special events that you simply cannot reserve on your own. In fact, many of the special events on an Explore India tour cannot be arranged privately because you would never even know about them as they are not your typical tourist events. For example, I mentioned earlier about the lunch on a hill overlooking the Taj Mahal, that’s just one of the special events that was planned for us. Another amazing adventure was riding a camel in the desert for about 45 minutes to a campsite where Explore India had arranged a spectacular outdoor dinner complete with music and dancing – it was in the middle of the desert and it was one of the most memorable experiences I’ve ever had. Imagine looking at the sun setting on one edge of the sky and the moon appearing at the same time across the horizon – all the while being serenaded by hauntingly beautiful Indian music – incredible! Could I have arranged this on my own? No way, not even close!

Of course, there are the other reasons to book a guided tour of India like safety in numbers and having someone there to look after you in the event you fall ill or have an accident and those are very important benefits as well. However, for myself, I know that there is no way I could have planned the things I feel so grateful that I was able to do and experience and for that reason alone, I am counting down the months, weeks, and days until I can book my next guided tour of India with Explore India.

For more information on Explore India’s Journey of the Senses Tour and the other amazing tours at Explore India, checkout their website at www.exploreindia.ca or call and talk to a travel specialist now about what kind of India experience you would like to have. CALL 1-800-515-3808 NOW and feel the magic that will change your life.