Darjeeling in the Himalayan Foothills

Hi, Nazir. Sorry, I haven't written sooner but I have had a bad cold since returning from our amazing India trip. Both Stuart and I had a wonderful experience as it was much more than either of us expected. As our guide Yajure explained to us, India has been "cleaning itself up". What a wonderful surprise. Delhi being a bustling mega city, was a joy to experience in the few days we were there. Our bus rides, while exciting due to the different "vehicles, animals and people on the roads, made our journeys very colorful. Yajure was a wonderful, generous and knowledgeable guide. He is a walking encyclopedia. He was extremely accommodating and adaptable at a moments notice. Seeing the Taj Mahal, Buddha's birthplace, the Red Fort, the  Ganges in Varanasi and of course the city of Jaipur brought the trip to life. It was all mesmerizing. Your colleague Rajeev in Delhi was very helpful and kind and protective of us. Although he was mourning the loss of his dear father, he made himself available to us. So that's it Nazir. We certainly will not hesitate to recommend your company to any of our friends and family. Yours truly,

Dear Nazir: It was a good tour. No complaints though there are always too many churches/temples for me, but that is just me. A highlight for me was the boating experience on the Ganges, along with the spiritual overtones, cremation and other ceremony further down the river. Our tour guide guy (???) was exceptional, so knowledgeable, a great communicator, respectful and empathetic to our needs at all times. He made the tour for me. The driver and his helper were both very good too. Hotels were great, service and food exceptional. Loved your country, especially the people.

Hello Nazir, a short follow-up to once again say what a wonderful, lifetime memorable experience we had in India. The organization, the guides, the food and the hotels were all super. A special thank you to Rajeev, who kept so well in touch and was so attentive throughout our trip.

Thank you for the welcome home card. All went well on the return trip and we have just about got over the jet lag and the other demands involved in a long trip. We had a great time and enjoyed the whole experience. I could see just what must have been involved in putting together a trip such as this and we both agree you did an outstanding job. Rolff was great on the post tour and the guide etc. in Varanasi. The Ganges was a wonderful experience. Again thanks and we will keep in touch.

We thoroughly enjoyed the excellent trip you prepared for us to visit India. Adding our pre-tour to Varanasi and our post tour to Mumbai and Aurangabad to the main Camel Festival Tour gave us a wonderful introduction to India. Within the Camel Festival Tour, you gave us a wide variety of experiences in the monuments and places we visited and the places we stayed at night. We especially enjoyed the nights in the Tent City with the outdoor barbecues and bonfires. And we had such nice people to travel with. Thanks for all of this. And I must add that Rouf did an excellent job for us accompanying us to Mumbai and Aurangabad. We are telling all of our friends about you and your company Explore India. We wish you all the best in the years to come,

Hello Nazir, We have just returned from our trip to India with Explore India and just want to tell you how much we enjoyed it. We had a fabulous time visiting this amazing country. Everybody involved with your organization was very pleasant and professional, from the representatives who met us upon arrivals in different locations, to the guides, to the drivers (particularly "Kulu" and his assistant Amir who were with us for the first two weeks). The hotels were very nice and the tour took us to interesting and beautiful places. We are appreciative of the fact that we were in a very small group. If there was one thing we could have changed, it would have been to fly from Varanasi to Cochin without having to spend another night in Delhi. We will not hesitate to highly recommend "Explore India" to our friends and relatives. Thank you,

Hello Mandira and Nazir, We just wanted to thank you for all the help and suggestions during the planning of our recent trip. We had a great time and enjoyed visiting both India and Nepal. We feel that we gained a good glimpse of their history, culture and way of life. Trip organization, our guides, hotels, meals were all superb. We felt safe and well taken care of at all times. Above all, we had fun! Thank you, Zuzana and Allan

My apologies for the delay in writing, but I had a rough re-entry to Canada. This was the worst case of jet-lag I’ve ever had, and also a number of things demanded my attention upon our return. I don’t want to let any more time go by before saying, though, that India exceeded our expectations on all fronts, including the service of our tour guide, Raj. Over the years we’ve been to many countries and this was by far the richest travel experience of our lives. India's diversity of religions, languages and cultures is unparalleled in any other part of the world we’ve visited. The people were gracious and the sights amazed us everywhere we went. A lifetime would not be enough to scratch the surface of this ancient land. One day we would love to return. Thank you again for all you did to organize such a never-to-be-forgotten journey! Best regards, Ted and Anita

Thank you for the lovely message welcoming us home! Our tour to India was fantastic! We had a wonderful group of fun, enthusiastic and outgoing traveling companions. Tom and I were happy that we had chosen to arrive a day early as it gave us a chance to rest up before the tour, do some exploring on our own and also meet some of the others on tour. I must say, that we were very impressed with the way that we were greeted and escorted throughout the trip, from the warm welcome we had on our first day with Manzoor and Raj to the last drop off at the airport traveling home. We even took advantage of exchanging Canadian dollars into rupees using the “Karnai Bank”! Every detail was looked after. Our guide for the northern portion of the tour, Ashish, was the perfect host; knowledgeable, accommodating, and entertaining. The experience of seeing the historical sights, sampling the various dishes and immersing ourselves into this colourful culture exceeded our expectations. We can’t say enough about how well the itinerary was planned with enough time to see the sights and enjoy some down time back at the hotel. We found the accommodations to be top notch, comfortable, offering a wide selection of food items and almost all had free wifi available. We were pleased to have had the opportunity to see both the north and south of India. Thank you Nazir for suggesting the additional tour to Kerala. It is a totally different side of India that we would have otherwise missed. We absolutely loved the beautiful mountain vistas of the terraced tea plantations and the time spent on the houseboat touring the backwaters was magical. What a great way to end our stay! The only suggestion that I can offer at this time is to build in some extra time at the beautiful resorts in which we stayed. It would have been wonderful to take advantage of the services they offered, especially at the Spice Village Resort. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you Mandira for helping us organize this excursion and for helping us navigate through the process of acquiring an Indian visa. Thank you also to Nazir and the whole Explore India team both in Canada and abroad. This was truly a most memorable tour and a trip of a lifetime! Thank you! Dhanyavaad!

What an incredible journey we had. I don't want to speak for all of us but Kelvin and I both loved India. This was an experience of a lifetime for so many reasons, the people, our guide, the sites and surprisingly traveling with nine other people to whom we have become friends with now. One cannot share this journey together and not bond. The group size was great, we usually travel with 8-10 people (our regular travel group) and it was nice to have the smaller group at some of the venues, we could gather around Shyaam quite nicely to listen. Shyaam was wonderful, kind, knowledgeable and openly honest. Having him as our guide made ALL the difference in the world. He was accommodating and went above and beyond his responsibilities for example he remembered I wanted an "Om" symbol so while in Varanasi he bought me one. We also have motorcycles in common so we stopped at a religious ceremony for Om Banna on our way to Jaipur (I think). We both cherish our memories of the people the most. They were kind and gentle and pleasant. Not for a minute would we hesitate to recommend Explore India and Shyaam to anyone of our friends!