India Tours and Trips

Fantastic itinerary covering the major sights, incredible palaces, spectacular forts, and beautiful temples of the ‘Golden Triangle’ Rajasthan. Luxurious beautiful hotels, all diverse in size and style and even one where we arrived and departed by private boat! Upon arrival we were greeted by friendly staff in traditional dress. Some of the hotels performed a traditional scarf ceremony or beautiful flower necklaces with traditional music. A few of the hotels surprised us with rose petals which were sprinkled from high above onto us as we entered! Yes there was the opposite end of the spectrum where in the big cities horns were blowing and scooters were everywhere zigzagging and livestock sometimes laying in the middle of the road. I must say it was all fascinating creating a lot of laughs and part of the experience of India. The itinerary included experiences were great! The places we visited were incredibly beautiful, such diverse architecture, decoration and history. The Taj Mahal sends shivers when you first see it and seems surreal. The sunrise casting a beautiful golden light onto the buildings was sublime. Our Tuk Tuk tour through New Delhi, and our jeep journey through the dunes at sunset with our evening dinner (with entertainment) in the middle of the dunes was fantastic! The mix of the big city, villages, countryside, hilltop fortresses, lakes, forests and sand dunes really gave a great diversity of experiences. We even had monkeys in the trees above us during lunch one day! Our coach was very comfortable and spacious and appreciated the endless bottled water on board. Enjoyed the commentary and care given by our Travelling Concierge who was very helpful with every request. India for me was a country filled with a rainbow of bright color and very lovely and beautiful people who were so polite and friendly with gorgeous smiles! That is one of my big takeaways from this trip. Well done Luxury Gold it was a great holiday and would not hesitate to travel with you again!

We saw some amazing sites throughout Rajasthan. The Taj Mahal (Agra not Rajasthan) was all we expected it to be. There is more time on the bus than anticipated, however, the bus was extremely comfortable and we had adequate breaks. The hotels ranged from very good, to 3 that are exceptional. Our guide was knowledgeable and took very good care of us. The Indian food was toned down to our tastes and was plentiful. Most of it was buffets, so my only disappointment is that I really do not know any more about Indian food than when I began my trip. But I enjoyed what I ate. We very much enjoyed the Indian people and culture. The people are so very friendly and happy. One of the surprises was the door-to-door service. It started us off feelling pampered to have a private car service to the airport; but it really paid off at the end of the trip after we had been traveling for 48 hours. What a lovely touch.

Fantastic trip. It is very full on....Explore warn you. One hotel was substandard....Explore will not be using it on next trip. Loved the fact we were in non-touristy areas. I had 2 extra nights at a beach hotel in Goa to relax.....worth doing if you can. A few train journeys which I loved (worth considering a rucksack or holder as luggage rather than suitcase). Go with an open mind and you will love it.

This was a great trip taking us from kalkata and the southern mangroves to the hills crossing from Darjeeling to the lovely old kingdom of Sikkin to Buthan and finally in Kathmandu. The contrast between them is striking with mountain tops communities temples ancient fortress and beautiful people. So much history. With countries so close you would expect people and costumes to be similar but this could not be further from the truth. Our tour leader Keran had everything organised to a tee and was great company as well a continuous source of knowledge. Just go, before it all changes forever😂😂

As stated in the trip notes, this is a fast paced tour that covers a lot of ground. There are some long drives although there are often stops to visit somewhere of interest. Overall the tour was excellent, there was plenty of variety in the programme. The only disappointments were that Puducherry was oversold and there wasn’t much French heritage to see and the trip on the houseboat in the Kerala backwaters was a cruise on the lake and didn’t venture into the canals. The hotels were very good, the final hotel in Mamallapuram was more basic but this was more than offset by its location in the centre of the town. Replacing the overnight train journey with a daytime express train is a good decision by Explore. The food was delicious throughout. We had an excellent tour guide. This tour would be ideal for someone visiting India for the first time.

An excellent trip to North India exploring Delhi, Rajasthan, Jaipur and Agra. A small group, full on schedule and an amazing Explore guide helped to make it a very memorable, once in a lifetime trip. I would highly recommend it.