Varanasi Tours in December 2025

Hi Ritu, I'm sorry for my delay in responding. Our experience was fabulous! Your company did a truly wonderful job in making sure that all parts of the trip went smoothly. We appreciated how staff checked in on us and saw us to our next destination. Karan our driver was incredibly kind and professional. We really enjoyed spending time with him. The guides were good as well; we had exceptional guides in Agra and Jaipur. Thank you for a great trip. Best, Jodi Marcus

This company deserves all the superlatives I can think of. We found them through the internet and they arranged a 15 night trip to India for my husband and me. During the planning stage, their responses to our emails were almost immediate, and included calls when they wanted or needed an immediate response. The trip they arranged for us was wonderful. They took care of all the details, and never let us down. They delivered exactly what they promised, on time, with efficiency and smiles. When we had a problem (a car broke down once), they responded within minutes by sending a replacement car to us. The hotels they picked were great, the drivers were wonderful, and the guides were excellent. Whenever we had a question or wanted to consult with them, regardless of the issue, they were almost immediately accessible and always gracious and very helpful. If you want to travel in India, I highly recommend using them.

It was a tough tour. There is so much to see. The customs of the people are built on 1000s of years of traditions. There was a lot of walking and driving from city to city and flights to some of the key cities. Our guide was very good and tried to educate us in the traditions and the religious customs. We visited temples that were thousands of years old , some of the greatest religious sites in the world. The highlight was the Taj Mahal. I think that if you are going to make this trip, you need to remember that you are in India with its 1.4 billion people. Where white lines on the roads are only a suggestion to the Indian drivers and nobody stays in them. Collette had an excellent team of bus drivers that got us where we needed to be safely. Also you need to like the sound of horns, car horns, bus horns, motorcycle horns. Everybody is blowing horns. There were some downsides like the food. We did stay in nice hotels, but they were more geared for the the local Indian travelers. Rooms were nice, not 5 star quality but probably the best in the area. We happen to travel during wedding season, which meant that all nice hotels were booked with wedding parties. Thats OK but when they started to shoot off rockets at 2 am in the morning it did not allow for much sleep. However they were great to watch. Our trip also included Nepal. We were 25 miles from the tallest mountain in the world. We did not take the optional plane ride around the mountain because we had been in Tibet and was actually able to get to the foot of the mountain. It was another great tour mostly of religious sites. Once again the infrastructure of the country needs work. There were many times that bumps and road conditions threw you off your seat. Once again great bus drivers. I do believe that the Nepal trip was probably a day to long. There was to much down time and to much time to shop for all the junk you ever thought you would need at great prices. In both places it was fun to bargain. But then you would say to yourself why did I buy this? Because it was a great price, but what is it? I would not do this trip again. I would use Collette again if they were going somewhere that I wanted to visit. The one thing I did not like was the tipping. You had to tip everyone. We spent more money on tips than junk and treasures. I think you need to be aware of the extra costs. Let me end by saying if you are interested in seeing and learning about a real culture change, and you like learning about the great religions of the world, then this is the trip for you. Just make sure you take a few power bars with you.

My most memorable thing was the experience of being in India and learning about the culture and traditions of the people. It was very interesting to see how the people travelled around on mopeds with multiple people on very crowded roads, and how they respected the cows and all of the animals that walked around freely on the streets and highways. The country was full of colorful clothing and jewelry. There were all types of transportation mopeds, motorcycles, tuk tuk, camels, cars and plenty of horns blowing nonstop. The food was good and included a variety of different dishes. I’m glad I had the opportunity to experience the India.