Mysteries of India

Sanjay our Tour Manager is excellent, approachable, knowledgeable, very organized and with a great sense of humor!

This tour was an amazing immersion in a culture that is so different from ours, and the tour director was key in making this happen. At the time we went there had to be last minute changes due to the festival, and traffic proved interesting. But we saw amazing events!

What a wonderful adventure and experience. Out tour guide Ashish was magnificent and always cared about our wellbeing and happiness. The Taj Mahal and Ganges river were both moving moments in my life. I have no words for the emotions I felt seeing the bengal tiger in the wild. The people were warm and friendly and the food most enjoyable. Hotels and busses were clean and comfortable. I do have one suggestion… include ALL tips in the price except the tour guide. This makes it so much easier for everyone. (this is how another tour company I travel with does it-they took our suggestion) As this is not an adventure for everyone, it has been a lifelong dream of mine to visit India . I am still on in awe reliving the journey in my mind and heart!

The tour was excellent as a whole, so was the tour manager Anshuman Tripathi (Indie). He single-handedly made the tour much more enjoyable with his caring personalilty, always working extra to make sure our welfare was well taken care of. 3 suggestions to improve the tour are 1) add another day in Delhi so we can visit more attractions (Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, India Gate, Agrasen Ki Baoli, Lotus Temple, Qutub Minar), 2) optional night tour of Jaipur (Royal Gaitor Tumbas, Nahargarh Fort, Hawa Mahal, Birla Temple, Albert Hall Museum), and 3) the optional Nepal tour should end in Kathmandu, i.e., not requiring travellers to fly back to Delhi. Finally, I hope Collete will organize tours to the southern part of India and Sri Lanka.

Excellent LIFE changing tour!!! Most memorable experience was to see the way of life of the locals. SO VERY different than our own here. Wow! Unbelievable!! Tour manager, Indie, phenomenal ♥️ Just please sign and go! You WILL NOT regret it.

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.

Seeing Bengale Tiger Accommodations were poor for money paid. Dirty, moldy smelling, vents not cleaned in a million years! Poor food selections for breakfast Too much pollution, trash, people, cows:, traffic, lack of privacy. Even for an experienced traveler India is hard to enjoy,

The trip was a memorable experience. We seen the old and the new of India. The people and how they live. Our tour manager was great got to meet his family.