Upgraded - India: Forts + Palaces of Rajasthan

Fasten your seatbelt, open your mind and senses, this trip will reward you with fabulous colourful People Scenery, Palaces, Forts and Temples in all their magnificent glory. A full on experience of heat and colour. Be prepared for long road trips Rajasthan is a BIG place but lots to look at and definitely one for the history buffs out there. The guide seemed to enjoy taking us around and showing off all the delights this part of India had to offer. Hotels were wonderful and we visited sone really good restaurants to try out the delicious curries which are prepared to whatever your taste buds can stand. Highly recommended.

We had the most amazing holiday. This tour not only Includes the major sites like the Taj Mahal, but introduces you to rural India too. One of my favourite memories is of walking through a village and watching a groom and his pre wedding celebration. As we watched, a cow walked past, pushing everyone out of the way. Our guide, Veeru, was brilliant. He was so thoughtful and helpful. Nothing was too much trouble. Having a local guide meant that he knew everyone and this definitely enhanced the experience. The other brilliant thing about explore is the small groups. There can be up to 16 but we only had five. My only comment would be that it is really full on. We’re fit, in our sixties, but we’re worn out at the end. Perhaps a day off in the middle would be helpful. Overall one of our best event holidays.

A full-on but excellent experience. A wide range of experiences, great hotels, fascinating destinations and a great guide who brought it all to life.

I never expected to like India as much as I did. This trip is a fantastic introduction to its sights, sounds, smells and heritage. Having Raj as our leader, Subash as our driver and the company of nine other wonderful people made this trip even more special. We saw forts, temples and palaces, monkeys, working elephants and peacocks; rode on a train, many tuk tuks, bicycle and camel rickshaws and stayed in a range of stylish hotels. I felt safe throughout. People were inquisitive and friendly. I hope to return, maybe to experience the South of India and the far North maybe.

Extraordinary and amazing. Around every corner is something different. Unusual sights mainly fragrant smells, and a whole lot of noise.

This was an excellent, albeit exhausting, tour. Our Tour Leader, Abhi, was superb - very conscientious, very considerate and caring, very knowledgeable, very flexible and very amenable - all with a good sense of humour. At my personal request (and with the agreement of the others on the trip) he made a hour & a half detour in order to see the beautiful 8th century Step Well at Chand Baori (in between Jaipur & Agra). None of us regretted the early start on that day - it was a wonder to behold. Another memorable occasion was when Abhi invited us to his hour in Jaipur for a cookery lesson. It was a lovely, very memorable evening - providing some really special memories to take away with us. We stayed in several beautiful palaces (it was a shame that we couldn't stay longer in each) and visited many others. The tour was a real eye-opener for me, realising that India, as a nation, was building ornate palaces out of marble, whilst in the UK, we were still building crude stone castles. I loved the way we were bombarded by the colour, noises and culinary odours of India, so much so that we became part of it. In a nutshell, we absolutely loved the trip and would recommend it to anyone who is considering it.

One of the best trips with Explore and Abhi, the best tour leader I've seen for some time! This trip fully immerses you in the spectacular sights, sounds and experiences to be found in New Delhi and Rajasthan, with forts, palaces and temples in abundance, together with a few extra surprises, whilst staying in some absolutely charming heritage accommodation.

Holiday was 14 nights in Rajasthan, India, in upgraded accommodation - mainly heritage hotels (palaces, forts, etc). The itinerary was excellent, covering a lot of ground and sights, but we had plenty of time in each place to wander round. The real delight was the hotels - some of them well off the beaten track, that we'd never have discovered/ found for ourselves. All credit to Explore for arranging such an engaging itinerary and accommodation.

I loved this tour. It was definitely full on with some long travel days, but in between we saw some magical sites, the Taj Mahal at sunrise in the soft early morning light was breathtaking. The heritage hotels we stayed in were amazing too, several former palaces and a hunting lodge, beautiful buildings, stunning settings. Our guide was brilliant too, everything ran very smoothly and nothing was too much trouble, with ocassionally members of our group doing separate things which he happilly accomodated.

Good trip. But too much driving particularly given substandard bus ( uncomfortable, too small, no rack., not what I was told prior to trip). Also some of hotels were not of upgrade standard. Guide very knowledgeable but could have communicated more in advance on daily plans.

A full on trip which covered a lot of different areas of India. We saw some magnificent forts and palaces with some excellent local tour guides, who were knowledgeable and interesting. It was a return trip for me seeing different forts, temple and palaces which lived up to my expectations. Loved seeing the Taj Mahal for a second time it is such a beautiful building. Accommodation was excellent as was the eating places recommended by our tour leader Hari Singh. Hari has a great sense of humour and went above and beyond to ensure that our trip was trouble free and ran smoothly thank you Hari. Excellent value.

This was a very full on tour packed with lots of interesting places to visit. The hotels were excellent and food provided generally was to a very high standard. Indeed so much was packed into the tour we found it difficult to take advantage of the excellent facilities in most of the hotels. Our tour guide/host (Harry Singh) was very helpful and prepared to give that little extra above and beyond expectations to try to make the trip as enjoyable and trouble free as possible. Restaurants recommended by him were first class with the finest quality of meals. The local guides were very knowledgeable and informative providing clear and detailed narrative throughout. Generally an excellent tour that we would highly recommend, very hard to find a negative.

The Explore! organization was organized, helpful and prepared to modify things as needs evolved. The tour itself was a marvel--exploring the lesser know Rajput palaces and forts where different kings had their own stories of accommodation and resistance toward both the Mughals and the British. We stayed at special accommodations -- mostly former hunting lodges of the same maharajas -- with some western style hotels to break it up.