Jocelyn’s Trip to The Golden Triangle and North India

Our client Jocelyn from East Sussex tells us all about her trip to The Golden Triangle and North India in November 2023.

After trying four or five other tour companies, we still hadn’t found one with the flexibility to meet all our needs at a budget we could afford.

Then we tried Authentic India Tours and we were so happy we chose them. From the start, you felt as though you were getting a truly personal service with real knowledge ‘on the ground’ and genuinely friendly and helpful staff who took the time to listen to what we wanted for our holiday. The result was the most amazing trip to India, with the best possible service, accommodation, drivers and tour guides you could imagine.

Guides

All our guides were extremely knowledgeable and were able to show and tell us about so many fascinating aspects of the beautiful places we visited. Our guides in Agra and Jaipur (Zahid Khan and Mayur Raj Singh) were especially good.

Drivers

All the drivers we had were very helpful and polite and always on time. The vehicles were of a terrific standard and very comfortable. Special mentions must go to Shrarwan Kumar (I hope I’ve spelt his name correctly) who was our main driver. He was such a genuinely lovely guy who did the most professional job, not least, getting us out of the centre of Jaipur on the afternoon that Modi descended unannounced and all the roads suddenly closed! He was great company and we felt safe in his care.

Hotels

The accommodation booked for us was absolutely fantastic and got just the right balance between price and comfort (and stunning buildings/locations/facilities). The standouts were Jaipur (Royal Heritage Haveli), Rohet and Udaipur. We always seemed to get the best rooms!

Favourite holiday memory

A high point was our block printing trip to Bagru, such a great experience which felt very personal. We absolutely loved it.

Top Tips from Jocelyn

Here are my top tips when visiting The Golden Triangle and North India

If you’re taking a train, I would recommend bringing your own food from either a street food stall or from the hotel as the train food selection can be limited.
Ask for your spice level to be increased or decreased with your food, it was typical for us that the food wasn’t quite spicy enough so we would ask for more chilli!
Spread your spending evenly across destinations as the guides will take you to multiple shops and markets to buy textiles, goods and souvenirs. Don’t do what we did and spend spend spend at the start of your trip! (Though we did happily buy some beautiful things).

Final thoughts

I can’t stress how happy we were with our holiday… I will definitely be coming back to Authentic India Tours for my next visit. Everything they did, from the initial planning, backwards and forwards with emails and answering our many questions, to the itinerary, accommodation, drivers and guides was excellent.

If this sounds like the trip for you, check out our suggested tours for North India and The Golden Triangle, contact us to create your tailor-made tour on 01792 315499.