Ingrid Milton - Delhi to Kovalam Holiday Tour, India

I always wanted to visit India and explore some of the country!

• New Delhi: The Park Hotel: Central, clean and very busy
• Agra: Double Tree by Hilton - The most modern, clean hotel but in a deserted area! Excellent breakfast
• Ranthambhore: The Pugmark - Typical safari lodge bungalows, clean but very dated, bathroom facilities could be better
• Jaipur: The Ramada - Good quality hotel as all Ramada hotels in the world, clean and great breakfast in a busy area with shops.
• Jodhpur: The Ummed - We were warned by guides that this would be the most basic hotel, but we liked it, generous bedroom, clean but totally outside of city centre. However we experienced an Indian wedding there and were invited to join it.
• Udaipur: Shikarbadi Hotel, again totally away from the centre, clean with its own charm surrounded by dear, peakcocks and monkeys.
• Kovalaam: The Leela, an excellent clean and modern hotel, great breakfast and food. The beach next to the hotel is not very nice!

After Safaris in Zimbabwe Ranthambore was a great disappointment, dozens of jeeps full with tourists one behind the other. Hair raising jeep rides not for the faint hearted. However we spotted a tiger on our afternoon safari, sadly only in the distance! It all added to our adventurous trip!

The Taj Mahal was very impressive but so many people are let in at the same time. The magic got a bit lost amongst the crowds.

Fatehpur Sikri was very interesting. The Jaipur City Palace complex and Jantar Mantar Observatory impressed me most, if only I could recall all that we were told! Every fort had its own history and tales and the guides were very knowledgeable.

Great Hotel! Safe area to walk around and explore. Definitely not a very nice beach!

We ate Indian food during most of our stay and enjoyed the great variety of curries. We stuck to vegetarian food which was imaginative and never got boring!

As we ate most of the time in our hotels it is difficult to say what food is like in families and local eateries. The guides warned us off eating out.

The weather was favourable from the cold wet English temperatures but we paid the price of many tourists in all the places of interests. The Indian tourists far outweigh the European tourists.

Although we liked the knowledgeable guides in all the places of interests, we were sometimes over loaded with information.

The tipping got on our nerves I would rather that the guides are paid by agents and a cost added to itineraries.

I suppose tipping is the nature of India!

The most I like about dealing with Southall was their polite, patient agent William. He always got back with answers to all my questions!

Thank you William!