India tour - Vantage or OAT?
 

Trying to decide between Vantage tours and Overseas Adventure Travel for a trip to India in November. Does anyone have experience with either of these?

About a year ago I was researching Vantage on this and other forums. I found a number of negative comments about Vantage so began looking at another group. While searching I kept seeing really good things about OAT. A little more research and we booked our first OAT trip (Egypt). That was in February. We liked it so much, we just signed up for their Heart of India trip (with Bhutan extension) next March.

I had a good experience with Vantage (South America) but decided I'd prefer smaller groups, so will go to India in November with Odysseys Unlimited. Vantage and Odyssey hotels are usually a notch above OAT hotels; it depends on how important that is for you. They use the Taj group in India -- but you'll pay for the difference: Vantage is about $900 more/person than OAT. The other major difference is that Vantage goes to Udaipur, while OAT goes to Ranthambore and the OAT camp instead. Spotting tigers is a matter of luck, but if you're into animals that may argue for OAT?

I did the India trip with OAT about three years ago and was very pleased with all aspects of it.

We took the OAT trip to India last November, with the pre-trip to Bhutan. I have done a lot of traveling, and this is my favorite trip ever. The pre-trip to Bhutan should not be missed. If you search this site under India and scroll down to the trip report section, you will find the trip report that I submitted. Scroll down until you come to Dec. 18, 2009. Also, if you have any specific questions, feel free to contact me at [email protected].

I have traveled twice with Vantage with no complaints and would travel with them again.

With that being said, friends took the OAT India and Nepal a few months ago and they loved the trip. In India the hotels were above the standards that they usually use and when they went to R. Park they saw the tigers, both in the morning and the afternoon. They said seeing the tigers was a highlight and Vantage does not go to this park.

Other friends are using Odyssey for this trip this fall as the hotels are the Taj hotels and they also go to the natioal park and my friends like their hotels better than the OAT hotels and this company is also small group travel.