We are considering a trip to Delhi in March 06. Would like to know if there are any tour operators within India that we can use via the inernet. Would like to have all arrangements made before we arrive and want to deal with an Indian company.

ttt

It is very easy to travel in India independently.

The tour operators I emailed gave me inflated prices and I soon discovered (after 2 trips) it's easy to catch a train, bus or fly and can also be done on the net, by yourself. You are allowing someone you do not know to take control of your trip. If you must use a tour company, do a search here. Others have posted some positive stuff. We found it very easy to do ourselves & saved big bucks. Enough to allow us 2 trips in 9 weeks! Good luck!

We used Compass Tours in Delhi. We had everything arranged beforehand and saved quite a bit of money on our hotels. Contact Durjay Sengupta, the owner. His e-mail address is:
[email protected]

You can email [email protected], attention Indira Kharbanda. They can help you. If you are looking st staying at Vilas properties, doing Ranthambore, etc suggest you use an agent and book in advance as they sell out fast. One note of caution - March is already hot in india. Feb is better if possible.

Lyndie did you arrange the hotels on your own when you went to India? I have been pricing hotels in Delhi for March 06 and am very discouraged by the the high prices. Any ideas on getting cheaper rates? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Your best bet for getting cheaper rates is to e-mail 2 or 3 India-based travel agents and ask for pricing on hotels only. In my experience the local agents have the best rates for the upper end hotels.

I second Craig. A good travel agent will get you a better rate at a luxury hotel than you can get off their website because they are fixated on ensuring their "rack rate" stays at the highest possible. Also, with all arrangements like English speaking drivers, guides, train tkts etc taken care of IMO the travel agent adds value - unless you are planning a trip with no agenda or schedule then you can wing it easily. India is not unique in this - in Buenos Aires our agent got us a better hotel room rate than I could have got directly.

hey i am from delhi... i can tell you where all you need to go, what all you need to do and not do whilst you're here... my suggestion would be come a month or so earlier than when you have decided... if you need my help, mail me at [email protected]

Thanks for the good information. We are in fact booked to arrive in Delhi March 2006. Many plans to make but lots of time to work it all out.

One question at this moment: we would also like to spend a few days in Kathmandu. Is it possible to fly there from any other city in northern India, other than Delhi? We would like to do a triangle with Kathmandu and Delhi as two of the corners. What is a good third city. I have looked at the web sites for Jet Airways and Indian Airways, but was not able to sort it out.

Also, the tour operators above mentioned all seem to do business via email. How does this work with payments, etc.?

Thanks for the input.

Kathmandu is not that well connected - only other Indian Airlines direct flight other than Delhi is from Calcutta (Kolkata) - don't know if this was on your agenda. Royal Nepal Airlines (RNAC) may have a direct Bombay-Kathmandu flight - I have taken it in the past, do not know if it is still operational.

hey hobbes is right... Kathmandu is not that well connected... Anyway, a nice third city would be any hill station in Himachal Pradesh or Uttaranchal(both northern states) Popular Places to visit from these states are Simla, Kulu, Manali, Nainital, Narkanda, Naldehre (where you can unbelievably play 9 holes of golf at 6,000 feet)

Other than that, you can go to Jaipur or Jaisalmer in Rajasthan and enjoy the desert. You'll get a mix of both climates that way.

Hope this helps

I have seen in two different package tours (not that we intend to use) that use a flight from Varanasi to Kathmandu. Do you think that this might be a charter flight, or regular service?

Again, thanks to all for your response.

Tatersalad, could be a via Delhi flight i.e. Varanasi-Delhi-Kathmandu and details will be provided if you book. I am notr aware of a direct Varanasi-Ktm flight and doubt it would be a charter. Tour operators will take your credit card details when you firm your bookings and use that to cofnirm arrangements.

Hi austine-sorry I took so long to respond to you-we've been away from home. Yes, we organised all our hotels by email, phone or fax. In Delhi we stayed at Hotel Broadway, in Old Delhi. Our stay should have been great, however we encountered a really rude old codger on the desk who allocated us the WORST room we've stayed in, in India. We moved 3 times! The Hotel is a lovely old hotel with a fab restaurant called Chor Bizarre. The food is quite simply spectacular. We finally got a good room but then had to ask for extra matresses as we find beds too hard, in India. Do a google search for this hotel as it is a bragain at around 2000 rupees, if you can get them to give you a good room to start with! We arrived late on a delayed flight and were not in the mood for a fight with a receptionist!

Most places we stayed in Dec 2004 were around 1200-2000 rupees. Check out hotel recommendation on www.indiamike.com and buy a good guidebook like Footprint. It has some great hotel recommendations in it. Good luck.

Thanks for the info.

I live in Delhi, India. I'm a senior executive working with a Pharmaceutical giant in India. I love my country and would like to help anyone visiting India. If you can share your itinerary, then I can guide you completely for your travel and stay.

I would do it just for help not any monetary gains.

Wherever, I'm not able to help, i can guide you to our corporate travel agent (BTI SITA) who can help you out for a fee.

Arijit