I will be going to India in Feb/March 2007. I'll be spending some time with my parents who will be staying in Goa at that time. Afterwards, my husband and I will go it Jaipur and Udaipur. I will only have 2 nights in each place, and because of limited time, I was thinking of using Jet airways pass for a week to fly from Goa (via Mumbai) to Jaipur to Udaipur and then to Delhi from where we fly home to the states.
Is there any advantage to using a travel agent for booking car/driver and guides for the day and for trips to/from airport, or should we go through hotels. Which would be more cost effective?
Also, I'm interested in staying at Rajvilas and Udaivilas--will a travel agent be able to get me better rates than what is on the websites? It sounds like compass tours has worked well for people. I've never used a travel agent, and I don't mind arranging some things myself. Just wondering what people would advise. Thanks

In India, it is more cost effective to use an agency for booking hotels. You need to get moving on this though because the hotels you mentioned book up quickly and you are going in high season. We normally travel independently and do not use an agent but in India we found it helpful to have one entity be responsible for everything - car, driver, guides and hotels. If something goes wrong, your agency representative will be responible for correcting the problem.

Thanks for responding Craig. I noticed that you recommend Compass in your posts. Do you mind if I asked how payment works. Do you put down a deposit, or do you pay in a lump sum? Can I pay by credit card? Is there any advantage to having them arrange air travel? It seems pretty easy to do on jet airways website.

We put down a small deposit. I communicated with Durjay at Compass recently and he told me they are requiring large deposits for hotel reservations now. When I reserved, they would only accept American Express credit cards although I paid the balance with Visa at the end of my trip. We did not do any internal flights but you can always ask for a quote and compare to the web site price. I suggest you ask Compass to quote everything a la carte rather than a package price. They will be happy to do it that way.

Thanks so much Craig. I appreciate your advice. I will get in touch with them. Anjali

We also got better rates for Amar Vilas and other hotels then we would have direct. I did not think we would be able to afford Amar Vilas given our overall budget but the TA tweaked hotels in ranthambore and Jaipur so it worked. I've posted re my TA earlier - PresTours - click on my name and details should come up.

I have always received a better rate making a booking directly with the hotel. The oberoi hotels have a web page and you can make your reservation online. Then you can contact the travel agency and see what kind of package they offer. If the TA offers better rates you can alwasy cancel your online reservation.

As to hotels in Delhi, I usually stay at the Oberoi. On my last trip, since we were in delhi only for one night, we stayed at the Imperial and I was not impressed. We paid over $500 a night a heritage suit. They gave us this dark room with only one window facing the inner stair case. We were too tired to go down and ask for a room change. All the rooms I have stayed at the oberoi in delhi have beautiful view. In addition, the ambiance of the Impeiral is very British, which is not what I am looking for when I am in India.

Do not use Greaves Travel. They come up with a low price and after you make a deposite the price for out trip jumped $700. Deposite is not returned. We asked for lower price hotels and they told us there were none. This was for an Oct trip.

Thanks everyone. I've been working with Shweta from compass tours, who's been great. The prices are slightly better than what I'm getting online for the hotels. Also, the jet airways pass will end up being more cost effective. I'm looking forward to having someone else arrange for the little things, like transport to/from the hotels. This will save me a lot of worry. Now I can just enjoy my trip. This is the earliest I've ever a planned a trip so far!