Colorful India with Taj Mahal & Rajasthan

Customer Reviews

• GD

  Graeme

  · November 3rd, 2024
  Wonderful driver Bickham for the entire journey. Hotels in Jaipur (almost like a home-stay) and the heritage hotel in Jodhpur were unique Excellent guides in all centres
  

  K K Holidays N Vacations commented on this review

  Thanks for the wonderful feedback
  Trip date: September 2024
• PS

  PETER

  · March 27th, 2024
  The whole trip was an excellent experience apart from the Dune Desert Camp. This was absolutely terrible - no hot water, filthy cabin accommodation, intermittent power, dirty bedding and should be taken off your itinerary. Mr Lal, our driver was wonderful. A very careful and safe driver. Nothing was too much trouble.
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  K K Holidays N Vacations commented on this review

  Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us. We're genuinely sorry to hear about your disappointing experience at the Dune Desert Camp during your trip. Please accept our sincerest apologies for the inconveniences you encountered,... Show more
  Trip date: March 2024
• 

  Meritxell

  · March 22nd, 2024
  If you are a solo traveler keep in mind that you will be 11 days traveling only with a driver in a car. My driver Baghi was very nice, giving me a lot of information about the places we visited and always carrying. Apart from that and if you want to book this tour you need to take in consideration that every day you will have a different tour guide and they ALWAYS will end the tour taking you to a shop, the man in the shop always tells you how unique is the products he sell but you will see this product everywhere. The tour would have been better and more authentic if they would avoid to go to the shops every single day. My recommendation is Don’t book the boat trip in Udaipur in advance here is more expensive and if you buy it there is only 6euros. I liked the places I visited but the guides and this shop business was really intense and exhausting for me. Some hotels were great, some others just OK. And be prepare to pay around 400€ more between food, tips and all the tickets or entrance to the attractions (palaces, temples…)
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  K K Holidays N Vacations commented on this review

  Your honest review provides valuable insights for others planning similar journeys. Despite the ups and downs, it's evident that your journey left you with memorable experiences. Thank you for sharing your perspective, and I hope your feedback helps... Show more
  Trip date: March 2024
• 

  Cong

  · March 1st, 2024
  Overall, I had a good time. Some of the problems I have encountered are likely common across the Indian tourism industry and not specific to K K Holidays. Pros: 1. Our driver was the best part of the tour. He was extremely skillful in navigating the chaotic Indian traffic and poor road conditions. He was always kind, patient, and helpful. As this tour is private by default, and not shared with other parties, it's very valuable to have the warm company of our driver. 2. The tour itinerary is pretty efficient in getting to see the key sights in different cities. Cons: Again, many of the problems below are likely prevalent across the Indian tourism industry. However, tour consumers need to call these out, share their experiences, and help the industry improve. Just because the problems are not specific to K K Holidays, it doesn't mean we shouldn't talk about it and help inform other travelers. 1. The incessant and pushy shopping trips I spoke with other tourists on the trip. One of our persistent annoyances is the "voluntary" shopping trips. Even though the drivers and tour guides tell us that there's no pressure to purchase, the tactics used by the shops are very pushy and psychologically excruciating. In almost every city, the tour would say "This city has the best jewelry/textual/arts/etc in India", it makes you feel like you have to buy or you would lose the chance forever. Lo and behold, in the next 4 cities, they all say the same thing "You will find the best/cheapest/most authentic XYZ in this city". Once you step into the shop, the shop owners would pull all the tricks in the bag. They will say "This shop/artisans are x-generation descendants to the same artists who served the emperors; we charge a very low margin; 99% of the costs go to the artisan". Honestly, most of the shops peddle very similar, generic, and passable quality goods. But the worst part is the psychological pressure. If don't make a purchase or visit a shop, they will make you feel terrible and say things like "You don't want to gift something to your parents/wife/kids? You don't like art? You don't want to keep some memories of India? You don't want to help the artisans and the local economy?" It's even worse for women because they would tell you "As a lady, you don't care to be beautiful and have jewelry or clothing?" This is a really bad assumption that women should be mindless machines of consumerism. My suggestion to K K and all Indian tour companies is to 1. Give tourists the option to not visit shops, 2. When tourists don't want to visit or buy goods, don't question their decisions, 3. Update the business model or raise the price, so tours and drivers don't depend on shopping trips, which are frankly hidden fees on consumers. 2. The hotels: The hotels are largely satisfactory. However, a number of them only have hot water for 5 minutes, then the shower would turn cold. The boiler needs to reheat for the next 20 minutes. It's miserable. When you travel to northern India in the winter months, you get hot and sweaty during the day. After a long day of sightseeing and walking, the weather turns very cold. Precisely at this point, you find out the warm shower only lasts 5 minutes, not nearly enough for 1, let alone 2 people. 3. The tour guides: The tour guide quality varies dramatically. Some are very knowledgeable, helpful, and willing to answer questions. Some really don't care about the job and just want to recite the stale textbook history and call it a day. A few of them just low-key mock you for asking any questions. Most of them just want to rush you through the sites, so they can take you to the shops and use maximum pressure to make you buy things you don't need. 4. The 2-tier system for foreigners and locals: I feel ambivalent about calling it out. On the one hand, I understand why the 2-tier pricing system exists in India. The tourists generally come from wealthier countries with stronger currency exchange rates. So for better service and ambiance, and to support the local economy, I'm willing to pay a reasonably higher price. However, the service often falls far short of the price we pay. Just to give context, if you visit a modern restaurant with AC and are still patronized by locals, the dinner entry is usually around 100-300 rupees. But many tourist restaurants offer the same quality food for double the price. Here's another example, in one of the restaurants I visited, I was offered a menu for a-la-carte items that ranged from 500-1000 rupees. The portion is pretty small. But when an Indian person walks in, they are offered a buffet option that provides unlimited refills. I don't know how much the buffet costs. But the fact that I wasn't offered the same option makes me angry. As foreigners, we somewhat tolerate being taken advantage of. But when it's done in such an obvious and egregious way, it just shows total disrespect. It's my sincere hope that K K can improve in these areas and raise the standard of tourism service, so visitors can better appreciate the beauty and richness of India.
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  K K Holidays N Vacations commented on this review

  Thank you for taking the time to share your detailed feedback about your recent experience with K K Holidays. We truly appreciate your insights as they help us understand areas where we can improve and enhance our services to provide a better experience... Show more
  
  Trip date: January 2024
• MT

  Meirion

  · February 24th, 2024
  This was a really great experience. Our driver Praveen was superb and did everything he could to make our tour enjoyable. The hotels we stayed at were very good and especially Lal Garh in Jaselmere which was superb. The guides provided were informative and helpful and the Forts, Palaces and Temples were out of this world. In terms of value for money the tour was excellent. My highlights were Taj Mahal, Amber fort, Jaselmere and Udaipur, although there were so many others. My only dislike was the desert camp. It was windy, dusty and a lot of trash blowing around. However, if you like camels and desert then you will enjoy.
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  K K Holidays N Vacations commented on this review

  Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience with us! We're thrilled to hear that you had a really great time on your tour. It's fantastic to know that Praveen, our driver, went above and beyond to ensure your enjoyment throughout the... Show more
  Trip date: February 2024
• MM

  Mareike Kristina

  · February 24th, 2024
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  Great value for money (although I only paid 50% of the catalog price). Our driver was great, even if communication was sometimes difficult. The guides were mostly good. It was a bit annoying that every guide wanted to drag you into a store, where sometimes completely overpriced things were offered (e.g. in Bikaner and Fatehpur Sikri). Sometimes they also claimed that the store belonged to their brother (guide Ali in Fatehpur Sikri) and that you shouldn't tell the driver that you had bought something there. That seemed very dubious. The hotels were mostly clean (except Rockland in Delhi). However, you often got the worst rooms in the hotel (dark, next to reception, without a balcony). However, some hotels were fantastic (Lallgargh Hotel Jaisalmer, Zone by Park in Jodhpur, Orange Hotel in Agra) and we had really very good rooms there. What we didn't like at all was the night in the camp in the desert. The camp was filthy (garbage everywhere, which was also blown into the awning). Apart from 15 minutes of camel riding in dirty dunes right next to a busy road and a cultural evening (which was good), there was nothing to do there. All in all, however, it was a well-organized trip with many highlights of Rajasthan that we could not have organized ourselves for the price. However, the hotel category could be slightly higher (and the price correspondingly higher). It would be ideal to have two hotel categories to choose from. But all in all, a clear recommendation!
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  K K Holidays N Vacations commented on this review

  vielen Dank, dass Sie sich die Zeit genommen haben, Ihre Erfahrungen mit uns zu teilen! Wir freuen uns sehr zu hören, dass Sie das Preis-Leistungsverhältnis unserer Tour als toll empfunden haben, auch wenn Sie einen Sonderpreis erhalten haben. Es ist... Show more
  Trip date: February 2024
• 

  Renee

  · February 18th, 2024
  I wanted to like this experience so bad. Unfortunately there were things occuring daily that soured the trip. Some hotels had broken items and no TV/wifi. Itinerary communication was poor, both written and verbal. It was not disclosed that at the night staying in a desert camp tent loud club volume music would be playing from 8-10. The tour takes you to shops everyday and there is pressure to buy from your day guides as well as the sale people while claiming it's 'just to see it'. Some shops would try and sell the mostly plastic feeling materials as silk. One of my driver's had poor hygiene that filled the car with smell. The other driver was lazy with dropoffs and also took me to his friends roadside garage to buy rugs.
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  Trip date: February 2024
• RC

  Rebecca

  · February 11th, 2024
  Overall it was an amazing experience. We truly got a feel for India. The itinerary was filled with historic sights and a varied cities. Here’s the great things about this trip: Every place we went there was a guide waiting for us. Most of them spoke good English and were very knowledgeable. You do pay for entrance fees to every site,(usually 600 INR) and you need to tip the guides The price of the tour was a great value. We had compared many tours and felt this was the best We were a group of 3 women traveling together and we always felt safe. Though we didn’t request it, it ended up as a private tour, the 3 of us and our driver. We had our own rooms and there was no extra charge for this. We were able to add extra side trips to the itinerary. There was a good variety of things to see: palaces, forts, temples. We were also able to adjust the itinerary to places we did/ did not want to visit Our driver Takhat Singh, was incredible. He looked out for us from the very beginning. He gave us practical advice, ensured our safety, and went out of his way to accommodate suggestions we had. He was very knowledgeable about every place we went and shared anecdotal information. His English was very good. He truly made our trip! Negative Some of the hotels were located very far from the attractions requiring extra driving back/ forth thru the city Although we set up the trip months ahead of time, we did not receive specifics, like hotels and name of driver, till a week or les before. We added additional dates and had to ask repeatedly to get information about where we were staying. We did not have a consistent, direct contact at Kk. Every time we sent messages through Tour Radar we were communicating with different people. Guides strongly dissuaded us from purchasing anything in markets, and would take us to higher end pricey shops. There were some things that would have been good to know ahead of time We felt a lack of communication on specifics of the tour. It would have been helpful to know that we had to pay all entrance fees, and the tipping structure of India, At the end of tours, the guides would often take you to merchants under the guise of a demonstration. We felt discomfort and pressure to then purchase from that vendor. There is very little downtime. The drive time between towns is often long. Each day was filled with touring. Some built in downtime would be helpful. This may mean that you add an extra day or two. Overall we felt that KK Holidays provided a great format for exploring northern India. We would highly recommend this trip.
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  K K Holidays N Vacations commented on this review

  Thank you for the lovely feedback
  Trip date: January 2024
• RK

  Rainer

  · February 7th, 2024
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  We cannot fully recommend the tour operator due to a lack of information and communication. Lack of communication because they did not fully comply with our customer request for 4* accommodation. As can be seen from the correspondence, this was our express wish from the outset. This does not include accommodation in a tent. We pointed out two days before the camp date and immediately upon checking into the camp that we did not agree to this. See correspondence. The reaction to this was ignorance or the terse sentence that we were accommodated in the camp. There is no operator who would have clarified the matter with us. We told our driver several times that we were very happy with him Kan Singh, but not with the tour operator. We spoke to the guide in Jasailmar about the camp in the morning. He told us that it was one of the better camps. That's why we didn't agree for long. Furthermore, we were not informed about last-minute hotel changes. The hotels had been communicated to us in advance. The two hotels we changed were 8 and 10 kilometers outside. One was in an industrial area... both hotels had no bar. We had not specified this, but it is not everyone's wish. The transfer between the cities regularly takes 4 to 6 hours. It is advisable to include times and kilometers in the tour description so that everyone knows what they are getting into. The trips go through a mainly monotonous desert, at least at our time. If I were to do the tour again, I would only do the stops in Agra, Jaipur, Jisailmer and Udaipur. We have very fond memories of these cities. Just like our driver Kan Singh, who was always very reliable, very punctual and had a clean and functioning car. He also went above and beyond the call of duty by taking us from remote hotels to the city center and picking us up again. We are currently experiencing with our driver on our trip through Kerala that this cannot be taken for granted
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  Trip date: January 2024
• GW

  Giseltraud

  · January 24th, 2024
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  Eine super organisierte Tour in jeder Hinsicht. Gute nette freundliche hilfsbereite Fahrer, tolle Hotels, super Sightseeing Programm mit guten Guides.
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  K K Holidays N Vacations commented on this review

  Thanks for the lovely feedback
  Trip date: January 2024