Luxury Delhi Agra Jaipur (Golden Triangle) with Varanasi in 08 Days

Do not book with this tour company. The threatening behaviour from Vikas and awful hotel conditions ruined our trip.

Our trip started in Delhi where the hotel was dirty, had no hot water for one evening and no water at all the second evening, to the point where the toilet wouldn’t flush! The ceiling fan had a hole around it which made it look like it was going to fall out and the electrics kept crackling which seemed unsafe. Our next stop was Agra and the hotel was even dirtier than the first. We didn’t even feel clean coming out of the shower. We also had no hot water the whole time we were there. On top of this the staff in the hotel tried to scam us by trying to charge us 700 rupees (equivalent of about £7) for one beer, to give context bars charge about 350 rupees. When we refused their offer we were harassed with multiple calls to our room offering other (still unreasonable) prices for a beer. The location of this hotel was off the main road down a dirt track, which felt very unsafe to walk down at night as two women. On top of the tour, we had asked Vikas to help us with some additions to our trip. We wanted to stay another couple of nights in Varanasi at the end of the tour and were happy to pay Vikas to extend our stay there. We also asked for his assistance with booking a train and some transfers. On the third night of the trip we were informed that our train had not been confirmed and we would only find out 24 hours before departure if we would be able to board. We were very frustrated by this news as Vikas had not told us at any point that the train was not confirmed, despite him informing us the booking was made over a month before the trip. If we had known this was a possibility we would have sought other transport options. With his dishonesty up to this point and the conditions of the hotels we had encountered, we decided that we did not want Vikas’ help with the additional items and we would organise our own transport and hotel once we had reached Varanasi. Vikas was unhappy that we were not going to continue to book services through him, and aggressively stated that we must pay him for the additional nights in Varanasi as he had already made the payment to the hotel. Reluctantly, we offered to pay for the additional nights after our arrival at the hotel in Varanasi so that we could check the cleanliness. The following day Vikas continued to argue for immediate payment. His reaction escalated greatly and he threatened to cancel our whole tour, which we had already paid for. His constant messages were upsetting us and ruining our day and we stopped responding so that we could enjoy the sites of Jaipur. Vikas then contacted the tour guide we were with to relay, once again, that he was going to cancel our tour if we did not pay him for the additional nights in Varanasi immediately. Our tour guide empathised with our situation and persuaded Vikas to let us make the payment in Varanasi. Despite his office being supposedly based in Jaipur, Vikas did not make any effort to come and speak with us and resolve the issue, he was only concerned with getting money out of us. The following night we flew to Varanasi, leaving the tour guides and driver that we had been travelling with thus far. After the unsettling conversation with Vikas and the manner in which he reacted to our reasonable request, we were honestly quite scared about who was going to meet us and what was going to happen on our arrival. Vikas had sent a driver and a guide to meet us, with the expectation that we would be driven to a cash point in the middle of the night and pay a complete stranger the money. The hotel in Varanasi was by no means good standards, but we did not want any further threats from Vikas and so paid for the hotel the following morning. The sum we paid Vikas was double the amount that the hotel should have cost. We were supposed to have a driver included in the additional days also, however Vikas also failed to mention that the drivers do not travel to the centre of Varanasi on Holi festival, so we had to make our own arrangements. Despite the horrendous conditions of the hotels and Vikas’ threatening behaviour, the drivers and tour guides that took us through our journey of India were amazing. If you are booking a trip, I’d suggest booking directly through them and avoid any contact with Vikas and Royal Rajhasthan Travels - https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g304551-d13515031-Reviews-The_Imperial_Tours-New_Delhi_National_Capital_Territory_of_Delhi.html

Royal Rajasthan Travels is NOT recommended.

I would not recommend booking with Royal Rajasthan Travels. We were booked onto The golden triangle with Varanasi tour. We had a slightly different order due to Taj Mahal being closed on Fridays. While the companies sub contracted to provide the drivers and guides were really wonderful (Imperial Tours, Rajasthan Destinations and Guy's travel), the hotels booked were a very mixed bag. Vikas (assumed manager of company and main person we dealt with) made us feel unsafe and scared. As two women travelling in India for the first time this caused undue stress and anxiety that I would not wish on anyone. Our first stay was in Delhi. This hotel had very dodgy electrics, did not always have running water and was filthy. "Not to worry" we said, it’s one night and probably a blip. Our second hotel was in Agra and this was truly grim. The bathroom was revolting. The bed linen has all sorts of stains and the room was full of bugs. No panic we thought. This tour was a bargain from all our research so let’s take the positives and move on. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when we learnt that the train that Vikas had booked for us (as an extra) for our onward travel from Varanasi to Rishikesh was not confirmed. This could result in a huge expense on our part as we would have to pay for an expensive last minute internal flight to reach our next destination on our trip if the train could not be confirmed. Our trust in Vikas and team was broken. Prior to our trip, he had advised that we settle up on the additional bookings we had made when we reached his home city of Jaipur. By this point, we made the difficult decision to cut our losses and cancel our extended stay in Varanasi (two additional nights in hotel) so that we could afford the plane ticket. Vikas responded very very badly to our request to cancel our additional extras (two more nights in Varanasi "with driver", train to Rishikesh, transfer from Rishikesh to Delhi, hotel in Delhi and airport transfer). He proceeded to threaten us with cancelling the remaining services we had already paid for and insisted that we hand over cash before leaving Jaipur. We understood that he had paid for the next hotel up front and therefore we acquiesced and said we’d pay for the extra nights in Varanasi once we had reached the hotel. He was still not happy. He hounded us and our guide and driver the next day. It had a huge impact on our experience in Jaipur. His attitude and response was frankly appalling and not the customer service one would expect from a travel agent. The next 24 hrs were very high anxiety. He sent his sub-contractor to pick us up from the airport in Varanasi. We were already very anxious that we would be met with hostility late at night in a new city. This gentleman, Nitin, was nice enough although clearly felt stuck between a rock and a hard place. It transpired that Vikas had not paid him or booked the services that we had already paid Vikas for (two nights in Varanasi, driver and guide for a day-part of the original tour). We were exhausted after a long day travelling to Varanasi but no longer surprised at the latest turn of events. Nitin was primarily there to collect the cash that Vikas wanted. Nitin busted a gut to ensure we had a room that was sufficient. There was running water and the bathroom wasn’t filthy so we were ok to proceed. Nitin advised that he would collect the cash in the morning. We were still nervous about paying cash but at this point we wanted to be done with Vikas so that he could stop ruining our holiday. We will be reporting Vikas and his company through all available channels so that he doesn’t treat anyone else like this. I am relieved that we are safe but completely appalled at his behaviour. What a horrible man. On a side note: all the hotels had excellent trip advisor ratings but varied substantially in their cleanliness and location. From our experience in India as a whole, I would interpret all the positive reviews on trip advisor with caution. It’s super common to be asked to provide a review in front of the people you are reviewing and thus they may not truly represent everyone’s lived experience.

Day tour of Jaipur

Part of the 8 day tour included a full day tour of Jaipur. Our guide Mr Sher Singh was brilliant, knowledgeable, courteous and caring. He brought Indian culture to life for us over and above what we expected. Can highly recommend his services