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Tour Operators for holidays/vacations from India for Domestic and International trips are getting more popular by the day, in this article - we take a look at the good and not so good aspects of each of the leading tour operators in India. All types of holiday makers ranging from good old brand names to niche and boutique operators to regional and new vacation tour operators have been covered. The insights are all first hand based on several trips carried out from 2010 to 2019.

ANUBHAV VACATIONS

After travelling with almost all Tour operators during the last decade, finally had the chance to travel with Anubhav. Truly, it was a wonderful and fully satisfying experience. Anubhav maintains a low profile and they seem to have their own clientele who like to travel to off beat places in every country like forests, rivers, lakes, mountains and volcanos etc. Instead of city tours consisting of familiarisation, museums etc., they provide the best vegetarian and non-veg food in the respective local flavour. Moreover, the food is served in the same hotel of your stay, thus saving precious time in travel to and forth. Almost all the stays were arranged in city centres so that we could stroll around during nights and mornings to get a taste of localities and people around. The most interesting aspect is that one of the company founder's travels with you the whole tour and hence takes the highest care. Once the tour amount is paid (where no discount is given), you don't have to carry any Foreign Exchange at all with you for anything (including tip's or high tea or coffee etc.) other than for your own personal expenditure. They provide you with daily snacks in nice packets for the whole tour which is commendable. Anubhav also employs the best guides in every location. Overall, I wish they continue with this trend always, they are certainly worth 5* and we would like to go with them again.

Tour Kit Freebies: Strolley, Raincoat, Snacks, Passport Pouch

COX & KINGS

We undertook a major and long international tour with Cox & Kings to United States of America (USA), Canada (CA) and Bahamas. The experience was that we could not see nature anywhere, a typical tour made by most of the operators - showing busy streets, cruise in lakes and ocean followed by travel of 20-30 km for food, food and food and accommodation somewhere outside the city to save cost of hotel. One appreciable thing is that being a big operator, they have good tour managers while guides only at a few places. In one of the locations, our baggage fell out of the bus and got damaged when the driver took a sharp turn but Cox & Kings made good by compensating with money then and there before the end of the tour.

KESARI

Though we haven't travelled with Kesari, we wanted to and hence enquired during our last two continent tours to South America and Africa. Our experience was quite poor, as they operate only through their call centres and they don’t seem to have any concern about customer relationship.

MAKEMYTRIP

If one wants to go alone on a customised tour either abroad or within the country, MMT is one of the first choices. We really enjoyed travelling with them on many trips and have done group tours also, four domestic and three international. MMT is cost effective with decent accommodation and food at all places. They are so accommodative that while in one of the cities when we complained to them for having provided with a hotel outside the city - the same afternoon they changed us to the centre of city, a great gesture.

SANKARA YATRA

Over the last few years, Sankara Yatra - part of Sankara TV, have been conducting tours to holy places in India including Kailash and Manasarovar in Tibet, China. In order to encourage an Indian agency, we undertook a trip with them to Kailash & Manasarovar. The overall tour was conducted well, though upon reaching Kathmandu, the local agency takes care of all the places of visit and they in turn handover our group to the Chinese tour group once we reach Lhasa in Tibet. We could not visit one of the places due to refusal by Chinese authorities which cannot be attributed to Sankara, however it was a wonderful trip and Sankara compensated us by giving us a trip to various holy places in Nepal including a flight over Himalayas. We can say they are a reliable tour operator.

Tour Kit Freebies: Windcheater, Returnable Winter Jacket

SOTC

We travelled on an International tour for 3 weeks covering Russia and Europe (Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe). First, the Tour manager was a very nice person and overall tour itinerary was good. There were no hassles with either accommodation nor food most of the time, but on a few occassions after a day's travel and sight-seeing, we had to have our dinner and reach the hotel somewhere outside the city - as a result, we had no time to go around and explore the city on our own.

Tour Kit Freebies: Strolley, Raincoat, Umbrella, Kit Bag, Selfie Stick, Battery Charger, Anti-Vomit Wrist Band, Eye Shield, Night Socks, Water Bottle, Luggage Tags, Bag Belt, Neck Pillow, Ear Buds etc.

THOMAS COOK

From the great old name, we decided and did one domestic trip during the year 2014 to Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) covering Vaishno Devi at Katra in Jammu and also several places in Kashmir. The trip was well arranged by Thomas Cook through a Jammu Tour operator in an SUV as a Customized tour for 8 days. Good accommodation and food was provided at all places. The Chauffeur was a well mannered person and overall the trip was fine to our satisfaction. The only bad patch was that the people at the booking office of Thomas cook charged much more than the normal for the to and fro airfares which we realised only when we received our tickets but they refunded later after a lot of mail exchange.
Recently, after many years, we again tried Thomas Cook for an international trip on a group tour as they provided a combination tour of South Africa (SA), Kenya and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. I should say that we enjoyed the tour as far as boarding, lodging and the travel itinerary were concerned. However, the not so good part was the large crowd of more than 50 people on the first leg of the SA tour wherein multiple tours booked by persons were clubbed. Since the Tour Manager was quite good and managed the crowd well, it was Ok but to our taste. The second leg of the tour was not so good as there was no travel manager and each one of us were booked in different flights, causing a lot of confusion and agony. Thomas Cook seems to be having too many cooks spoiling the dish and if they want to be in business with their long experience, they need to correct these mistakes and give value to customer comments and not treat them as cattle herds.

Tour Kit Freebies: Strolley for International Trips

UTTARAKHAND TOURISM

Uttarakhand Tourism, a state owned tourism department do a commendable service. They have their offices in most of the state capitals and especially for the Char Dham yatra, we can say that they are the best. We did a Customized tour in a Toyota Innova for 13 days covering Char Dham and most of the well known spots around these Kshetras. The tour cost is all inclusive - boarding and lodging at their own state-owned guest houses providing spacious rooms with Balcony, also onion and garlic free food for the yatris. The driver doubles as Chauffeur as well as guide. Finally, on our return to Rishikesh, the yatris were provided with a nice pictorial book on Char Dham at their guest house located on the banks of Ganges. It was a memorable trip indeed. Uttarakhand Tourism could be relied for all tours within Uttarakhand.

VEENA WORLD

We travelled two domestic trips lasting 2 and 3 weeks with Veena World and they were quite impressive. The good thing is that as a Customer, one has direct access to Ms Veena and she responds immediately which I felt is a great attitude. Location, stay, food etc. are good. Veena World also provides daily snacks and high tea during travel. We found one lapse though - the tour manager and the people who are mainly from Maharashtra converse almost all the time only in their mother tongue due to which it was difficult for us to participate in the conversation or understand the Tour Manger when he explains. Tour manager needs to inform all the people to speak only in English (preferably) or in Hindi to make their tours much better. Veena World is more accommodative in showing some of the nearby places while on tour though not on the original itinerary, which is really appreciable.

Tour Kit Freebies: Daily Snacks

SUMMARY

Decided your favourite holiday provider?

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REFERENCES

1. Anubhav Vacations
2. Cox & Kings
3. Kesari
4. MakeMyTrip
5. Sankara Yatra
6. SOTC
7. Thomas Cook
8. Uttarakhand Tourism
9. Veena World

Disclaimer: This article is neither affiliated nor received financial support from anyone. The facts presented have been cited to appropriate links and the views expressed are solely that of the author.