Just back from India — ask me anything

[BigNick]

We (DW and I, mid-60s) have just had the most fabulous holiday of our lives in India. I'm writing this at the gate at Mumbai airport.

We had 13 nights: 5 in the Delhi/Agra/Jaipur "golden triangle", 4 in Kerala, 3 in Goa, and one (but with nearly two days to visit) in Mumbai. It was a completely custom tour put together by an Indian travel agency. We like to see lots of different things and they obliged. We could have gone slower, done half-day instead of full-day tours, etc.

We stayed in 5-star hotels (porters, swimming pool, concierge, room service, etc — some international brands like Radisson and Grand Mercure, others Indian but every bit as good), except for 2 nights in a lodge-type place in the hills of Kerala which was just as nice, and a night on a houseboat which was not quite 5* but still amazing.

We asked the agency to book our accommodations on a room-and-breakfast basis because we wanted to be able to go out sometimes to find our own dinners, and also because we knew that half/full board would have meant buffets, and we don't eat enough to do them justice. All of the monument entrances, guides, and drivers were included in the price, as were the internal flights that we took (5 in total, since in two cases we had to change as there was no direct flight).

The price, excluding air tickets to and from India which we booked ourselves, was $2,350 per person for two people. We only had to pay for lunch, dinner, drinks, and tips. Had we chosen 4* hotels (typically smaller, sometimes more like B&B, but we looked at the reviews for a couple of places and they seemed fine) it would have been $1,900 per person. We were actually a bit skeptical when we received the quote because we had expected it to be a lot more, but we did our "is this a real company" due diligence and had no real qualms when it came to wiring the money to them.

India exceeded our expectations in every way, and the logistics of our trip were just amazingly well done. I won't mention the name of the company here but I can make it available via DM. Otherwise, if you've always been curious about the idea of going to India but a little bit reticent (like we were, until a family member went — and spent almost twice what we did, because they used a London-based travel agent, so had to add on both their margin and UK value added tax!), then feel free to ask me anything.

 

[pacergal]

sounds like you had an amazing time.

 

[audreyh1]

How did you find that Indian agency? It sounds like they did a great job!

And it sounds like you didn’t get sick either?

 

[FlaMariner]

Did you visit the Taj Mahal?

If so, how was it to get to/from and did you have a guide for that?

Also, did you take a train?

Curious about that.

 

[zangbao]

I spent a week in Delhi several years ago to visit a friend who lived there. We spent most of the time exploring the capital but also visited the Taj Mahal. It’s one of the places that I can say that I’m glad I visited once but would never go back again.

 

[BigNick]

How did you find that Indian agency? It sounds like they did a great job!

And it sounds like you didn’t get sick either?

We were umming and ahhing (is that a British expression?) about how to start the process. We had a couple of addresses of agencies from friends who had been, but they weren't answering their WhatsApp. We had the address of the place in London that my sister used, but we knew they would be more expensive. Anyway, one day DW just went on Google and found this place, and we filled in the contact form and took it from there.

We did not get sick in any meaningful way. On a couple of occasions we had moderately upset stomachs, but nothing that a single loperamide tablet didn't fix. Nothing that one might call "gastric drama". We also didn't get a cold, which one of us usually does on any long-haul flight. I ate Indian food for almost every meal, DW for about half. The western ("continental") food was perfectly OK but tended to be a bit samey (pizza, pasta alfredo/colognes, grilled chicken).

 

[tulak]

Sounds like an awesome trip!

I’ve been to India a couple of times for work and it’s inexpensive. A great place to BTD, because it doesn’t take much. Similar to SE Asia.

On one of these trips, I visited Kerala and we spent a few days in a high end resort with a three day Ayurvedic massage package. It was fabulous. We didn’t do the house boat or canals, but took an evening cruise on the lake. From there, we took the train to Thiruvananthapuram for a couple days before flying home. I wanted to get to the southern tip of India, but didn’t make it.

One of these years I want to visit northern India, which is different than the south. High on my list is Varanasi and Bodh Gaya.

As for stomach issues, we were careful to use bottled water, and even then our stomachs weren’t a 100%, but nothing major. Except when we took malaria meds on the first trip. We stopped taking them halfway through the trip and started to feel better. I skipped them on my second visit.

 

[BigNick]

Did you visit the Taj Mahal?

If so, how was it to get to/from and did you have a guide for that?

Also, did you take a train?

Curious about that.

Taj Mahal: Yes. We had the same driver for Delhi (where the traffic is insane), Agra, and then on to Jaipur. It was about 3½ hours drive from Delhi to Agra where we first went for lunch (the driver recommended a place — of course he got a free meal out of it in the back room, that's how it works, but it really wasn't expensive) and then checked into our hotel. Half an hour later we met our guide in the lobby, and he and the driver took us to the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort. Back to the hotel by 6pm where we had a cocktail by the rooftop pool, from where we could see the Taj Mahal as the sun set. Then, since we didn't want to pay $25 each for the hotel buffet, we went next door and spent $5 total on KFC while sitting next to the local kids.

With this kind of tour you don't have to arrange anything. At every airport you are met by someone with your name on a board. Someone from the tour company HQ checks in on WhatsApp 24 hours before your next move, to give you the number of the local agent. The representative or guide from today ensures that you are happy with the next day's start time. As long as you are in the hotel lobby on time, so are they. All of this service is included in the tour price. In fact the main value that the agency adds is this incredible logistics. We calculated that we were served by 23 different reps, guides, and drivers, and that's not counting the local drivers that the guides themselves hired on site, such as the rickshaw operator in Old Delhi who took us from the street market to where our main driver was parked because it's a pedestrian zone.

We didn't take trains anywhere, but I'm told that the intercity trains are luxurious if you travel in first class. In fact everything is pretty good if you go first class, which is not expensive in India.

 

[BigNick]

As for stomach issues, we were careful to use bottled water, and even then our stomachs weren’t a 100%, but nothing major. Except when we took malaria meds on the first trip. We stopped taking them halfway through the trip and started to feel better. I skipped them on my second visit.

This is a good description of what we had. On about 4 days each (me earlier on, DW later in the trip) we had "rumbles", but a prophylactic loperamide and a night's sleep fixed it. We put it down mostly to our body's reaction to different cooking fat (most dishes use ghee, which is clarified butter) rather than any sort of "poisoning". At no point did it spoil our enjoyment or cause us to change any plans.

 

[Backpacker]

Can you comment on the tipping? Was it expected? Percent? When we visited Thailand tipping was not expected nor encouraged in any way. But we were not in bangkok, mostly in rural northern Thailand.

 

[2017ish]

That is an attractive price.

We are currently right next door, in the middle of 17 days in Bhutan as part of a long trip. Our all-in cost for two, after tips and miscellaneous out-of-pockets, will be right at 10K. That includes round trip from Kathmandu, one internal flight, all lodgings/meals and admission costs to destinations, the $100 per person daily tourist tax, and a driver and a guide each day (pretty much mandated by law).

Our lodgings seem to be slightly below what you describe (probably 4 star?), except for the home stays, which are worth it for us despite lacking most hotel style amenities....

 

[walkinwood]

India has become so much easier to visit for western tourists. There are better transportation & lodging options and the restaurants (at least at the higher end) have internalized the need for good hygiene - many use filtered water to wash salad greens, for example.

I was born & grew up in India and go visit every 4-5 years. My trips are obviously a bit different from a tourist, but I still like to go see places since I didn't do much of that (couldn't afford to) when I lived there. I hope to go this December.

I've been to most of the places you mentioned. Saw the Taj Mahal at sunrise and it was sensational. My parents were from Goa, so I've been there many times & always enjoy it. I worked in Mumbai for 3 years and love the city. I've only been to Kerala only once - to Cochin. And the food - oh, I love the food all over India

Your trip sounds wonderful & you timed it right - cooler weather & no monsoons. Are you comfortable sharing the name of the travel agency ? You could PM me if needed. Thank you.

 

[BigNick]

Can you comment on the tipping? Was it expected? Percent? When we visited Thailand tipping was not expected nor encouraged in any way. But we were not in bangkok, mostly in rural northern Thailand.

In restaurants both tipping and sales taxes were very variable.

Regarding tipping: One or two more tourist-oriented places added a service charge, but more commonly there was nothing added. We had read that 7-8% is an OK tip. Often our bill for lunch (one soup, one bread, one main dish, two soft drinks, shared between the two of us) was around ₹1300 (about $16), so we would pay by card and then leave a ₹100 bill. As is also (generally) the case in Europe, the card payment machines never suggested a tip. You can pay by card in most places that cater to tourists, but you do need to read the room a little bit — in fact we saw a clueless Indian tourist (a prosperous-looking guy from Mumbai, probably in banking) making a fool of himself trying to pay a ₹40 ($0.50) temple entrance fee by card.

Regarding tax: Some places added VAT at around 18-20% (European-style numbers) to the bill. Others just added a general and state sales tax of 2.5% each. And in other places the bill was just the sum of the menu prices for the items that we had. We didn't discover whether VAT was a per-state thing, but I intend to find out because it was vey inconsistent. In any case the fact that tax is or isn't included is not prominently (or indeed non-prominently) displayed in advance, so just go with the flow. That ₹900 cocktail at the hotel bar might cost you ₹900, or ₹945 with GST/SST, or ₹1150 with GST/SST and VAT, or ₹1250 with all of those plus service charge.

The most expensive places we ate were the hotel's own restaurants, and even there it was not expensive. A nice grilled chicken entrée with mashed potatoes and vegetables (for the non-adventurous) was ₹1200 all-in ($15) at the Novotel in Jaipur. Of course, by Indian standards this is very expensive! On the evening we arrived in Kerala we were offered the hotel buffet at ₹2100 ($24) per person, which we didn't want (either in terms of the price or the amount of food), so we walked across the road and ordered one chicken biryani (which we ate with our fingers, as is the custom) and two juices. Total bill ₹440 ($5.20) including tip.

In other places tipping is appreciated, but there are lots of European tourists who are less attuned. We ensured that we had a bunch of ₹20 ($0.25) or ₹50 ($0.60) bills to reward for small favours. If you stop on the highway to use the bathroom, someone will hand you some toilet paper or a paper towel to dry your hands and they expect ₹10 or 20. Every morning we checked our "toilet change". We tipped our guides ₹500 for a full day or ₹200 for a single monument visit. We gave our drivers ₹500 per day.

At some point you are probably going to be paying a little over the official odds, but since everything is so cheap you won't mind. Many monuments have two official prices, so that for example the Taj Mahal is ₹50 for Indians and ₹1300 for foreigners (this was the most extreme example we found, but it's common for foreigners to pay 5 or 6 times more — but this was just curiosity on our part looking at the boards, because all of our tickets were included in the tour price).

 

[BigNick]

Your trip sounds wonderful & you timed it right - cooler weather & no monsoons. Are you comfortable sharing the name of the travel agency ? You could PM me if needed. Thank you.

DM sent.

 

[BigNick]

That is an attractive price.

We are currently right next door, in the middle of 17 days in Bhutan as part of a long trip. Our all-in cost for two, after tips and miscellaneous out-of-pockets, will be right at 10K. That includes round trip from Kathmandu, one internal flight, all lodgings/meals and admission costs to destinations, the $100 per person daily tourist tax, and a driver and a guide each day (pretty much mandated by law).

Our lodgings seem to be slightly below what you describe (probably 4 star?), except for the home stays, which are worth it for us despite lacking most hotel style amenities....

We had to pinch ourselves when we saw our price. We just got home and are still pinching ourselves at the value for money that we had.

 

[walkinwood]

Regarding tax: Some places added VAT at around 18-20% (European-style numbers) to the bill. Others just added a general and state sales tax of 2.5% each. And in other places the bill was just the sum of the menu prices for the items that we had. We didn't discover whether VAT was a per-state thing, but I intend to find out because it was vey inconsistent. In any case the fact that tax is or isn't included is not prominently (or indeed non-prominently) displayed in advance, so just go with the flow. That ₹900 cocktail at the hotel bar might cost you ₹900, or ₹945 with GST/SST, or ₹1150 with GST/SST and VAT, or ₹1250 with all of those plus service charge.

Here you go - but don't expect it to line up nicely with your experience.

GST rate slabs for hotel and restaurants (2024 - 2025)

GST enabled accounting and invoicing with Zitlin

zitlin.com

 

[BigNick]

An anecdote from our last day, shopping in Mumbai before heading to the airport.

We had gone to a large mall, but it was all Western brands at pretty much Western prices (say $40–50 for a cotton/linen shirt). Then we found an Indian department store where the same shirts were around $15, and bought a couple, but it still felt like we were in a very upmarket place. We wandered along the street, through a chaotic market, and came across a local clothes shop, where they had some beautiful pyjamas on display. We have a new grandson and two other small people to buy presents for, so we went in.

After we bought and paid for three pyjama sets ($6 each), I asked the shop owner where I could find a vada pav locally. This is the #1 street food item in Mumbai (it's a spicy deep-fried potato dumpling in a soft white bun) and I really wanted to try it in its home city. He talked to a couple of employees and they worked out where the nearest stand was. Then one of them left the shop to go and get it! We were invited to sit down and wait. Bottles of water were brought out. After about 10 minutes the guy returned with two vada pavs (DW only had a bite, so I ate nearly two). I asked what I owed him and he said "Oh nothing, the boss is paying". Of course, by then we had spent ten more minutes browsing and blown at least another $10 on childrens' clothing.

On an earlier occasion, in Delhi, we went into a takeout/delivery pizza place because we didn't want to "splurge" $20 each on the buffet at our hotel. We ate in at a tiny side table and had the best deep-pan veggie pizza ever ($4). There were drinks in the fridge but the guy was only allowed to sell them as part of a delivery. So he went to the convenience store next door and brought us back a 750ml of Coke ($0.50).

So many great memories of amazingly nice people, and yet (unlike some lower/middle-income countries that we have visited) at no point did we feel either uncomfortable or "targeted" as obviously well-to-do Westerners. In fact in most of the hotels where we stayed, Indian tourists outnumbered white people, with the possible exception of Agra.

 

[walkinwood]

I just noticed that your location says Palma de Mallorca. What a lovely place to live! I just looked at a bunch of google images.

 

[audreyh1]

Yeah, tough life, Palma de Mallorca!!!

 

[Golden Mean]

Palma de Mallorca

Had to google (map) it.

"Palma is a resort city and capital of the Spanish island of Mallorca (Majorca), in the western Mediterranean."

So, I'm guessing like, perfect weather almost all the time? (Like the French Riviera).

OP: Thanks for the stories.

 

[F.I.R.E User]

Is it safe to eat street food for Americans there?

 

[nozzer]

We (DW and I, mid-60s) have just had the most fabulous holiday of our lives in India. I'm writing this at the gate at Mumbai airport.

We had 13 nights: 5 in the Delhi/Agra/Jaipur "golden triangle", 4 in Kerala, 3 in Goa, and one (but with nearly two days to visit) in Mumbai. It was a completely custom tour put together by an Indian travel agency. We like to see lots of different things and they obliged. We could have gone slower, done half-day instead of full-day tours, etc.

We stayed in 5-star hotels (porters, swimming pool, concierge, room service, etc — some international brands like Radisson and Grand Mercure, others Indian but every bit as good), except for 2 nights in a lodge-type place in the hills of Kerala which was just as nice, and a night on a houseboat which was not quite 5* but still amazing.

We asked the agency to book our accommodations on a room-and-breakfast basis because we wanted to be able to go out sometimes to find our own dinners, and also because we knew that half/full board would have meant buffets, and we don't eat enough to do them justice. All of the monument entrances, guides, and drivers were included in the price, as were the internal flights that we took (5 in total, since in two cases we had to change as there was no direct flight).

The price, excluding air tickets to and from India which we booked ourselves, was $2,350 per person for two people. We only had to pay for lunch, dinner, drinks, and tips. Had we chosen 4* hotels (typically smaller, sometimes more like B&B, but we looked at the reviews for a couple of places and they seemed fine) it would have been $1,900 per person. We were actually a bit skeptical when we received the quote because we had expected it to be a lot more, but we did our "is this a real company" due diligence and had no real qualms when it came to wiring the money to them.

India exceeded our expectations in every way, and the logistics of our trip were just amazingly well done. I won't mention the name of the company here but I can make it available via DM. Otherwise, if you've always been curious about the idea of going to India but a little bit reticent (like we were, until a family member went — and spent almost twice what we did, because they used a London-based travel agent, so had to add on both their margin and UK value added tax!), then feel free to ask me anything.

Going in March 2026. Could you please share the tour company you used and any comments on them? Thanks

 

[starfish26]

We (DW and I, mid-60s) have just had the most fabulous holiday of our lives in India. I'm writing this at the gate at Mumbai airport.

We had 13 nights: 5 in the Delhi/Agra/Jaipur "golden triangle", 4 in Kerala, 3 in Goa, and one (but with nearly two days to visit) in Mumbai. It was a completely custom tour put together by an Indian travel agency. We like to see lots of different things and they obliged. We could have gone slower, done half-day instead of full-day tours, etc.

We stayed in 5-star hotels (porters, swimming pool, concierge, room service, etc — some international brands like Radisson and Grand Mercure, others Indian but every bit as good), except for 2 nights in a lodge-type place in the hills of Kerala which was just as nice, and a night on a houseboat which was not quite 5* but still amazing.

We asked the agency to book our accommodations on a room-and-breakfast basis because we wanted to be able to go out sometimes to find our own dinners, and also because we knew that half/full board would have meant buffets, and we don't eat enough to do them justice. All of the monument entrances, guides, and drivers were included in the price, as were the internal flights that we took (5 in total, since in two cases we had to change as there was no direct flight).

The price, excluding air tickets to and from India which we booked ourselves, was $2,350 per person for two people. We only had to pay for lunch, dinner, drinks, and tips. Had we chosen 4* hotels (typically smaller, sometimes more like B&B, but we looked at the reviews for a couple of places and they seemed fine) it would have been $1,900 per person. We were actually a bit skeptical when we received the quote because we had expected it to be a lot more, but we did our "is this a real company" due diligence and had no real qualms when it came to wiring the money to them.

India exceeded our expectations in every way, and the logistics of our trip were just amazingly well done. I won't mention the name of the company here but I can make it available via DM. Otherwise, if you've always been curious about the idea of going to India but a little bit reticent (like we were, until a family member went — and spent almost twice what we did, because they used a London-based travel agent, so had to add on both their margin and UK value added tax!), then feel free to ask me anything.

I would love to know the name of the agency you used. We may be going to India in the fall

 

[lessymac]

We (DW and I, mid-60s) have just had the most fabulous holiday of our lives in India. I'm writing this at the gate at Mumbai airport.

We had 13 nights: 5 in the Delhi/Agra/Jaipur "golden triangle", 4 in Kerala, 3 in Goa, and one (but with nearly two days to visit) in Mumbai. It was a completely custom tour put together by an Indian travel agency. We like to see lots of different things and they obliged. We could have gone slower, done half-day instead of full-day tours, etc.

We stayed in 5-star hotels (porters, swimming pool, concierge, room service, etc — some international brands like Radisson and Grand Mercure, others Indian but every bit as good), except for 2 nights in a lodge-type place in the hills of Kerala which was just as nice, and a night on a houseboat which was not quite 5* but still amazing.

We asked the agency to book our accommodations on a room-and-breakfast basis because we wanted to be able to go out sometimes to find our own dinners, and also because we knew that half/full board would have meant buffets, and we don't eat enough to do them justice. All of the monument entrances, guides, and drivers were included in the price, as were the internal flights that we took (5 in total, since in two cases we had to change as there was no direct flight).

The price, excluding air tickets to and from India which we booked ourselves, was $2,350 per person for two people. We only had to pay for lunch, dinner, drinks, and tips. Had we chosen 4* hotels (typically smaller, sometimes more like B&B, but we looked at the reviews for a couple of places and they seemed fine) it would have been $1,900 per person. We were actually a bit skeptical when we received the quote because we had expected it to be a lot more, but we did our "is this a real company" due diligence and had no real qualms when it came to wiring the money to them.

India exceeded our expectations in every way, and the logistics of our trip were just amazingly well done. I won't mention the name of the company here but I can make it available via DM. Otherwise, if you've always been curious about the idea of going to India but a little bit reticent (like we were, until a family member went — and spent almost twice what we did, because they used a London-based travel agent, so had to add on both their margin and UK value added tax!), then feel free to ask me anything.

I would love to get the information on your travel agency. Trip of a lifetime!

 

[meleana]

We (DW and I, mid-60s) have just had the most fabulous holiday of our lives in India. I'm writing this at the gate at Mumbai airport.

We had 13 nights: 5 in the Delhi/Agra/Jaipur "golden triangle", 4 in Kerala, 3 in Goa, and one (but with nearly two days to visit) in Mumbai. It was a completely custom tour put together by an Indian travel agency. We like to see lots of different things and they obliged. We could have gone slower, done half-day instead of full-day tours, etc.

We stayed in 5-star hotels (porters, swimming pool, concierge, room service, etc — some international brands like Radisson and Grand Mercure, others Indian but every bit as good), except for 2 nights in a lodge-type place in the hills of Kerala which was just as nice, and a night on a houseboat which was not quite 5* but still amazing.

We asked the agency to book our accommodations on a room-and-breakfast basis because we wanted to be able to go out sometimes to find our own dinners, and also because we knew that half/full board would have meant buffets, and we don't eat enough to do them justice. All of the monument entrances, guides, and drivers were included in the price, as were the internal flights that we took (5 in total, since in two cases we had to change as there was no direct flight).

The price, excluding air tickets to and from India which we booked ourselves, was $2,350 per person for two people. We only had to pay for lunch, dinner, drinks, and tips. Had we chosen 4* hotels (typically smaller, sometimes more like B&B, but we looked at the reviews for a couple of places and they seemed fine) it would have been $1,900 per person. We were actually a bit skeptical when we received the quote because we had expected it to be a lot more, but we did our "is this a real company" due diligence and had no real qualms when it came to wiring the money to them.

India exceeded our expectations in every way, and the logistics of our trip were just amazingly well done. I won't mention the name of the company here but I can make it available via DM. Otherwise, if you've always been curious about the idea of going to India but a little bit reticent (like we were, until a family member went — and spent almost twice what we did, because they used a London-based travel agent, so had to add on both their margin and UK value added tax!), then feel free to ask.

We (DW and I, mid-60s) have just had the most fabulous holiday of our lives in India. I'm writing this at the gate at Mumbai airport.

We had 13 nights: 5 in the Delhi/Agra/Jaipur "golden triangle", 4 in Kerala, 3 in Goa, and one (but with nearly two days to visit) in Mumbai. It was a completely custom tour put together by an Indian travel agency. We like to see lots of different things and they obliged. We could have gone slower, done half-day instead of full-day tours, etc.

We stayed in 5-star hotels (porters, swimming pool, concierge, room service, etc — some international brands like Radisson and Grand Mercure, others Indian but every bit as good), except for 2 nights in a lodge-type place in the hills of Kerala which was just as nice, and a night on a houseboat which was not quite 5* but still amazing.

We asked the agency to book our accommodations on a room-and-breakfast basis because we wanted to be able to go out sometimes to find our own dinners, and also because we knew that half/full board would have meant buffets, and we don't eat enough to do them justice. All of the monument entrances, guides, and drivers were included in the price, as were the internal flights that we took (5 in total, since in two cases we had to change as there was no direct flight).

The price, excluding air tickets to and from India which we booked ourselves, was $2,350 per person for two people. We only had to pay for lunch, dinner, drinks, and tips. Had we chosen 4* hotels (typically smaller, sometimes more like B&B, but we looked at the reviews for a couple of places and they seemed fine) it would have been $1,900 per person. We were actually a bit skeptical when we received the quote because we had expected it to be a lot more, but we did our "is this a real company" due diligence and had no real qualms when it came to wiring the money to them.

India exceeded our expectations in every way, and the logistics of our trip were just amazingly well done. I won't mention the name of the company here but I can make it available via DM. Otherwise, if you've always been curious about the idea of going to India but a little bit reticent (like we were, until a family member went — and spent almost twice what we did, because they used a London-based travel agent, so had to add on both their margin and UK value added tax!), then feel free to ask me anything.

That’s without airfare I assume. How much did the entire trip cost you including everything?

Just curious because we did 16 days in southern Italy and Sicily through a tour and it was thousands. $17,000 total when all was said and done.