Kolkata: Heldags Spirituality & Temples Tour

Excellent spiritual and temple tour. Tour guide was very knowledgeable of the temples we visited, including the only synagogue in Kolkata. Highly recommend.

Pal was an excellent tour guide with lots of knowledge about the different religious and spiritual beliefs in Kolkata. A great day to learn about the cultural mix for a first-time visit to West Bengal.

We had a great day with our tour guide. She added several interesting stops to our itinerary. Couldn't have asked for a nicer day!

A very interesting and varied tour that emphasises the fascinating cultural mix of Kolkata. My guide was great - very enthusiastic and knowledgeable. She also added a couple of extra sights which I was very grateful for. I would thoroughly recommend this tour.

The guide and driver on this tour were both excellent and very helpful. The sites visited were all extremely interesting and beautiful. Our Guide was very knowledgeable on all aspects including the architecture of the various religious buildings. We both had a lovely day.

A very enjoyable day. Saw many interesting sites and learned much. Great people watching. Highly recommend.

+4

This was my 2nd trip booking for a Kolkata "Spirituality" tour in Tripadvisor/Viator. The first was marked "pending" that Viator support somehow said was confirmed -which was a little suspect. As there had been no response from the operator, I decided to cancel it rather than take the risk of losing my payment. So, Viator, please be consistent in your messaging. The second booking with another operator, fortunately, went through smoothly. The tour operator was fairly responsive and I felt confident enough to proceed with payment. Pickup was arranged at my hotel but there was a change in pickup time though, and the guide and I somehow missed each other, which resulted in a slight delay. Transportation provided was a nice air-conditioned car with chauffeur. The guide Mr P Sen is a knowledgeable and friendly middle-aged local whose rapport and familiarity with the security at sights such as Belur Math and Dakshineswar proved to be an invaluable asset. These were also the key places I wanted to visit. A minor niggle though, but the tour company did not seem to convey to him what had been "pre-sold" to the client. It would have been useful to do a pre-tour introduction on the itinerary as some destinations were apparently not available that day and there had been no prior communication. Fortunately, those were not key to me and Mr Sen was also amenable to changes and insertions in the program. So all-in-all, an above average experience. Certainly for this sort of tour, the quality of the guide is key and which I was absolutely happy with. Better overall communication regarding trip planning on the part of the operator would have gained the tour a higher rating. As for using Viator, well I will continue to be selective and scrutinize the operators beforehand to ensure a smooth booking experience.

Mr. Sen, the guide was most helpful and took a lot of pains to ensure we had a great experience. Belur Math and Dakshineswar were wonderful. One of the highlights was Kumartuli where we saw artisans at work. Great experience - recommend highly.

We live the spirituality of Kolkata through its different religions. The guided tours by the excellent and cultured Hanirvan were easy and very enriching. We were totally satisfied with the experience.

I loved the tour concept of all the main places of religious observance in Kolkata in one day. Unfortunately like many of these tours, my tour guide was not prepared. I had to tell her the sites we were visiting and she read the wiki for each site in the car as we traveled between places and then recited it to me. My tour was supposed to last 9 hours and visit 6 places and no lunch. When my guide arrived at 8:00 am she told me I was responsible for parking fees and lunch for the two of us. This ended up adding about $20 to the already $99 I had paid. She then told me she was changing the order of sites because of my hotel location. This ended up with us arriving at the Synagogue just as prayer service was beginning so we couldn't enter and we missed one of the most important temples entirely (Kalighat) because it closes in the afternoon from 2:00-4:00. I suggested we could go at 4:00 since we had until 5:00, but she insisted our tour was only 8 hours even though my paperwork said 9 hours. I was also supposed to get a Masala Chai drink which never happened.