Rajasthan Heritage Tour

I bought the 4-star hotel package, for 4 nights. Flight for India was bought 10 days before the tour(so I did not read a thing about golden triangle before). The hotels were good but there are no all 4 stars hotels of EU standards. This was a short period for all attractions but manageable (usually I like to take long breaks between activities, drinking coffee and enjoying). Taj Mahal, Humayun's Tomb, Agra Fort, Amber Fort, and City Palace were all excellent. I would recommend skipping some of the Selling attractions if you are short on time and fully exploring places that you really want to see each day. They will bring you to crafters „sell attractions“ that make jewellery, paintings, etc. These are interesting to see but they try to sell you items for tourist prices. On one occasion I had to be rude when I saw that I was not interested and they insisted to sell and waste my time(I was tired) The guides were very knowledgeable and polite and helped me with everything asked, hotel, and how to tip other service people. Really made the experience positive. They were flexible with changing plans and food/bathroom needs. The driver got me to places quickly and safely. Bought me snacks when i didn't have time to stop for lunch. They literally made me feel like a queen all the time.

The tour was good overall. Monu our driver was great, always very welcoming and cheerful and helpful with our bags, very punctual and a very good safe driver in hectic traffic. The tour guides were also great, in particular Guarav who gave us a tour of Jaipur. He was extremely knowledgeable and helpful with local advice. The only downside to the tour was the tour guides insisting on taking us to gift shops where we were pressured into spending money. Once we caught onto this we would say we did not want to go but it would be made out as if it is not a gift shop. The tour guide in Fatehpur Sikri took us on the ‘free’ tour but we ended up getting pressured a number of times into spending money. They also took us to specific restaurants and weren’t keen on listening to our preference. A lot of the time these were quite overpriced and touristy even though we had asked to go to more authentic places that we had found online with great reviews. This made us question whether we could trust the tour guides and it is unclear whether they or the tour company put this pressure on for extra commission.

The fort was great. Our driver, Monu Singh, did a terrific job. He was always exactly where he was needed. Our guide, Pratik was very knowledgeable. I enjoyed talking with another historian and appreciated the perspective he provided.