Vijayan Kunjamboo & Family Malaysia: North India Trip 2011
Dear Mr.Sunil & Mr Pradeep,
We are very happy and satisfied with the arrangement done by you for us. We enjoyed our trip without any hassle and all was smooth going, it was a pleasant trip, thank you again. Mr. Sunil, we will be coming to India again on the 4th December 2011, could you please sent me a quotation for the below itinerary.The number of people involved in this trip will be 10. The hotel in Chennai has been booked.
Girish Mishra & Family, Dubai : Valley of Flowers Trek 2011
Hi Sunil & Pradeep,
I would like to thank you for the lovely trip. Looking forward to more trips with you in the future. Special credit goes to our driver Sudarshan, who made sure that we were safe and on schedule...
Regards,
Girish
Suresh Sathiara & Family, UK: North India Tour 2011
Hi Sunil,
Thank you for your wonderful assistance during my stay in India, I had a great time discovering northern India.
I shall be sure to recommend you to any friends and family that wish to travel to India in the future.
Thanks
Suresh
Stephanie Bachmann & Paul Dorizzi, Australia: Valley of Flowers Trek with North India 2011
Hi Pradeep,
thanks for your email. We have arrived home safely and are both well now. Sorry we haven't been in contact yet. We have both been busy returning to working life & I have been sick for the last week. Things are settling down now & I will have some feedback for you by the end of this week.
We were both really happy with the package you arranged for us, but it was your personalized service and attention to our well being that we truly appreciated.
I will be in touch again in the next few days.
Hi Pradeep & Sunil,
Thank you so much for a wonderful trip. We were very happy with the package you organized us, it was good value and worth the money we spent.
Firstly we would like to acknowledge the lovely Karthi, he was a very good driver whom we felt safe with; we trusted his driving – especially on our night drive from Joshimath to Rishikesh. His vast experience driving the roads of the Himalayas was evident and we enjoyed our time with him. He is a true gentleman, a man of honor and integrity, and an asset to your company. Please let him know that we valued his patience, caring, gentleness, and happy demeanor during our “ landslide adventure”.
We will be returning in 2013 and my family are talking about a trip to my father’s birthplace Simla and Missouri; we will be discussing Karthi’s availability for this journey with you.
We appreciate your efforts concerning re-organizing our trip to Kolkata given our delay in Joshimath. I realize now that I should have followed your recommendation of going to Agra after our trek to the Valley of Flowers as it would have saved us all a lot of anxiety, delayed flights, rushing down the mountain, etc.
We are grateful for the extra efforts you made on our behalf about our luggage and calling the Oberoi to advise them of our delay. The service provided by yourself was fantastic and this “little” extra things you did for us made a big difference to our enjoyment of the trip. We felt “looked after”.
The only complaint we have is with regards to the tour guide Ishi in Agra. Ishi’s knowledge of the Agra Fort was limited and he couldn’t answer any of my questions. We learned more from the information boards around the Fort than from him. Ishi also rushed us through the tour; we had to ask him to wait for us so that we could go around the Fort again at our own pace, by ourselves to enjoy the scenery.
I also felt that Ishi acted inappropriately by asking to buy my trekking shoes. He pestered me with questions regarding my shoes and offered me 1000 rupees (they cost closer to 20,000). I eventually had to ask him to stop and reiterated that I was there to enjoy the tour site – not to sell my shoes. Ishi also insisted that we visit another location to see the “ Star of India”, believing this to be a historical jewel perhaps at a museum we agreed. This was not the case, Ishi took us to jewelers. Misleading indeed.
I was so upset by Ishi’s manner that I informed him and Raul that we did not want a guide for our visit to the Taj Mahal. I would recommend that Ishi is not used as a guide in future or he is given further training regarding appropriate behavior.
We also suggest that you give people the option of a guide in Agra. We did not need a guide at the Taj Mahal; especially to walk us to the ticket office and then charge us 150 rupees to take a tuk-tuk 100metres up the road. We would have preferred to walk – we could see the entrance to the Taj Mahal from the office.
Raul, your representative in Agra insisted that we take Ishi to the Taj Mahal despite my informing him of my concerns. Raul did not speak to us after this and certainly did not have your attention to customer service. This was the only negative thing we have to say about the package you provided us.
Chandra, our guide for Darjeeling and Gangtok was adequate. While in Darjeeling, Chandra seemed to want to rush the days through, probably due to his family living here, but this improved when we left Darjeeling. Chandra also suggested leaving Gangtok one day earlier and stay in Kalimpong for one night before returning to Baghdorha, this we agree is worthwhile, as it cut the trip to Bagdhorha by half, and Chandra did organize some Tongbo too.
The hotels were fantastic especially the Vasant Continental. The Hotel Seven Seventeen in Darjeeling was a beautiful little hotel with fantastic staff, unfortunately, the food was terrible – perhaps their chef was having a bad week! The Hotel Tibet was adequate (they were painting the hallway when we were there and this irritated our noses & heads a bit) but the restaurant was fantastic. The view was great too. The Nanda Cottage in Joshimath was very good, we loved the freshly prepared food picked straight from the garden, the view was simply stunning. We would love to return there during ski season.
Thank you for the fantastic care you took of us throughout the trip. We appreciated that you called Karthi regularly to check on our whereabouts, it made us feel that you genuinely had our well being as a priority. Your friendliness, attentiveness and caring manner was valued.
We will certainly recommend SP Holidays to our friends and relatives traveling to India and would not hesitate to use your services again. We look forward to seeing you again soon when we return and to your organizing another fantastic adventure for us.
Thank you and warmest wishes,
Stephanie Bachmann & Paul Dorizzi
Emilia Mendes, Brazil: Agra, Mathura & Vrindavan Trip 2011
Dear Sunil,
The tour is going well! I am having a great time, and the driver is great!
Today I had a local guide taking me to the Taj. His name is Tanvir Ahmad, and he was brilliant! He is very polite, knows a lot about the Taj's history.. wonderful guide. I highly recommend him to anyone who would like a local tour guide to the Taj :-
Cheers!
Emilia Mendes
Abdul Rahim & Family UAE: South India Tour 2011
Hi Mr. Sunil,
Thanks for your quick responses and arrangements. The guests had a good time and had a nice experience. Thanks for taking care.
Regards.
Abdul Rahim
Srini Garimella & Family U.S.A: Delhi Agra Mathura Vrindavan 2011
Hi Sunil
Thank you for the follow-up. Yes, we reached home safely and we had an awesome trip with SP Holidays assistance. Everything was as expected without any unpleasant surprises. Virender was polite and helpful. All the reservations were in place and we were taken care of very well.
I would certainly choose SP Holidays for my future trips and will recommend to my friends & family.
Thanks a ton for all your help
Srini Garimella
Bronwen and Rob Hunter, UK : South India Tour 2011
Hi Sunil / Pradeep
And greetings to you too - sorry it has taken us a while to get around to sending you our thanks and our feedback - we intended to do it as soon as we got back, but you know how it is when you land and there are so many things to catch up on!
We had a wonderful time - and are now recovering from the shock of moving from 34 degrees to 4 degrees!
We were especially happy with:
our driver Aji Pilai. It must take great skill and sensitivity, to spend a weekas driver to tourists you've never met before! Aji showed many qualities - in particular, he:
was punctual, reliable, friendly and flexible
was knowledgeable about Keralan culture and politics, Hinduism, Keralan sights, etc.
had good enough English
was an experienced driver (though not without a few scary moments - the pace of traffic is so different there and there don't seem to be many clear rules of the road so a bit of a culture shock! However, he was very skillful in his avoidance of other vehicles!)
was committed to giving us as good a time as possible
the accommodation you booked for us. This was consistent of very high quality and Zuri was out of this world : )
the houseboat - Evergreen Tours are definitely to be complimented - fantastic experience and lovely staff. Good food and company
Suresh - our guide in Cochin. You may remember we had to switch this from the beginning of our week to the final day and on reflection feel that this was very helpful. We had loads of comments and questions by then and it was good to have Suresh with his experience and excellent English to complement what we'd picked up from Aji earlier in the week.
We suspect you favored us because of our friendship with Roland Watkins. If so, many thanks. If not you are a miracle. You certainly gave us excellent value for money and I have already recommended you to a couple of people who expressed an interest in going to India!
There were two minor glitches. The tea factory visit fell on a national holiday when the factory was closed. Aji tried to fit it in later but we wanted as much time as possible on the houseboat, so gave it a miss. Secondly, we were not able to go on the wildlife cruise in Thekaddy because the boats were fully booked. Booking ahead would have been useful - though I get the impression it wasn't something that happened regularly.
However, these were minor points when compared with the otherwise very high quality of our holiday.
Thank you SO much again for all your help. We hope we will be back in the future!
With best wishes
Bronwen and Rob
Lee Eschenroeder: North India Tour U.S.A 2011
Dear Pradeep and Sunil,
Thank you both so much for setting up such an excellent tour for us! In the short time we had, I was astounded at how many things we were able to see and how comfortable our transportation was. You both served as fantastic guides and catered to our interests and style of travel as well. I hope that you continue to share your knowledge of India with future travelers.
Hans and Pam Peeters .U.S.A. India wildlife tours & Assam/Arunanchal Pradesh : March 2011
Dear Sunil and Pradeep
Thanks again for the wonderful lunch and for arranging that fabulous parade for us! You two know how to keep your clients happy!
We usually like to travel without guides, they do make it possible to find many more kinds of birds, and they also know the area well and so know exactly where to go for the best success (especially since birding from a jeep in the park is not very good). It’s much more fun to be shown the best places to walk outside the parks or other places such as farms. We ran into a lot of birders who were traveling with top-rates guides, but that gets expensive.
The best birding guide by far is of Corbett. On a different day at Corbett, we hired a guide who works at Hotel. He showed us different birds and different areas to walk and we highly recommend him.
If you have birders going to Sultanpur. There is a local bird guide he is very much worth hiring, especially he will also take birders out into the wetlands near Gurgaon and into nearby agricultural fields to show them special birds, which was a great fun.
Finally, our trip to Tal Chhapar was incredibly wonderful because the guide here guided us in his car. Without him, we would not have known where to drive to see many of the wonderful surprises he revealed to us. It turned out that the same patch of ground would be occupied by a certain kind of bird in the morning, a different type at noon, and other birds in the late afternoon. The guide knew this and made sure to be there just at the right time of the day. So it would be worthwhile to schedule birding trips there to fit into guide’s schedule. He is a charming man and an avid birdwatcher.
Assam and Arunancha Pradesh
Dear Sunil & Pradeep
Thanks for another wonderful trip. It could not have been better. Assam and Arunanchal Pradesh surpassed all our expectations in many ways. We had been told that getting a permit for Arunanchal Pradesh would take a long time, so we were impressed that your man there got it in a matter of days. Your suggestion to travel with a local interpreter for those two weeks was a good one – Your man was a very competent and made us feel very well taken care of and also, he turned out to be an enjoyable travel companion, full of interesting information and good humor.
Since our main focus was bird watching, we were very pleased with the hotels you chose for us, not only in the northeast but also for the various places we stayed in the second two weeks of our trip: Corbett, Sat Tal, Pangot and the rest. Both of our drivers were excellent, and viru even became skilled at slowing down when he saw potentially good birding areas ahead. And as we were walking one day, we would have missed a pair of slaty forktails if he hadn’t excitedly pointed them out.
We enjoyed every day, packed in a lot, and we're pretty exhausted when we got home, but all of the exhaustion was from fun. We always felt that we were in such good hands that we didn’t have to worry about anything on the trip. We have been home a week and already we want to be back in India.
Thanks again!!
Hans and Pam Peeters
Diana Lantos : U.K. : Golden Triangle Tour April 2011
Dear Mr.Kala and Mr.Sunil
Thank you for the organization and, we enjoyed the tours both Jaipur and Agra. I hope we count with your services next time as well.
Best Regards,
Diana Lantos
Prasana Chandaran : Malaysia : North India Trip : March 2011
Sorry for the late reply as I was busy at work after my long leave. On the feedback on the tour arranged, my family and I had a great time, the arrangements were superb. Varanasi is very beautiful and I like the Ganga Arthi and my sincere thanks to the guide who took us for the boat ride at the Ghat and Sarnath was good.s
Agra - Taj Mahal is very beautiful and wonderful/raining and we had to walk in the rain.
Towards Jaipur- Fatehpur Sikri is marvelous and the guide is the best here. He is very knowledgeable /honest and humble and great thanks for the tea he bought for us.
At Jaipur- the Palaces are really very very attractive.
Haridwar/Rishikesh : We only manage to visit Laxman Jhula and the Haridwar river as we understand that we had to leave Rishikesh early due to Maha Shivratri.Guide was also very good and he advised us earlier not to get cheated by people who will approach us for lot of things.
Delhi – a Nice place to live and despite the rain our guide showed and took us to many places but due to rain we have to rush to see the places and I will not forget the rickshaw ride along Chandni Chowk.Thanks to the driver who drove all of us safely.
Over all it was a GREAT TIME AND GREAT TRIP!!!!!!!
My sincere thanks to Mr.Sunil and Mr.Pradeep for making our Holidays to India a memorable one.
Doreen and Simcha Bahiri : North East India Tour: U.S.A. 2011
Hello Sunil /Pradeep,
I am sorry it has taken me so long to write. First, it was a great pleaser meet you and I m sorry that we didn’t get together again. Thanks for all your help. First, we enjoyed being both with your staff there and the drive. All were dedicated and always helpful. Please send our best wishes to them all.
About the festival. It was very well organized and very interesting. I would of course prefer to see such a festival in its real setting in a village, but one can’t have everything. I would suggest your government that they pave the road between Kohima and the festival grounds. It was unnecessarily rough and bumpy. On our third day, we decided to visit the museum in Kohima, and instead of the drive takes about 15 minutes it took almost 02 hours due to a total blockage of the traffic causing us eventually to miss most of the finishing ceremony. But in the end, we enjoyed it all. Our best wishes to you all and hope to meet you again on our next trip to India.
I was extremely impressed with SP Holidays throughout the tour that my friends and I participated in. I was astounded with the number of things that we were able to see throughout the tour and was amazed at all that was provided for such a manageable price. My friends and I were always making jokes about the driver not being human since he seemed to be able to function without sleep, food, or need of a bathroom. I was very impressed with his ability to put in such a long hour driving.
I Thought that guide did a great job. He was very enthusiastic and seemed extremely eager to please us and make our trip a memorable one. Pradeep and Sunil were fantastic. It was easy to tell that they are both great people, who are honest and have a strong character. Pradeep was enjoyable to spend time with and did an impressive job leading. I respect him a lot as a person and it was a privilege to have spent time with him.I would strongly recommend SP Holidays Pvt.Ltd to anyone looking to tour to India, and if I return to India(Which I hope I will) I will certainly use SP Holidays again.
