Travel Review: Luxury India Vacation, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Kochi, Karaikudi Bike Tour, Culture, History, Markets

After last year amazing experience with Delhi, Rishikesh, Varanasi, Agra and Jaipur this year we decided to continue with Zicasso and explore South India. Together with my wife (57y and 50y) we travelled through Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. We slept in 11 hotels and by car made about 1000 km.

I have firmly and honestly state that from first to last minute we were confronted with first class services which were based on very good choice of hotels, very communicative driver, highly knowledgeable local guides and fantastic people of India.

Itinerary of our trip was fine-tuned in three rounds and implemented to reality by this travel company, Zicasso´s Indian local partner. Many thanks to the company's CEO for perfectly prepared itinerary.  I believe that this awesome experience started with his empathy and understanding for our expectations.

Let me start with great appreciation and thanks to travel company's. Since my wife is a pediatrician and our son is a child with special needs, we had a wish to visit Jivadhara Institute of Neuro Development and Research near Kochi, starting point of our trip. As we later experienced, it was not easy to set up this meeting. But thanks to our travel company, who sent over his employee; finally, we succeeded and had a fantastic two hour meeting with Sister Mary and Center tour. Great inspiration!

Other remarkable moment which made a great contribution to our contentment was our driver. Our driver was fluent in English and for us was not just a driver but also a good travel mate with whom we could discuss any topic of Indian life and local culture. Couple of times our driver recommended us unplanned stops at places which might be interesting for us. He was a very skilled, clam and safe driver having a history over 1,5 Mkm. We enjoyed our time with him very much.

Selection of hotels was great and at least 10 of 11 had its local boutique charm. No sterile hotel chains where you are not sure about the country you are currently in. Just to mention the wellness resort, our Kerala hotel or our Tamil Nadu Villas! Great, great, great!

As expected, selected city guides were real professional. Most of them university graduated and their knowledge of sites and history was absolute.

Another moment we enjoyed very much was the local cuisine. Yes, it is spicy, but spices, colors and all the hustle is an integral part of India. I recommend, don’t ask for “less spice”. Then you are at risk that you are neglecting a very essential moment of India. We brought home some 2 kg of Indian spices.