Travel Review: Tour of India & Nepal, Delhi, Agra, Kathmandu, Varanasi, Jaipur, Udaipur, Mumbai, Taj Mahal, Diwali Festival

My four rating reflects some disconnect between the agreed itinerary we set up with our travel company and what happened on the ground in India and Nepal. I'm not sure if that was the travel company problem or that of its partner and its subcontractors. That said, any issues we raised were addressed quickly and mostly to our complete satisfaction. 

Overall, I'd say that travel in this part of the world is difficult. Traffic in the cities is impossible! Also, we found poor air quality most everywhere, but particularly in Delhi and to some extent in Agra. I had visited the Taj nearly 38 years earlier and a comparison of photos from that trip and our latest underline the air quality problem. (Nevertheless, the Taj is magnificent!) While the travel was difficult and sometimes pretty exhausting, the trip lived up well to our expectations. We wanted an adventure and we got it! I am particularly interested in Eastern philosophies and religions and it was a bonanza on that count. I learned much.  The temples and palaces were amazing, and I loved the vibrant colors everywhere, from saris to spices.  Our travel agency was good to work with in setting up our trip, patient and accommodating. We worked on the itinerary for a number of months. The guides, transfer agents, and drivers in both India and Nepal were generally terrific. Not once during the entire time was anyone other than perfectly punctual.  Some seemed exceptionally well informed -- including our guide through Mumbai's Dharavi slum, who had lived there himself for more than a dozen years. We nicknamed our guide in Mumbai "sadhu" -- both because of his appearance (rail thin, beard, long hair) but also the depth of his knowledge about Hinduism and his ability to communicate that in terms we could grasp. We spent six days travelling by car with our driver who we came to appreciate enormously as our friend and guardian. As for hotels, we loved the hotels in Katmandu and Udaipur. We were only slightly less impressed with the hotel in Varanasi. The hotels in Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur, were quite good. The hotel in Pushkar was fine though located a little far from town. The hotel in Pokhara, Mumbai, and  in Bangalore were acceptable but not more.