We returned on 7th November from a 28 day Wendy Wu Grand Tour of India. Wow what an amazing time and to visit so many places it seemed impossible. We knew from the itinerary that it would be a busy/intense holiday with internal flights and some long days, but despite the huge list on the day to day listings we got to see everything and more. Every box was ticked and although tired some days, extremely happy and satisfied.
We were a party of 19 and all except my wife and I were from either N Z or Australia and as they were of a similar age, (retired but not OLD) we had a fun time and our bus often rocked with laughter. None of the exceptional tour would have run so smoothly if it hadn’t been for our tour manager MK Jain who was brilliant, and we often wondered if he ever slept. He organized all luggage, checking in to hotels and airports and any hotel complaints. Any little problems he ironed out (delayed flights/traffic problems all beyond his control) and so the holiday was seamless as far as we were concerned from our day of arrival, until he left us 3 weeks later at Mumbai airport. At the other end we had our final tour manager AJ but not a parch on MK whom we sadly missed.
There are many forms of transport to be taken over the holiday scary rickshaws and even more frightening tuk tuk journeys all add to the excitement. It is the fact that you are crammed into the vehicles and mixing with fast, noisy and very close traffic. We had some very early mornings to see the sunrise, evening dashes to see the best sunsets, such great photo opportunities. We saw so many towns and cities, palaces and forts, and so it is hard to come down to which were the highlights of the whole holiday. But high on the list has to be the visit to Varanasi (seeing the sunrise over the Ganges), The Jain temples of Khajuraho (amazing), the Taj Mahal at sunrise and the Thar Desert (on a camel) at sunset. Not forgetting the caves at Ajanta and Ellora, and the wonderful city of Jaipur. I could add many more places to this.
Accommodation was varied (we stayed in 16 different places) and ranged from very good to excellent when on 2 separate nights we stayed in Heritage sites and were in a palace, and then a 500 year old fort, totally amazing! The food was always good, mostly buffet style and although almost always curries of one type or another for lunch and evening, as the regions changed so did the heat and style of the food so it never became boring.
We had (mostly) excellent local guides as well at our destinations and these helped to put into perspective the time scales of artefacts and sights we were visiting and hopefully we absorbed some if not all of the information. The exception was at Ranthambore where our guide morning and afternoon seemed to be uninterested in us as a group or even giving any information about any other animals we may/or may not see. We weren’t expecting to get even a glimpse of a tiger, and all we saw were recent paw prints. But we seemed to spend a lot of time sitting and listening with no commentary from the guide (who spent most of his time looking at his smartphone) which became a bit boring.
Our tour manager MK also encouraged us when possible to go out and meet the local people and mingle and we tried to do this often – it is the only way to get to know what a wonderful vast colourful country India is. We clearly only saw a small fraction but I believe it did give us over the 4 weeks a true flavour of this wonderful country.
A slight downside was the latter part of the holiday, in Kerala. Our accommodation in Kochin (Casino Hotel) was poor compared to previous weeks very run down with a restaurant poorer than a transport café. Our night on the kettuvallam was so disappointing. Our group was split into 5 crafts, 4 of these larger, with modern and better facilities. Ours was an old craft, lacking modern facilities (and even water for some of the trip!) Four of us had an uncomfortable night with the only boat not having mosquito screens. The captain and cook spoke virtually no English, we had no idea where we had to go when we stopped, the food was poor and cold, including a dish of chicken which we dared not eat. It is a shame that we were not all treated equally and those that experienced the better standard boats had an enjoyable time.
The last hotel in Kovalam was indeed in a lovely setting right on the Indian Ocean, and the bedrooms were excellent, with large rooms and a balcony and air con. But the public spaces and dining areas were open, hot, noisy and had no air con, a very unpleasant and uncomfortable dining experience. We were taken to another hotel on the last evening for a meal and that was a disaster. We were on a higher floor with no air con, high humidity and a widescreen TV on throughout the meal. Water provided at the table was warm, as were the soft drinks ordered and subsequently sent back. Even our tour manager apologised and said it was unacceptable. I cannot understand how any Wendy Wu representative had sanctioned this as a suitable venue.
The holiday was very good value for money with all the transport, accommodation, expert guides and entrance fees included. You get to see a lot of India in a fairly short time, and there is not a lot of relaxation time, but that I had expected. Go prepared for that, and some long days and come back with a much better understanding of India. Thank you Wendy Wu we had a ball.
Most of the trip deserved a 5+ star rating and 2 of the hotels (heritage sites) were off the scale for luxury, but the poor experiences and accommodation in the last few days (as detailed above) dragged the rating down. I was also disappointed that the package accommodation ended 14 hours before our pickup time at 1.00am on the Thursday of our return. I cannot understand why Wendy Wu demanded £140 for a room for the last afternoon and evening prior to leaving for the airport when booking direct online cost us just over £80, just a bit of a niggle as virtually everything in our 28 day tour was included. We will certainly travel again with Wendy Wu.
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Our Response
Thank you for your 5* review!
We understand that upon your return to the UK you contacted us with some concerns about the tour, which my colleague had responded to towards the end of last year, but are pleased to see that despite those concerns you still had a fantastic tour to India.
It is amazing to receive such a detailed review. Please be assured we have shared this with our local operators in India who will pass your comments about MK Jain onto him, and our India product team.
Although our tours can be tiring, we try to incorporate as much sightseeing as possible to ensure our passengers get the most out of their tours. We are pleased that you both saw everything that was scheduled along with more to enhance your experience, including the sunset at the Taj Mahal and the Ganges in Varanasi along with many more!
We love to hear such positive comments about MK Jain, and how he handled any issues that arose to ensure these did not effect the enjoyment of your tour.
Our local operators and India product team have worked very hard to ensure the hotels used for our 2020 tours are of a suitable standard, and it is great for us to learn that most of the accommodation allocated to you was of either good or excellent standard.
We are pleased to hear that you would travel with us again, and truly hope you have returned with some incredible memories that will remain with you for a lifetime!
