India

Amazing 2 weeks trip to India. Great organisation. Great contacts local guides and organisers. Absolutely recommend. Already thinking about next trip to India

It was the best two weeks ever thanks to Atul and his wonderful team. We spent one week north of India, visited all the wonderful spots and we even celebrated Holi. It’s very complicated to select one highlight as we really saw so many wonderful things. After a week in the north we went to Kochi and visited the south of India which is more relaxing, green and seems like a different country. Atul was the best coordinator, he anticipated all our needs and was listening and adapting the program to our wish. Thank you so much Atul and Vijay for everything. You made our trip wonderful.

Just finished up the Incredible India tour, what an amazing experience! If you’re expecting every modern comfort and can’t be in the heat too long, this might not be for you. However, you would miss out on the experience to taste the most flavorful, colorful, and energetic culture that exists in this world. I would describe this tour as a Golden Triangle+ (it goes to a couple more towns/villages)
On most stops a local tour guide would join your group and give you a thorough explanation and interesting facts of the monuments, palaces, forts, etc. They were all fantastic. Not only they taught you the history but also made sure you visited markets, small villages, and mingled with the locals that were going about their daily lives. For this trip, we made sure we picked a date that included Holi festival. This was very special as we celebrated Holi in a very small village (Tordi). We got to play with the colors in a small village full of wonderful kids and people that were just as curious of us as we were of them. We had a blast with the colors. Our driver, Mr. Singh will always be a friend. In typical Sikh manner he was always there to save the day whenever anything went wrong. He did it always with a huge smile and would throw in a joke or two.
The accommodations were very well selected. As the tour description states, the heritage hotels were the absolute best. The hospitality was in the true Indian way. Both the Khandela Haveli and the Tordi Garh were great. I wish all hotels were in that style.
Booking this trip had its major challenges caused by India entry restrictions related to COVID-19. Encounters Travel did an excellent job recognizing these challenges and modifying their policies. I feel like they were more than fair in recognizing the uncertainties of traveling during a pandemic. Ant Horrobin took us by the hand throughout the entire process and kept us up to date with all the changes. Thanks to him we decided to go on with the trip and we could not be any happier!
Highly recommend.

This trip was fantastic, informative from start to finish. We were a small group of 13. We were lucky: everyone was congenial and punctual, meeting up at the appointed times, and Big Mo, our guide, with years of experience, paved our way from start to finish doling out sound advice, tips and precautions.
There are a couple of things you might want to know:
1) The food is delicious but its best to avoid raw fruits and vegetables, and never drink water from the tab. I was overly careful, even used straws to drink from a canned soda, etc. and I felt only an hours worth of travelers diarrhea. My husband ended up with a much bigger hit. He ignored advice from our friend who'd traveled to India and China many times. Rather than run the risk of missing some of the activities, just go without salads for one week... There are plenty of great cooked food options.
2) The sleeper train was an experience from Cairo to Aswan. If you are young, can afford to forego a good sleep, maybe its an adventure worth having. For the return trip, Luxor to Cairo, we asked to upgrade to Egypt Air and an extra night at the 5 star, Sheraton in Cairo. In other words we scratched a return trip by sleeper car train, and were very glad.
We can't say enough good things about Encounters Travel and our Egyptian experience.

Between my sister and her husband's planning and the organisation of Encounters we had the most amazing holiday in India. I wouldn't have changed a thing, and it was great to feel so confident in all the arrangements.