Welcome to Exotic India Journey

Travel Agency

About Exotic India Journey

As a well-known Indian travel organization we bring an extensive range of Indian destinations for you so that you can enjoy your vacation. We offer best and customized vacation for you to suit your exact needs. In addition, our special offers give you the best in value for money.

Flexibility
Day by day our life is becoming busier that?s why frequent short breaks are becoming famous. To meet this increasing demand we offer complete flexibility with a wide range of accommodations so that you can plan how long you want to stay.

You?re Choice
Our expert team has traveled across the Indian territories and offers personal guidance to make sure that you could get the most out of your holiday. You may wish to:
* Ask us to book your accommodation
* Book a private transfer
* Take a multi-center trip
* Take a customized Itinerary within India
* Pre-booked excursion or tickets for a sporting or cultural event in India.

Holidays

Themes

Ratings and Reviews

3.5

4 ratings & 4 reviews

Exotic India looked after us very well indeed. We were met at Delhi airport by Dev, and our driver Dinesh in an Innova car. This car & driver were then with us for our entire holiday of 11 days. We did not expect to be met in our other destinations by Agents, but when we arrived in Jaipur, another agent called Sanjay met us. We had arranged to visit the Amber Palace, going early so that we could enjoy the elephant ride (definitely worth doing) and then Sanjay acted as our guide around the Palace. We had not planned to see the City Palace, but Sanjay insisted that we see it, and we loved it. He is well informed & could answer all our questions. We then went on to Ranthambore in Sawai Madhopur, and that is a wonderful drive through rural farming areas. The wheat & the mustard seed were being harvested & we saw timeless harvesting scenes, and trucks, tractors etc. carrying MASSIVE loads of harvested products to various destinations. In Sawai Madhopur, we were met by another agent called Jimmy. At Ranthambore, Exotic India had lived up to their promise and had organised our Gypsy safaris as planned. When we were sent to the same Zones more than once, they were also helpful in insuring that it didn't happen again, and that we saw other Zones as well. Jimmy was again very helpful, especially when it came to arranging two extra Gypsy safaris as we hadn't seen a Tiger (despite SEVEN safaris!) and so in all we did NINE safaris. Still no tigers, but Ranthambore has plenty of other beautiful wildlife to see, lovely scenery & beautiful early morning & evening light. We did get a good sighting of a Leopard, even more elusive than the Tiger. Try not to get fixated on seeing a Tiger as you will miss out on all the birdlife. The most beautiful zones are Zones 3 & 4 with all their lakes & related water birds, but Tigers were seen in all the various zones - but we were never there at the right time! The system in Ranthambore for visitors has a lot to be desired. We come from Kenya where we have done a LOT of safaris, and Ranthambore runs on very tight schedules. During March, the gates open at 6.30 am, but sometimes the Gypsy's didn't pick guests up until nearly 7 am, by which time you have already missed the critical early morning in the Park. They should arrange that all the Gypsy's & Canters are AT THE GATE at 6.30 am, ready to enter. They then all drive quite fast through the park looking for tiger tracks ? but missing all the beautiful light filtering through the trees onto the spotted deer & other animals. Once they reach the far end of that Zone, they stop for everyone to use the toilets (usually in a very bad state!) and then they have to rush back to the gate which closes at 10 am. For EACH MINUTE that they are late, the drivers & guided have to pay IR.1000 fine!! In the evenings, the rush was the same ? so it is a difficult juggle of time. Definitely worth paying the extra money for the Gypsy's, but I could not book the Gypsy's on line, even though I was on the booking site the pre-requisite 3 months in advance. It seems that they are all allocated straight to agents. We then returned to Jaipur for the Festival of Holi, and again Sanjay met us and was extremely helpful, coming along on his motorbike and escorting us to the Temple. He then took us to see the Observatory, a fascinating place & not to be missed. Dinesh was a very reliable driver, always there on time, and drove safely & well. We had complete faith in him, and at the end he gave us a small marble statue of Ganesh. In India, be prepared to tip EVERYWHERE you go - but no one advises what is a reasonable tip. We were told that with the driver & guide in the Gypsy to give IR300 if no Tiger, & IR500 if we saw a Tiger. We didn't like that differential, so gave them IR500 whether we saw a Tiger of not. These people are all freelance, and once the season is over, they have no income. All our Guides were very pleasant; the drivers varied as some were very involved with the safaris & helped to spot game, others just drove. Our final stop was Agra & the Taj Mahal, & the drive from Jaipur to Agra was another enjoyable drive through rural farming areas. We went straight to the Metabarg Gardens to see the Taj in the sunset - well worth doing, and you can enjoy the spectacle without hordes of people around you. Our guide in Agra, Khalid met us at our hotel, and then returned to meet us at 6 am to take us to the Taj to see the sunrise. Unfortunately, he didn't get everyone moving, although we were all ready, and there was confusion about how to get there: horse carriage or electric vehicle (there are no petrol or diesel vehicles allowed in the immediate surroundings of the Taj as the fumes damage the white marble). As a result, by the time we got there, there was a HUMONGOUS queue to get through. I am a wheelchair user, so my husband and I were allowed through. It was my 3rd visit to the Taj Mahal, and it looks better each time. A truly marvellous site, and try to put aside a whole day to relax in the gardens with a book & just enjoy the atmosphere. It is crowded initially, but most people just visit for a couple of hours & then leave. Sadly, although Agra possesses one of the world's most beautiful monuments, as well as the spectacular Agra Fort, the town itself is squalid and unpleasant. Driving in India: be prepared for the town driving to be thoroughly chaotic: you share the roads with camel carts, motorbikes, tuk tuks, holy cows, tractors, huge trucks, buses with crowds of people sitting on the top as well as inside ?. etc. etc. Motorbikes usually have 3 or more people on them, and the women sit elegantly sideways, often with one arm clutching a baby. Even on the motorways, traffics frequently comes down the road the wrong way if it means a short cut. Despite all this, we saw only one accident - a truck rolled on its side. Food: always be wary of salads & uncooked food, and the water supply. Take your own medicine supply with such things as Immodium, anti-histamine, panadol. Polio & Yellow Fever injections required, six weeks in advance. Generally, we felt very safe in India. If people are hassling you to buy things, just put your hands together and incline your head & say "Namaste, no thank you" politely, & they will usually go away. I have travelled through India as a single 22 year old hippy traveller in the 70s on second class train, then a few years later when I was married travelling a little more up-market, then a third time to Goa, still pretty basic, and this time in a luxurious manner. I have enjoyed ALL my visits to India immensely and look forward to going again - & I would use Exotic India again. Thank you for looking after us very well.

5 April 2014  

Very Good.

9 January 2014  

I would like to do the review based on the below criteria: 1. Transportation facilities provided by the agent (car, driver, flexibility of the driver) - 4.5 out of 5 2. Guide facilities - Guide's services were good in terms of explaining the history, but all the guides were with money-making mentality by taking to restaurants were they have a tie-up and also by taking to "cottage industries" and persuading to make us buy stuff (we learnt that the guides were paid 25% by the seller...of course this is charged from the buyer!!). The guide given to us in Delhi was very bad since we had to plead him to explain about the places. 3. Hotels given in the package - All were good hotels except Maple Abay at Jodhpur which was really bad in all their services (toilet not flushed / cleaned when we entered, no trolley facilities for transporting luggage from bus to room and vice versa, staff not refined, stuffed atmosphere etc.). 4. Ensuring customer feedback - No staff from the Exotic India were liaising with us to know our comfort level on a daily-basis; They called us to discuss about some issues only. We were told that they were following-up on the driver. 5. Choice of places-of-visit - Although the itinerary was detailed and accepted with us earlier, and in a systematic manner, the last day of the 10 days visit was not planned for maximum utilization of time. Last day was blocked for visiting the Kingdom Of Dreams' however Exotic India informed us that their shows will start only in the afternoon and there was no time to see those since we had to leave to the airport at 5:30 pm to catch the flight. If this was the case, the venue could be planned in the day prior to our travel since we were already at Delhi. 6. Conclusion - In spite of all the above, we still recommend Exotic India since their staff were hospital minded and professionals. With a little care to close the aforementioned gaps, they can perform and sustain their business extremely well!

2 January 2014  
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