Siam Treasures tour

Our trip to India was an amazing experience. I think Encounters Travel did an excellent job! Everything was not perfect, but I also did not expect perfection! When you travel to a third world country, you always have to be ready for unexpected changes and try to be flexible. All in all I loved this tour. Our first stop was Delhi and we had an excellent guide, Jimmy, very knowledgeable and also funny. Very much enjoyed his company and time together. Second stop was Agra, where we spent one night. The hotel was a bit nicer than the one in Delhi, but both were really ok. Third stop was Jaipur, which is my favorite city on this tour, really amazing with the City Palace, the Amber Fort and the Jantar Mantar, a collection of astronomical instruments, built in 1738 and the largest sun dial of the world. We stayed in the fabulous Shahpura House, an old Heritage House, converted into Hotel. It was really great, with rooftop restaurant, Indian music and dance show at night and very nice swimming pool in the backyard. Next trip took us to the Shekhawati Region. Its a bit of a long trip, and it was hot. This region is famous for its Havelis, traditional, ornately decorated residences, with enclosed court yards. These residences are famous for its frescos, they belonged to the business men from the time when the silk road was striving and a lot of commerce was conducted between Asia and Europe. However, the Havelis that we saw were very run down and hardly livable, with once house occupied by a care taker family. When we entered, we saw the man of the house peeing in the corner of the court yard, and that was not what we had expected, but when you travel in India, you get used to seeing men pee everywhere! Not really what you want to see, but India has this duality, modern and primitive! Our taxi had wifi, but the stench of the polluted air, the garbage everywhere and the dirt and lack of sanitary conditions accompanied us everywhere! The air in Delhi was terrible, smelled like a mix of fire and garbage and I woke up every day with my eyes very swollen, but, again, that's India. India's cities are the most polluted in the world today! The poverty and all the begging children is also very disturbing and heart breaking, but we were prepared that this is common in India and part of the experience. All in all this was an amazing trip and I would highly recommend it!

My first time visit to India was with Encounters Travel. What a super awesome experience! Not to exaggerate but the way the people welcomed me at the airport even made up for the sudden heat. Very well maintained cars, very nice hotels and I very much appreciated how the driver kept offering me perfectly chilled water every day. The various guides I had in the different cities were equally excellent. It was a small group, which made it even better because we got to see a bit more than we would have if we were a larger group. We got to spend a bit more time at sights too due to this reason. I was sad to leave India because the way things were organized definitely made me feel taken care of. Thank you Encounters Travel!

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.