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Reviews — 8
Review is for Amir of 'Splended Indian Tours' -- much like C Schmidt below, I found that Amir overpromised and underdelivered. I got much less than I paid for (for example, 3rd class train tickets when I had paid for 2nd class) and I regretted not just booking everything myself. Be wary.
This is a review for a seven-day trip in Southern India in August 2022, which I booked at Splendid Indian Holidays located in the office of Mumbai Sight Seeing Tours / Magical Mumbai Tours.
The initial rudimentary travel plan has been set up with Amir from Splendid Indian Holidays. He is very motivated in closing the deal fast and getting you to swipe your credit card. I recommend you take your time, discuss the parts of your trip in detail and document it extensively in the travel plan.
He tells you he offers an official “Indian Travel Pass”. Although I did an exhaustive search afterwards, this seems not to exist in India. He talks about “you get the full package” and “the service”. The service includes the booking of accommodations, transfers, and local tours. Local guides organized by him always lack good English-speaking abilities (at least for my trip). If you have in mind “the full package” while paying a large amount in terms of Indian standards, you expect the tour company to come to an accommodation, if things don’t go as planned. However, this didn‘t work out for me in the end.
Here’s an example: in the travel plan, one of the destinations for three days was Hampi. He told me, I will get a driver for those days to show me around, since Hampi is a vast area. Due to a lack of available housing in Hampi, he proposed a hotel in Hosapete, which is 15 km away. Since I expected to have a driver, I agreed. When I arrived, it turned out he only booked the driver for one of three days. Trying to resolve the conflict on the phone ended up in me paying additionally for the driver, which is in my point of view cheeky for a) the unreasonably large amount I have paid upfront and b) he assured me the driver while setting up the travel plan.
In summary, if you don’t want to organize the trip yourself, don’t mind paying substantially more than when doing the bookings yourself (you pay ca. 60 % extra) and to receive “service” with medium quality, this is the place to go.
Would I do it again? Surely not.
The initial rudimentary travel plan has been set up with Amir from Splendid Indian Holidays. He is very motivated in closing the deal fast and getting you to swipe your credit card. I recommend you take your time, discuss the parts of your trip in detail and document it extensively in the travel plan.
He tells you he offers an official “Indian Travel Pass”. Although I did an exhaustive search afterwards, this seems not to exist in India. He talks about “you get the full package” and “the service”. The service includes the booking of accommodations, transfers, and local tours. Local guides organized by him always lack good English-speaking abilities (at least for my trip). If you have in mind “the full package” while paying a large amount in terms of Indian standards, you expect the tour company to come to an accommodation, if things don’t go as planned. However, this didn‘t work out for me in the end.
Here’s an example: in the travel plan, one of the destinations for three days was Hampi. He told me, I will get a driver for those days to show me around, since Hampi is a vast area. Due to a lack of available housing in Hampi, he proposed a hotel in Hosapete, which is 15 km away. Since I expected to have a driver, I agreed. When I arrived, it turned out he only booked the driver for one of three days. Trying to resolve the conflict on the phone ended up in me paying additionally for the driver, which is in my point of view cheeky for a) the unreasonably large amount I have paid upfront and b) he assured me the driver while setting up the travel plan.
In summary, if you don’t want to organize the trip yourself, don’t mind paying substantially more than when doing the bookings yourself (you pay ca. 60 % extra) and to receive “service” with medium quality, this is the place to go.
Would I do it again? Surely not.
Wonderful
I booked a walking tour of the dharavi slums which was very good. However I had not been given a departure time to meet at the cafe so asked the very capable hotel concierge to ring magical tours to find out. He made several attempts and eventually spoke to Samir Kamble. The consierge has confirmed to me that the tour company offered to pick us up and return us to hotel and no money mentioned. At the end of the tour and somewhere on the edge of the slum were asked for 2000 rupee for the transport service. Spoke to Mr Kamble who was rude and quite dismissive of me as a woman asking to speak to my husband. We did not know where we were in relation to transport so ended up paying the money only to have to wait for an ola to return us which would have cost around 250 rupee. The hotel have confirmed that there were no messages left for me at hotel in relation to departure times. I can confirm no email. So we had no idea what time we should have been meeting. I would not trust mr Samir Kamble who I believe ripped us off big time.
The hotel, Oberoi, has very clear policies on this and can confirm all.
The hotel, Oberoi, has very clear policies on this and can confirm all.
Had a great one day tour that included everyone on our list of things to see and do along with places they said was a must see. Sam our tour guide didn’t let us down for an unforgettable day. Can’t wait to get back to see some other options for s day of the cruise ship.
Great slum tour. The group’s guide, Yash, took us on a tour through the Slum and showed us what the locals do on a daily basis, the different professions they have and the conditions they live and work under. It was quite insightful and interesting. For example, there are families who live in just one small room where they sleep, cook and spend the day. This experience has helped me reflect upon myself and appreciate much more things that I have always used to take for granted.
Nice tour operator in Mumbai.
