“When my son invited me to join him in India after his three weeks in Tamil Nadu, I accepted immediately but on the condition that we went to Rajasthan. He readily agreed.”
I then researched the various options open to us and came up with the following:

  1. Book a tour with one of the big UK based tour operators
  2. Go backpacking and book hotels and trains up front
  3. Go backpacking and improvise as we travelled
  4. Hire a driver and car
  5. Book the tour through a local, Indian, company

My conclusions were that

Option 1 was too expensive (double the price of Option 5), too impersonal, involved travelling with lots of others in air conditioned coaches, too inflexible and staying in up market hotels that cocooned you from the real India

Option 2 was a possibility but at 64 years old not really an option for me

Option 3 was a ‘no no’ for the same reason

Option 4 was viable but left too much uncertainty

Option 5 was the best option but carried a degree of risk with it.

Having decided on Option 5 I went on to the Indian Tourist Board web site and submitted my requirements. In a very short time I had phone calls from a number of people in India who listened to my requirements and then submitted proposals/quotes with their recommendations. I very quickly came to the conclusion that Anil Prajapati of Intense India Tours most closely matched my requirements, didn’t try the hard sell on me and gave me a good feeling about him.

I was still concerned with the fact that I would have to put down a 30% deposit to a company in a far off land I knew nothing about so Anil supplied me with a number of UK people who I contacted all of whom gave him glowing references. I gave Anil the remaining 70% on arrival at Udaipur.

After refining my itinerary further I agreed with Anil that we would go ahead with the tour staring in Mumbai and taking in Udaipur, Rawla Narlai, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Jaipur, Agra and Delhi.

I am extremely glad that I chose Anil and Intense India as we had a brilliant two week holiday being driven round by Lalit (Superman) who was a brilliant driver, a wonderfully friendly and informative tour guide, always happy, flexible and punctual.

We were met in Mumbai by Anil’s representative who drove us round the crazy city for a day before driving us to the airport where we flew to Udaipur on Jet Connect. There we were met by Anil and Lalit who drove us to our hotel overlooking Lake Pichola. Anil returned to Delhi but kept in contact with us on a daily basis to ensure everything was OK. He met us again in Agra and Delhi to get our feedback and suggestions. Anil is a truly likeable and trustworthy person whose only concern was with our satisfaction, safety and comfort.

My son and I thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Rajasthan and we are very confident in recommending Intense India Tours. The hotels were excellent (top of the budget range) and I am happy to list them for you as well as leaving TripAdvisor feedback for each of them independently.

If you want a well organized tour from a very friendly comfortable that is stress free then Intense India Tours are the one for you.