We were Indian virgins when we did the trip, so went on a conducted tour booked with a german firm neckerman. in the meantime we found the Ex-Soldiers Tourist Taxi Service based in Dehli, they can be found under indiarentalcars on the web.They are very good , hope this is some help. They could only come upwith a name like that in India1

Great website Lassigirl. There are loads of ideas for trips on it! Anyone else interested in the tour info check here

Hi Fiona,
We did the Golden Triangle Tour the first week in November 2006 and we really enjoyed it. We did it by road and it was quite tiring but we had been trekking in Nepal for the previous 2 weeks.
We considered many options for booking the tour eg UK company, luxury,mid range hotels before opting for a Delhi based company and using Indian owned hotels.
After some research we opted for Namaste India Tours
http://www.namasteindiatours.com [url], who had good testimonials and several recommendations on Indiamike.
They were excellent, provided guides where appropriate and the driver Ramesh was a guide in himself, he could not have been more helpful, looking after us throughout the day and taking us to and from Restaurants in the evening.
The quality of the Indian Hotels considering the price was excellent, although a word of caution make sure your Agra hotel is not on a main road as the traffic at night is very noisy.
On the website you can read the full itinerary and price of the 6 day Golden Triangle Tour, it was excellent, highly recommended if you did opt for this you should ask for driver Kumar Ramesh.

We flew LHR/Delhi and Mumbai/LHR with Jet and Delhi/Goa with Spicejet both were very good.

We also, independently, went to Varanasi and if you had the time a visit here is well worth it, certainly one of the most interesting places we have visited, Scindhia Guest House right on the ghats.

Let me know if you have specific questions.

Dave

thanks Dave
I've just looked at the tour they do and the price looks unbelievably good!
We are right at the start of planning( and husband is trying to push South Africa at the moment but I usually win in the end). Do you know if they are flexible at all- re hotels and itinery?

Fiona

I did the Golden Triangle many years ago and can't advise you on a travel firm but have heard recently about namaste tours being a good company.
I don't really like Delhi and for me two to three days there would be plenty. The idea of sitting by the pool is not always the best option. The hotels are often near main roads and can be very noisy. The first time I was there my hotel pool was empty. Last time I stayed at the Oberoi which was very good but this was almost ten years ago so I really don't know what the present standard is like.
When I left Agra I flew to Khajuraho(famous for it's erotic wall carvings) then Varanesi, and as Dave C says a higlight of the trip. Riding in a boat along the Ganges at dawn seeing all the pilgrims and funeral pyres still stays in my mind. If the Goa option doesn't work out these two places may be worth doing. It's a good idea to hire an Indian company to make arrangements if you only have a fixed amount of time, it's extremely time consuming, long queues everywhere and often lots of red tape and the extra expense of getting someone to do all the booking is certainly worth the usually very reasonable price.

thanks Judith
I did wonder about pool time in Delhi as we don't usually do this on city visits. I just thought the tours may be exhausting so we might welcome some relaxation. When we do go I would certainly use a tour company as I don't think I could do all I wanted under my own steam, and I do like DIY usually. I will look at Varanesi- I'm afraid I don't know anything about it

Fiona,

Yes they are completely flexible and will arrange your intinerary and hotels to suit you.
I asked them to book an extra night on the return to Delhi at an hotel that I had chosen and because the tour company owner Jawahar hadnt used or seen the hotel, he went specifically to vet it for us before he confirmed the booking.
As payment is made locally we went to his office, actually in his house, and met the family and discussed with him some other options for bespoke tours that he would put together to Himachal Pradesh.

Dave

thanks Dave
when you look at what the tour operators are charging it is certainly a "must" to book with a local company. One operator was charging £900 each for a 5 day tour( and no meals included). Add that to the flights and that is one expensive time.

Fiona, trust you are asking about the Golden Triangle in India and not South East Asia (Golden Triangle of the Indian Ocean). I have done the traditional Golden Triangle - which is Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. But I also stole time off to go and stay in the famous Lake Palace (run by the Taj) at Udaipur. I was lucky. This year, there has been a lot of rain and the lake filled up, in fact, overflowed into the palace - I have some pix somewhere, if you like. But the experience of staying in a Palace in the middle of the Lake was fantastic. I felt like the Mahrajah must have felt, very very royal - and its only his summer palace! The hotel also featured in the famous James Bond movie - Octopussy.
Another amazing spectaculour palace is the Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur. Recently renovated and restored and run by the Taj, its breathtaking - the Hall of Public Audience is a WOW!
And Jaipur - the famous pink city of India, has lots and lots of history and palaces. Delhi is a must for the Red Fort and displays the quirks of a city conquered many times over - as it has. Lots of good places to eat in Delhi, though. And two days in Agra, are regrettably not enough for the Taj Mahal. I could spend the rest of my life looking at it, like its creator - Shah Jehan did.
So back to Golden Triangles in India - there is also the South India Golden Triangle - Mysore, Bangalore and Ooty. I have travelled a lot all over India - and am now based in Mumbai and Goa for a bit. In my travels, I've seen Varanasi (Benares) - took a dip in the Ganges to wash away my sins and prevent being re-born, Kolkatta (Calcutta), Bangalore, Mysore, Ooty, Chennai (Madras), Rajasthan, Gujarat - especially Saurashtra and the Rann of Kutch, a camel safari in the Thar desert, Kerala, Bodhgaya - the place where Gautama Buddha attained Nirvana, Lucknow - the land of the softest kebab known to man, Ranthambore and Sawai Madhopore wild life sanctuaries, Hyderabad - the richest man in the world was its Nizam, about 80-odd years ago - when the Nizam died, they found pearls wrapped in pound-notes, rotting away in the royal treasury, Pune, Mumbai... Plan to do Shimla, Assam and the North East this year. Heard rumours about a road from Assam to Bangkok - wow, want to check them out
Ok Fiona, have run out of breath and words just now, and not even sure if this is what you asked for.
Scare you may delete it!
Cheers!

Welcome to HT! What a great first post. So much information. I would love to see the photos. Have a look at our photo gallery. Here is our upload instructions

You obviously love India. Please stick around as I will have loads of questions once we decide and book our trip.

Hi Fiona,
Sure, am not going anywhere in a hurry. Tried to upload some pix, but since this is my first go, dont know if I did the right things. Will try again on the weekend and will be back with more news.
Cheers

you succeeded with the photos. They are in the upload album for the minute! Thanks- the Palace looks spectacular.
Edit
Allmen has given them their own album
here

Have decided to book with Namaste. They have given us a few different choices of hotel from the itinery. I particularly like the Jaipur hotels they have given us to choose from- and we are going with a suite at
Narain Niwas which comes to an extortianate £42 a night.

We are thinking of going to India this Christmas 2007. Have looked at the namaste site and it looks really reasonable. Has anyone else been in December? Where is the best place to get flights? Showing my ignorance - how long is the flight to Delhi?!

My husband son and I are going to Delhi, then Agra by road and then staying just one night in Agra, being driven to Jaipur where we commence the above named tour. Can't wait. We booked direct with the Taj Hotel Group and have an AC large vehicle to ourselves so we can dump any excursions we don't fancy.

Be interesting to hear if anyone else has done this tour with the Taj ?
Taj is our favourite Indian hotel - we also like Oberoi and Leela for India.

Having done the Agra/Delhi/Jaipur triangle, with Udiapur too, a couple of years back I'd certainly recommend all four places. I especially liked Udiapur and probably had the best time of my trip there.
I did it alone semi-independently, that is not on a tour. In hindslight I think I would have been better off on a tour.
Some friends of friends run a travel agency in Mumbai and they fixed hotels and train tickets/reservations for me, but charged me well over the odds. This was mainly because I asked for "good hotels" which they took as meaning top range five stars.
I did Agra as a day trip in the January fog from Delhi, by hiring a car and guide from the hotel - again priced over the odds but this was my first trip and all part of the learning process. It was a long day but I did have plently of time at the Taj but little else.
In Jaipur I had another guide and car arranged privately with the guide in Delhi. Both offered the usual stops at handicraft "exhibitions" which all turned out to be the usual salesrooms with high pressure selling. I soon learnt to refuse to go to such places. On organised tours they often make similar stops but at least you are with a crowd and can avoid being singled out by the salesmen.
In Udiapur a guide with a rickshaw caught my attention as I left the station, he was the best I've ever come across and probably helped to make it the easiest part of my trip.

we are not going to Udiapur but have a 5 day/4night tour in an a/c car with a guide and all accomodation for £280. It would have been cheaper but we upgraded our hotel in Jaipur, where we have a 2 night stay. Still, if we like it, we can always return and visit Udiapur then

that is amazingly cheap. We are paying $4700 for three people for 6 nights and private AC vehicle and tours. But that is all at 5* Taj hotels.

Is that per person?

no- that is the total for two- it will go up a bit as we are upgrading the car. We are not staying at anything like a Raj hotel obviously but 2 of our 4 nights are being spent in a suite here- which I am looking forward to experiencing
We looked at tour operators and what they were offering but felt it was too much considering the low costs once you are out there. Would love to stay at a Raj hotel but this is one of 3, possibly 4 holidays this year so we can't have everything