romelitavillaluz
25 Jan 2020
If you have limited time in Dehli and want to see the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and also experience the rail system in India, this is the tour for you!, I also highly recommend the drivers Sunil (in Dehli) and Sanjay (in Agra) and my professional tour guide (Shurab)! They all made sure I had a memorable time on this trip. Shurab was very professional and provided a very comprehensive explanation of both the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort. Although, I was taken to a couple of “government approved” shops, I did not feel any pressure to purchase anything. If anything, I learned about the cottage industry in Agra. The lunch that was included in this trip was excellent and it was great having Shurab helping me with the different food options. When I arrived back in Dehli, Sunil (Dehli driver) was right outside the train waiting for me. He is an excellent and safe driver especially weaving through Dehli’s rush hour! Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this trip and thank you to Sunil, Sanjay and Shurab for the excellent service!
WhenMarkTravels
29 Nov 2019
The trip to Agra was very special. Overall, we felt it was well organized and thoughtfully put together. The sights we took in were certainly beautiful and worth the price of admission. However, there are a couple of things that might be helpful for the average tourist (a category which we fall into) to know.
1.) The logistics of this trip are more complicated than Viator explains on their website, as you are essentially met by a different "handler" at each step of the trip. It all worked very well, but we were a bit unprepared for the system of being passed off from one person to the next, not always quite knowing who or what to look for.
The sequence of events went like this... First, we got picked up by one man at our hotel, who drove us to a train station in Delhi, waited with us until our train arrived, and then walked us to our seats (but did not come with us to Agra). When we arrived in Agra, we were met by another man outside the station who had a sign with my name on it (there also many other drivers waiting with signs for their customers). Viator gave no indication of an exchange of this nature, and we would have had no idea it was coming or what to do when we got off the train, if our driver from that morning hadn't given us careful instructions about needing to exit the train station in Agra. Our new driver drove us to meet another man who was to be our tour guide for the Taj Mahal, the fort, and the restaurant. He stayed with us the whole time we were in Agra, and was very kind, helpful, and informative – a real mensch. At the end of the day, our personal tour concluded a little early, so our tour guide dropped us off at a coffee shop and confirmed with our Agra-based driver that he would be back to take us back to the station at 5pm. Once at the train station, our driver waited with us to make sure we got on the right train, and walked us to our seats. Finally, a new individual met us right when we got off the train back in Delhi (our morning driver had texted a picture of us to the evening driver so he knew what we looked like). We were then driven back to our hotel. While the hand-offs from person to person were unexpected (because not mentioned in the description by Viator), they were seamless. We didn't always know who to look for, but they always knew to be looking for us, and ultimately we felt well taken care of on our adventure from Delhi to Agra.
2.) Have money for tips. Everyone of these men expects and deserves to be tipped (tour guides, drivers, handlers), it's a big part of how they earn a living. I'm not an expert on tipping in India, but there are plenty of travel blogs that will help you to know an appropriate range for tipping in just about every circumstance.
3.) Three times during the tour in Agra, our tour guide intentionally routed us to people and places where we were rather aggressively encouraged to spend money on a product or a service.These people were different than your average panhandler or pushy street vendor, which are VERY COMMON in India, and we were a little caught off guard by the fact that our tour guide was actually working in cahoots with other parties (not related to the Viator tour) to bring them potential customers. That's not to say that our tour guide was pushy or intentionally duplicitous, not at all really, and in fact, this sort of looking out for friends in the tourist business is quite normal. For us, it was just unexpected. It was really the sellers he connected us with who were very pushy. In fact, our tour guide mostly backed out of the conversation and let us make our own decision about whether we should spend money with his acquaintances.
First, we were taken to a photographer who tried hard to get us to spend loads of money on hundreds of personal photos at the Taj Mahal. We wanted to support this man's business, so we consented to getting the least amount of photos possible at the lowest price he was offering. He kept pushing us to buy more, but we held the line. Tourists should feel fully empowered to refuse this sort of photo op racket, as there are literally dozens of male photographers waiting to pounce on unsuspecting visitors with the offer of unforgettable pictures and memories from the Taj. If you do decide to get photos be prepared for silly and contrived poses that will remind you of senior photos (if you'e American) or engagement photos...
The second place/person we were taken to was what we were told by our tour guide would be a museum, but was actually an art and jewelry store. Once there, our tour guide disappeared and a smarmy and aggressive salesman tried to get us to buy everything in the store. Again, one can simply refuse to buy and hold the line if they want to, but there was some nice stuff available, and this is in part the way business is done in these places. If you do think you want to buy something, be ready for an in-your-face attempt to get you to buy more than you want to. Also, know that you hold in your hands the mosty important card in these interactions – refusal to pay the prices they are initially offering. It is the art of bartering and haggling for a lower price. My wife and are proved not to be great barterers in this store, and we now know that we could have haggled down the price for much less than we paid, though we love the piece we purchased. These sellers do no want you leave without squeezing some money out of you, but you can get them to give you much lower prices than they suggest in their initial offering. Really, you should be ready to walk away if they won't lower their first price to something you are comfortable with. You can make counter offers, stall, stonewall, and even offer to buy more items in an economical package deal. If you know that these shopping detours are going to be part of the tour ahead of time, then you can be ready for it, and hopefully you won't be quite as caught off guard as my wife and I. The haggling can be fun, if a bit exhausting, but rest assured it's a good cultural experience to have.
The last place we were taken was a stone and marble craft shop. Again, this was billed at the outset by our tour guide as more of a museum experience, a sort of "come see how the decorative marble inlay at the Taj is made" kind place, but it was really just a store with another aggressive salesperson working hard to convince foreigners of the need to spend money. We didn't make any purchases at the second store, and after trying hard for a while, the main salesperson was gracious in letting us leave empty handed. It's sort of like a sporting event where everyone tries hard to score points, and by the conclusion, it's mostly handshakes and mutual respect. At least, that was our limited experience.
In the end, I wrote all this because I know I would have benefited from reading a review like this ahead of time. My wife and I would highly recommend this tour, but it's always helpful to know all of what you're getting into ahead of time when it's possible. This was a great way to enjoy some of the beautiful people and places that India has to offer!