Private 3-Day Ranthambhore Tiger Tour from Agra ending in Jaipur

Excellent tour of Agra, Ranthambore and Jaipur. Our driver DK Sharma was very patient and diligent to get us from A to B and then to C with our near two year old boy who has moods that change like the weather ???????? the guides were great and very knowledgeable. We really loved the Tigress Hotel which was breath taking and although we didn’t see any tigers on the tour, we left feeling satisfied and fulfilled with some excellent 5-star accomodation, sights, sounds and foods.

The tour started off smoothless (and it continued like that for the entire trip) with an alignment the night before to make sure everything was in order and in the morning we were picked up at our specified location by our wonderful driver, Mr K. K. who accompanied us during the entire tour. Much thanks to him and his local knowledge he could answer questions and point out small details along the way. Even though his English lacked a bit when describing certain detals I'd say it only added authencity. The entire experience was enhanced by his happy mood! Overall: Everything went very smooth with "company people" greeting us at every location to go through the planned schedule and suit to any of our needs. All spoke very good English. The driving is like Indian driving is most (talkint as a swede were space on the road is almost never an issue) but we always felt safe in the car which had bottled water, WiFi and AC. The guides in Jaipur and Agra were both very professionall and adjusted to our impulse requests. A bit to keen on taking pictures of us posing in front of different monuments, but nothing that harmed the experience and now we have an extensive collection of us posing in front of monuments. They also handled all the tickets and everything so that we could chill in the shade and just enjoy the experience. A very appreciated thing was that we were told in before hand on who it was appropriate to tip of the non-"company people" as well as how much and when. Jaipur: In Jaipur we first picked up our local guide and then arrived at Amber Fort where an elephant carried us up the hill. After riding them it's my opinion that you should skip it since the animals seemed to suffer (even though the government only allow 5 journeys per elephant per day) but it didn't add much to the experience except having to fend off some more hoggers trying to sell you overpriced trash or photographs. Between monument visits we stopped at a carpet cooperative which sells hand-made block prints and carpets made in villages on the country side. The first part of this visit was great since we got to see the entire process of how they do it. Then it turned in to a sales pitch - which we had requested not to happen. But the first part was very interesting so we just let it slide and after saying thanks but no thanks a few times we left to the observatory which was great! After the observatory we were put through another info+sales pitch but this time for jewellery. This one was alot smoother to just look and ask about things than at the carpet place. We were picked up and left of at all our hotels very smoothly. Arriving in Ranthambhore at the hotel arranged by PCTI (Ranthambhore Regency) we were pleased with the facilities, rooms and quality. Here the safaris were great, mostly the first one (afternoon) where we went on a very beautiful route with a lot of animals just next to the jeep (including a tiger about 4-5m away). I highly recommend doing the two safaris since the different "zones" you go to all have different qualities. In Agra the guided tours were amazing, perhaps also due to the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort being very impressive monuments. Here we also were offered to visit places where they make mosaic and something else but we chose to skip that after the Jaipur-sales pitches (no problem at all). The man meeting us at the hotel in Agra to go through the schedule for the following day did seem to only adress, talk and respond to me (male) while my girlfriend (female) didn't even receive a hand shake or a good bye which sort of left a weird feeling. Throughout the entire journey we really appreciated the car rides since you get to see many different environments and small villages where Mr K. K. is a very good guide to everything you see! The bresks along the way are all in places with clean toilets (Indian standard), just be ready to tip the person handing you napkins so always keep some 5s and 10s in your pocket. Overall great experience! Regarding the sales-pitches: we were not at all interested in buying a bit more exclusive souverniers (like hand-tied silk carpets) even though they seemed very nice for a not that hefty price. Not a big part of the tour so still an excellent experience!