Private Day Trip of Taj Mahal and Agra Fort with Lunch from Delhi

My review is in 2 parts, the good and then the not so good. Firstly, the pressure that all guides (from all tour companies) have in India for 5 star TripAdvisor reviews means I would not believe tours when 99% of reviews are 5 star - please review to my comments about this below. Good points of A Star tour: - Lots of communication when booking, answering questions etc. immediately - driver (Monu) arrived 15 minutes early which was great. I have been in many countries where you are never sure if the driver is turning up and can often be 10-20 min late. - guide was great, very informative and gave you plenty of time to yourself at the Taj Mahal to wonder around and not feel rushed. I would give my tour guide 5 stars! - Guide was very willing to take photos of you in the photos. As I was travelling alone this was a nice gesture. - lunch is at a hotel in Agra, and used by many different tour groups. But food was good, buffet with plenty of choices. Bad Points: - the pressure that the guide had (and all guides from other tours) to get good reviews means that I was asked to write my review at lunch! I refused, as I said the tour was not over. - not given a choice whether you want to go to a marble stone works factory and textiles factory. The usual sales pitch, as all tours now do, and I walked out of the textiles factory. This was 30 minutes wasted. I understand some people may enjoy this, then you should be asked, not expected to go. - Agra Fort. Do to the time spent at the factory I felt rushed at Agra Fort. It was very much a quick walk around and then back in the car. Appreciate you can't spend too long here as it took about 3-3.5 hours driving back so was they want to get on the road as soon as possible, hence why reducing the wasted time "shopping" and actually seeing the historical Fort would have been better Overall, from this experience I would have recommended A Star tours. The pressure (constantly asking for good review) is a cultural thing, and if it was just explained that there are so many companies so reviews are important, that is all that would have been needed. I saw guides from other companies doing this, so it is not specific to this company. It was this reason I gave 4 stars But my experience on a second tour with A Star tours was very different - but I will keep that review separate (refer my review on New and Old Delhi tour).

Our driver was Lal, he was an excellent driver, the car was spotless and well maintained. He gave pointed out interesting sights along the drive to Agra. There we picked up our guide who was very knowledgeable about the history of the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort. He took some excellent pictures of us and we both thoroughly enjoyed our day. The only thing that kept this tour from being a 5 star was the lunch. We upgraded to the luxury hotel lunch but it was a courtyard by Mariott. Since we were already at a JW Mariott in Delhi, the courtyard wasn't really "luxury". All in all, I do recommend A Star for visiting the Taj Mahal.