4 independent reviews for Kerala tailor made holiday
Reviews for Kerala tailor made holiday
Julie Evans review 9 Mar 2018
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Bamboo rafting and trek in Periyar National Park watching a family of elephants swim across the water in front of us and watching them as we ate our lunch (even the Rangers were excited to see a special event). Our overnight stay in a beautiful, tranquil location on our houseboat watching the sunset and dawn surrounded by birds and their calls Emerald Isle home stay in Alleppey, outside shower, hammocks by the pond watching kingfishers, cycling round the island, sunset boat ride, an absolute must if you are staying in the backwaters.2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
If you are having an overnight houseboat check where they plan to moor overnight as many just come back to dock where they started from so request they moor out in the countryside for a truly memorable experience.3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Only in as far that we booked through an Indian agent instead of a UK one and we used a local driver and guides and I think the hotels were trying to be environmentally friendly and obviously tourism provides alternative employment opportunities4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Excellent!Joan Findlay review 23 Feb 2018
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Spending New Year's Eve at a party at our hotel - great atmosphere, tremendous friendliness and warmth and fireworks whose proximity erred on the side of exciting rather than H&S. - but we were outside, in the mountains and it was cold! A great novelty to our fellow revellers - but we needed fleeces over our glad rags. Being looked after by our lovely skilled driver Akhtar who supervised, looked after and guarded us like day old chicks! Being approached everywhere we went by people wanting to know all about us, take photo's and especially to know if we liked their state/country. And we did! I don't remember any other tour during which we spent so much time laughing.2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
None of the hotels were licensed to sell alcohol, so if that is a necessity, take some. In Cochin and a couple of other places there were bars, but in some places - not so. Bargain hard in Kashmiri stores - enjoyably!3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Our wonderful driver was from Cochin and supports his family by driving tourists. We stayed in locally owned hotels and ate locally (except for 1 big hotel in Cochin) so what we spent was staying in Kerala and paying wages.4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
We all loved Kerala and (particularly) its people and were left with a determination to see more of India.Jennie Greenhalgh review 18 Mar 2018
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Seeing wild elephants in Periyar Tiger Reserve. We booked two treks their ourselves once we arrived at the homestay booked for us by the tour operator.2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Be aware that your driver may not speak English very well, and it was difficult to communicate our needs to him. Our original driver became ill and had to be replaced. Both drivers seemed to have a fixed agenda as to where to take us (ie tourist attractions which involved shopping), it was sometimes quite frustrating as this is not what we wanted. Be clear in advising the tour operator exactly where and what you want to do. We ended up in some very exclusive lovely hotels but in isolated situations that did not work for us, the homestays were much better.3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Too much driving between destinations, despite having a superb driver, it was not relaxing on town or country roads. Partly due to bad planning on our part, but felt we were part of a tourist trail that I would avoid if I ever went to India again. We had a fabulous time, people so helpful and friendly and I assume using an Indian company meant we benefited local people. It would have been good if the tour operator had planned for less travel as so much time was spent in the car and the journeys were not planned efficiently. We arranged our own train journey at the end to avoid another whole day in the car.4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
We had a brilliant adventure which we enjoyed but we were frustrated with language problems and misunderstandings. The first hotel in Fort Cochin and final hotel in Varkala and the homestays were brilliant, but other 3 hotels were too isolated (up a mountain, on an island, on edge of Cochin) were formal and rather intimidating with many staff and security staff hugely outnumbering the few guests. The venues chosen inland were great but we would have preferred homestays nearer to local amenities. Neelesh did respond to our request to change one of the bookings as we did not want to stay on the Island hotel for two nights as it was not only too isolated with nothing to do but also involved us in unnecessary road travel, we booked ourselves a ferry to avoid more car journeys.Rosemary Chinchen review 15 Jan 2018
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Our stay at The Leaf hotel in Munnar, including New Year's Eve. Even without alcohol we had a wonderful evening with local dancers and drummers, a lovely buffet meal and then we all danced up until midnight when we were entertained by a wonderful firework display. It was wonderful seeing the tea plantations and visiting the Tea Museum. Eravikulam National Park gave us the opportunity of seeing the rare Nilgiri thar (mountain goat)2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Kerala is a dry state so don't expect to be able to order beer or wine with your meal. We all eat only vegetarian and the meals were wonderful and everyone in the party avoided any stomach upsets. Unfortunately we were only in Kochi on a Friday so were not able to see inside the Dutch Palace.3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Yes we did particularly as we booked through our tour operator, who are an Indian company and who supplied us with an excellent vehicle and very safe driver.4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Excellent and very varied holiday. We were lucky to see so many animals at Periyar wild life sanctuary. The trip on the house boat at Alleppey was very good, although we were disappointed when we arrived back at the jetty where we had started from just before sunset to moor for the night, but very pleased next morning when we moved off again and had breakfast while cruising on the backwaters.Read the operator's response here:
Greetings
We thank you for submitting your reviews so quickly. We are happy that you enjoyed your holiday recently with us. Will will keep improving ourselves and look forward to have you here again.
Thanks
Neelesh
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