3 independent reviews for Tamil Nadu tailor made holiday, India
Reviews for Tamil Nadu tailor made holiday, India
Nicholas Till review 28 Mar 2025
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Stay at Cardamon House. Beautiful setting, simple but sufficient facilities, and everything clearly considered for sustainability. Staff treated as family.2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Make sure that you always have small enough denominations of money for tipping. Tipping etiquette is a minefield and creates genuine anxiety at times - (and it's a significant additional cost: I paid about £250 in tips as advised on top of the cost of the holiday - suggests that drivers, cleaners, etc are not being paid properly in the first place).3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Tourism adds to the economy of an area, although I'm less convinced that this is likely to be equitable with a big chain such as Taj. Taj's "sustainability" programme seems pretty token to me (hotels have been promoting the idea of re-using towels for about 30 years now!).4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
We enjoyed the holiday very much, the variety of places to visit and stay, the convenience of having a driver, etc. However, I had booked through Responsible Travel because I'd expected maybe some more modest, personal, off-the-beaten-track and and obviously eco places to stay (like Cardomen House), rather than finding ourselves hopping with the same coach party of French tourists from one place to the next! But I recognise that with such itineraries such places are not always located conveniently for where one wants to visit. However, the loss of one star overall reflects slight disappointment with this aspect of the holiday, although it did not prevent us enjoying what was on offer overall.Read the operator's response here:
Hi Nicholas,
Thanks for taking the time to leave this review of your trip. I am glad to see that you enjoyed your trip. I would just like to offer some feedback with regards to your comments about staying in properties that you didn’t consider to be as “responsible” in a similar way to Cardamom House. The hotels that we booked for you were all of a good standard, well located and where possible have a focus on responsible tourism. For example 3 out of the 7 properties that you stayed at were CGH Earth Properties. CGH Earth pride themselves that their properties are based on sustainability and responsible tourism. For your stays for example in Chennai / Madurai the choice of “responsible” properties that we can offer is more limited, so in these situations the priority was to find you a hotel of a good standard in a prime location.
We have taken your feedback on board; I am glad that even with this feedback it sounds like you had a great holiday. Kind regards.
Stephen Logsdail review 2 Mar 2023
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
The Horse temples. My wife would add the Backwaters overnight trip2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Take DEET even out of malaria season3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Yes - choice of hotels, visit to local centres4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Very pleased, would recommend the tour operator stronglyBrian and Gillian Callaway review 4 Mar 2019
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Our wonderful driver Shibu, nothing was too much trouble for him, he was polite, always on time and spoke excellent English. He was very good with my husband who has limited mobility and helped him up steps etc.2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Book well in advance to get hotels of your choice.3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
We were surprised how conscious Tamil Nadu were about the environment. For example all single use plastic is banned. One of the places we stayed Rajakkat Estate was very environmental friendly. Their staff were employed from the local village. Also they used all their own grown produce for meals. Cardamon House was also the same and a lot of the staff there had been there for years.4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Very good. The tour operator had put together a very good itinerary for us. The places we stayed were all very different and we liked the fact that most of them were small and away from towns.Holiday Reviews
You can trust Responsible Travel reviews because, unlike many other schemes, reviews can ONLY be written by people who we have verified have been on the holidays. In addition, we don't run these holidays ourselves - our only interest is giving you the best independent advice.
