Tigers, the Taj and ticking off bucket lists

My Indian bucket is full!

I've always dreamed of going to India, it was firmly top of my bucket list for a long time and now I'm thrilled to have experienced a teeny tiny part of what is a fascinating country. I'm preparing a series of blogs to cover my experience, as I simply can't get everything down in one hit and this one is an overview of the holiday and the general experience of an escorted tour. There's so much to cover, I'm not sure where to start and how to reak things down, so bear with me...it may come in various parts.

What the tour promised

As a tour, Tigers and the Taj offers a whistle stop journey to see some of the key sights in the Golden Triangle but unsurprisingly the main events are the safari days in Ranthambore National Park to hopefully see the tigers and both a sunset and sunrise experience of the Taj Mahal. Of course there's plenty more included too and one thing I should say is, India is big and depending on what you want to experience, you'll need to pick the right tour to suit you (more on that later).

A breakdown of the key bits

The Hotels - a fabulous selection of very different 4/5 star hotels. In Delhi (both at the start and end of the tour) and for our one night in Agra the hotels were modern and fantastic and exactly what you'd expect from a modern chain type hotel. We were even able to stream our Netflix account to the TV's for the 5 mins before we fell asleep exhausted. In Jaipur the hotel was a much more characterful, unique boutique hotel with amazing traditional architecture, facilities and service were a little more quirky but still a great 4 star standard. The Ranthambore Bagh Palace felt like a country hideaway, with beautiful rooms a lovley pool and peace and quiet after the hustle and bustle of the cities and then last couple of nights we spent at a forest retreat in luxury lodges. Many of the hotels had small pools and a couple had gym facilities.

The Food - it's important to remember this isn't a food tour of India - there are other tours which will give you that. I love Indian food but went knowing the food offer would be mainly buffets and pitched to cater slightly more to a European palate. Obviously in the bigger city hotels the choice was broader and don't get me wrong, there were India dishes in abundance at every meal (dhal, a paneer dish, a vegetable curry, chicken curry, rice and breads was the general formula) but they played it a bit safe with options which meant, to my mind, things got a little samey. However, also don't get me wriong when I say pitched to cater to European palates, if you weren't up for eating curries and expected English style food, you would be disappointed in the main - the occassional indian style fish finger appeared and sometimes chips. Breakfasts offered ceral and omlettes etc but dont expect to get a full english!!

I mainly ate vegetarian or fish dishes whilst I was there purely because Im lazy and can't be arsed to pick meat off bones and all the meat dishes were cokked authentically on the bone. Mark was grea at picking the bones clean but it's just not something I can be bothered with and I was more than happy to stick with my veg curries, paneer and fish.

People have asked how we fared with the Indian diet and the dreaded Delhi belly. Generally we both did really well. We were slightly apprehensive about how Mark would find things but he did really well - he was a bit more cautious than me and in the main had no stomac issues other than the food being richer and a bit spicier than he's used to for a prolonged period. I went all in - breakfast, lunch and dinner was full on Indian options and after 5 days even my cast-iron stomach was like 'hang on- what's happening here?'. I had to tone it down for a day or two to let my stomach rest, so avoided the lentils a bit but then was back up to full power. I think everyone in our group has some mild 'issues' throughout the trip but it was just adapting to a different diet, not any form of food hygiene related cause.

The Guide - the beauty of these excorted tours is you have the same tour manager/guide throughout. They co-ordinate everything, give you your timings and explain nuances of the activities you will undertake and how to navigate them. Our tour manager Vikram was incredible and ensured that the tour was adapted throughout to make the most of time and take account of changing circumstances. As we visited Jaipur there were numerous road closures due to an unexpected VIP visit - Vikram and our driver (who was also incredible) discussed how to circumnavigate these and he arranged for Tuk Tuks to get to us to where we needed to be before meeting up with the coach again. If he hadn't done this, we'd have missed some key sights.

If you say 'no thank you' to the hawkers/sellers, this will mean 'yes, please' to them and they will follow you. You must ignore them for at least two minutes and they will go away. They aren't aggressive at all, but they will be persistant. - Vikram (Tour Guide)

City Experiences - Delhi, Jaipur and Agra were great fun - mad, bonkers, noisy, fast, dirty but intriguing. The bicycle rickshaw and Tuk-Tuk rides were an experience - probably not as terrifying as I anticipated and gave a great opportunity to see local life up close and personal. I'd recommend taking a mask when walking or taking rides in these cities as they are so dusty and out of interest cleanse your face when you get back to the hotel and look at the state of your skin after. I would have loved to try some of the street food but obviously on these escorted tours they are quite careful to keep you away from street food. I'd love to do another India trip which focuses more on the food at some stage.

The Raj Ghat - was a beautiful and serene oasis in a bonkers city. It's a lovely and fitting memorial for Ghandi and it's quite interesting that as soon as you walk into the beautiful grounds the peacefulness just hits you. They have some great plaques with Ghandi quotes...reading them reminds you what a wise guy he was and a lot of the current Govt. incentives to improve India are based on things Ghandi had instigated.

Ranthambore Safari - this was a truly incredible day. We undertook two safaris on Canters (trucks), the first starting at 05:45 and the 2nd at 14:30. We saw so many different animals and birds, whilst of course looking for the elusive tigers. That was the ultimate goal but there was so much else to see. The afternoon safari was quite a hot, dusty, dry affair but worth every minute as different animals were out and about. As we saw the tigers in the morning, Mark didn't join the afternoon trip - big mistake, as we got an even better sighting of a tiger even though it lasted about 90 seconds. Our guide told us all to hang on and the driver went hell for leather, so we knew he was on to something and our timing was perfect.

The tigers we saw were as stunning and majestic as I imagined - they are completely wild and they aren't fed to increase viewing potential. All the Canter drivers/guides are given a random route within the park and they can't stray from that route. If the tigers are spotted elsewhere thats just unfortunate, this is to ensure that the tigers aren't disturbed and overwhelmed by too many jeeps and people trying to view them.

Humuyans Tomb - Palace of Winds - The Red Fort - Chand Baori Stepwell - all fascinating places to visit and see. The architecture is the key factor to all these sites and they are all truly exquisite in terms of the craftsmanship. Always make sure you have a hat and water, as they get very hot and take advantage of any shade you can get but take some time to look at things really close up - you'll be amazed at what you see.

Taj Mahal - As iconic and beautiful as you expect it to be. It really doesn't disappoint. Yes, it is busy but that doesn't detract from the experience. You need to don some sexy paper shoe covers when you enter the main part of the tomb and its marble precincts and also no photos are allowed inside (although most locals seemed to ignore that!). You will find official photographers inside - again the benefit of having your tour guide means he navigates all this for you. If you do want your photo taken on the Diana seat (as its now known) you do really need to use once of the official photographers, as you don't really get a look in otherwise. The photographers will take your photos and then meet you back at your hotel ater that day with your pics and to take payment. One thing to be careful of is that they will take loads of photos, even if you clearly ask for just one or two and once back at the hotel they will try to get you to buy them all. To be fair they are only 100 rupees per photo (£1) but being very British, if we ask for just one, we want just one but are terrible at saying no to more.

My only word of caution for the Taj is, getting in is an experience. We were advised not to take anything we didn't need, but in reality don't take a bag of any description. All bags, however tiny go through a scanner and then are checked by hand once they get through. It's the most bonkers bun fight ever - there's pushing, there's barging, there's chaos. Quite a few of our group found it rather overwhelming...me...I just got my bitch on and gave as good as I got.

Don't take anything with you that you don't need! I mean it! Don't take a bag of any type. - Me (ITA)

Jantar Mantar Observatory in Jaipur - Blew my mind a bit, as I have no idea how they created these things. To be fair a lot of the explanations went over my head - numbers, calculations, and all that...blah, blah! plus it was mad hot that day and I was frazzled. The guide chap did all the ladies a quick hand reading, asking our birthdates, it was quite interesting as he said my head holds lots information and my mind works in lots of different directions...spot on there!

Did it deliver?

To my mind...absolutely!

It gave me exactly what I was looking for, as an introduction to India - technically I could never go again and be happy that I've experienced a lot of what India has to offer. We covered two cities which demonstrated the current vibe and cuture, our guide gave us phenominal insight into India both historically and how the Government is trying to progress some of the negatives to build a stronger, cleaner, progressive and more modern India (I'll be doing a whole other bg about this in due course). We were lucky enough to see the amazing tigers in their natural habitat - twice! and of course we also got to visit the Raj Ghat and the iconic Taj Mahal (at dusk and dawn) and it is an incredible sight to see.

Be prepared for....

It is a fast paced tour - especially the first two days which can seem like a bit of an assualt on the senses. Delhi and Jaipur are both frenetic, noisy cities, with crazy traffic a culture of honking horns. To our standards, yes the streets are dirty and although the Govt. has numerous initiatives in place to clean up the streets, embedded culture is just to drop unwanted stuff wherever you are is proving hard to change. You'd think people would be bothered by the dirtiness and litter and want to change the situation but it's just an engrained part of life...so hard for us to understand.

Honking horns isn't an aggressive move - Indian people just don't use mirrors when driving! Honking your horn is simply saying, I'm behind you! - Vikram (Tour Guide)

If you are fair skinned and light haired people will come and ask to have a photo with you or toshake your hand. They aren't looking for money, they simply want to be able to say or show people in their home village they met a foreigner. In the Taj Mahal grounds a young boy approached Mark and asked to shake his hand - as soon as he did, we were inundated with children all shaking our hands, saying hello, asking us questions and hugging us - it was very cute but a bit overwhelming after a while. Their dads were taking photos and videos - bonkers.

Many people have asked about loos, it's inevitable I guess and of course this tour used 4/5 star hotels with modern facilities, so whilst in the hotels there were no issues but a major benefit of being on an escorted like this, is the tour company will have researched the best options for comfort breaks along the way (especially on long coach drives - there is no toilet on the coach). Having said that, the public toilets will be a very different standard to ours (you'll sometimes still find a squat toilet/pan in the floor) and will rarely have toilet paper - you may be offered a sheet (yes a sheet), on the way in but in general people use the bum washing sprays as they find paper unhygenic. If only I could fathom how to use them without dousing my trousers in water, I'd probably have given it a go. They say once you try it, you won't go back to paper!!

Never pass up the opportunity to use a planned toilet facility during the day. Don't expect it to be great, don't expect loo roll but at least they've been checked for some semblence of standards. Me (ITA)

This tour is for you if...

You want to capture some of the key sights, sounds, and experiences of two of the key cities in India in a safe, comfortable and planned way. You are prepared for early mornings, busy/full-on days and a couple of long coach trips. You are happy to eat a lot of curries and try different dishes. You are ok with the possibility that you might NOT get to see a tiger.

Perhaps not for you if...

You don't want to be busy most days with timings set for you. You really can't bear the thought of less than clean toilets. You're a fussy and/or plain eater. You can't deal with long coach journeys (4-6 hours with probably one 20 min comfort break).

The Tour Operator

Newmarket Holidays and River Cruises - was founded in March 1983, in the South London flat of one of its founding directors.

Three and a half decades later, they've become one of the UK's largest independently owned specialist tour operators, with headquarters in Wallington, Surrey.

For more than 40 years, they've built a reputation for providing escorted tours, resort-based stays, river cruises and cruise holidays that combine exceptional value for money and the highest standards of customer care. Whether you're planning a holiday close to home or in one of the world’s far-flung corners, Newmarket help you get the very most out of your visit, lifting the veil on the wonders of your destination, and ensuring that your time away is as enjoyable and carefree as possible.

I was certainly impressed by my first tour with Newmarket - everything from beginning to end was well organised, professional and a great standard - I'll certainly be embarking on another trip with them soon. - Me (ITA)

If you'd like support and assistance to find the right tour for you, either with Newmarket or one of the other amazing suppliers out there, book yourself a holiday chat and let's find your perfect match.