What to expect in a group tour. Review on Raj Travels and Tours, Mumbai

I had traveled to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore with Raj travel. It was a 10 days tour. The tour cost was 55, 000 Rs. in the Christmas season.

I read the reviews on Raj travel before and after my tour.  Definitely the% recommendation is low, that may be because the one with bad experience would write first than the one with better experience. I will not say my experience with Raj travel was great but there can be problems when you travel in group, even with your family.

Following is my experience with the tour.

Tour cost: I spent 55, 000 Rs. per head for traveling to three countries. This includes food, guides’ charges & tips, esc*rt’s charge, sightseeing & activity charges, and hotel charges. I bet, if someone try to arrange all these by his own, it will cost more than 80, 000 Rs.(excluding medical bills for your headache). Raj travel earns by sharing in a group of 50 peoples and by advance bookings.

Visa:Though some countries allow your visa processing at the time of entry, I would prefer to have your visa ready. Because, if for some reason, the country not approves you visa, you have to go back. Also, it is time consuming, to process your visa on the airport. Ultimately, you don’t want to be cursed by the people who had done that in advance. In my case 10-15 people were without the necessary visa.

Tour dates:Raj travel tries to collect group of around 50 people for the travel. In that attempt there is possibility that they change your preferred dates by 2-5 days. In my case I had to postpone my travel dates by 3 days and that cost me an extra leave. Some other person in my group had to advance the dates by 2 days.

Tour escrt & guides: The tour escrt will join you from Mumbai air port or the airport of first arrival country. There is a chance that you can’t find him in rush of Mumbai airport. So, be sure that you know all nitty-gritty of check-in at airport. Escrt in my group was a retired flight attendant. He traveled to almost all countries. So, you can imagine the kind of service we had received from him. The guides are very much friendly. They are ready to answer your questions and your needs. They are flexible if majority of the group don’t like some place, and want to go to other place. Accommodations: **Raj travel says that the hotels are subjected to change, and they really mean it. I have faced almost 70% changes in the hotel. But all of them were 3-star and quite luxuries so I didn’t make any noise.

Breakfast & food:The breakfasts are provided at the hotels. So, Raj travel is accounting it as the facility provided by them. The breakfasts are continental and good.   Lunch and Dinner are Indian buffet, all the time. The food was good and can be said authentic Indian. If you are thinking to taste the local food; you have to spent money from your own pocket. Your guide can give suggestion on the local food and restaurants. I remember one problem here. The esc*rt will force you to travel more for food than it will be for the sightseeing. Because, they have fix location for food and they try to stick with it.

Sightseeing:Raj travel covers all the sight seeing, listed in their tour catalogue.  It is good idea to keep a list of sightseeing with you, hence you can confirm with the escrt if he misses something.  There is a chance that other people in your group do not like a particular place and want to go for shopping or other activity. The escrt won’t allow change in plan, even if one person wants to stick to the list. During my travel I was that one person. The majority in my group wanted to go to shopping mall, but not me. The escrt talked to me and convinced me in interest of the majority. Well, then I enjoyed the mall and the shopping. One problem here is, one or the other member in your group will be always late. Don’t allow your escrt to wait more than 10-15 mins for the late comers. Else, there is a chance that you miss  a schedule program.

The Group:Finally the group. This thing can make or break your tour. It is nothing but sheer luck. If you are newly married, plan to travel in the marriage season. You will find good number of couples around you. You can also check with Raj, for age and language of peoples traveling with you. At the end, wish it to be like a “Bombay to Goa” tour.

In a nut shell, ready to do some compromise when you are spending lesser money than a private tour.