Places Visited


Travel Dates: Oct. 8-31, 2009 Tour: The tour and itinerary Trinetra Tours arranged for us exceeded our expectations. We plan many of our own trips but now that we have been to India and Bhutan, we realize that there is no way we could have planned this trip on our own. Fortunately, this time we had Trinetra tours do the planning for us. Hotels: All of the hotels were beyond our expectations. They provided a taste of the cultures we were visiting, but still had western conveniences and cleanliness. Guides: All of the guides were very knowledgeable and relatively easy to understand. In Bhutan Ugygn Tsrlgring was our guide the entire time. He was knowledgeable, courteous, and attentive to our interests. Drivers: Both of our primary drivers were exceptional. They were always clean, neat, friendly, and on time. In India Udho Ram was our driver almost all of the time. He never missed a turn, and somehow navigated 2700 km of traffic without incident for nearly two weeks. In Bhutan, Nima Dorji was our driver and also navigated narrow mountain roads without a mistake or incident for one week. The cars always smelled fresh and smoke free, and were always very clean inside and out. Drivers always had cold bottled water for us to drink. Representatives: All representatives were on time, polite, and helpful. Shailesh Singh was most helpful, meeting us in the middle of the night at DEL, tracing lost baggage, taking us early in the morning to DEL, and making certain we had no problems in Delhi or any place else on our tour. Overall comments: Excellent. Of course, we were hesitant to send money to someone we only knew via the internet. So we called some references and they spoke highly of Trinetra Tours. We could not be more pleased with the detailed organization, prompt communications (often from Mahendra), travel arrangements, and places that Trinetra Tours arranged for us. We also appreciated the efforts to make certain we had clean bottled water and cooked food wherever we went. We also enjoyed meeting Tapas, Krishna and Arjun at their house for a delicious dinner; that was a very nice personal touch. Very warm regards, Bill and Konnie Sandras Phone in the USA: (719) 685-5405; Email: was.pci@att.net Constructive feedback Tipping It would be very helpful and much appreciated if you would provide better guidelines for tipping. We know it is optional, but who we should tip was a little confusing. The guidelines for the drivers and guides were helpful. But, we did not think about tipping some of the villagers whose homes we visited until near the end, and then we did not know what amount was appropriate. Looking back we feel sad that we did not tip all of the villagers as a way of saying thanks for showing us their homes, but it simply did not occur to us until it was too late. Also, representatives arranged by Trinetra Tours met us at the various airports and rail depots and it is still not clear whether or not we should have tipped them. We assume they were paid out of our tour fee, but are not sure. Also we learned that some hotels have a tip box, and we should use it rather than tip individually. Being made aware of that practice in advance would have been helpful. Also, guidance on how much to tip waiters, bellmen, room attendants, etc. would have been helpful. We know tipping is optional, but better and more complete guidance regarding tipping would have been very helpful for us and would have benefited those that helped make our trip so memorable us. Food instructions Providing us with a translation in Hindi regarding our request for only cooked food was helpful. We had trouble explaining what we wanted early in our trip. Consider providing this translation at the start of your clients’ trips, if they want it.


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