No e-mail on Wednesday 10 December

As we are based in a rural area a long way from a telephone exchange we use radio broadband.  The supplier are carrying out essential maintenance work on 10 December which means we will not be able to receive or send e-mails until late afternoon.  Please bear with us and if there is anything urgent we suggest you ring us.

Christmas Opening Hours

24 December – the office will close at 12.30

25, 26, 27 and 28 December – closed

29, 30 and 31 December – open in the mornings, closed from 12.30

1 January – closed

2 January – back to normal opening hours

Wi-Fi now free at Taj Hotels

We are pleased to report that at last the Taj group of hotels have listened to their customers and from 15 November 2014 the Wi-Fi will be free in all their hotels.  It has long been a frustration for our customers that most of the other accommodation used during their holiday (hotels, guesthouses and homestays) offer complimentary Wi-Fi but when they stay in a more expensive hotel such as a Taj they are charged.  We (and no doubt many other Tour Operators) have raised this issue with the management – so we are very pleased that our advice has been acted upon. 

Another Season of Top Scores

We are very pleased to report that yet again our customers are ‘more than satisfied’ with our service.  80% of last season’s customers supplied us with feedback and of these 95% gave us the top score (excellent).  The rest gave us the second score (good).  Not a single customer ranked us as ‘satisfactory or below’.  I don’t suppose there are many tour operators who can make such claims.  We are very grateful to our local agents, our drivers and all our suppliers who all help to make our customers holidays ‘excellent’.  Many thanks to them and all our customers who take the time to give us their feedback. 

India has a New State

In November 2000 India created three new states – the first in 30 years.  Chhattisgarh, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand were created by reducing in size three huge Northern Indian states - Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar respectively.  Now Andhra Pradesh – the largest southern state has been split into two – creating the new state of Telangana.  AP’s state capital – Hyderabad – falls within Telangana and will act as capital for both states for the foreseeable future.  

India now has 29 states – some huge, some tiny.  Most were created after independence based on linguistic groupings.  With a population three times that of the United States many people feel that more are required to help spread the funding into the impoverished areas.  So Telangana will probably not be the newest state for long. 

Responsible Travel on Wikipedia

We work with Responsible Travel and many of our customers find us through this site.  However, often they are not clear about the relationship.  Our response has previously been along the lines of ‘Responsible Travel is a travel agent that earns commission on every holiday sold (like a high street travel agent). However, Responsible Travel does not have a ‘shop’ but a website, it is very selective about the products it offers only offering ‘responsible’ holidays’ and (unlike the high street agent) the customer pays the tour operator/accommodation owner directly.  
Recently Responsible Travel secured its very own page on Wikipedia.  So now all we need do is direct people to this site where a full explanation of Responsible Travel is given. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsibletravel.com