I had booked a complete package of Holiday including Hotels at Srinagar , Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Sonmarg, House Boat at Nigeen Lake , ground transport , all tickets including Tulip Garden , Shikara , Gandola for a group of 7 family members . Overall ,we enjoyed the trip especially due to the constant support, friendly nature , timely guidance of our Innova drivers Zulfi & Shabir. I didn't find much involvement of the tour operator Mir Manzoor at the hour of need expect following up for payment .
Our contract was to have minimum 4 star Hotels at all locations . Mir Manzoor booked us in Hotel Rose Petals & Hotel OV in Srinagar and both these Hotels were a big disappointment. Rooms of Rose Petal were quite run down and Hotel OV scores low in all parameters. The co-ordination during our checkin at House Boat was completely missing . We went to the jetty of Nigeen Lake to proceed to Khilona House Boat and were told Sikara won't be available in next 30 minutes . With lots of struggle and discussion we managed to find two Sikaras to reach upto Khilona House Boat.
Our Stay at Gulmarg with Hotel Shaw Inn , at Pahalgam with Royal Hilton & at Sonmarg with Country Inn & Suites was excellent. All three properties & their staff are comparable with 5 star class .
Mir Manzoor included one hour Sikara ride in our package which we paid for . But he never gave us clarity that this one hour ride is in a prefixed route which can't be altered . So, our Sikara ride in the dingy part of Dal Lake was not very exciting. We actually wanted to go to Open Dal Lake , Nehru Park etc.
Mir Manzoor said that he would meet us at pahalgam or at any other place during our trip of 8 days. Finally he could not meet us and my issues and complaints could not be discussed threadbare.
But excellent hospitality of Kadhmiri people , Kashmir's natural beauty & outstanding support from our Innova drivers Zulfi & Shabir made our trip a memorable one despite having few glitches.