Wonderful trip through the golden triangle
In short:
We can highly recommend PCTI as a company to take you to the golden triangle and explore northern India. The tour guides, Mahesh and Ashok, and our driver, Prem, were beyond our expectations and took great care of us.
In detail:
PCTI was the right choice to see the golden triangle and do a safari at Rathambore National Park.
My husband and I are frequent travelers and we usually don’t book tours to explore other countries. However, we can highly recommend to book a tour with PCTI to see the north of India.
We arrived on a Saturday in Delhi and our tour was supposed to begin on Sunday. Prem, our driver who accompanied us throughout the entire trip, offered to pick us up at the airport on Saturday for an airport transfer and graciously show us some sights in Delhi. His English was excellent and he provided us a good rundown of the lay of the land and what to expect for the trip.
On Sunday we could see lots of great sights in New Delhi: Qutub Minar, Humayun’s Tomb, Baha’i Temple (Lotus Temple), and the India Gate. Our tour guide, Mahesh, was excellent. He gave us a very detailed insight into Indian culture and history. He could connect all the sights with fascinating facts and stories from the past.
Mahesh accompanied us on the 3.5-hour-ride to Agra on the following day. There, we saw the highlight of our trip: the Taj Mahal. Again, Mahesh took great photos of us and gave us a very interesting tour through the sight. The Agra Fort was also an interesting sight that we visited after the Taj Mahal.
Be aware: we were taken to a jewelry and tapestry store after sightseeing. You can see the handcrafted jewels from the area and decorative wall art tapestry but you are also offered to buy their items. We were asked whether we wanted to see the place where Indian marble is turned into art pieces afterwards, but we declined and our decision was accepted and respected.
Our trip continued on a 5.5 hour ride to Rathambore, the National Park where we went on a safari in the morning and afternoon on the following day. The safari is taking place in different zones, which are randomly assigned. In the morning we were in zone 6, which we cannot recommend as we didn’t see many animals. In the afternoon we were assigned to zone 3, which was much better and we almost even saw a tiger. There were many other interesting animals to see. The guide in the morning was different from the guide in the afternoon. Apparently you can look up which zones are best for viewing tigers, and you can change zones for an up-prize (not sure if PCTI would be able to do this for you), but we didn’t try that. In general: we can recommend the safari.
On Wednesday, we were taken to Jaipur, the pink city, where we met our next guide: Ashok who gave us a short tour through Maharaja’s City Palace. Afterwards, we were taken to Jantar Mantar Observatory, which was very interesting.
Be aware: you’ll be taken to a rug factory where they show you how the rugs are made and you’re free to buy rugs if you want.
On our last day, we saw the more interesting part of Jaipur, which is the Amber Fort, of which Ashok gave us a great insight into the history and culture of Jaipur. We were free to talk about anything and had great conversations with him. We also could take some pictures of the Lake and Wind Palace which were nice to see. The your ended with a visit at a jewelry store, which shows you a bit how the gems of Jaipur/India are polished and of course you can purchase them. The owners weren’t pushy or upset when we didn’t buy anything.
After the tours through Jaipur, we were taken back to the hotel in Delhi.
Prem, our driver, was very attentive as he always tried and succeeded in making us feel comfortable. He is an excellent driver (we are experienced drivers in a lot of countries but wouldn’t want to drive in India). He talked to us about India, the culture, history and food a lot and could answer every question we had. Despite the full schedule, he never rushed us and made us feel like we’re on vacation. He also adjusted to weather conditions as it was rainy in the morning on our last day in Jaipur and arranged a later pick up and tours for us. The car was clean and comfortable for two passengers in the back. We recommend not to take too many suitcases, the trunk isn’t small but not as large as the one of a SUV. We had two backpacks and 2 carryons which fit perfectly fine in the trunk.
We chose the tour with 5-star-hotels. All of them were excellent, clean and we had great service. You also have the option to book your own if you want to try and do the research ahead of time.
