Dear Donna,
I just returned from taking the smarTours India tour on November 25th.
This was my second tour with them. Last year I took the Vietnam tour with the Cambodia extension. It was wonderful in every way - hotels, guides, food, sights, flexibility, etc. I lauded it to the hills. Perhaps that was the reason I was disappointed in the India tour. I felt that the company tried to compress too much into too little time. Some of the most interesting destinations suffered because of this. In addition, we only had buffet breakfasts and two dinners included; whereas, in Vietnam we had most of our meals included. This was very minor. One thing you might want to be aware of is that when you read "afternoons at leisure" in your brochure be wary. You will usually arrive way too late to really do or see anything. Many times we just opted to eat in the hotel rather than hunt ror restaurants.
Our guide was very knowledgeable, but not too aware of the group members needs or desires. He went by the book; took us to the prescribed tourist high end stores and ignored our requests to visit markets that were more to our liking.
The tour, like all of the other smarTours is exceptionally good value and the accomodations are excellent. Everything that was promised in the brochure was delivered. Perhaps I am being too critical.
I am thinking of taking either their Australia/New Zealand ortheir South American tour, but after this last experience I am a bit worried.
Judy

We went to India with Smartours and liked it very much.. ..our hotels were wonderful.. ..schedule was changed by airlines so we had to fly into Bombay which make things more hertic and pressed for time to get to New Deli by bus. India is a culture shock but felt it was a good tour. Some did not enjoy but had they not prepared themselves for the fact we were going to a poor country. We could not have asked for more as far as value.. ..we have traveled with this company to Australia New Zealand and South Africa and like the fact this company allows free time ( India did not have as much free time but We saw a lot) I would not be afraid of this tour.

just got back from india/nepal trip.. .. .. . oct 04.. .. . was fantastic.. .. . worth every penny.. .. . great tour guide.. .. . saw it all.. .. . excellent hotels, and the destinations were out of my dreams.. . i never would have found or seen these places without a planned tour and smartours did a great job.

this was my 4 th trip with smartours and they are really one of the best.. .. . i have enjoyed cosmos and globus ( whice globus i don't like.. . expensive, and you get nickle and dimed, far away hotels but very fancy). .

smartours is a sure bet..but always take cancellation insurance just in case.. .. . which includes a medical insurance too.. .. .

Donna: Have been with Smartours 5 times and for the value, they cannot e beaten. Their India tour is similar to that offered by several of their competitors with a few add ons, but nearly$800.oo cheaper. Accomodations were excellent. Air India is excellent and better than many American airlines. Ed in CA

[quote="Donna from Hutchinson"]Has anyone traveled to India with Smartours? What did you think of air India?[/quote]

I returned from India/Nepal on 15 Nov. Tour was great value for money, but lots of minor problems.
Flying Air India was horrendous. Plane was dirty, not well maintained, volume control for video in all coach seats HJK didn't work The flight attendents weren't surprised when we told them.
We couldn't go to the transit lounge during the 2 hour stop-over in London and were on the plane while it was cleaned. Same was true on the return flight from India. The bathrooms had panels on the floor, ran out of hand towels.
The internal flights on India Air were better.
If you have any more specific questions contact me.

i went to india and nepal last november with smartours and basically i was pleased and satisfied.that was my fifth tour with smartour. my complaint is the rudeness of some check in counter personnel of air india in jfk when i checked in. i brought this attention to the management of air india via e-mail thrice and i got no response. talk about customer relations! please check the experience of arbegold.

freddie from la.

[quote="Donna from Hutchinson"]Has anyone traveled to India with Smartours? What did you think of air India?[/quote]No problem. We went in December 2005 & had a great flight although it was not as sopisticated as US airlines, and the tour was really good. No problems with the airlines at all. On time, & they fed us until we thought we would burst.