Bagdogra Family Packages

It was an amazing trip to Bhutan. Bhutan guide and driver were friendly and sophisticated. Hotels were good. Although we experienced cab issue while returning to Bagdogra Airport, agent arranged alternate driver. Other than that I definitely recommend travel triangle.

Bhutan experience is incredible. The pick up from bagdogra airport was horribly bad and unprofessional.

Good service provided by Bhutan Online Owner Mr. Hari and his team of Mr. Jimmy (Guide). The guide was very friendly and helpful to make our trip enjoyable. The hotels booked were good with clean rooms. The food options (especially breakfast) in the hotel could have been better. However, food was freshly prepared and hence we preferred it over outside restaurants. Only other issue was during travel from Phuentsholing to Bagdogra on the last day, we asked the driver for a known restaurant option rather than local restaurant. However the driver said those options are only in the town and he could not go there, leading to no lunch stoppage. Would have preferred if our request could have been accomodated as we had ample time.

1. Ms Sunita of Bina Travels was nice and soft spoken during the trip. 2. From Bagdogra to Gangtok, vehicle WagonR was 21 years old. AC was not working. When required It could not be used even with extra charges.Bina Travels showed their inabilty to change the vehicle. But its driver Dorjee Sherpa was very nice, polite, punctual and best guide for 4 days. 2. Driver of Xylo car used from Gangtok to Lachung and back was ill informed. Due to him wasted 3 hours while going to Lachung from Gangtok. As per him, he was not informed by the Travel agency about the places to be visited at Lachung. In the process he missed to show us Spring with medical properties at Lachung. When asked he showed his inabilty since the place was left far behind. 3. Driver of WagonR at Darjeeling was not punctual. On first day he reached half an hour late and on Last day he reached more than one hour late to pick us up from hotel. 4. On every station, Bina Travels themselves were not updating the next days programme, instead we had to ask Bina Travels to update us for the same. In view of deficiencies experienced above it is suggested to provide the perfect services to the customers since we chose the trips for our comfort and not for inconvenience. Also it is requested to refund a suitable amount for the above deficiencies experienced. 1. Adventurous journey from Gangtok to Lachung . Yumthang vally was beaitiful. 2. Nathula pass was worth seeing

It was a good trip with a few hiccups. To start with, Vehicles picked up from Bagdogra and also drop back were in a pathetic condition. Hi ace in Bhutan was also average with no leg space, torn seats. However the driver and the guide were extremely good, helpful and informative. The issue with the vehicle became secondary because of the friendly guide Wangpo and driver Jimmy. Hotels: Lotus villa - very good. Tashi yid wong - Good but food is below average. Lobesa - it is a very old hotel. Rooms and furniture look mediocre . They initially provided rooms with no view in basement. Upon escalating to the agent they provided the rooms with the best way for the next day. Food and people are best. They also organised a picnic lunch by Punakha Dong which was a a very memorable experience. We had worst experience in Lhayayel resort in Paro. Best to avoid this. Had to change to a new hotel after all day of travelling in the night at 8pm. About hotels , the travel agent could have done a better job in verifying the room quality for the price we had paid. Sightseeing : we stayed for 8days however felt short to cover the itinerary. Would have been great if the agent had suggested us to atleast take one way back from Paro directly to save two days of just travel. Overall it was a pleasant experience. Loved the country and the people. Phobjikha Valley

Your arrangements good. Regarding vehicle, my suggestion is that Wagon R is okay for bagdogra to gangtok and darjeeling to bagdogra. But SUV is needed from Gangtok to Pelling and Pelling to Darjeeling considering the road cond

After much research and discussion, we decided to do a Sikkim Darjeeling family trip in April. I decided to use travel triangle to find good quotes and finally went with an 8 day/7-night package from an agent called Dream Destinations/Sikkim Hills Travels. I specifically asked for a good comfortable SUV since we will be spending a lot of time on the road. I also requested that the hotels be 3 or 4 stars with deluxe rooms since there were kids and elderly. I also asked 100 times about travelling during elections. I was assured that everything will be taken care of and there was nothing to worry about. Here is our experience Hotels - The first hotel we stayed was Mandarva in Gangtok and it was good and just what we asked for. Clean, neat and good breakfast. We also had a lovely view of the city from our window. Unfortunately, it was in a residential area with no hotels or anything else nearby. It was too far from the shops/restaurants like MG Marg. In Sikkim, the sun sets by 5.30 pm and in the summer, it also rains heavily in the evening. So, taking a taxi and going out in the wet, dark hilly area is not really an easy option. So, we asked for a hotel that was close to MG Marg. They changed it to Pearl Retreat which was an older/ok ok hotel. However, they were kind and accommodative of my request to keep food ready on a day when we got stranded and returned pretty late. The worst hotel we stayed was a place called ‘Daksha’ in Pelling (Naming and Shaming here very intentionally). It was dirty, unhygienic and chaotic with clueless staff and run like a hostel forget deluxe standards here. Basic was also so terrible. We found out bed linen had hair, dirt marks and dust all over. They gave us a room without dusting, same old linen and a wet bathroom. Also, on the 3rd floor and no lift. I didn’t even want to stay there for 1 night! The other hotels were passable or okay. Cab and Driver – Spending a minimum of 4-5 hours in the car is unavoidable in Sikkim. As per our request we were given a nice SUV (a XUV 700 with sun roof) The car was comfortable most of the time and our driver was also a young local who drove really well and carefully in the mountain roads. However, on day 3, while returning to Gangtok from Lachung, the vehicle had some challenges with pickup/driving up the hill and we got delayed very badly. We had been awake from 6 am that morning visiting Zero point/Yamthang valley which were at high elevation and 3 of us had altitude sickness and had not eaten anything for hours. We found that the driver and the travel agents were more interested in sorting their vehicle rather than helping us figure out a way to get to Gangtok. I finally had to intervene ask for another vehicle to pick us up. Keep in mind, Sikkim is sparsely populated. The place we were stuck had no humans, lights and it was raining making the roads very muddy and dangerous. We got back late to the hotel after spending nearly 16 hours that day in the car with a very sick child. A nightmarish night ride where I was hoping and praying my child doesn’t get severe dehydration. Our driver for Darjeeling local sightseeing was another local driver and he refused to come to our hotel (Taksa Retreat) and wanted us to climb up the road. We explained to him that my mom and child were tired after climbing and walking so much every day. He was very reluctant, unhappy and had to be coerced by the travel agent to pick us up at the lobby. Our last leg of the journey was travel to Bagdogra from Darjeeling. Our flight was at 2.45 pm and we left Darjeeling at 10 am. It was the last day of election campaigning in WB and there were 2 massive political rallies at Darjeeling District and Siliguri. Neither us nor our driver had any clue about this. We got redirected by the police and paramilitary personnel multiple times and we had to take different diversions in the hills. Then as if the cup of woe has not run over, our SUV got a flat tire. By them time we repaired it and reached the airport, the staff refused to board us as they had closed the gates. But this is what disappointed me the most - I had requested our driver to wait for few mins after dropping us, in case I need help with getting dropped at a hotel. We were 3 women alone in an unfamiliar place and I was getting stressed about the possible options/safety in case we miss the flight. Our driver chose to leave, and he gave my number to a random driver in the taxi stand to help us. This guy was with us for a whole week, and we treated him well, but I guess he was in a hurry to go back to Gangtok rather than worry about people whose trip and tips are done. Luckily, the taxi driver turned out to be a nice person and dropped us at the hotel as requested. He mentioned that most taxis/drivers cancelled their trips to Darjeeling because of the political rallies. They also informed their clients who wanted to leave Darjeeling to leave early in the morning to avoid road closures and diversions. I really wish our Driver/Travel agent had done some check on this and updated us. Travel Agent – As soon as we landed, our travel agent mentioned that they had made some changes in our itinerary and that instead of Nathula Pass, we will be doing Yumthang Valley first. We were okay with that since we knew that traveling in Sikkim means being flexible and being okay with unpredictability. However, this seemed to be only applicable for tourists and not the travel agents. I requested that we post pone Nathula pass for a day after our nightmarish road travel back from Lachung and since everyone was sick. They expected us to do 2 consecutive days of heavy road trips to high altitudes. They made a huge fuss about cancelling and changing hotel plans and basically put all the extra charges on us. The manager Mr. Deepak was extremely rude and told me “You are already getting so much personalized services for the money you paid”. I really think that the package (which was hotels + ground Transport + personalised service) was not value for money especially the hotel accommodations. Not to mention the goof ups in getting permits to Northern Sikkim. My name was conveniently left out of the permit, and we could go only because of the military personnel being accommodative. (So much for personalized service!) However, Mr. Abhishek Thapa who was my SPOC and coordinated the whole trip for me was always polite, helpful and checked in on us morning and evening every day. I really appreciate that he was able to keep his composure and help us in the best way he can. May be in couple of months, all that has happened might become an interesting titbit/travel anecdote to share with others. But right now, I am quite bugged and feel very unhappy that we had to get so distressed during the holiday, especially at the end of it. Not to mention the extra money that we had to shell out again for tickets and accommodation. As for the travel agent/package we took – I am not so sure. I would have liked to give them the benefit of doubt, but in my interactions with them, I sensed that they were more interested in making their profit than worry about the customer’s well-being or experience.

We had a great trip and would highly recommend the agent. We have shared our feedback regarding the cab agent in India, one responsible for the drive back from Phutsholing to Bagdogra. They are an unprofessional bunch. Rest we had no such issues and Dorji the owner of the travel agency was prompt, helpful and very professional.

We booked the cab services of Bina Travels from Travel Triangle for our trip to Sikkim and Darjeeling. The entire process was smooth and we could compare the price from 2 different travel agents and then settle for one. All cabs and drivers were good except for the first driver who rode us from Bagdogra to Gangtok. He requested us to also take his mother in the car and we were hesitant initially but then agreed. That was a mistake. In-between she became little unwell and when we reached Gangtok, the driver didn't even give us a helping hand to keep the heavy suit cases down. All his attention was on his mother. One BiG request to TT is that please make it a rule to the drivers to not insert anyone else in the cabs. Even for our Darjeeling trip, the driver brought his kid son. We feel very sensitive not to agree to this when they request us. So it is better to make a rule to all tour agents on this front.

The return from phuentsholing to bagdogra driver kept speaking on phone a lot of times during the trip which is unsafe. The driver as such was polite and accomodative but felt unsafe Hospitallity of Bhutanese guide and driver. Hassle free agents. Ease of payments. No tension throughout the journey