West Bengal Friends Packages

The destination was absolutely mesmerizing, unparalleled & divine. I strongly recommend one & all to definitely visit here atleast once in a lifetime. Preeti from Back2Holidays was extremely courteous, friendly & professional to speak to. I was offered a good price for the package although there are still some definite areas of improvement for the travel agency like understanding the customer profile, travel history & preferences, knowing the on ground situation & accordingly advising client tweaks & adjustments in package details. Eg, Cab drivers expected us to leave for sightseeing at 8 am in the morning but hotel breakfast timings start from 8 or 830 leading to unsatisfactory experience; NH closure to a destination led to extremely bad alternate road being taken which could have been informed beforehand & suggested for Cab upgrade to not suffer from bad roads in a Bolero like vehicle etc. and others like this. Finally, if you wish to cover East, West & North Sikkim, you must have atleast 9 days to enjoy the place stress free. Hopping from one place to another is not a good idea for this destination.

Except the few Hiccups such as West Nusa Penida Tour cancelled sudenly, hotel at Nusa Penida not reaching payment leading to my family stranded for 2 hours, the trip was otherwise well planned. I experienced issue while contacting the drivers assigned. Agent shared a number of the driver but then that person always was an agent who gave us the number other sub-agent who eventually connected us with the driver. This was really tiresome.

I took a 5 day trip to Sikkim with family through vacation venue. Some points to note:- •Kriti Rai is extremely helpful and helped to make a complete customized tour plan including north Sikkim and parts of west and south covering a few monasteries and other places of interest which we wanted. •The hotels provided in Gangtok, Lachen and Lachung were all very nice and we were able to find all the amenities, specially food which was really good everywhere. •Overall tour was within my budget and did not create a big hole in the pocket. My only suggestion is regarding driver provided for north Sikkim, who was a bit late to arrive on all days and even though Mt. Katao was closed for visit,I had to pay the full amount (as it was outside my itinerary) despite the fact that we couldn't even travel halfway. Except this, everything was perfect. Overall, I would recommend booking tours through vacation venue.

Coming from the west (Australia), the pollution and garbage in India quite confronting; despite repeated visits. The poor air quality and piles of plastic everywhere is disheartening. Meghalaya is cleaner than many other parts of India but it won’t last long at the current rate. Our driver was a delightful man but we had to iron out some issues with punctuality and driving safety. Perhaps I misunderstood some of the arrangements, but I was surprised I needed to explain the itinerary to the driver. I was also surprised to be constantly spending on tickets to access all the so-called included sightseeing, as well as fees for parking and for bringing a camera etc. it adds up over the week. It might be a normal Indian thing but I would have expected the included itinerary to be already paid for. My advice would be to do your research. I was unaware the walk to the double decker bridge involved 7500 steps down and back up again! Stunning though and a very popular trek. It was quite an effort on a hot day. The bamboo trek was also arduous but spectacular and highly recommended. Surprisingly we started and finished the bamboo trek from Shillong when we had already travelled that route earlier. We could have stayed at a homestay in a nearby village and avoided all that time travelling back and forth. Especially since driving in and around Shillong is like being in one giant traffic jam. I don’t mean to sound negative. I actually had a very enjoyable trip. Meghalaya a beautiful place to visit, especially when out of the built up areas. Bamboo trek, visiting the local markets. The beautiful Khasi people. The magnificent and ancient root bridges is several places.

It was a really a good experience to travel around east, west & south sikkim with different really good locations. Tips & Customized plan provided by the Agent was really good. Some improvements can be done in the stay hotels choosing according to the taste and requirements of travelers.

It was a great 5-day trip to Sri Lanka. Our tour planner also included a couple of additional places to the initial itinerary, which we wanted to visit. We were able to cover all the places as per the itinerary. We are very grateful to our fabulous driver, Udayanga Subash, who took great care of us the entire time. Our highlights were climbing Sigiriya at sunrise, visiting the elephants at Pinnawala, exploring the west coast beaches, and all the Buddhist temples.

Everythinh was good and very smooth. Thebrating is related to hotels only not the agency. Pattay hotel staff was not that good and so as service ( i felt they are biased with indian..prefer to cater more to west people) but hotel in bangkok its staff and service was really good and they were very helpful. the only things was we were not aware abt the brekfast venue which wasted out time in the morning and we missed our SIC bus for safari..which was not our mistake. But then hotel helped us and arranged cab for us. Rest sightseeing activity driver, car evrything thing was perfect. Nong nooch village and tiger park were awsome

Scope of Service for Travel Triangle/ Trip2Hill – Only providing Taxi for 5 days. Day-1 - Decent Innova Car, Good driver, pleasant trip to Hotel in Gangtok from Bagdogra. Day-2 - Not so great Xylo Car, Not so polite driver, but pleasant trip to Nathulam Pass and Thiago Lake. Driver tried to take us to his known restaurant telling us that there were no shacks nearby when there were many, despite of us repeatedly telling him to stop in between as we were hungry. Then then reluctantly stopped near a shack for us to eat post we pointed one to him asked him to stop in a more affirmative manner. Not a good experience but still didn’t report it to the agent since it was handled before it got worse. Day-3 – Again a Not at all great Xylo, with a polite driver who was not willing to on the AC despite of us requesting him repeatedly. At first he said cannot on AC as it’s a hilly region and it puts a load on the engine when traveling up hill, which was ok with us. When we reached the plains, we again requested him to on the AC as it was burning hot, at this he said there was no AC in the car. This was a bad experience for us as after paying such an amount, don’t expect such bad conditions for travelling. We were all sweaty and sticky by the time we reached Ravangla from Gangtok. I gave a peace of my mind to the lady Neeta in the agency regarding this, since the agency has been sending substandard cheap broken down vehicles to us when we could have gotten Innova’s which are far better vehicles and with better equipment and less body roll for hilly region. Day-4 – Worst Experience in Darjeeling, we missed Tiger hill viewing because of bad weather. Then we started our travel at 9:00 AM (I told the driver, beforehand we will come at 9:00 AM and he was ok with this), we went to Batasia Loop, which was Great, then we went to Zoo, Mountaineering Institute and Bengal Museum of Natural History (all located in the same place). It rained when we were there and we took shelter near a shack, we had our lunch there, bought an umbrella there and then proceeded with the visit. For this we were told that we took extra time by the driver and he on his own decided to skip the other places in our itinerary i.e; Tenzing Rock, Tibetian Refugee Center and Japanese Temple and Tibetan Peace Pagoda and proceeded directly to the Tea garden. I told him we wanted to visit the other places. He then in haste showed us the Tenzing rock from the car without stopping we saw Tenzing rock as we drove by. He kept saying everything closes by 4:00 PM we are late because we spent too much time in other places, then post our pushing agreed to take us to Japanese Temple and Peace Pagoda as it was closer to our hotel. I complained to the agent while with him in the car, they came back as saying no one ever misses any place in our itinerary, how did you miss it. The driver is saying the trip was supposed to start at 8:30 AM, you came at 9:00 AM etc., but I told them he was ok with it. I told him in advance, we will come after breakfast. And they kept saying we can’t do anything now driver is not listening to us. Later the driver, when we are visiting the Tea garden cribbed about us to his known people in the shack. I went there and explained to them and Driver, the situation and requested the driver to complete the Itinerary for which he agreed to take us to the Japanese Temple at least since it was closer to our Hotel. I told the agency, when they asked for money, I paid as they wanted and how much they wanted without any questions. When it came to delivery of Service, why so many nuances and conditions? And why was I not told about the 4:00 PM closure time and driver conditions. If I have paid the agency to take care of my travel, why am I dealing with the driver and his tantrums? And it’s not a small amount, Rs, 42000 for 5 days taxi. Day -5 – I called and I called and texted the agency for the Driver details as I was not sure if it would be the same driver or a different driver, nomrally it has been a different driver each day, they didn't pick my calls or answered my texts. What if I was calling for an emergency or an issue, no call back, no revert, nothing from the agency. Then I called the Driver from the other day and he confirmed. Same Driver, Same vehicle, pleasant trip to Airport The Agencies view was, my final day in Darjeeling so their service is over. Bottom line…. If you have time, do it yourself. Talk to the Taxi providers, Do a little research, fix the prices, set expectations and travel with ease. Because if you have to manage the drivers since you are travelling with them, do it yourself rather than paying extra to a third party who is sitting pretty at a far away location and does nothing to help.

While the experience inside Bhutan was very good, be it in terms of hotels, cab, driver, guide, etc. but it was equally horrifying inside India. At the Bagdogra Airport, the cab driver kept sitting inside the cab and was giving directions to us to search and reach out to him. The cab was dirty and the driver didn’t bother to clean it at all. The cab AC started to cool only after about an hour after the cab left behind Siliguri. While coming back from Jaigaon to Bagdogra, the cab was changed from Innova to Ertiga without our knowledge and consent. However, the worst came when the Ertiga driver refused to switch the AC on saying that he’s not getting enough so as to switch on the AC. After a lot of commotion, and a call to Nitesh, the travel agent, the cab driver switched the AC on. We were still left to get one more surprise, the driver was driving extremely rash. I would long to forget the cab experience within West Bengal. Bhutan driver, guide, scenic beauty and Bhutanese people - all were amazing. Would love to go there again, but by taking direct flight to Paro, even though it’s costly, but worth it.

Experienced a great trip with family. Hotels were perfect, itinerary has been planned well by trip 2 hills. Gangtok hotel was my selection, please avoid Hotel Potala at any cost, we got worst experience with it, this was only catch in entire trip. Opposite to Potala you'll find Galaxy Luxuria, rooms and foods are very nice, price also quite standard as per quality. The hotels are near to MG Marg and within walking distance without stairs. Trip 2 Hills service was up to the mark, they covered all my request before and during the trip. I recommend Trip 2 Hills strongly for North bengal tour. Snowfall at Yumthang valley.