Dal Lake in Dharamshala, Himachal

Not too happy with the booking First the good parts: 1. Well-arranged trips, ample time to go around for seeing different places 2. Good hotels in Shimla, Manali, and Dalhousie. The views were amazing from all these hotels, and so were the rooms and the service. Special mention about the hotel in Dalhousie, beautiful place, amazing views and awesome food. The parents were very happy. 3. The driver was quite well mannered and had equally good driving skills Not so good and improvement areas: 1. The driver had very bad navigational skills, was uncooperative, especially when it came to asking for directions in a new place. It was strange as you would expect to get someone who will have good knowledge about the place where he goes almost regularly 2. This trip was customized which is why a lot of responsibility rested with the driver who was either unhelpful when it came to assisting or suggesting something to do, or was unaware of most of the things 3. The hotel in Chandigarh was unhygienic, one of the rooms had cockroaches roaming around, another had bedbugs and the third room was damp and smelled as if it always remains shut. My father had to stay up the entire night because of bed-bug bites 4. The hotel in Dharamshala was again old, dirty and unhygienic too. They tried to pass-off the water from the dish-cleaning area as drinking water. Rooms were shabby, blankets were worn out and dirty, furnishings were very old and shabbily kept. Not something you expect from an apparent 3 star hotel

Pros:1. tempo traveller & driver services are very good.2.food & accommodation are very good in all hotels that we chose. Need to improve: services & cleanliness at Sky village camping in billing, Himachal Pradesh need to be improved.it is run on solar panels as there is no electricity. We are not aware of this as we traveled with kids & seniors. Triund trek at dharamshala, horse ride in kajjiar lake, Dian kund & kalatope Trek in Dalhousie;paragliding in billing are spectacular!!!

Pros:1. tempo traveller & driver services are very good.2.food & accommodation are very good in all hotels that we chose. Need to improve: services & cleanliness at Sky village camping in billing, Himachal Pradesh need to be improved.it is run on solar panels as there is no electricity. We are not aware of this as we traveled with kids & seniors. Triund trek at dharamshala, horse ride in kajjiar lake, Dian kund & kalatope Trek in Dalhousie;paragliding in billing are spectacular!!!

Pros:1. tempo traveller & driver services are very good.2.food & accommodation are very good in all hotels that we chose. Need to improve: services & cleanliness at Sky village camping in billing, Himachal Pradesh need to be improved.it is run on solar panels as there is no electricity. We are not aware of this as we traveled with kids & seniors. Triund trek at dharamshala, horse ride in kajjiar lake, Dian kund & kalatope Trek in Dalhousie;paragliding in billing are spectacular!!!

Pros:1. tempo traveller & driver services are very good.2.food & accommodation are very good in all hotels that we chose. Need to improve: services & cleanliness at Sky village camping in billing, Himachal Pradesh need to be improved.it is run on solar panels as there is no electricity. We are not aware of this as we traveled with kids & seniors. Triund trek at dharamshala, horse ride in kajjiar lake, Dian kund & kalatope Trek in Dalhousie;paragliding in billing are spectacular!!!

Package Cost me Rs 24,000/- Day 1:I was Travelling from Jammu ,The internet service was not available ,the remaining payment I had to be done by Cash mode after reaching the hotel ,It was very frustrating Night 1 :Horrible experience ,Hotel has been changed ,Skylark to some local Rosewood hotel (stay was OK but dinner we had outside) Day2: breakfast has less option ,opted for Paratha (very Bad but was hungry)but me and my wife vomited during Journey ,Places :More religious places chamunda devi,brijeshwari temple has been covered instead of Natural sight seeing,however places were nice,Kangra fort was awesome. Cab service was good. Night 2:Dinner was worst ,we are unable to eat it ,badly cooked and rotten smell is coming out.Beds were comfortable but room was dirty and not properly cleaned stained were there. Day 3:transfer to Dhramshala to Dalhousie ,in between we visited Monastery ,Dalai Lama was addressing there.It was heartfelt experience. reached to Banikhet near by Dalhousie in Hotel Grand Dalhousie.It is budget hotel Staying was good.The road trip from Dharamshala /mcleodganj to Banikhet was awesome but the nature is fragile there ,not recommend to visit during rainy season as frequent landslide occur. Night3: Dinner was good in first night as a group of student visited there to stay. Day4:Visited Dalhousie church,KhajjiarThe best place in my journey,very awesome weather,picturesque ,views and many more to be refreshed.Khajjiar is also a good picnic spot.Afterwards we went to Chamba laxmi narayan temple,which is inside city,Dalhousie to chamba to Banikhet road is dangerous.However cab driver Sameer was excellent in his work. Night 5:we were Happy to had good trip.But again Food/Dinner in grand Dalhousie was worst(I mean it). Day 6: Early Morning we left for Pathankot. The Bad Parts are : 1.unexpectedly telling me to pay the remaining bill either by Cash or Online.while I was coming from Jammu where there were not internet service. 2.Changing of Hotel Skylark to some not so good hotel Rosewood (staying was Okay but Food was literally worst).Beware if you had bad food it can ruin your trip. 3. Dharmshala/Mcleodganj (more of religious kind,temple visit) instead of more historical places ,museum,sight seeing 4.hotel was in Banikhet not in Dalhousie,the weather & views in Dalhousie is awesome and not same as Banikhet. 5.Food was worst. The Good Parts: 1.The cab/Private vehicle service was very good,comfortable.Driver was experienced,drives smoothly ,well mannered ,gentleman and assisted us where he can. 2.Dalhousie ,Khajjiar ,Monastery ,Kangra Fort visits are memorable part. 3.Temple visit were also fine but not so exciting. 4.Staying was normal,as these are budget hotels. 5.The hilly road drive was awesome. Note:However ,I felt that I would have chosen government approved & 3 star or above rated hotels ,not the travel triangle or other website rated 3 star hotels for comfortable STAYING/SLEEPS and for quality FOOD.

My trip to Shimla, Manali & Dharamshala was well coordinated by the executives of North India Tours and Travels with very good halting arrangements at these places. I would certainly recommend them and also travel triangle to all tour aspirants.

The trip was perfect as per the iternary. Driver was very much supportive, flexible and friendly. Hotels in Amritsar and Himachal all were perfect but the best was in Dharamshala. I had a perfect holiday within these 6 days. Thank You Team for providing us with awesome experience.

Thanks to Mr. Kush, from Holiday Triangle who provided the necessary guidance and facilities for booking my family trip of 4 to Dalhousie and Dharamshala. Mr. Kush was friendly and always prompt to reply to my queries and change requests. The cab driver Mr. Vicky Rana was an awesome gentleman who knew all the routes very well, even for once he did not need to ask for directions or google map. He drove at a steady speed and his Innova car was an absolute comfort. Both the hotels , HOTAL MONGAS (Dalhousie) and THE PINK HOUSE (McLeodGanj) were absolute best, staying there we never had any issues. Mr Ranjeet Singh from Mongas and Mahender Ji from Pink House provided all the necessary facilities to make our journey a memorable one. I would suggest people to plan their holidays with HOLIDAY TRIANGLE. Regards Anik Saha

The overall trip could have been better had the agency taken care of some small things. 1. At two of the booked hotels, Wistling Pine in Shimla and Savers Park in Amritsar were had been stopped for about 30 minutes or so when checking out stating that the payments were not made and that we had to pay them. It was very inconvenient. 2. We didn't get to see a few places promised in the final voucher. First, we got to Kullu in the evening and the driver stopped at a shop and said that if we wanted to buy clothes we had about 30 minutes. He said we will not visit Kullu again. So we didn't see Kullu at all. Second, we didn't visit Kasole at all. The driver said he will see if the roads to Kasole were open, he will take us. But he didn't take us there. I know for sure that the roads were open. I strongly believe he wanted to get to Dharamshala earlier so he skipped that. Third, the driver skipped all the sightseeing in Dalhousie saying that they are 50 to 60 km away so we cannot visit them. 3. When we asked for some changes in the hotel reservations, although the request being 3 days in advance, it was denied stating that the changes could not be made. 4. When we would asked the driver to take us to a near by mall or shopping, he declined the request stating the car has a gps and that hey is not allowed to. 5. At most of the hotels, we missed the breakfast because the driver wanted to leave early for the next destination.