I just came back from 3 weeks of traveling in India. I started my journey as a female solo traveler where I took the India G Adventures Golden Triangle itinerary tour. Here is my review.
As I already said in my Instagram stories, I never ever book a group a tour when traveling as I rather wander around and explore places on my own. The reason I booked a tour in India was because of the many stories I heard from other travelers that have been there. Many said it is quite difficult to travel on its own in India and some had some bad experiences as well. Mostly women. For those two reason and because I have never been to India before I decided to book a tour as it seemed the safest and easiest option as I had little time on my hand.
Since I got many questions on my Instagram stories I am sharing with you here my experience with G Adventures.
G Adventures golden triangle itinerary
The tour I booked lasted 6 days. The G adventures Golden Triangle itinerary started and ended in Delhi. It also took us to the main attractions in the Golden Triangle that are :
- Agra, home of the Taj Mahal,
- the red Fort,
- Jaipur aka the Pink city where we visited the Amber Fort and the city palace but also to
- Fatephur Sikri that was once the capital of India’s Mughal Empire and is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the Abhaneri Stepwell. While all of that was interesting, what I like the most was the experiences we had in between the visits of those historic buildings:
- The visit to the Sikh temple, which I loved the concept where every religion is welcome but they also make meals for people in need and people, in general, every single day. All done by volunteers, sponsored and paid for, and distributed by kind hearts without any questions.
- Wandering around with the other girls of the group in Delhi and Jaipur,
- Camping (or better said Glamping) at Dhula, a rural village and going on a bicycle tour to see if just for a little time, what the daily life of the locals look like.
- and the colours at Chandni Chowk market
India G Adventures golden triangle tour – review
I booked the “classic” G Adventures Golden Triangle tour. There are different tour options you can choose from, classic means that you will mainly sleep in simple hotels and food is not included. Other options available are “yolo”, for younger people, or “national geographic journeys” including all meals and better hotels.
“Classic” was just perfect for me as I don’t really care about the hotels if I know I won’t spent much time in the room anyway. Also I am not a big eater so I prefer to order just what I feel like depending if I am hungry or not.
For what is about the organization we had a very good CEO (aka group leader) who would just always do the best for us. For every places we visited we also had a local guide, most of them were good but for some places I might just have prefered a little general information instead of a detailed tour and wander around the place on my own instead. I guess I could have just run away more often but it just felt very unpolite 😀
What to know before you book the G Adventures Golden Triangle tour :
– If you travel on your own you will have to pay extra to have your own room or you will have to share a room with someone else from the group which can be a fun experience (Ana if you read this, you have been the best roommate, even though it was just for 3 nights!!!)
– G Adventures is an advocate of sustainable tourism and via it’s foundation : Planeterra, it leaves a positive impact in local communities. It might be something you want to take into consideration when choosing a tour company.
G Adventures is an advocate of sustainable tourism and via it’s foundation : Planeterra, it leaves a positive impact in local communities.
Fazit
Now that I spent two weeks in India and I had a glimpse into what the country would I travel alone to India? It is a hard question to answer as both weeks have been part of an organized trip which means I had an agenda, several guides and comfy transportation. An easy way to travel India. I stayed in ok and the nicest hotels, ate in places the locals probably knew would not make us feel sick. This is probably not what a regular traveler would experience so it is hard for me to say if it would be ok to travel alone or not. What I can say is that I would definitely consider visiting India on my own if I would decide to stay just at one place as I would not need to organize long distances travel journey. It’s all Bee wrote an article about how to travel from Delhi to Agra by train if you would like to know how it is like to travel o your own.
My both weeks in India have been part of an organized trip which means I had an agenda, several guides and comfy transportation. An easy way to travel India. I stayed in ok and the nicest hotels, ate in places the locals probably knew would not make us feel sick. This is probably not what a regular traveler would experience so it is hard for me to say if it would be ok to travel alone or not.
If I want to see more than 1 or 2 places I would definitely reconsider taking a tour. G Adventures is definitely a company I would recommend and from the people who traveled with me, some of them only travel with G Adventures so it might say something quite good about the company.
For who is the India G Adventures Golden Triangle Tour?
A tour is perfect for
– anyone who goes to India for the first time. It give you an idea of what the country is like and so you can decide for the next time if you will want to travel on your own or not.
– definitely for solo female travelers. Not only it is safe but you will make friends along the way.
– someone who wants to see a lot in little time
– someone who wants to travel hassle free, no need to take care on how to go from A to B and where to sleep etc.
Another option to travel hassle free and if your budget allow it, is to travel through India in a luxury train . If you want to travel on your own I also wrote a 15 days Kerala Itinerary including the best tourist places in Kerala.
Video of my G adventures golden triangle