Having said that, in climates like India and Vietnam/Cambodia where it tends to be hot and steamy, I often ended up drinking delicious fruit juices, especially pineapple juice, which were very refreshing rather than dehydrating like wine and beer are.

I hope you book and have as great an experience in India as I did.

Best wishes,

Bob

Regards

Jaya

Like you I like wine on holiday or at any other time! I found the Red wine very good and I had a glass of the house wine in most of the hotels and it was about £5 and the glasses were a decent size.

Go for the trip you will not be disappointed. I am sorry I waited so long to do the trip because I was worried about the food but I was pleasantly surprised. I thought I probably wouldn't each much and would come back lighter but I actually put on a couple of pounds.

Regards

Eve

Perhaps Jaya can answer that? And I thank you, too, for adding to Bob’s comments on the fruit juices. Despite what i said about wine, which was true, I just lurrrve fruit juice and such exotic ones as you both describe I can imagine quaffing like water. Though sadly, I am greatly influenced of late by the sugar health warnings. But maybe I shall be able to use the “But I’m on ‘oliday” excuse with ease.

I had assumed from your photo that you were Indian but preferred not to include such assumptions in a post!

I feel more likely to book now Bob; all I have to do now is to find alternative travel insurance.

Hi Mike

Like you I like wine on holiday or at any other time! I found the Red wine very good and I had a glass of the house wine in most of the hotels and it was about £5 and the glasses were a decent size.

Go for the trip you will not be disappointed. I am sorry I waited so long to do the trip because I was worried about the food but I was pleasantly surprised. I thought I probably wouldn't each much and would come back lighter but I actually put on a couple of pounds.

Regards

Eve

Thanks evelynj for your input. £5 a glass is fine and no less than I’d expect in an hotel anywhere. Nice to know the house wines were good.

I am Indian but born in Kenya! I know India produces beer, but not too sure about Wine. Perhaps you will get your answer by 'googling'. Coconut juice is very hydrating. I am sure fruit sugars are better than refined sugar so you should be okay. I sincerely hope that you do enjoy the trip if you decide to go ahead. Just go with an open mind and also go with the flow and you will have a good time. Do post a review on your return so we know what you thought of the trip.

Regards

Jaya

I went on this holiday last October and I absolutely loved it! Yes there was a lot of spicy food but as a vegetarian who likes spicy food I was very happy. There are alternatives in hotels as others have said, Ranthambore less so but they would always provide an omelette if requested. So loved this holiday I may do it again in a year or so.

Hi Angela:

Many thanks for your input too, endorsing what others have said regarding some alternatives being available. As you may see from Post #20, the original author of this thread, JoyElizabeth, provided all the reassuring details in that follow-up post to convince me that I shall be very contented with what is available. I shall also make some effort to sample the local dishes – from choice rather than necessity!

Your final comment couldn’t provide a more encouraging recommendation of this trip.

I did this tour in February 2012, and of all the JY trips I have done (12 to date, with 2 more booked!) - India is still top of my list - it is a fantastic tour. Re food - I am a meat eater and love Indian food, but on this trip I went vegetarian to avoid Delhi Belly, and it seemed to work. I also, like Bob, took a pro-biotic every day. All the hotels were excellent but I avoided the buffet salads, even in 5 star hotels (and I love salad!) as you don't know what water it has been washed in. I most certainly did not go hungry on this trip. As for the wine - yes, it did cost £35 a bottle! Luckily I like beer too, which was fine. This is such a superb tour, and the food is part of it, so if you have a "delicate palate" just ask someone what the dishes are, and I'm sure you will find something you like. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Hils

Hi,

I did this tour in February 2012, and of all the JY trips I have done (12 to date, with 2 more booked!) - India is still top of my list - it is a fantastic tour. Re food - I am a meat eater and love Indian food, but on this trip I went vegetarian to avoid Delhi Belly, and it seemed to work. I also, like Bob, took a pro-biotic every day. All the hotels were excellent but I avoided the buffet salads, even in 5 star hotels (and I love salad!) as you don't know what water it has been washed in. I most certainly did not go hungry on this trip. As for the wine - yes, it did cost £35 a bottle! Luckily I like beer too, which was fine. This is such a superb tour, and the food is part of it, so if you have a "delicate palate" just ask someone what the dishes are, and I'm sure you will find something you like. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Hils

Thank you, too, Hils, for your assessment of this tour as “still top of [your] list”. (Have you not done China?! :-)

Seriously, very interesting and makes me wonder if I shall change my “top tour” after this – again, after I thought the Canadian Rockies and the Alaskan voyage was my “Holiday of a Lifetime’, only to find it easily surpassed by the China tour last year. I can see I have to keep an open mind from now on.

Your avoidance of salads interested me too. I lunched with a very old (as in ‘long-term’) friend last week who has been to India several times too and, like you, told me to avoid salads as ”they were washed in the Ganges”!! While of course I accept both yours and his advice, I find it very hard to believe that 5-star hotels especially could be so cavalier with their guests’ health.

I am reminded of my first trip to this continent when I cruised up the Nile and the captain called all the passengers together for an introductory chat. One of the first things he assured us was that all salads and fruit were washed in mineral water. Still, without such promise, not worth the risk.

Incidentally, my friend also told me that he found many 5-star hotels actually had three restaurants: one for Indian food, one for Chinese food and yet a third for Western food!

Sorry to read you confirming the iniquitous cost of wine though.

Loved your review.

This is the first time on this site so I hope everything is clear. Thinking of booking Spirit of India tour. A friend, who incidentally hasn't been to India, wonders what the coaches are like and whether there are toilets on board. We have an image of the old buses where the locals sit on the top or hang from the sides!! Also it looks from the map that the area the tour covers is not a high risk area for malaria so tablets are not needed. Will check with the doc but are we right?

KW

I did this tour over two years ago so things might have changed a bit since - I know some of the hotels have changed since I did this tour. Each tour also is slightly different as it depends on how the tour manager and local guides decide to do things. Anyhow, the tour bus we had was not as luxurious as I've had on other JY tours, but it was still perfectly acceptable - clean and reasonably comfortable. Of course since JY are a dedicated escorted tour company, the coach was exclusively for the use of our group and took us everywhere we needed to go for the whole tour. I don't think there was a toilet on board but we had plenty of "comfort stops" so this was not a problem. My over zealous doctor did prescribe malarone for this tour, but the tour manager assured me that it was not needed so I didn't take them as they can be quite hard on the stomach. I don't think I saw a single mosquito the whole tour. I would advise you take a pro-biotic for your stomach however, unless you are of the cast iron variety - many travellers to India (and other exotic/tropical countries) get travellers' tummy and you may well be out of sorts for a day or two. This is a fantastic tour and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Best wishes,

Bob

Hi

Loved your review.

This is the first time on this site so I hope everything is clear. Thinking of booking Spirit of India tour. A friend, who incidentally hasn't been to India, wonders what the coaches are like and whether there are toilets on board. We have an image of the old buses where the locals sit on the top or hang from the sides!! Also it looks from the map that the area the tour covers is not a high risk area for malaria so tablets are not needed. Will check with the doc but are we right?

KW

Hi Katie…I’d definitely say “go for it” – it was an amazing experience. The coaches are modern and air-conditioned…sadly nobody hung off anywhere!!! No toilets on the ones we had but there are plenty of ‘comfort’ breaks. If you look at the Just You page on Facebook you’ll see some of my photos…and there is one that shows the coach we mostly used. I didn’t take malaria tablets – nor did most of the other people in our group but it is a matter of personal preference…I used insect repellant and the air conditioned rooms kept the mossies at bay too!! I made sure that my important jabs like typhoid and Hepatitis A were up-to-date but didn’t bother with the more ‘exotic’ ones like rabies although some in our party did. Your GP will advise but in the end the decision is yours!

Where to begin? This was my first JY holiday (apart from a short New Year break) but it certainly won’t be my last...a truly magical experience. Everything was so well organised that there was never anything to worry about – it was impossible to get lost or lose the group (well almost impossible eh Bev?? 🙂 )...mind you we were really lucky with our Tour Manager, Barbara Eastlake; I’d been told by others on the Forum that she was brilliant and that was actually an understatement!

Highlights of the tour were definitely the Taj (which we visited at sunset and sunrise) and seeing a tiger in Ranthambore but also the days in Varanasi...in fact I’d probably put them as my ultimate highlight. Obviously, apart from the planned sites, most of the time you are seeing life through the glass windows of a coach or train...in Varanasi you ‘get down and dirty’ so to speak. The rickshaw ride and then the walk to the Ganges were truly amazing – I wouldn’t have missed them for the world.

I’m trying to think of the things that I would have found useful before I went – so clothes...yes it can be chilly early morning and evenings but a fleece will really suffice. Skimpy shorts would have been out of place and most of the ladies wore thin long trousers or crops...but we were given ‘tasteful’ cover up garments and foot coverings where necessary. Money – all of the hotels would change money for you and some of our group did use ATMs which the local guides were able to find. I actually changed my first cash at Delhi airport while waiting for our baggage. One thing that took most of us by surprise was the amount we paid in tips...it all seemed very small amounts (at first I think most of us felt awkward about only giving 10 or 20 rupees – 10-20p) but it did add up by the time you put in all the drivers and their assistants, local guides etc. Not that I’m complaining – we had excellent service all round but one or two in our group said they would have brought more cash if they had realised...hence the search for ATMs! I was very pleasantly surprised at the standard of the hotels – yes, I’d looked at them on TripAdviser but I think I’d been prepared for slightly ‘dingy’ single rooms as can happen for singletons...but no, every room was a double or twin and I had no complaints at all. I really enjoyed every meal that we had there and was also very pleasantly surprised by the standard of Indian wine. I had (as I’m sure many are) been worried about the possibility of “Delhi Belly” but had no problems at all...whether it was taking probiotics or just luck I don’t know!!

One thing I dislike, probably because I’m so bad at it, is bartering so I had resigned myself to not bringing too many souvenirs home...wrong!!! Barbara had it all in hand...on arriving at a site the coach would be met by hordes of sellers...she told them we would buy on our return. Once we were safely back on the coach she would bring the things on for us to see and tell us the appropriate price...I am going to have one very happy granddaughter!!! We also did visit some planned ‘shopping opportunities’ – even if you didn’t want to buy rugs, artwork etc, the visits were very enjoyable and informative...be sure to leave a little room in your cases!!!

The notes on the webpage advise that the tour is not suitable for anyone with mobility problems and I would go along with that. It’s not that we did huge amounts of walking but there were a number of places where you would ‘miss out’ if you couldn’t manage steps. I think its more that it was a very tiring tour...always something going on and not a great deal of free time. That really suited me but I think some may find it a little challenging.

I’m more than happy to answer any queries that anyone has. Now all I need to do is get planning the next trip!

Dear Joy and all, (especially Joy) for posting such wonderful reviews. I am a 40-something lady, fed up with missing out, as I don't have holiday buddies, I have been looking at the website for ages at my first Solo holiday, I'm torn between India and Africa.

I have not yet been brave enough to book a holiday, your review, and all who have kindly followed on, have inspired me to take the plunge.

Now all I need to do, is to get my finger out and flip a coin for which continent to embark on my solo travels. and make new travelling friends.

In your opinion what was the best time for the Spirit of India trip. Oh and sorry one last (annoying question), the train stations..... is it a horrible free for all, or are you allocated to a carriage? Sorry if its been asked and answered.

Again thank you all for your inspirational contributions.

Alex

If you are still thinking about the possibility of Africa, I have done both South Africa and Namibia with JY and both were outstanding holidays - SA with the Vic Falls add-on is still my best holiday ever! I really enjoyed India though - however if you do book India, be prepared and go with an open mind - as someone said, it is an assault on the senses!!

Best wishes,

Bob

Thank you so much for your answer, I've read your reviews on India, SA & South America. You encouraged me.

I'm leaning towards India Feb 2016, I need to save pennies for the SA with Vic falls add on at 4K.....eeeeek,

I WILL do it. If I'm a good girl and save my pennies good maybe, in September, if not 2017 here I come.

I'm looking forward to everything on the SPIRIT of India, I will have to learn to sharpen my elbows in crowded situations. In the UK I'm the one that always gets pumped on the street, people love walking into me. Must be my magnetic personality...... or something.

I'm glad the trains are not a full on bun fight and that they are NOT luxurious either, as it would be like travelling in a vacuum.

I saw an awesome documentary about Mumbai Railway (rush hour) I was laughing to my self and thought, "ooh heck, I'd miss the train"..... because I'm too polite to push, that would be hilarious, having said that, looking at the tour I don't anticipate it being anything like Mumbai at rush hour.... although I'd love to witness it as a fly on the wall.

Oh and THANK YOU so much on the heads up about the cost of wine... I too would have merrily ordered a bottle or two thinking, "your in India cant be that expensive" oops .

I shall treat myself though.

Right that's it..... Got to book and make my dream a reality.

Thanks again

Alex

xx

Many thanks for your lovely reply! I hope you have a fantastic time on this tour. It really is very comprehensive and I have some amazing memories that will stay with me forever - viewing the Taj in changing light, an incredible close up encounter with the most beautiful tiger who watched us for several minutes, before lying down to wash herself, a hair-raising rickshaw ride in Varanasi and the atmosphere on the ghats. Simply wonderful. Made any minor inconveniences well worth the effort!

Have fun,

Bob

I too have been on the Spirit of India trip and enjoyed it so much that I am going to Kerala in September. Just wanted to reassure you that the railway experience is less hair raising than I have just seen on the BBC documentary!!!

Hope you book this trip and have a great time.

Lesley

Thank you both for taking the time to reply. Tigers are top of my list, I will take the extra safari drives for sure. I had an awesome Fly in 5* Safari in Tanzania 2 years ago. Memorable truly memorable.

I forgot to ask, is there plenty of time for photo opportunity?

Last train question - I promise (which I am sure I can ask when I book), do you have to carry your own luggage when getting on the train.

Tripadvisor (other search engines available) is excellent to answer questions on the Hotels and food provide. ( I was reading some earlier discussions.... Hey ho.

Alex

As with all JY tours there was plenty of time to take photos - I took hundreds! I'm old fashioned in that I put them all up on the computer then print the best ones out and put them in an album! It's great to look back at fantastic holiday memories.

Regarding the trains, as far as I remember, we collected our cases from the coach and wheeled them onto the platform. Then when they were all lined up, they were taken away and stored on the train and we collected them again at our destination. However, it was 3 1/2 years ago and I've been on a lot of holidays since, so the memory might be a little rusty!

The hotels on this holiday were beautiful, mainly five star as far as I remember. The lodge at Ranthambore was more basic, as lodges usually are but it was still absolutely fine. I always take Trip Advisor with a pinch of salt whether the reviews are good or bad!!

Best wishes,

Bob