India Forum: Our experience with Icon India Tours

Likewise, I recently used Icon India Tours for my first trip to India and had a fabulous time. The motivation for my trip was to attend a friend's wedding in Bangalore. I decided to go with Icon India Tours because the responses I got from the owner Sabu Ram where fast and informative. He was also the only one who was able to customize an itinerary for me rather than just giving a formulated response. In addition, he was able to provide references upon request that had been recent and all of the ones I checked had been very pleased with his services. I also needed to make a few significant changes to my itinerary and Sabu's understanding and quick responses really made it easy for me.

My trip lasted approximately 3 weeks this month (Sept 2009) and covered Pushkar, Udaipur, Bangalore, Cochin, Munnar, Thekkady, Jaipur, Agra, and Delhi. Upon arriving, Sabu was very welcoming and had all of my paperwork ready for me. I was also able to purchase an Indian cell phone thru him which was invaluable to have during the trip because the rates were so much cheaper than what AT&T would have charged (both in India and the US). During the trip, Sabu called regularly to check that my trip was going well and was very responsive to a problem I had when one of my flights got cancelled due to a Jet Airways strike. The drivers, guides, and hotels that Sabu arranged were all great. I definitely trusted Sabu and would recommend Icon India Tours to others as well.

I second all those comments above.

When we were looking to take our sixth trip to India, I wanted something tailor made as we were quite specific in our choice of destinations. Searching the internet I came across a number of tour operators who offered this service, but the only one who actually LISTENED to what I wanted, was Sabu of Icon India Yours ( http://www.iconindiatours.com/). He put together a great itinerary for us, and nothing was ever too much trouble, even when I made numerous changes.

The tour ran like clockwork once in India - all the hotels were absolutely super, EXACTLY the type of hotels I had explained to Sabu that I wanted, the car was very comfdortable, the driver was knowledgable, spoke good English and was very caring and courteous. All in all the trip was PERFECT. I can't wait to let Sabu book my next trip to India.

I would wholeheartedly recommend Icon India Tours.

We recently spent a month in India, and went with Sabu and Icon India Tours to help book our trip. If you are looking for some assistance in planning an upcoming visit to India, look no further! Sabu was very helpful, and customized our entire tour for us...everything from desitnations, travel, and hotels. We have to admit, at first we were a little hesitant...especially since we paid full amount in cash on arrival. Our concerns were unfounded however. Sabu was quite trusthworthy. We contacted Sabu just a few days before coming to India and he was able to sort a month long trip in such a short amount of time. He also called us throughout our time in India to make sure our needs were met. When staying in Jaipur, Sabu even took us out for dinner! We left India completely satisfied with Icon India, and a new friend in Sabu. We have posted our itinerary below for possible ideas.

Sept 26- Delhi – Florence Inn

Sept 27- Delhi – Florence Inn

Sept 28- Agra – Howard Park Plaza

Sept 29- Agra to Jaipur – Umaid Bhawan, on rout visit the Fatehpur Sikri

Sept 30- Jaipur – Umaid Bhawan

Oct 01- Ranthambhore – Ranthambhore Bagh

Oct 02- Ranthambhore – Ranthambhore Bagh

Oct 03- Pushkar – Master Paradise

Oct 04- Udaipur – Hotel Mewar Haveli

Oct 05- Udaipur – Hotel Mewar haveli

Oct 06- Jodhpur – Hotel Haveli Inn Pal

Oct 07- Jaisalmer – Hotel The Royal

Oct 08- Jaisalmer – Night in Desert camp

Oct 09- Jaisalmer to Jodhpur by car and then catch a flight for Trivandrum (via Mumbai)

Oct 10- Kovallam – Hotel Udai Samudra Resort

Oct 11- Kovallam – Hotel Udai Samudra Resort

Oct 12- Alleppey – Pooppallys Heritage Home Stay

Oct 13- Alleppey – Night in Air-con houseboat

Oct 14- Cochin – Hotel Gokulam Park

Oct 15- Cochin – Hotel Gokulam Park

Oct 16- Munnar – Hotel Abad Copper Castle

Oct 17- Munnar – Hotel Abad Copper Castle

Oct 18- Madurai – Hotel Germanous

Oct 19- Madurai – Hotel Germanous

Oct 20- Tanjavaur – Hotel Ideal River View Resort

Oct 21- Tanjavaur – Hotel Ideal River View Resort

Oct 22- Chennai – Hotel Courtyard by Marriott

Oct 23- Chennai to Mumbai by flight, Hotel Suba Palace

Oct 24- Mumbai – Hotel Suba Palace

Oct 25- Mumbai

It's really wonderous how people who've never posted on TA before, come back from their 'trips' and then post reviews. Do they discover TA while travelling through India?

Sandy, I have a bone to pick with you :) You managed to post that comment even as I was going to do something similar :0)

Allow me to third that. :)

I found it interesting that during our 16 day visit to India, staying in 9 different hotels, not one of them asked us to mention them on TA.

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in response to those who question our comments. the reason we've never posted before is that we've not had great reason to. However we have been on a 6month tour of various places around the world, includung loas, cambodia, china, hong kong.... and only now have the time to comment. we had a genuinely good experience with Icon India and felt that this should be shared. we are not commenting on the hotels but the service we had from sabu and Icon India. the hotels you can change to suit your budget. for us india was a confusing place as to where to start what we could include and through Icon this was easily sorted out. I am not going to be making up an itineray just to suit others.

if you have any further doubts you can message me personally and i will happily share our experiences with you.