We were a little nervous booking a tour company at first but DIPT took care of everything and executed beautifully while we were in country. I really can't say enough good things about our experience.
I made my initial inquiries to multiple companies and Mukul at DIPT was the fastest to respond. He provided clear options and let us know that we could make any adjustments we wanted to any of their offerings to suit our specific situation. They weren't the cheapest quote but the clear communications and high level of responsiveness helped establish a good rapport.
We had just under 36 hours in the Delhi area so we initially planned to tour Delhi during the day, drive to Agra in the afternoon/evening, stay in a hotel in Agra, tour the Taj Mahal in the morning and then head back to Delhi by lunchtime to give us plenty of time to get to the airport.
Unfortunately, like many people are dealing with these days, we had flight cancellations the evening prior to our initial arrangements. Mukul was able to pivot quickly with us and make changes to our original agreement that would help us still get the most out of the time we had in the area.
The first half of our group toured Delhi on the first day and our driver, Mahesh, picked our entire group up at 4am when we were all finally in town and got us out to Agra and back in plenty of time to make our next flight at 5pm. He even let us take our time back at the hotel in Delhi to grab a bite to eat and a drink before taking us to the airport. I know it was a long day for him but he went out of his way to make sure all the timing fit exactly what would work best for us during our whirlwind stay. Our ride was clean, comfortable and safe the entire time which really helped us relax and enjoy the experience. Mahesh even kept a stockpile of bottled water in the SUV to make sure we had available drinking water anywhere we went.
While we were in Agra we were connected with a fantastic tour guide, Vikram. He's a local in Agra but provides tours all around the region. Vikram not only had wealth of knowledge relating to the Taj Mahal - our main focus in Agra - but he also provided a lot of cultural context for us regarding India's history, religions, present day dynamics and even provided insight on common misconceptions and popular legends/rumors.
Like everyone we worked with through DIPT, Vikram made it very clear that his main goal was to provide us with the best experience possible based on OUR definition. He would translate any interaction for us and would allow us to decide which, if any vendors we wanted to utilize. He would offer context but never pressured us to speak to anyone or purchase anything. We were welcome to be as insular or engaging as our group was comfortable with. He also took the time to provide guidance to a couple tourists that had been left by their initial guide. Not allowing us to feel neglected but wanting to ensure the ladies were able to get where they needed to go - which we were all grateful for. Vikram even proved to be quite the photographer!!
Overall our experience with DIPT - Mukul, Mahesh and Vikram - was exceptional. Mukul even adjusted our agreed payment method at the end of our trip when we decided we would prefer to hang onto more of our cash for the next leg of our journey. Absolutely every step of the experience was tailored to fit our request and we felt like true guests rather than nameless tourists.
