CUSTOMER REVIEWS

Just back from a spectacular trip to India – our second since 2013. Covid prevented travel in 2020 to celebrate our 30th anniversary. Once again we contacted Mr. VP Singh of Legend & Palaces to arrange a 3 week private tour with friends. Mr. Singh and his team worked with us to provide a truly magnificent adventure including Agra, Delhi, Udaipur, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Hyderabad, Varanasi plus Tadoba-Andhari National Park where 9 tigers were spotted during all four outings. We have nothing but high praise for Legend & Palaces and look forward to another visit very soon with their help and guidance.

We had a wonderful and stress free time in India. Your itinerary was everything we had asked for – beautiful monuments, wonderful experiences and revealing glimpses of “real life” and great accommodation, plus some unexpected little touches such as the birthday cakes!

…All in all an amazing trip and I thank you for all the time and effort your staff put into it. There were no glitches and everything went smoothly. Making it extremely restful for us!

Hope to use you again if I come back to see the South!

The organisation was faultless, the driver and guides provided were beyond compare, knowledgeable and friendly. The whole thing was seamless.

If you visit India and use any other travel agent you are making a mistake, seriously they are that good!

As appearing on Trip Advisor dated 05 October 2016.

“We just returned from India and had an amazing trip. We used Legends and Palaces based on a recommendation from a friend. I am so glad we did. The transitions were flawless. Our drivers were experts which is important in this country! Our guides were generally well informed and quite enthusiastic. VP Singh checked in with us and the guides on several occasions while we were there. He also responded to emails in a very timely fashion. I have no hesitations recommending this company if you are planning on traveling to India. We toured Ladakh (did a trek with homestays–highly recommend), and Delhi/Agra/Jaipur. Despite a large geographic variation the trip was literally without a hitch. Thanks so much, VP Singh!”

“As appearing on Trip Advisor dated 14 October 2016”.

Mr. Singh was very responsive while we were in the planning stages and equally responsive while we were on the trip. He called our guides and drivers daily to ensure that all was going well; one of our guides told us that Legends & Palaces was the only agency with which he worked to show that level of ongoing concern. Mr. Singh called us every three days or so as well. And I can vouch that the number he gave us reaches him directly, because I inadvertently dialed it at 6:45 one morning and Mr. Singh picked it up on the second ring..

I will be posting photos on Shutterfly and advise you when the travelogue is ready for viewing.

We were delighted to meet you and your daughter in Delhi. It was great to put some context to the ‘voice’ in the emails. Yes, we were exceedingly happy with our time in India, and will certainly talk to our friends and family about it all. We ourselves, have chattered about a second trip to some other parts of your wonderful country, some time down the track!

I have attached a run down of our trip. It is a selection of emails I sent home and my diary entries. It is quite long, so please don’t feel obliged to read it. However, it does give you an overview of our perceptions along with comments on all the accommodation, guides and drivers, and so it might be useful as a critique if you like.

Thank you once again for looking after us so well. We certainly have come away with wonderful memories of India.

Thank you for another wonderful trip to India. When we decided on our third trip to India, you were the first person I contacted, just as I had done on the first two trips. We knew we din’t have to worry about anything other than seeing wildlife in Kanha and Pench.

You can be assured that we will never travel through India without you!

We are home and rested and happy to give you very positive feedback.

Firstly we found the organisation and assistance from yourself and your company to be outstanding.

We did not have one serious problem in all of our tour and every occasion where you had arranged assistance more than met our expectations, particularly the tricky transition at New Delhi into the overnight Hotel.

We cannot think of any place we visited was not worthy of being listed and in closing we found the visit to the Sikh Golden temple and the social activities of providing daily meals to visitors was the highlight of our tour.

Many thanks to you and your staff for providing us with a memorable holiday.

You were very good following
up with us, thank you,

And we thank you for the excellent service throughout our trip. As I mentioned on the phone, I will gladly be a reference for any clients who need one. I also plan to put up reviews on Trip Advisor and Fodors forums about Legends & Palaces. That will probably be in the next week or so…there’s still quite a bit of catching up for us to do at work and home upon return from vacation.

It was reassuring to have you looking out for us, available at all times in case of any problems. Most notably, when we were fogged in at Varanasi you handled it for us beautifully–the mettle of a company is how they react when things don’t go according to plan and Legends & Palaces showed its excellence in that situation.

India was a dream trip for me and the experience we had through your company was wonderful while staying within our budget.

I am writing to thank you for organising such a wonderful holiday for Warwick and me.

We could not have had a more perfect experience with you. We had absolutely no doubt that you were entirely focused on our interests. We have been telling all of our friends about your care for us and your incredible attention to detail (the mobile phone, meeting us in Delhi, your calls to check on our health etc). It was exactly the right amount of contact with us.

One danger of a trip like ours is that you could get to the point of not wanting to see another palace or listen to another guide. We found the balance in your itinerary perfect. Just when we might have been wanting one, there was a rest day when we could relax and just be together.

Thank you so much Mr Singh for organising such an excellent, trouble and worry free holiday.

Thank you for arranging such a wonderful holiday through Rajasthan for Mr Schoots and myself. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves from start to finish. Your timely response to my many emails before we left was exceptional.

We learned so much about the Indian culture, due to the excellent itinerary you organised for us, as well as the pleasant and knowledgeable tour guides and drivers. At no time were we in any doubt about where we were going next or how we would get there. We were met by one of your representatives in each new place and were able to keep in contact with you along the way via the mobile phone you gave us. I even noticed that as we booked into each new hotel, you had contacted them in advance to make sure that we got the best rooms! I can truly rate this holiday in India as one of our best ever.

We’re hoping to visit again next year and do a tour of Nepal and South India, so we’ll be keeping in touch. Thank you for our fantastic holiday.

We made it home safely to Chicago and now that I have a few minutes, I would like to thank you for helping us realize the holiday of a lifetime. From the places we visited to the people we met, to the places we stayed, this holiday exceeded all of our expectations. We were able to thoroughly enjoy ourselves knowing that you had put together a great itinerary and took care of all the details of making our journey from one place to another completely care free. All of your representatives, guides and drivers were pleasant, professional, and knowledgeable. I want to particularly recognize our driver Ravi, who was with us for the majority of the trip. As we came to learn, driving in India is very stressful and Ravi is very good at what he does.

In summary, I couldn’t be happier about working with Legends and Palaces to make our trip to India a complete success and would be more than willing to act as a reference to anyone considering working with your company.

Thank you for organizing a fantastic trip for us to India. From the outset, your service has been outstanding. You were the fastest to respond to my email inquiries for trip proposals, and your itinerary/pricing offered the best combination of quality and cost. I appreciated your periodic emails before we left to let me know everything was in order. It was then when we got to India that we knew he had made the right choice. I appreciated your driving to meet us at our first hotel and your providing me with a cell phone so we could keep in touch. The hotels you picked for us were fantastic and have to be among the best in the world. The guides in each location, and especially in Jaipur, were highly knowledgeable, attentive, and patiently answered all of our questions (and we had lots of questions). I read guidebooks myself to compare ideas and found the specific itinerary you put together of what to see and when to relax was expertly done. The dining options your team pointed us to kept everyone healthy.

Our trip to India was a spectacular family experience which created memories we will treasure. Thanks for making us not have to worry about the logistics, for helping us learn about what we were seeing, and for allowing us to focus all of our energy on being together and soaking in the culture.

“We’ve been back a couple of months from our holiday and had time to reflect on the three weeks we had touring around the golden triangle and Kerala. We had a fabulous, if very busy, time. The whole trip was very well organised and everything went to plan. The hotels and food were excellent and having Mr Singh on the end of a phone for any potential problems was an added bonus. The Taj Mahal was everything, and more, of what we expected. It was the highlight, of many highlights. Touring India was certainly an experience in many ways and we are grateful for the care and attention given to us by Mr Singh. A great holiday.”

We have just returned from a most wonderful tour of West and North India, and would like to thank you for making it a such an exciting and eventful adventure!

You did all that we asked for, and more. So much more.

What we loved was seeing and experiencing not only the ‘must see’ treasures of India – Delhi, the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort at Agra, the towns of Udaipur, Jodphur and Jaipur, the Tigers at Ranthambhore, and the Toy Train to Shimla – but also the more ‘off the beaten track’ gems that you found for us – the Fortress town of Chittisgarh, Ramathra Fort where we could walk in the village and meet and talk with the local people, the luxury tents at Chattrasagar, the palatial accommodation at Shahpura Bagh, where we were hosted by the descendants of the Maharaja!

The planning for our trip was meticulous, and was delivered by courteous, kind and always punctual drivers and guides Never once were we let down.

At all times we felt safe and cared for, and so could relax and enjoy the sights and sounds

Every single day was packed with excitement and interest, and ended in a wide variety of wonderful accommodation, clearly selected to show off the rich heritage of this amazing country. The air conditioned car was roomy and comfortable and the car/train/aeroplane combination worked well.

We will be recommending ‘Legends and Palaces’ to all our friends

Our very best wishes to you and your family – please say thank you to Eddie for his part in the our introduction to India.

I hardly know where to start, but our recent trip to India far exceeded all our expectations. Every guide was personable and knowledgeable. Our drivers were wonderful…especially Sunil who was outstanding and highly professional. Every place we stayed was beautiful, unique, and more than just comfortable. We greatly appreciated your personal attention to making sure all details were covered and there was never a question as to how we would get from point A to B, or if our reservations be honored. And of course, India’s treasures, people, food and culture never failed to impress us. My ONLY regret is that I didn’t take your advice and book at the Taj in Mumbai, our final stop. And that is because it turned out that a dear former colleague of mine from Chicago happened to be there (neither she nor I knew the other would be in India) at the same time!

At our age, it is unlikely we will get back to India, but I will sing its praises to anyone who will listen, and certainly tell them to contact you for assistance in planning their visit”.

We are home safe & sound and I wanted to follow through with you to let you know about our trip. First, thank you, thank you, thank you for the most wonderful experience of a life time. I went out of my comfort zone when I decided to use you as our travel guide for our India experience. Now I not only have no regrets I can in fact recommend you to others for their trips. You were right on the money with your guidance and trip planning. We loved all our hotels, each one was better than the next. Our guides were wonderful, informative, knowledgeable and fun to be with. All our excursions were interesting and insightful. We never felt uncared for or fearful of our surroundings. You were particularly spot on with your recommendation for Devi Garh. We enjoyed the relaxation and romance…

Organization of every detail was seamless, communication was exemplary, choice and variety of hotels was a constant source of delight, itinerary was perfectly paced, and guides and drivers are hand picked for their professionalism and expertise. One of the couples in our group had a last minute change to arrival times due to delays in HK. Mr Singh had the resulting changes made to hotel bookings and pick up times in no time at all without any major delays to their program.

Another in our group has Indian heritage. He especially appreciated the great effort Mr Singh and his wife and family made to assist him to travel to a village near Ludhiana so he could find out more about his Great-Grandfather. These are the extra factors that make VP Singh and this agency truly legendary! A gold star company providing exemplary, outstanding service at very reasonable prices.

We are now in Bangkok and far away from your care. We cannot speak too highly of the service you provide. Everything you arrange works perfectly. Thank you!

We are also indebted to you, your wife and her family for the very special time we spent with you in the Punjab. This memory will be held close in our hearts.

We will stay in touch

Yes we are safely back in Australia and missing your wonderful service.

We thoroughly enjoyed out trip to India and thank you for all your planning and organization that made it all so seamless…

All the guides were great but we especially enjoyed the younger ones who were completing Masters Degrees and then possibly PHD’s. They gave us great insights into their families, their culture and their lives.

The trip to Chanoud Garh was very special. We also had the chance to dip into the village life to see how this community lived. This was the very best food we had in India…

And our final thanks goes to Rinka our driver. The roads in India are crazy, but he kept us safe with everything that was thrown at him. We felt very safe in his hands and nothing was too much trouble for him. He was always on time and thoroughly looked after us when we didn’t have a guide on board.

We will definitely use your services again Mr Singh if we decide on another visit to India.

We would like to thank you for the exceptional service provided to us on our recent trip to India. The accommodation in the hotels was excellent. Your guides were informative and knowledgeable. Suniel was an extremely capable driver and we felt totally confident in his ability to drive in the congested areas in the city, which for us was a real experience!

We would most certainly recommend your services to anybody who might be interested in visiting India.

The trip you planned for us exceeded out expectations. From beginning to end, everything went smoothly. Your understanding was greatly appreciated when changes had to be made, particularly at the last minute. I would highly recommend Legends and Palaces to anyone planning a trip to India. Thank you again.

Many thanks again for all your help with regards to our recent trip to West Bengal. We had a fantastic time and didn’t have to worry once about any of our travel arrangements. All guides and drivers were on time, all transfers worked smoothly and were hassle free. It was also very helpful to be copied in on emails regarding our accommodation, flight confirmation etc and for me, was a sign of a professionally run operation.

Our accommodation, particularly Glenburn Tea Estate was excellent. You must have worked very hard to get these bookings as, prior to booking with Legends and Palaces, I had also made enquiries with a Hong Kong travel company that specializes in travel to India, only to be told by them that there was nothing available at our chosen hotels for the dates we wished to travel!

We were particularly impressed with the walking tour you organized for us with Calcutta Walks. The guide was extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic and arranged for us to interact with people in the local area. Hearing these personal family stories helped bring the city’s history alive.

We are considering Sikkim for our next India trip, possibly in 2014. I will be in touch about a possible itinerary nearer the time and once we have dates lined up.

Thank you again.

Many thanks again for all your help with regards to our recent trip to West Bengal. We had a fantastic time and didn’t have to worry once about any of our travel arrangements. All guides and drivers were on time, all transfers worked smoothly and were hassle free. It was also very helpful to be copied in on emails regarding our accommodation, flight confirmation etc and for me, was a sign of a professionally run operation.

Our accommodation, particularly Glenburn Tea Estate was excellent. You must have worked very hard to get these bookings as, prior to booking with Legends and Palaces, I had also made enquiries with a Hong Kong travel company that specializes in travel to India, only to be told by them that there was nothing available at our chosen hotels for the dates we wished to travel!

We were particularly impressed with the walking tour you organized for us with Calcutta Walks. The guide was extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic and arranged for us to interact with people in the local area. Hearing these personal family stories helped bring the city’s history alive.

We are considering Sikkim for our next India trip, possibly in 2014. I will be in touch about a possible itinerary nearer the time and once we have dates lined up.

Thank you again.

We have finally made it home and thankfully it is not too terribly cold (-2C with very little snow), but still a vast difference from 33C.

We had a wonderful trip. Your intinerary, arrangements, and choices of hotels were greatly appreciated. It was nice to have the experience of both the modern hotel amenities and the historic hotels.

I was told at the Taj Club House that you phoned while we were at our last dinner before leaving for the airport and did not want to interrupt us. I would have been happy to talk to you because we were discussing what a great vacation it had been and I would have been glad to share it with you at the time.

Since we did not have the opportunity to talk to you from Barefoot at Havelock, I would like to let you know what a great place it is. I would not hesitate to recommend it, and in fact would say that the non-AC cottages my be preferable to the AC because the fans provide more exposure to the beauty of the location rather than retreating to the AC of the cottage. I had an absolutely wonderful birthday that I will remember forever. We had an excellent meal with a whole fresh red snapper that was caught that day, absolutely delicious. The management then presented me with a bottle of wine for my birthday. Our meal had been so delicious and we did not need to have dessert. But then they came out with a personal heart-shaped birthday cake, reading “Happy Birthday Lesley”. Not only did it look good, it was delicious. It had several layers of cake with large quantities of chocolate cream in between. Although we said we didn’t “need” dessert, we ate almost the whole thing. I got to talk to the chef and thank him personally for making my day so special.

And so I would also like to thank you for making our trip special as well…

The most important comment I would like to pass on to you is what made this trip so special. THE PEOPLE. We had so many wonderful experiences with the local people everywhere we went, we were overwhelmed. Their absolute welcoming of us to their daily lives and activities was heart warming. The services and desires of the staff everywhere we went to make us feel welcome and special cannot be matched by anywhere we have ever been.

Thank you for everything you did to make this experience so special for us.

I will definitely recommend your services to other travellers.

We cannot thank you enough for our amazing trip to Rajasthan. Your advice at the planning stage and the organisation throughout the trip was faultless. You listened to all our requests and preferences taking them on board and organising a holiday especially for us. The mix of heritage hotels, castles, forts, palaces and hunting lodge accommodation was excellent. Your attention to detail was exemplary and it was so comforting that you kept in touch throughout to ensure our enjoyment of the trip. In addition our driver was wonderful, always punctual, smart and cheerful; nothing was too much trouble for him.

A big thank you for a wonderful well priced trip.

When we return to India we will definitely use Legends and Palaces.

We couldn’t leave this beautiful country without saying a huge thank you to you and your team for creating such an exciting and memorable holiday for us. Nothing has been too much trouble for anyone, including retrieving lost water bottles! Ashok has been so good to us The best driver in India and so patient with all our luggage. Palaces, castles, forts we have loved everything.

I will be in touch again, once I have got over the shock of being back home.

With thanks again and every good wish.

Forgot to mention that dinner last night at The Manor was absolutely delicious! The perfect end to a perfect holiday.

Thank you for making our trip to India the trip of a lifetime. All your arrangements were excellent. Plus, our trip cost less than if we had made our arrangements ourselves.

Having your guides and driver meet us everywhere (even just from the lobby to the car), and having a cellphone to reach you or the guide or driver gave such security. All your guides were anxious to make sure we enjoying our experience and understood what we were seeing. But most important, our driver who was with us all but two days of the trip went way beyond to make sure we were comfortable and even found places of interest in the long drives between cities. Thanks to him, the monkeys in the mountains were very well fed. I recommend him highly!!! His car was always right there even in the most crowded city tourist sites.

Most important our experience with the Air India plane taking us to the wrong airport shows how necessary it is to have an experienced tour manager who is in India. Your phone call received even before we left the plane telling us you would handle the problem saved us heartache. How you produced a car and driver within minutes or our landing to take us the 500 km to Agra at is remarkable. In addition, he was an excellent driver and got us to our hotel in Agra more than 2 hours before the airline supplied bus. If we had been forced to take the bus, it would have ruined our trip. The bus took more than 12 hours arriving at 5:30am. And then the people had to find transportation to their hotel.

In short, everyone who wants to go to India should use your services”.

Legends and Palaces swiftly supplied the itinerary, hotels and price that worked for us, and so we booked with them. India did not disappoint, the guides and drivers were excellent and efficient, planes and trains were on time and a great experience, the hotels were of good and sometimes outstanding quality. The people, the places and of course Legends and Palaces were friendly, helpful and caring.

We do not hesitate to recommend this company”.

Mr. Singh remained in contact with us throughout our trip to make sure everything was OK and on the one day that we needed to change our travel arrangements due to a slight tummy upset all it took was one phone call and eveything was sorted. The hotels that Mr. Singh selected were completely varied and, without exception, outstanding. The guides were generally all very knowledgable, fun & friendly and despite our driver having very limited English we wouldn’t have swapped him for the world. In Shimla we met the man himself (he spent a whole day travelling just to meet us!) and he even bought us dinner! India proved to be an amazing country and L&P an amazing company run by an amazing man at amazing prices!

I would have no hesitation in recommending them to anyone.

Thank you for accommodating us on the guide issue. We really enjoyed being on our own.

We enjoyed this trip so much, we were wondering if you would jot down an itinerary for …… that we might consider someday. Just suggestions from the top of your head. Don’t spend any time on it. Thanks again for a wonderful adventure.

One early potential problem was to understand who we were dealing with and could they be trusted ? ………..however four or five calls to past customers, some with multiple tours arranged by L & P over the years, quickly dispelled the qualms we felt over picking a company we initially found by google !

Our goal was to experience a mix of major cities (and sites) with smaller towns and villages to better understand life in India. Our trip exceeded our expectations with favorite out-of-the-way stops that included Bundi (our favorite town), Narlai (our favorite hotel and village), and Bhainsrorgarh Fort (most stunning location). Our driver was excellent as were our many guides. We highly recommend Mr. Singh to anyone planning a trip to India.

I would be happy for you to give my name as a reference.

I cringe at the prospect of having to have organised that for ourselves. I have never had an organised trip before, and I must say – I cannot imagine how on earth we would have got through day 1 if we had not organised the trip with you. I regret not coming home with more fabrics, and I hope we took enough photos. The children were thrilled at having their Indian dresses made in Jaipur… having their personal measurements taken and ready in a couple of hours. Elephant ride is a wonderful adventure. Wish I had an Indian meal for tomorrow. I will make tea though. What a beautiful place and what beautiful smiles from the people. Will have to come back and see more sometime. It is truly such a special place. Thank you again for the shortcuts to all the right places. Best wishes from all the family.”

We saw so many interesting and wonderful people and sights in India, but the bells during evening prayers in Varanasi will be forever with us. We did gain some valuable insights during our travels that we would like to pass on. 1. Book with a local India Travel Agent. We booked with Mr. VP Singh (legendsandpalaces.com) and couldn’t be more pleased. He traveled with us part of the time and was in constant touch with drivers, guides and hotels to be sure that we were well taken care of”.

His choice of hotels were exemplary and his restaurant recommendations for dinners were trully classic. Do not miss dinner at Rambough Palace in Jaipur!”