Gaurav Goyal

Overall, the trip was fantastic and I am truly grateful that you suggested India before Bhutan. However, the hotel in Delhi was superb. They upgraded us to a fabulous room the the 2nd and 3rd times that we were there which was lovely. Our guides in India were fine. I do have a couple of suggestions….I think we could have done with 1 night in Rathombore. We saw 1 tiger on all our safaris, although others saw many more…just lucky. We really liked Jaipur and maybe should have had 2 nights there instead. Darjeeling. Bhutan was really spectacular…we loved it. But there are some suggestions…It was a long drive to the Probjika Valley and we were not excited about it. The hotel was pretty bad and after we hiked a bit and saw Karma the crane, we were ready to leave. We thus stayed only 1 night and went back to Thimphu and stopped for a long hike en route. This was fine. We enjoyed trekking around Paro. However, our trip to Tigernest on May 29 was the same day as a major Buddhist holiday. Could not stand the idea of hiking in the crowds so we convinced out guide to substitute another trek

We went to Tiger nest about 3PM and started walking up as hordes of Indians were descending. Our guide tried to convince us to stop…turned out he and driver did not have a hotel to stay in and I think they were mostly worried about where they would be. The previous night they had to stay in Thimphu and I think they were anxious about getting back….Not clear to me why they had not booked their own rooms when they new the schedule. They did try to be accommodating to us and were very concerned that we were “happy,” although there is no question that they would have preferred we just look at the Tigernest from the highway rather than climbing up. I had a difficult time separating what was convenient for them from what was in our interest. As an example, they left us at Paro airport at 7AM for the 9:30 flight. I realize that it is important to be early but that was really very early…we were the first to check in.

I traveled with my elderly parents to Bhutan and India with Windhorse in April 2018.
I cannot say enough good about them. From the time I contacted them to organize the trip, to the time they drop us at the airport, all went without a single glitch. While organizing the trip, they always answered me within 24hrs of an email and always addressed my concerns with reliable information and appropriate changes. At every step our concerns, requests, questions have been promptly answered and addressed.

The trip in itself was extremely well organized and yet very flexible. Our guide (Sonam) and driver (Dorji) were informative and always attentive to our needs and looked out for our security. They really went out of their way to make sure we were always comfortable and happy and mostly, got to see/do everything on our bucket list. They really pay attention to details. Also, my parents will be forever grateful to both of them for helping them up the Tiger’s nest – they truly treated them like their own parents, looking out for their comfort and security.

I have travelled extensively and experienced many private tours and I can whole heartedly say that his was one of the best I’ve encountered. I will have no hesitation recommending them in the future – in fact I already have started.

I also wanted to say what a wonderful tour we had. Our guide Gaurav was fantastic and we thoroughly enjoyed his company. He loves his country and religion and we learnt so very much from him. He always went the extra mile to make our trip extra special and to make sure we were enjoying every moment. The driver did a fantastic job in the chaotic traffic and got us safely to our destinations. We were so grateful that he was driving. The hotels were lovely and Gaurav made sure that we took time to enjoy the hotel and pool.

Thank you again for a well organised and executed tour. We’ll definitely tour with you again.

Carlo 

Petrie’s India,Nepal & Bhutan Private Tour. TID -753 (Sep 13 – Oct 03, 2014)

Dear Anand and team, Namaste! Thank you for your follow up message! My apologies for the delay in response. It would be my pleasure to provide feedback and any endorsements that would be useful to you in future planning and for promotional purposes in bringing on new guests.

This trip was truly remarkable, and my mother-in-law and I had the experience of a lifetime. It is with reluctance that we are making our transition back into life now in the US again, because we enjoyed our time abroad so very much, and because we still dearly miss the people, and the sights, sounds and tastes of these amazing countries!

The India portion of the trip was our favorite time, and we learned so very much. We were particularly impressed with Gaurav Goyal as our guide, as you know, and couldn’t recommend him enough. He made us feel like family during our stay and went out of his way to ensure that my mother-in-law in particular felt comfortable and cared for. Unfortunately, she had developed an issue with her back during the trip that she is still recovering from, which has been making walking all the more difficult for her. This, regrettably, was the reason for cutting the time in Bhutan short. I had very much been looking forward to hiking those last couple of days, but just did not feel good about leaving her behind in the hotel in order to do that. Back in Delhi, we were able to take in a few more activities that she and I could enjoy together. But not only Gaurav – all of the guides, and the drivers as well – went above and beyond to assist her every opportunity that they could, in every area we visited. Thank you so very much for all the kindness and thoughtfulness!

Our hotels were all very nice facilities, and we found ourselves continually pleased with the arrangements. Our favorite places to stay were the The Hans in Delhi, the properties in Jaipur and Agra, and Club Himalaya Nagarkot. Again, thank you!

We have so many pictures and video from our travels! I put together a YouTube video – which you are most welcome to view and/or share, if you would like – of just one day of sightseeing in Delhi, and I am actively in the process of making more, one from each segment of our trip:

As soon as I get the opportunity, I do also plan to add some comments to TripAdvisor about your company and the various places we saw and where we stayed. In the meanwhile, if you have any further questions for me, or if there is anything else I might do for you, please don’t hesitate to let me know.

Hello Santosh, The group had a great holiday in Bhutan. What a special destination! The services by Windhorse were excellent in the opinion of the group. And I fully agree with them.

In Delhi I was happy to be received by Mr Gayul (???) who picked us up from the airport. I think he did an excellent job! Did you ever eat in Broadway? For me as a foreigner it is the best Indian food I ever tasted. I have eaten there many times with groups and the food is always great. Maybe for you as a local resident it is different, maybe you know a bunch of restaurants which are even better.

All the best and greetings,
Bas.

Bhutan & India Tour, Sept & Oct 2006
The trip was really great……there were two mess ups that occurred that were related to the Druk Air tickets……..otherwise things were awesome….and our guide, Sonam, was especially awesome……Wes and I made our flight connections into Bangkok without any problems, however, it was not clearly explained to us that we would have to present our hand written Drukair tickets to a special location for an actual boarding card to be created. Instead we went straight to the DrukAir departure gate (we had tons of time in BKK airport as we had a 6 hour layover) and at the time of boarding we were turned away while the rest of our group went on without us…….I am not familiar with “hand written” tickets as I have not seen them for many years……this was extremely frustrating that we did not have this instruction with our departure instruction as part of our tour! Thank heaven for China airlines allowing us to use their airport lounge where we were able to email DrukAir in Bhutan and they offered us the local phone number in Thailand of the DrukAir office manager (since the office in Bangkok had closed from the old airport and it was too early morning for anyone to be reached locally!). We called the local manager on his mobile phone and he informed us that there was a second flight scheduled for that very day, even though no such flight appeared on the Departure board in the airport or on DrukAir’s website…..in fact, the transfer desk at BKK informed us that there were NO FLIGHTS from BKK to PARO scheduled to depart later that day…..talk about confusing and upsetting…..after talking with the local manager for DrukAir and he confirmed that there was space available on the later flight and that there was, in fact, going to be a flight we were finally able to arrive PARO about 4 pm and we joined up with our group……everything else went awesome during our Bhutan trip until we got out of bed on the day of our departure from Paro and learned that the itinerary that you had provided to us did not match the times for flight departures to Delhi…the flight that was shown on our itinerary would only have traveled to Katmandu with no onward travel to Delhi….therefore we had to wait for several more hours, having risen from bed at 0400 to depart on the early flight only to have a 1130 actual departure……the plane finally departed from PARO behind schedule about 1 pm and it was supposed to be a PARO to DEL direct flight but because of the plane weight we ended out making an unscheduled refueling flight in KTM for a 20 minute in and out and then we made it to DEL about 4 pm, the captain did apologize for the delay that the refueling caused……this itinerary mix-up on departure times (730 a.m. vs. 1 p.m.) really ruined our day at AGRA because we had planned on evening photos at the Taj but instead we arrived well after dark at 930 p.m. and the lights were all out at the Taj…..therefore we only had the opportunity to have photos at sunrise and mid day at Agra……if these two airline problems had not occurred then we would have had a seamless experience in both Bhutan and India.

I would recommend that you include a customer communication that includes instructions on how to manage the DrukAir tickets through the transfer desk when directly transferring from one airline to Drukair. The rest of our group did not have a problem as they left the airport to a hotel and had to go through the airport ticket counter and had their boarding cards issued at the main ticketing terminal…

I do really appreciate what you did do to make things work out for a very memorable trip to a very magical country……amazing to say the least!

Thanks Ugen for asking for feedback….I thought that you wouldn’t want this on your website but instead directly to you……
Thanks again for the magical trip!