India and Nepal with SmarTours

Our enchanting introduction to India began and ended rather disappointingly on Air-India, on which we traveled round trip from New York to New Delhi.

The flights were full and noisy. The seat-assignment policy in economy (no advance seating reservations) resulted in my wife and I having to sit apart on the way back. When I did have an assigned seat, someone took it and Air-India personnel let him keep it. We did not deplane during our stop at Heathrow; instead, we had to stay aboard while the cleaning crew and service personnel vacuumed around us.

Fortunately, we have nothing but praise for the rest of the trip. We traveled Feb. 14-28, ’05, with smarTours (501 Fifth Ave., Ste. 1402, New York, NY 10017; 800/337-7773 or www.smartours.com). The price of our 15-day tour of India and Nepal was $1,999, which included 13 nights in hotels, three internal flights, all breakfasts and one dinner. There were 34 tour participants.

Our guide in India, Amit Chadha, has been with this tour since its inception about a decade ago. He met us at the airport in New Delhi and handled everything from that point on competently.

All of the hotels on the trip were luxurious. The Grand Hotel New Delhi seemed remote but otherwise was excellent.

The entire tour was marvelous. For us, the highlights were Jaipur with the Amber Fort, the always-marvelous Taj Mahal in Agra, and especially the millennium-old Hindu temple complex in Khajuraho with the beautiful erotic sculptures.

Because of overbooking on the flight from Khajuraho to Varanasi, 19 of the 34 of us were bumped. Age and health were the selection criteria used. We “bumpees” had an unexpected 13-hour motorcoach trip instead. However, this gave us a look at a decidedly nontouristy part of India, where our tourist motorcoach excited curiosity and interest among the locals, in contrast to prime tourist areas where we were assaulted with overflowing persistent souvenir vendors. We were travelers this day, not tourists. The ride was a little too long but interesting. To compensate us, smarTours treated the “bumpees” to several meals in Nepal.

I felt our time in Varanasi was a bit shortchanged, but we had a spacious suite at the Taj Ganges hotel.

In Nepal, we enjoyed visiting the royal Durbar Squares in the cities of Bhaktapur, Patan and Kathmandu, inspecting the numerous temples and the palace in each. We took the optional flight ($140) to view Mt. Everest and the Himalaya range northeast of Kathmandu — well worth the added expense.

The weather was perfect throughout the trip — warm 70s to low 80s in the afternoons and 20 degrees cooler at night. We experienced only a few sprinkles.

The food seemed significantly spicier than that in the Indian restaurants we’re used to in our hometown of Philadelphia, but the hotels usually had some Western (chicken) or Chinese dishes for those who chose to forgo the regional fare.

Airport security was very tight in India and Nepal.

This trip with smarTours was terrific value. We warmly recommend it.

— BERNARD BERICH, Philadelphia, PA