Kesari Himachal special tour 22/12/19. Review on Kesari Tours, Mumbai

We went to Kesari travel’s Himachal special tour which was about 13 days trip. Tour was conducted during 22 Dec 2019 to 3 Jan 2020. We were travelling with my 1-year infant. Our group was almost 28 people consisting of different age groups i.e. from 1-year infant to 78 years old.

Our experience was average. We were expecting far more from Kesari like our last experience with Kesari but this time we got mix experience. I will certainly not say it was bad but was not that good.

Few points which I want to mention here so that those who wants to book these types of group tours will be aware of.

1.During Dalhousie stay, hotel was far from where Kesari bus left us & we were asked to walk till the hotel. It was almost 2 km walk. The road was having snow & it was slippery. Due to night time, vision was not clear. One member falls from bus while getting down. We were expecting drop & pick facility till & from hotel as we were having group of senior citizens who were not able to walk(on such road) or climb the staircases properly. All faced lots of problem & the shocking part was next day for site seeing cars came to pick up us from hotel & drop to hotel. Means there was no issue for cars to come for pick up or drop. After check out again we have been asked to walk near about same distance. I did not understand then why pick up & drop was not arranged when there were people having knee pains, senior citizens & infant.

2.During Solang vally trip we understand that vehicle was parked away from the solang vally point but after our enjoyment while returning, tour manager insisted on shortcut which was having full of snow & was slippery. It was having full slope. So, to save time & not to get caught in traffic tour manager compromised on safety. Many of us including me felt during coming down from that road. I had injury. There was proper road available, but it was long cut. He opted for such dangerous road & did not consider that group has senior citizens & if they felt down there will be major health issue for them. I was travelling with my 1-year baby, imagine while I felt down if baby was with me what could be the situation.

3.Hotels are not up to the mark especially tourist places like Shimla, Manali. The stay for these 2 places were 2 & 4 nights. Hotel was not having basic facilities like lift or invertor / power back up. This created lots of difficulties for me as I was travelling along with my 1 yr child. Even we were having senior members in team

Hotel in Manali where the stay was for 4 days was very congested even, we were not having space to walk around the bed. Was not having proper heating facilities like heater. These are very essential when you travel for places like Manali(minus temperature). No invertor or power back up. They provided us one candle & match box. And during 4 days many time there was power cut. Daily 1 hour average.

Shimla hotel where the stay was for 2 days was not having the lift facility & our room allotted was of 3rd floor so every time we have to climb the 3-4 floors carrying our hand luggage & infant. It was very difficult in minus temperature. These are basic facilities which one can expect in hotel.

4.I specifically ask for baby food while booking the tour & with baby food the expectation was milk which hotel can easily provide. But in some hotels, it was restricted to 1 bottle & if I need more(generally night we may require 2 or 3 bottles) I will have to pay. So, I paid from my pockets in 2-3 hotels which I was not expecting(paying for food) while travelling with Kesari

5.We were sometime expecting local food like paratha or samosa kind of north Indian food in lunch or dinner, but we always got paneer & cauliflower in most of the hotels. Even we did not get proper lassi anywhere. Last day in Amritsar we all went out & had Paratha outside. 80% of group had dinner outside on last day because of this issue. The menu should have local flavor at least one or two places

6.Nati / local dance was good, but I am not sure why tour manager asks us to dance with them & later it became Bollywood dance with Bollywood songs. No doubt it was enjoyment. During last few minutes, these local dancers were seating & we all were dancing. So, it was not look like we are enjoying local or nati dance there, but the dance party like 31 or Garbha dance.

7.Water bottles or snacks are distributed as if morning it is their compulsory activity & ought to complete it in given time. In bus there was no place to keep the bottles or snacks packets. If we keep it above where the luggage space was, it always use to felt down & injury might have happened. We requested to give limited water bottles during travel & rest at hotel where we need water mostly. But at morning it will be distributed if we do not take, later, we did not get it. One or two times when I requested got 1-2 bottles during hotel stay. Same with Snacks.

Even now a days Kesari stopped cake cutting for Birthdays coming during the trip. This was really nice gesture which they stopped.

I submitted same feedback with them. They acknowledge it through SMS. But do not know on further action.

So, when Kesari is conducting tour with group tour especially consisting of infant of 1 year to old man of 78 years they should take proper precautions of all these points.