India- Cochin/ Mumbai- Review

[thuyronald]

My husband and I have just returned from our trip on the RCCL Legend visiting Cochin & Mumbai in May 2009. We left the ship in Cochin and met up again in Mumbai.

 

I just wanted to give anyone here a tip if they are planning to do the Taj on their own. It is possible if you have a few days in India. Flights to Delhi are available and cheap from Cochin and Mumbai.

 

We used www.indiaprivatedriver.com for our 4 day trip and couldn't have been happier. We saved a bunch of money and saw more than we had hoped in this short period of time.

 

We got off in Cochin (our first port in India) and took a flight to Delhi. There we met our driver, Amit, a very pleasant young man at the airport. We then drove to Jaipur that day. We visited all the main attractions in Jaipur the next day and then drove to Agra, visiting a famous fort (can't recall the name right now) before going to our hotel that night. The next day, we visited the Taj Mahal in the morning. Wow, what a sight and there weren't that many people there, so we really enjoyed our visit. Then we drove back to Delhi and saw the main attractions there. The next day, we flew out early from Delhi to Mumbai to meet our ship. We grabbed a taxi and visited some of the main sights before heading back to the ship.

 

This is definitely a whirlwind trip, but we wanted to see the Taj Mahal and the Golden Triangle on our first trip to India.

 

We were very pleased with Bunty (owner) of www.indiaprivatedriver.com and his brother Amit (our driver). Their prices couldn't be beat and we felt comfortable and safe the whole time.

 

It is possible to do this on your own. The flights to Delhi from Mumbai and Cochin were very cheap, so all in all, we didn't spend very much for our 4 days.

 

Hope this helps.

 

PS. In Mumbai, you could easily grab a taxi to take you around. Some people on our ship walked from the Green Gate/ Yellow Gate port and walked to the India Gate and then visited the Taj hotel. We mainly took photos of the main sights and then headed to the ship to rest, especially after 3 long days visiting the Golden Triangle.

 

Twee

[shoshona2]

sounds great! What hotels did you stay at while off the ship???? What was the price per person for your private tour? We are booked for a cruise to India next April.

 

Sheila

[thuyronald]

Hi Sheila,

 

I can't remember the name of the hotels. The one in Jaipur was a heritage hotel, nicely decorated. The one in Delhi was in the center of town. The one in the Agra was kinda out of the center. We were on a budget so we told Bunty that we didn't need a fancy hotel for our stay. We had him book 3 star hotels for us, thus keeping the price down.

 

If you want higher end hotels, you can request that and he will quote you.

 

We paid for our own flights, costing roughly $70-90 per leg. We flew Indigo airlines and SpiceJet.

 

We paid roughly 18,000 Indian rupees or $370 USD total for the hotels and private driver.

 

Hope this helps.

[shoshona2]

Thanks for the great info. I will certainly email them to get some quotes.

 

Sheila