Travelling East!

Hey Hey,

For a long time I have been thinking about an Idea of arranging a tour from Dublin to India [where I'm from]. This is to express my gratitude to the Irish. What I propose to do is to hook up with the local agencies in India and arrange a decent accomodation and visits to places that people want to see. As this is going to be very abstract I divided the tour under the following headings:

* A beach tour [this involves hiring a beach resort and just chilling out]
* An adventure tour [kyaking, rock climbing, river-rafting, surfing or any other events that are available in India]
* Medicinal [getting a full body massage, Ayurveda etc.,]

Advantages:

* You have a sort of tour guide who has the knowledge of local area
* The accomodation will be a resort that you would pay as any other localite [this will avoid paying huge amounts to five start hotels].
* Food can be customised to your tastes...

Here are my questions:

* What do you expect from an ideal holiday if you go this far?
* What are your worst fears?
* What is that you will not get from a previous holiday package that you'd like to see being taken care of..?
* Does this concept sense ?


Also, at this juncture, i welcome what fears if anyone has when they are going this farther. This is just an Idea that I have, which am tossing around, positive and negative comments are welcome. It may work or it may not, but i just thought of getting feedback on this.

Thoughts appreciated!

Thank you

I'd be happy to accept a job from you for two weeks later this year, testing your product and providing you with written feedback on its implementation from start to finish. You don't even have to pay me..just make it happen!!

Seriously though it sounds like a great idea and I believe if well marketed would be something many people would go for! What part of India are you from? I'd like to go back to Goa. I was there about 15 years ago and loved it.

Thanx Lauren,

That was a good start, and am motivated now . Am from Hyderabad. Whis is in South Middle of the Indian Plateau.

I havent worked out on the mathematics as to what it is going to cost or any other details...This is a plain Idea now, i have been having for a while now...

Having been to Hyderabad, my suggestions are: give advice on the need or lack of need for malaria tablets. Providing food that may not be too hot and spicy for some Irish palates.

This sounds like a great idea! However, it's very important that you choose a specific target market. This is usually chosen by age group. For instance, do you want to cater for all ages (difficult to do successfully I would imagine), or restrict it to the Lonely Planet types (18-40 year olds)? There is definitely a market for getting people there as cheaply as possible and arranging activities and accommodation that are both reasonable andgive a sense of the 'real' Hyderabad. Good luck!

If you are suggesting that you can provide a package trip to india that is either better or cheaper than the regular providers then it will sell. I am sure that lots of people here will provide you with a list of the things that they most want and you could plan from there.

I think it would be an excellent idea, a lot of tours to India are very expensive, I think it would be very sucessful if you managed to keep costs down.

Was in India last November. Still dont know what to make of it. It's a beautiful spot, but also has major litter issues. Loved the people. Thought the food would be better. But had some of the best Fish ever in Palolem. If you want to go there to party or have a beer - forget it! lol

There is a definate opening for the business your propose. Best of luck..

BM

Thank you all for a great start.

First thing first, when should this travel package be organized?

My humble opinion is October to February as this is the plesantest period through out India. India has 3 major seasons, From March thru May its severe Summer [we are talking about 35+ degrees Centigrade], June thru September is Mansoon [temperature wise its great, but its going to be wet in many parts]. October to Feb is winter time so its kinda around 25 to 30 ish in many parts of the sub-continent.

What do you all people think? Which part of the year do you all like to go?

We would like to go when we have rotton weather here (dec and Jan) and need to get away from it.

Regarding Malaria Tablets, its better to take them. Food is spicy from European standards, however if people dont mind paying lill extra [dont know how much as i havent' worked out any costs], it can be made to suite most taste buds !

Thanx A.Partridge,

Your advice well taken, I can work out on a place once I know people's interest. Ofcourse Hyderabad is my native place, but there is not much to see when compared to places like Kerala, which is in the Southern tip of India. Here is the website for some info: http://www.keralatourism.org/ .

What is people's take on this place?

Woods,

You can save money because this is not a 5 star hotel who charge anything from 200+ Euro per day. I have two thoughts in my mind now. One is to rent a villa, which accomodates like a 5 couples [10 people] per villa at around 300 to 400 euro a day [Again, i havent yet spoken to agencies so this number may slightly vary]. The second thought is to have a contract with the local hotel for a big gang of tourists, this mite bring down the prices again. Do people have choice?

I can't control the flite tickets because at the mo its a one man army. However I can talk up with Aerlingus/klm if they can arrange cheaper tickets.