My wife and I were in India for 6 weeks. We took, the South India 9 nights tour offered by Modi Travels on good references. We had about 17 persons in the particular travel group. Over all the food arrangements were fine. Majority hotels arrangements were reasonable, except the two nights at Otti which was nothing but a garbage(Crown Hotel) place. Our tour guide was a burned out and tired person. So we knew we had to deal with his cranky mood. The group was divided into two 15 seat(tempo) buses(8+9 each). The Buses needed good cleaning and vacuum. Our Bus driver was moody and not easy to communicate. At the end of our trip he was asked to drop us at our hotel(we were the last two in the bus) in Madurai but he could not find the well known hotel(Royal Court) and drop us on the roadside. This was a shock but we handled him creatively and requested to find a local reckshow so we can go to our hotel because we did know the local language. He did and help us little. I paid him 100 rupee tip for that. The Rickshaw driver took us to hotel, which was only few blocks away from the drop.
From the Madurai we continued our journey on our own.
In short, our experiences were mixed. The Modi Travel provided all help upto the first 8 nights(main program) the extended Rameshwaram tour(one night) had no Tour Guide support. So be careful if you are not used to with the India and can’t handle the locals.
We were born and educated in India but are living in USA since last 45 years. We visited India every 7 to 8 years and found new India every time. Since we left, India has changed lot. So we are always ready for few discomforts, good and bad experiences while we are in India. I think the Travel & Tours businesses are very competitive and they have have to cut some unannounced services to find their profit.