Dear All
Good Evening
This post/review is submitted from my end on the experience we had with Murugan Travel Agency for a recent trip we had planned and went on. This trip was between 01.05.24 and 05.05.24. This might be little lengthy, but pls have patience to read completely so that you can plan your trip with this agent in careful way in the coming days.
The trip was for Chennai, Delhi, Shimla, Manali, Kullu, and back to Chennai.
The details of the trip rolled out were as below.
Day-1-Plan: Delhi landing and local sightseeing and over night travel and reach to Shimla.
Day-2-Actuals happened was landed at Delhi by 10.30 AM and started travelling from 11.15 AM the whole day and night and reached Shimla by early morning next day (2nd day) between 3.00 to 4.00 AM in 21 seater van.
After reaching Shimla, the agent asked us to deboard the van where the temperature was hovering between 10 to 12 degree Celsius..
In the middle of the road, we deboarded, and the hotel was near about 300 meters from the area where we deboarded the van. In the freezing temperature with family members forced to carry on luggage by our own and reached the hotel.
Hotel being in a hilly region it was having 4 floors from the road level to the bottom floor. We had been allotted room in 1st floor at bottom of the building and again forced to carry on the luggage by own as the lift was also not available.
Apart from this, the hotel room was in a horrible way, and we didn’t even expected any star category, but atleast for the amount paid, they should have given a decent room in a good hotel. (From the bathroom, the water was flowing to the hall without even stopping)
Day-2-Plan was to see Kufri and finish lunch and start travelling to Manali and stay over there.
Day-2-Actuals: Reached Shimla between 3.00 to 4.00 AM and refreshed in the horrible hotel and got to Kufri and completed lunch and started travelling to Manali and reached Manali between 3.00 to 4.00 AM next day (3rd Day).
Day-3- As per Plan: Reaching Ice Point, Local sightseeing, and stay overnight.
Day-3- Actuals: We had a guide named Mr.Surya and he came till the area where suit (Ice Point Suit) was provided, and after that, he linked to the driver and asked to follow the driver instructions. So, literally, there was no guidance to us. In this, highlight is we paid 32k for this trip and others in our group have paid 29k. This is per person charge. This charge is inclusive of Rs.1000 for guide per ticket. But stunned why this guide charges we are paying for any non services being rendered by the guide.
With no guidance 3rd day, we spent 3/4th of the day in Ice Point and came back to hotel without even visiting other sites as there was no guidance at all.
Day-4-Plan: River rafting at Kullu and Vaishnova Devi Temple and return back to Delhi by midnight..
Day-4-Actuals: Went for river rafting and reached Delhi by next day (5th day) by 2.00 PM.
Van was in horrible condition, seats were not in structure (push back were not at all working), many seats were oscillating as it didn’t have bolt at the base and moreover it didn’t go beyond 40 to 60 Km/h. And beyond this on 5th day, before reaching Delhi exactly 28kms van tyre got burst and as the driver was used to drive between 40 to 60 Km/h, luckily we didn’t face any tragic incident by God’s grace too as the vehicle was encountering whirling effect after the tyre bursted out.
We had 10 months infant and 3.5years old kids too. Think about these kids at these situation..
Day-5-Plan: Checking out room in the morning and moving for a local sightseeing and shopping and departing to Chennai from Delhi Airport.
Day-5- Actuals: Reached hotel by 2.00 PM as we encountered breakdown in the van. Agency has not even bothered to arrange the vehicle for 2 hours as we stranded in the middle of the road.
After 2 hours, and raising our voice we had got spare vehicle (van) being arranged and reached hotel by 2.00 PM and the agent didn’t even care to provide breakfast and lunch. Even though we had infants with 10 months and 3 years old kid, Murugan Travel Agency didn’t even bother to provide the basic courtesy of food what they have been accepted to provide. Event hough they didn’t had the courtesy to come out and convey that pls take care of the breakfast and lunch at our own scope. After raising voice they stepped in and accepted to provide the lunch and meantime we completed the lunch and paid the charges from our pocket.
So entirely the trip was not fair enough and plan was completely at flaw since from the day 1.
My humble request to the people who wanted to plan your trip through this agent, pls think multiple times before booking with them, as we had encountered pathetic experience with Murugan Travel Agency.