My mother and my aunt went on the Chardham Yatra from SUN Tourism from 28-May to 9-Jun and the total cost of the tour is 71, 000/- per person. In the introductory meeting at SUN, they mentioned that this is not JATRA, this is YATRA but we haven’t found that SUN really means this and understand the responsibility for the people, more importantly for the senior citizen.
1) At the start there was 4 hours waiting after reaching Delhi airport, tourist had some snacks(sandwich and milk) in the flight but no dinner plan from SUN. I guess, the reason for this wait was the timing for hotel check-in was at 11 am and they didn’t want to reach early. Next day when my mother reached the hotel, the hotel staff was still getting the room ready.
2) For such a yatra where many senior citizens are coming, the tourist guides has to be experienced, but in this yatra 2 guides were not experienced, Tanmay had I think 1 or 2 yatra experience and for Rushishek it was his first trip. 2 guides for 38 people and believe me for tracking a group of 38 people, wearing a SUN TOURISM CAP and carrying SUN TOURIM SACK is useless in so much crowd.
3) At Haridwar, SUN asked the people to attend Ganga Aarti on their own. My mother and Aunt went by auto. On the way return to hotel, it was very late in the night and my mother was not able to get the auto hence they came walking 1.5 KM in the night.
4) Kitchen with the tour, this concept did not worked at all. Kitchen reached the destination with the group . Then they took 1-2 hours to prepare the food and this time was getting wasted. Tourists were not able to get the time to relax, getting late for the night sleep. SUN has done the cost cutting here and saved lot of money.
5) Also, to reach destination before lunch/dinner time so that cook gets time to preapare food many tourist points which were on the way were missed .
6) Kitchen was with SUN but while leaving for Kedarnath early morning, they didn’t even gave the tea/coffee.
7) Based on the experience SUN should give more accurate detail of the expenses for Kedaranath trakeing, so that tourist can carry enough cash.
8) SUN did not provided any help for senior citizen at the airport, there was no support for the people who don’t have smart phone. They sent the boarding passes on whatsapp, what about those who don’t have smart phone?
9) Tour guide left for Delhi before tourists . Tourist were on their own. My mother is senior citizen and it was a 1st flight for my Aunt. How were they supposed to manage? What was the use of sending them with Travels? If they were supposed to manage on their own why people need Travel Company?
10) Poor quality of snacks pouch and food.
11) SUN did not provide any food/dinner on return journey, from Rishikesh to Delhi, from 9 am to 5 pm only lunch was provided, no tea, no dinner. People may have reached home by midnight and SUN hasn’t thought of providing dinner to the people.
12) SUN do not have any contacts of doctor for emergency. In every area they should have at least one contact.
13) Total tour cost is same as Kesari but service was not up to that mark. When we are paying for full tour, SUN should provide breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner. And on the way in the bus they should manage this.