Jill & Michael Glover,
Brisbane, Australia, November 2007
Thank you for our magical 21-day trip from Delhi to Kolkata and Darjeeling. You had gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure that we visited the places where our ancestors lived and were buried. How glad we were to see where Michael’s parents and grandparents had spent so much of their lives. Our local guides also made sure our visits to their cities were memorable – what good friends you have! Pip, you were such a very friendly, caring guide, with a genuine love of India and its people, and great interest in its history and customs. You made sure that our trip ran smoothly, and also that we were your priority. As we discovered, things don’t always go to plan in India, timetables for trains are very flexible (remember Varanasi?!), but you handled these hiccups with humour and patience.

We are sure that your tours will always be well planned and researched, flexible and most of all, fun! Which is what our tour was for us. Ten-star recommendation.


Lottie Cowdy,
Shropshire, January 2008
My visit to India was Amazing and going with Philippa Waterfield Tours was a wonderful and friendly way to explore it. My tour was adaptable, meaning I could visit all the places which I wanted to see. Everything ran smoothly, leaving me able to relax worry-free, and enjoy all the incredible experiences and sights which India has to offer. Looking back, it really was a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

Judi Wright,
Scotland, January 2009

Dear Pip,
Thank you for your help during my recent visit to India. It was great to have your company and to meet your Indian friends, also your efficient organisation of trains and guides. Your knowledge of India and helpful tips were invaluable.

Rod & Rita Poxon,
Northamptonshire, February 2007
Dear Philippa
Thanks for everything. It was a joy and so reassuring to visit India with someone who knew her subject so well. Your relaxed approach belied the efficient way that you had planned our holiday! Your passion for India was evident at every turn. We had a super time, thanks again.


Ainsley & Roley Sharpe and Robin & Vernon Sharpe, Perth, Australia, February 2007

Dear Philippa,
We cannot tell you how much we enjoyed the trip to India with you. The joy of our India experience started long before we left home, with your careful attention to detail, and keeping us informed regarding all aspects of the trip – such as the facilities we could expect in our accommodation, our itinerary, and our guest speakers. You know, that by the time we embarked on the journey, we felt that we had already established a rapport and friendship, which was re-enforced on our arrival in Delhi that evening after our flight from Singapore. With your warm welcome, and the way in which you took us under your wings, before we knew it we were in our accommodation in Delhi! We were most impressed by the way you managed to keep up this routine for all of the various groups who were arriving over the next twelve hours from different parts of the world!

We were very grateful to you and the various other guides for continually providing us with information regarding the history, both British and Indian, of our current destination, and cheerfully answering our many questions. Our private visit to our old school, La Martiniere College at Lucknow, was especially memorable and we sincerely thank you for arranging it. I know that others in the group were also thrilled that you were willing and able to organise private visits to places of personal or family interest for them also.

All your planning and foresight meant that we travelled safely and comfortably across India on trains, planes and automobiles (and not forgetting those tri-shaw rides) without any drama, but with a great deal of joy and excitement!! Just how you were able to remain unflappable when the inevitable happened, and an arrangement did not go to plan, was unbelievable!!!

Philippa, the dedicated personal attention you applied to our tour content and the participants, both before and throughout the tour, has set the standard so high, that it would be difficult for us to find any other tour operator to surpass your example.

Once again, many thanks for an extraordinarily memorable experience! Our very best wishes to you for the future.

 

Roy & Aileen Hemingway,
Ontario, Canada, February 2007
Philippa vetted everything before we even stepped into the country. She dealt with the different personalities of her fellow organizers, guides and tourists with humour. Philippa did a mock run of our tour stops and knew the locations we wanted to visit. Prior to our departure she requested our “wish list” of possible personal stops and these were most important to my husband and younger sister because we were able to visit one of the homes our family occupied when we lived in India – the country of our birth. Over the years we heard so many stories from our parents and older relatives.

Philippa ensured we visited the church where I was baptized and arranged a guide to accompany us to my father’s famous school that we had heard so much about! Having the chance to visit a cemetery holding the graves of our father’s baby brothers gave us the opportunity to take pictures of the graves to forward to other cousins as interested in family history as we are. An added bonus was having our own personal guide for a visit to our father’s loco shop work place of yesteryear and we were even invited to tea with the friendly plant manager.

No other tour company can capture what Philippa does for the tourist. Others will arrange hotels along with trains and flights but that personal attention to detail would always be missing and this is Philippa’s forte.

Thank you, Philippa; you cheerfully helped us recapture important parts of our family heritage and brought to life places that hold a special spot in our lives. You really did go that extra mile!!

Peter Bailey
Chair, Families in British India Society March 2007
The tour of 'Indian Mutiny Sites' arranged by Philippa Waterfield for 32 international members of the 'Families in British India Society' was expertly organized and very professionally conducted. We achieved most of the goals in terms of visits to battle sites, fortresses and cemeteries that we had requested and were all very satisfied with a most memorable tour.

Penny Tipper
UK, February 2007
Having left India as young children, we obviously wanted to enjoy the famous sights of this mysterious land of our early days, but also to see some of the ordinary places that had been talked about as we were growing up – if any were left. Where this tour scored over others that I have seen advertised is in the flexibility of scheduling and the very personal slant it offers. Philippa took pains to find out well in advance what our particular interests were and worked hard to accommodate them within the itinerary.

In our case, this involved a personal interview - and tea - with the current manager of a loco works who appointed a guide to show us around and even researched various local addresses, so that we were able to revisit a house where we had lived as children over fifty years ago. We had heard stories and read letters referring to the place and its servants’ quarters. Our visit provided a vivid picture of the actual setting, to bring to life that particular time in my parents’ lives and rekindle memories of their stories. We would not have dared to hope that we would get so much out of one tentative request and half a morning’s visit.

Likewise, a visit to my father’s old school brought a chance encounter with a current member of staff and similar hospitality and insight into the place, which we could not have hoped for from a standard tourist visit. Add to those memories the taxi, with guide, allowing almost exclusive and private access for our little personal “pilgrimage” to a minor cemetery – another lovely, lasting memory of our India holiday.

Other tours use similar hotels and offer similar overall itineraries. I don’t think I have seen one that can claim to be quite as “tailor-made”. The detail made all the difference to our enjoyment of the holiday and was greatly appreciated.

Edgar and Maria Waller,
South Africa, March 2007

Hi Philippa
Just a short note to say a BIG THANK YOU for the wonderful tour we had in India. Not only was the tour enjoyable but also very interesting with the input of the local guides (PK tops the list) and historians that you had arranged. Even the special requests and arrangements were happily attended to without any problems.

Thanking you again for a lovely and trouble–free tour, a truly enjoyable experience. We will definitely contact you again for any future Indian tours that we may plan.

Felicity Simmons,
Sydney, Australia March 2009
During my trip to India in February 2009 I was fortunate to have met Philippa who saved my trip from what could have been a disaster. Before leaving Australia I had arranged a tour of north India. When I arrived in India I discovered the cost to be twice that which I had agreed, and had to cancel.

Then I met Philippa who came to my rescue! Through her extensive tour-guide network she was able to organise a trip for me at very short notice. Not only that, she got me fantastic savings in hotel accommodation and with individual guides. She arranged transport - always a challenge in India because buses, trains and ‘planes seem to be booked-out, so getting tickets at short notice takes a lot of know-how and contacts!

I know Philippa tried extra hard to keep within my budget and I know she can just as easily have arranged a very fancy tour with high-end accommodation and luxury travel. As an individual traveller who had many hang-ups about travel, food, and accommodation I was always pleasantly surprised at how Philippa came up with clean, cheap places where the food was safe! She makes a very amenable traveling companion too.

If you want to visit India and want a truly trustworthy person to help you organise your trip – with an incredible network and personal knowledge of India, then you can’t do better than use Philippa as your tour consultant.