A Perfect Trip to Kashmir & Ladakh

We visited Kashmir & Ladakh from 5-16 June 2024 and had a magical time! This would not have been possible without the team at Bout India working tirelessly to curate the perfect itinerary for me and my 2 travel partners.

I chanced upon Bout India through an online search requesting for details. What I did not expect was a superquick response with a detailed itinerary from Mr Himanshu. He checked in constantly to see if we had any queries. Every question we had was answered with clarity and transparency - nothing was missed out. The speed of response from Mr Himanshu never faltered throughout our correspondence. He took the time to understand our interests and suggested activities/experiences to maximise our time in Ladakh. Mr Himanshu set the stage for the professionalism of the Bout India team who were not only efficient, but trustworthy too.

Ms Chahat was our trip coordinator. Her bubbly and friendly demeanor radiated through her messages. Like Mr Himanshu, she too took the time to explain when changes in the itinerary had to be made. In our case, Gulmarg Gondola tickets could not be secured for Phase 2 as we booked the trip relatively late. But she furnished us with tickets and all the details required well in advance of our trip so that we were prepared. When we realised we required additional baggage on our domestic flight and had sporadic Internet connection, Ms Chahat swiftly arranged it for us. We were also very grateful when she said we could make the payment after the trip as she wanted us to not worry about this and immerse in the trip fully. We were truly touched by this extremely kind gesture.

The guides and drivers assigned to us were knowledgeable and skilful respectively. During the first 4 days in Kashmir, Mr Javeed was our guide while Mr Zulfikar was our driver. Throughout the trip, Mr Javeed offered various options that we could consider doing as we had spare time. He picked the most excellent tea spots - giving us the local experience. Mr Zulfikar was always punctual and took us through winding mountains passes expertly.

Most of our trip was spent in Ladakh under the care of Mr Tundup Namgail, our guide, and Mr Imtiyaz Ahmad, our driver. To our pleasant surprise, both of them met us at our hotel in Kargil the day before the start of this leg just to introduce themselves and brief us on the Ladakh itinerary as well as to allay any concerns of AMS. This was most impressive!

Mr Tundup was easygoing in nature and had a wealth of knowledge about Buddhism, and local culture which he readily shared with anyone who approached him. When our friend had moderate AMS at Lamayuru, he sprung into action to mitigate it immediately. He also made clever decisions to tweak the itinerary such that our friend could recover, while hardly missing any of the sights in Leh. Mr Tundup was always patient with us and walked at our pace as we tried to catch our breath at the high altitude. Each time, Mr Imtiyaz took the wheels, we would feel extremely safe - even as he navigated through many tricky paths.

Bout India has been exceptional from the very beginning until the end. We will recommend them to anyone looking to visit India in a heartbeat.

(Thank you once again, Bout India for enabling us to experince Kashmir & Ladakh in the most amazing way!)