A Review of the India Founders Cruise

My husband and I have just returned from an 18-day Founders cruise to India. We cruised with Uniworld for 7 nights on the River Ganges and were lucky enough to share the experience with Panache Cruises Founder James Cole and his family.

We are avid ocean and river cruisers but have never sailed with Uniworld before. We chose this trip as it combined an awful lot of the iconic Indian experiences with a Ganges river cruise and was based on high quality Oberoi and Taj Hotels for the land tour segments.

Once we had flown to New Delhi we then flew on to Udaipur the following day for a pre-cruise add-on of two days at the Taj Palace Hotel. This was probably our favourite part of the trip. Udaipur is beautiful; simply a number of palaces set in the city and hills around a beautiful lake. The Taj Palace sits in the middle of the lake and can only be reached by boat which was super romantic at sunrise and sunset. The rooms and service at the hotel were very special, rated 6-star and we built a great relationship with our guide who continued on with us to Jaipur.

Back in Delhi we joined the main group for the 5-day land-based phase. There was a fair bit of coach travel (good quality comfortable coach with a toilet and lots of comfort stops) but well worth it to see some of the most iconic sites in the world. The pedal tuk tuk ride through the alleys of Delhi and the Taj Mahal at sunrise and sunset was very very special. Because of the Diwali festival, street life and the hotels were much more colourful and exciting than usual, while the big monuments like the Taj were quieter which was a real bonus particularly at sunrise. Again, the hotels were 5-star and very quirky, immaculately clean and nothing was too much trouble. The hotel in Jaipur had over 100 peacocks in its grounds and each room or villa had a sunken bath to die for, all very special.

From Jaipur we flew on to Kolkata to join the Ganges Voyager II. Internal flights around India were better then expected which is good as we took five flights in all! Though the 15kg checked luggage limit might be seen as a constraint, people got very innovative with their 7kg hand luggage and the guides helped enormously navigating the whole check-in and travel experience. You can pay for extra weight and many in our group did, although across five flights it can be expensive.

Kolkata was the start of our seven-day river cruise to some of the more remote and rural parts of India. We certainly saw life in its most raw form and learned a huge amount about the history, culture and religion of the sub-continent.

We had three guides and a cruise director onboard so the daily excursions were never crowded. They tended to be early in the morning before it got too hot and usually lasted a couple of hours, visiting temples or palaces and seeing village life including artisans at work. The Ganges Voyager II sailed during daylight hours so we also had lots of time to relax on this comfortable and well-appointed ship, enjoying a G&T and watching the world go by. You could also attend talks, have a henna tattoo or roll yourself up in a sari with the multi-talented crew’s assistance.

Evenings were quiet and all the food was delicious. The combination of early starts, the heat and the constant bombardment of sights and smells left us all exhausted and while a few had an impromptu disco on a couple of nights, most were happy to retire for the night after dinner.

Back in Kolkata we said our reluctant goodbyes to most of our fellow travellers and seven of us embarked on a post-cruise trip to Varanasi, the spiritual heart of India. Another short flight with our guide and the cruise director, and we were on a small boat sailing the Ganges at sunset, watching the timeless rituals of death and cremation. I’m glad this trip was at the end—if it had been early on I think I would have found it quite a culture shock. Having spent some time in India learning about Hinduism and the calm and spiritual culture it embraces, the events on the riverbank struck me and I think all of us as deeply spiritual and I was humbled to be allowed to share it.

After a night in another comfy hotel we were back on the riverbank at dawn. It was pouring with rain but no seemed to care. There were hundreds of priests, pilgrims (50-60,000, yes thousand (!) people visit Varanasi everyday, as every Hindu is required to visit there once in their life) and locals washing ritually in the river, receiving blessings from the multitude of priests, eating, praying and soaking up the atmosphere.

Varanasi was our last stop before a night in Delhi and the dreaded long haul flights back to Manchester. So what were our overall impressions and would we recommend this trip?

Firstly, the star of this tour is India in all its colour—smells, culture, history, religion and joyous chaos. There is nothing like it anywhere else on earth. All of that made it very different to what we and our fellow travels are used to and Uniworld works hard to deal with any concerns we might have. The ship and hotels were spotless.

The food on board and in the hotels was top notch with Indian and western options available. There were a few upset stomachs but help was always at hand. The only problem I had was the Indian food was so delicious I had it for breakfast, lunch and dinner—moderation in all things rapidly became my watch word! Sanitiser and water were available in abundance. On the Ganges Voyager II they took your shoes away after every excursion and cleaned them. On tours in some of the more crowded cities additional Uniworld staff accompanied to us to make sure we felt comfortable when out and about on the streets.

So finally……we had the time of our lives. It was an unforgettable experience with the right balance of raw experience and comfort. Was I pushed out of my comfort zone? Yes, and rightly so, India demands that, but not too far.

My advice: just do it!