Jan 11
4
Onlookers Travel Complaint And Advice To All Travellers
We recently went to Andaman (there were 13 of us travelling, which included 9 adults and 4 kids) during the year end vacations and had the most harrowing time. The tour was booked through one Onlookers travel in Girish Park Area of Kolkata who forwarded the whole thing to Andaman Tours and Travels in Port Blair. Onlookers charged from us around Rs.1,29,000/- for the entire trip which included stay, vehicle and entry fee to any place which had a ticket. We were given to understand that this is a high end package.
The first shock came when we landed on day one in Port Blair and were checked into the first hotel, which gave us a shock of our life. Absolutely in pits, shabby, bathrooms not functioning and almost seemed like a run down place and with non AC rooms. This was a huge letdown from the expectaions that we had prior to the tour and at that point we were informed by Uttam Das the local agent that all hotels and cars were booked non-AC which was a big shock as we were given to understand that this was high end tour. Anyways this was just a whiff of things to come.
We somehow pressurised the local agent and managed to change our rooms from the shaddy run down place. We had categorically told the operator that there were three double bed and one three bed room required to which he had seemed to turn blind eye.
During the nine days we survived somehow some horrible hotels, extremely discourteous and rude drivers of the travel agent, false commitments, and worst of all blatant lies or excuses to not show places of interest in the listed itineary.
A case in point: Mud Volcano which is a very important part of the trip in Diglipur was not shown as the driver said that Mud Volcano access road is under repair and cannot be reached, which was a false statement only to avoid goingor making the effort. In general most people in Andaman are unfriendly and rude (probably they must be getting volumes of tourist, and can afford to be so) but the drivers we had with us were the chosen worst and uncouth ones.
Final, nail in the coffin was ofcourse in Havelock where he put us in a extremely run down shaft where our people were insulted by the owner of the property and the manager of the property, the name of the property was harmony resorts. Havelock is a very expensive place and this resort was not just expensive but also provided portions in food which could probably feed a small child.
For instance he served us Chicken Chowmein which costed 90 ruppees and the portion was less than a packet of maggi. On being questioned the owner rudely said in a 600 ruppees hotel dont expect more than this.
We finally began to realise that he had put us up in hotels in Port Balir, Rangat, Maya Bunder, Havelock and back in Port Blair at room rates of 600-800 ruppees. In addition we spent seperately 33,000+ on food alone. So one can imagine how expensive Andaman is in terms of food.
The only reason we could survive this trip was because we were a large group and the pangs and the troubles were shared by all and in some cases we could laugh it all off. But if one were a small group it could have been a nightmare.
The tour operators were a classic showcase of dishonesty, cheat, thugs, con job, rude, ineptness and any other adjectives to showcase that they these two groups Onlookers group and Andaman Tours and Travels must be avoided by all and sundry who are planning a trip.
Name of Customer Support Rep. You Talked to:- Joyjit, Uttam Das
Your Contact Number:- 01126965051
Your Postal Address:-B 21 Qutab Institutional Area, New Delhi 110016
Complaint By:-Pinaki Das Gupta
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