TESTIMONIALS AND STORIES
In this section, we give some of your most recent feedback and stories. Several of the people listed below have offered to give references. We don't want to overburden them, but are happy to give their names to you if you seem likely to book.

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Paul and Helen Goodwin, London, England. Paul runs a radio website - Planetary Voices - and Helen is an occupational therapist. We organized a tour for them to North India and the Himalaya. Paul interviewed General Jimmy Singh at Samthar in the Himalaya for his website.

We really appreciated the set up at Samthar homestay, that gave us an opportunity to be so much around village life. Apart from the brief blasting pop music at 6am on our first morning, the village was very sensitive to us and we hope we managed to reciprocate and not be intrusive to them.

People were very attentive and kind and the food was so nice and well prepared. It was great just to be able to hang out and on the first morning we enjoyed just being with children. Charles was a great guide always willing to engage in conversation about the locality, village life and culture. It was so good to get to meet local people on our walks and be able to visit the heart of life in the valley.

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Sally and Dominic Simpson, New York, USA. Dominic works in technology in a bank, Sally in career management.

"Having never been to South America before we were afraid large group tours were the only option if one's Spanish is not strong enough to go it alone. And then we found insider-tours which offered a mixture of independent travel and a personal guide when needed. We saw such a variety of places and feel like we discovered the real Peruvian culture. With only 2 weeks to spare, having it all so well planned with organised transport took the hassle out of the holiday leaving us to relax, enjoy the country and experience the Peruvian way of life. It was a wonderful holiday, thank you!''

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Professor Steven and Dr Sybil Wolin, Washington DC, USA. Steven is clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical School in Washington DC. Sybil is a developmental psychologist. She has worked as an advocate for public school services for handicapped children, an educational diagnostician and tutor, and a teacher.

"We had a cultural immersion experience that has been pretty difficult to describe to our friends. They keep asking us, "Well, what did you actually do all that time?" And we tell them about walking through villages meeting locals, priests, etc; sitting around the dinner table talking with Palitha about his life, tsunami, etc; attending temple ceremonies and concerts and talking to the people next to us at each event --- and our friends look at us blankly, not really comprehending what it all meant or why it's so special.

However, I know that you know, and I don't have to explain to you that cultural tourism is all about talking to people, and that you can't capture those meetings in a photo or even a story. But we loved nearly every minute of it, and you made it happen, so we're very grateful."

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Lord and Lady Lipsey, London, UK
David is a member of the House of Lords and is also very interested in racing. Margaret was a social worker now retired. They like walking, music, dance (Margaret), sightseeing, wildlife, swimming, meeting people, just about anything.

"We loved the homestays, what a wonderful way to meet interesting people and learn about their lives and culture, the farming, production of sugar, rubber, tea etc etc. Staying with Prabhu was probably the highlight of the trip, he made staying at his home such fun, whizzing round in his jeep and we were exceptionally lucky to see a bear there and a festival at the local village."

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Professor John and Diana Prescott, Kent, UK
John is the former Principal of Wye College, University of London. John and Diana travelled together to India in early 2006.

"We were privileged to enjoy a very special experience of these parts of India with the best of personal attention to travel and guidance. It exceeded our expectations in terms of the quality of the accommodation, comfortable travel and personal attention we received, accessing a fascinating glimpse of the parts of India few tourists ever see as well as the best views of the major sites".

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Carole and William, Peeblesshire, Scotland
Carole worked at Stirling University, for 15 years, specializing in Dementia. She is now an associate consultant and was visiting Kerala to give a paper at the Alzheimer's conference. William is now retired, after a career in business. They are interested in film, theatre, classical music, travel literature, food, walking and gardening, and of course travel.

"Overall we both felt that the holiday was one of the most memorable that we have undertaken, and we have travelled widely.

The design of 2-3 nights was excellent enough to obtain a feel of the place but then ready to move on and sample the next experience. We felt that we were able to have a little of India-Kerala without all the hassle and stomach upsets. We were able to talk to our hosts indepth and discuss issues both about India/Kerala and also tell them something of our own country. Few we met had travelled abroad so they were very interested in hearing about Scotland/UK. So at both an aesthetic and intellectual level it was pitched just right for us.

The variety of travel was exciting too. Using trains, the car and boat and that fact that we came across few Europeans added to the sense of being somewhere quite different and exotic. It was a bit of shock to the system when we reached the airport and saw so many white faces."

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Dr Indranil, Nicky and Luke Chakrabarti, Sheffield, UK
Indranil and Nicky and both doctors. They travelled with their son, Luke.

"Luke thoroughly enjoyed fishing in the pond and caught over a dozen fish! They were delicious. We all enjoyed meeting the elephant but, I'm afraid I was the only one brave enough to ride him.

As for the treehouse, what can I say? It was a wonderful adventure and suprisingly comfortable. Luke says it was the best part of the holiday! We were very sad to leave."

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John, Mireille, Leo and Eloise, Sheffield, UK
Mireille is a doctor and John a writer - Leo and Eloise are 13 and 11 respectively. Miriellevisited India once before and it was a holiday that remained vivid in her memory. She always hoped to return.

"The holiday more than lived up to our expectations and we will always remember it. We were made to feel very welcome everywhere we went, and having Peter with us made things very easy. The organisation was impeccable.

The people that we met were very open and we feel that we have learned a lot about the culture, politics, religion and the way of life. Human intervention is apparent everywhere, yet the natural beauty of the land and wildlife are vivid. The experience was personal and equally fascinating for the children and adults alike. We were never bored, we had an adventure but never felt in danger, and the two weeks both felt like an age and also flashed by far too quickly."

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Marjorie and Neal, Massachusetts, USA
Marjorie is a social worker and Neil works in fiber optics and produces jazz recordings. They live on a farm and have four grown sons and a baby grand-daughter. They travelled with us to Kerala, India.

"I had thought I'd be able to say to you "the highpoint was...", but there were so many: the plantations of Tamil Nadu from the bullock cart (at the picnic stop by the dam we saw a goatherd across the river spearing and fighting with a huge cobra), the graciousness of Biju and others at Bamboo Grove, the animals and birds we saw in the forest (elephants, monkeys, hornbill, wild boar, bison, and more), the bamboo raft on Lake Periyar, the friendliness of the people of the Mannan village, the overnight in Kochi at the lovely Old Courtyard, complete with classical musicians playing during dinner."

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Stefan and Yvonne, Augsburg, Germany
Both academics from the university of Augsburg. They travelled to Sri Lanka.

"The programm you arranged for us was a superb mixture of the various sides of Sri Lanka. The stay at your uncles house was a great pleasure for us, as we would not have been able to get to know the daily life. We liked a lot the talking and discussing with them and to see how our dishes were cooked and spiced."

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Owen and Jill, Leicester, UK
Owen is a broadcasting consultant after a career in the BBC. He founded, and is advisor, to the BBC Asian Network. Jill is a retired librarian. Together their interests are huge - music, bridge, tennis, literature, bird watching and sailing. They've visited India several times and wanted to return to Kerala for an insider tour.

"Difficult to pick out highlights among so many but the food prepared by Anthony at the Tallayar bungalow was up with the best I've ever been served. The journey from Munnar to Periyar was stunningly beautiful, the houseboat trip a great way to explore the backwaters and the Emerald Isle a preaceful restful place to complete our holiday."

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William Shwetzer, Florida, USA
William is a retired US marine physician.

"My goal was to not visit the usual tourist spots, but rather to meet with the "real" Sri Lankan people. Insiders Tours did a wonderful job in getting me to the people, seeing the "out-of-the-way places" and experience things that most tourist don't get to.

Also, I expressed a desire to use my medical skills to help the poor. That was the most impressing aspect of the tour I was able to accomplish. They arranged everything to the smallest detail, with a superior guide/driver. His knowledge in so many areas is unbelievable. Never did he lack in some titbit of information that made the trip even that much better.

The trip was custom-made for my goals. I was able to hike, surf, raft to my hearts content. I treated so many people and feel very glad I was able to provide a service to these wonderful people of Sri Lanka.