There are so many things that go into planning for a perfect trip, with so enough time money and energy going into the entire plan, it’s only fair to anticipate the best from it.However, with numerous choices and decisions to make it’s only prudent to have a checklist of products that would help in having a great trip
Generally I look at the process of any vacation, broadly separated in 3 distinct parts, namely - Research, Purchase and Experience
When you are in “Research” mode for your vacation to India , We highly recommend the first thing you need to do is educate yourself about India and get a fundamental idea on places you need to visit and what interests you . After you have accomplished that the next thing would be to have an idea about your budget and approximate spend that you'll be doing on stay and travel .Once you have an idea about these two stuff you are in a position to build a summary of your questions and wants, and start testing water to enter the next part of the process - “Purchase”.
“Purchase” phase involves choosing the agents websites that you would seek solutions to your questions and request a quote from. A few of the things to keep in mind are - may be the agent able to answer your queries , give customer references, what's the level of transparency exhibited when it comes to display of price online or when you talk to them , the mode of payment ,etc. It’s important to know that there are “No too best to be true deals” unless until they're prevalent everywhere or you compare apples to oranges. It is important to have a list of the exact hotels or services that the agent promises to provide. Inside a country like India high is a large disparity operating and general standards, expensive hotels referred as “similar hotel” can be largely different.
Last although not the least is the “Travel Experience” phase. Apart from the obvious delivery of what as promised for you not meeting the expectation, another reasons that your Experience didn't meet your expectation could be largely attributed to “You”. It is vital that you explain the agent your expectations at length, any shortcoming in that would certainly lead to unfulfilled expectations. It's also important that you overlook small trivial things particularly if you are on a Budget. In a country like India, expect large disparity operating levels, and luxury comes expensive. It always helps you to talk to references and know how close was an agent in delivering on their own expectations.
So avoid the pitfalls of the aforementioned described phases and get the most from your travel.