Trotting Soles Travel Ltd Reviews 34

From the first contact with Sunita it was evident that she understood how I wanted to travel as an individual and experience areas in Karakalpakstan and Uzbekistan that the usual tours rarely include. I did not want to visit ceramic tile or paper making factory visitor centres. Fine tuning the itinerary was straightforward and all communications were timely and helpful.
From arrival the two week trip was well organised with local guides and drivers being on time and where I expected. The international and internal flights were with Uzbekistan Airways and perfectly acceptable. Cars / 4x4s were comfortable, drivers were helpful and the local guides were friendly, knowledgeable and prepared to vary the places visited if I asked.
I travelled from North to South visiting the Aral Sea, Nukus and the desert forts before going to the cities of the Silk Road and returning via Tashkent. I had the good fortune to visit Khiva when the when the spectacular Lazgi dance festival was underway. Wonderful country and people.
I thoroughly recommend Sunita and her team for their expertise in arranging a memorable and enjoyable bespoke journey.
Top tips : 1) Let your credit card company know where you are visiting, 2) Have a few dollars cash with you as changing GBP is not always easy if there isn't a bank and you need to change money with the hotel front desk.

Trotting Soles organised and executed an excellent journey for me. Since this was my third trip with Trotting Soles I was reminded of their attention to detail was outstanding and their continual supervision of the itinerary made everything hassle free, and resulted in an easy journey. The Journey itself, was off the beaten track and the itinerary was organised by them in conjunction, with local impact and was excellent. The main focus of the visit, which was to visit tribal groups of Chattisgarh and Orissa. However, they also organised night stays in old palaces which were interesting, very comfortable and delightful to stay in. An additional upside was the food was good and the conversation with the owners was excellent and gave a deep insight into Indian life and history. The journey also exposed me to various aspects of the little-known Buddhist culture and architecture in central India, as well as Indus Culture or Harappan archaeology in northwest India.
The subsequent short trip to China was also organised by Trotting Soles, and was excellent.

We have recently returned from our second tailormade trip to India in 2025 organised meticulously by Sunita at Trotting Soles.
We have travelled fairly extensively to India but had never been to Kolkata, the Ganges or the state of Odisha.
Sunita and her India colleagues gave us masses of ideas for possible itineraries in this area. Ultimately we had the most wonderful 3 week trip in December comprising a 3 night cruise on the lower Ganges aboard the charming ABN Raj Mahal cruise ship, a packed sightseeing 4 day stay in Kolkata and then flights to and from the enchanting temple city of Bhubaneswar including onwards to the pilgrimage city of Puri famous for Shri Jagannath temple and the outstanding UNESCO Sun Temple at Konark.
In every destination we had excellent professional guides, cars and drivers.
The hotels in each destination were perfect for Western tourists - immaculate, superb food and extremely welcoming and hospitable.
Sunita and her colleagues organised every aspect of our trip - international flights, domestic flights in India, stopovers in Dubai, hotels, transfers, guides, cars, drivers, my sightseeing 'wish list' plus excellent additional suggestions to enhance our itinerary. Everything went exactly to plan.
In India Sunita's local agents kept a watchful eye on our progress and we were reassured to know that there was always support available if required.
Sunita takes great care when planning your trip - giving her time generously to listen to your ideas and making suggestions from her own extensive travel experience.
We look forward to planning another trip with her soon.
Julia and Scott Mitchell

Our tour of the Silk Road cities of Uzbekistan was a hugely enjoyable and enriching experience taking us across the country from west to east by minibus and train seeing some of the greatest cities and sites of Central Asia on the way. I particularly enjoyed the trips off the beaten track - to the desert forts of Khwarezm and a day with a family in the mountains south of Samarkand. We were well looked after at every step without being overly constrained by pre-determined schedules. Thank you Sunita - a genuinely unforgettable experience!

Our trip to Uzbekistan, organised by Sunita's team at Trotting Soles, exceeded all expectations. Experiencing the sites along the Ancient Silk was hugely enriching culturally / educationally and, with Sunita's expert organisational and logistical help, we were able to relax, knowing that the trip was perfectly orchestrated. All the transfers were seamless and Roma, our guide, was always available and responsive. He was well informed, punctual and professional.
Uzbekistan is a country of breathtaking beauty and the tour offered a varied and interesting itinerary which we were able to customise to our requirements. The mosques, mausoleums and madrasahs in Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva was spectacular, especially when lit up at night. We were lucky enough to experience Bukhara's first Art Biennale but also ventured beyond the historic cities to see the natural beauty of the mountains and the desert. We had a feeling of authentic cultural immersion and, amongst other things, shared a meal in a traditional family home.
The food was delicious and our hotels were always clean, comfortable and well located.
We would highly recommend Trotting Soles and Uzbekistan to anyone looking for a unique and magical adventure.

Lovely experience in Uzbekistan with Trotting Soles. Great culture and markets. Well organised tour with lovely hotels and good logistics.

The whole booking process for the Pearls of the Atlantic tour was handled extremely professionally, and any question I had during this time was answered promptly.

The Splendours of Georgia tour was a superb experience. Well planned and organised, covering a lot of areas of great interest and beauty. Accommodation was clean and comfortable with good breakfasts. Our tour guide and driver were both excellent. A most enjoyable introduction to an amazing country!

Jordan is an amazing country, and it exceeded our expectations. There's so much more to it than Petra, which alone is worth the trip. Roman ruins at Jebril, Mount Nebo - Moses's last stop before the Promised Land, The Citadel (with ruins from several civilisations), Crusader forts, Wadi Rum desert....I could go.
All made possible for us through great organisation by Trotting Soles who worked with us to design a fantastic bespoke programme. The local guide was very knowledgeable and our driver was always on time and we felt very safe in his capable hands. Also nice to travel in an air conditioned car in a hot country. The hotels we stayed in were all very good too. People in Jordan are friendly without being overbearing. Jordan belies the perception that it may not be safe because of the region it lies in. It's not affected by conflict on Gaza, and UK Foreign Office advice is that it is safe - we certainly felt very easy about travelling the length of the country and didn't have the slightest concerns. A wonderful country that relies a lot on tourism, and I wholeheartedly recommend visiting it.

Feeling that I needed support for a trip to Pakistan, I approached Trotting Soles as my preferred travel partner. As always, the help I received from Sunita was exemplary with plans tailored to my needs and with personal care and attention given throughout. This included checking in during the trip to make sure that I was getting around OK, as I had recently suffered a slight foot fracture.

My first encounter with the local representative (Ali) was very positive as he had positioned himself in such a way that my name was the first one that I saw as I entered the arrivals area. Ali then acted in a dual role as both driver and tour leader.

I use the term leader rather than guide just to make a slight distinction between services required for a tour. I picture a guide as someone with intimate knowledge of the detail of places visited, with a leader/manager being someone with a higher level of knowledge and who would draw on local expertise as necessary. The leader would also ensure that the tour ran without issues.

With this in mind, I would regard Ali as an effective tour leader, always ensuring that things ran smoothly. It also helped that he was personable and that we were able to chat about a variety of things (I seem to remember that even Lego got a mention at one point). It was also appreciated that Ali introduced some interesting stops that were not on the itinerary.

With regard to driving, it was a constant source of amazement to me that Ali remained so calm no matter what was happening around us. I felt safe at all times. The choice of car was also good since, although highways were excellent, more rural roads could be a little "challenging".

I have stayed in many hotels so, unless one is either very bad or very good, I tend to forget them very quickly. Also, when staying in any one place for no more than two nights, it's hard to be bad enough to register anything particularly negative. On this trip, my overall impression was that hotels (with the exception of Faletti's in Multan) were a notch down from the expectation I had before travelling but perfectly acceptable options.

It's obviously not possible to gain a full understanding of a country in two weeks but I was very happy with the itinerary in that it allowed me to travel through contrasting areas of the country (From Islamabad to Karachi) on the back of seeing some very interesting places. I'm surprised that a number of these are not better known.

With police escorts being provided as we travelled south, the possibility of independent exploration was a bit more limited but, on this occasion, a damaged foot was already a limiting factor in this regard.

Overall, I was very happy with my experience and glad that I chose to go to Pakistan. I found it a very interesting country to visit. I now look forward to working with Trotting Soles for another adventure later in the year.

Thank you Trotting Soles for a wonderful two weeks in Uzbekistan. We agreed an itinerary with useful input from TS and communication before the trip was excellent. Our trip included flights, trains, drivers and local guides in 6 locations. All arrangements ran like clockwork and we were well looked after by everybody. Highly recommended.

Sunita and her team at Trotting Soles put together a marvelous trip to The Stans! The arrangements were absolutely seamless, great guides and accommodations. Working with Sunita prior to departure was also such a pleasure ! She is very responsive. I look forward to planning another trip together !

Sunita at Trotting Soles was very easy to work with. She listened to our preferences and interests and put together a package that suited to us, and was very happy to amend based on our suggested tweaks. Her Albania travel and cultural advice and guidance was spot on. We will happily use again.

This was the very best of holiday experience tours- well organised and structured to take in amazing "must see"sites and locations, and meet wonderful friendly people. Accommodation and food very good. Overall highly recommended.

Brilliant guides. Friendly and everything worked perfectly. Great time. Thanks

Our trip to Uzbekistan with Trotting Soles was truly one of the best travel experiences we’ve ever had, I cannot recommend a holiday with this company enough.

We enjoyed every minute of Uzbekistan; the Trotting Soles team on the ground were second to none. What really stood out was the impeccable knowledge of the guides, who took such incredible care of us – we hope to stay in touch, I’ve just sent some photos to our guide from Bukhara!

I was cared for very well by Trotting Soles. They organised a car and driver to take me through Sikkim. I was picked up at the land border with Bhutan and helped through border control. I was wanting to minimise cost so I didn't want a guide as well. My driver was wonderful, and despite not speaking much English he took me to all the places I wanted to see, plus many places not on the itinerary which he thought (correctly!) that I would like. He was completely reliable and punctual. In addition the company gave me an Indian mobile and kept checking that I was all right and that everything was going well. Their communication about who was picking me up and when was excellent. I had also asked for cheaper accommodation and stayed in some lovely guesthouses where I had great homecooked food, and middle level hotels which were perfect for me. I used the train to take me back to Kolkata and they provided a guide to help me at the station, which I was not expecting. The itinerary was great and overall the trip was very enjoyable.

Sunita created a bespoke holiday for us in India which was wonderful. We have some very special memories from our stay and feel that we had some very authentic experiences.

Recently I returned from a 15 day private solo adventure organized by Trotting Soles to India. It had long been my desire to visit West Bengal (Darjeeling, Kalimpong) and Sikkim (Gangtok, Pelling) to be up close to the Himalayas and the mountain Kanchenjunga. Sunita designed a November itinerary (best month for viewing the Himalayas) starting in Kolkata before flying to Bagdogra. She ensured that I safely explored the destination with an excellent guide and driver provided by her India team, and stayed at heritage hotels in charming rooms with a view. This was a great adventure, well planned and executed, and a very memorable experience for me. Of note, it was reassuring that Trotting Soles is a member of Travel Trust Association that guarantees full performance of the itinerary contracted by customers.

We had a splendid trip across South India and enjoyed the many and varied sites and activities. It was somewhat more luxurious than most, if not all, of our previous trips. The local agent was very attentive and our driver Jijo and the vehicle was excellent.
Generally, the hotels were very comfortable. The programme varied and interesting.

We had a trip with Trotting Soles to Spiti Valley (Himachal Pradesh) earlier in the year (2023) where the local crew and the UK office worked very hard to adapt our trip to prevailing conditions. The weather during our visit was very wet and our itinerary was adjusted to fit. We saw almost everything we had planned but in a different order. Spiti proved to be a great destination and we gained an insight into the local culture and the impact the climate had on the lives of the people. The team worked hard and flexibly to ensure we had an interesting and stimulating trip, in sometimes difficult conditions. Highly recommended.