Booking and travel policy

Payment triggers three things, in this order, and all of them are automatic:

1. Your booking is written to our system with an order reference in the form OMG-XXXXXXXX. That reference is the only thing you ever need to quote.
2. A confirmation email goes out with the full breakdown — journeys, dates, travellers, the price and the GST inside it.
3. The relevant desk is notified and starts confirming with the local operator.

If the confirmation has not arrived within 15 minutes, check the spam folder first, then look the booking up with the reference and the email you used. A payment that succeeded always produces a booking; a payment that failed never does.

The voucher is the document your guide, driver or hotel will actually ask for. One is issued per journey, normally within two hours of payment and always within 24 hours.

It carries the operator's name, the direct phone number for the person running your journey, the meeting point, the start time, the inclusions, the traveller names and the cancellation line for that specific booking.

• Show it on your phone or print it — either is accepted everywhere.
• Vouchers are re-sent on request from info@omeegatravel.com, or downloaded any time from your bookings.
• A voucher is not transferable to another person without our writing to confirm the name change.

Between 48 and 24 hours before each journey starts, we contact you to confirm the pickup point and the exact time. It comes by email, and by WhatsApp or SMS if you gave us a number.

We ask you to reply to it. An unconfirmed pickup on a private journey gets a phone call from the operator; if we cannot reach anyone by the evening before, the guide still turns up, but the vehicle may be routed to the hotel lobby rather than to a specific address.

• Tell us your hotel before this point if the booking was made without one.
• Changed hotel? Tell us — a car sent to the wrong address is the single most common way a morning goes wrong.
• Early-slot journeys — the Taj Mahal at sunrise, a desert sunrise camel ride — are confirmed 48 hours out because the tickets are drawn earlier.

Ask, always. Moving a date is nearly always cheaper than cancelling and rebooking, and often free.

• Inside the cancellation window — free. You pay only the difference if the new date is priced higher.
• Outside it — we ask the operator. Day journeys moved within the same week are usually agreed; peak-season packages moved at the last minute usually are not.
• Dated third-party tickets — monument slots, rail berths and scheduled boats often cannot move at all, because the authority issuing them does not allow it. Those we say so about immediately.
• Flight or train delayed? Tell us as soon as you know. A delay outside your control is treated as a change of plan, not a cancellation, and we move what can be moved for nothing.

Requests go to info@omeegatravel.com with the order reference in the subject line, and are answered the same working day.

Every journey page states its maximum party size, and it is a real limit rather than a marketing line.

• Private journeys — the vehicle is yours. Typical caps are 4 for a sedan, 6 for an SUV and 10 for a tempo traveller; the page tells you which.
• Walking tours — capped small, usually 8 to 12, because a group of twenty in a lane in Old Delhi cannot hear the guide and gets in everyone's way.
• Shared departures and ticketed activities — larger, up to 40 on some, and clearly labelled as shared.
• Groups above the maximum — we run a second vehicle and a second guide rather than overload one. Write to us and we will quote it properly; it is not simply the per-person price multiplied out.

• Under 5 — normally free on private journeys, sharing a seat with a parent where the law allows, but they still count for the vehicle capacity. Tell us they are coming.
• 5 to 11 — child pricing applies where the operator offers it, and Indian monuments admit children under 15 free at most centrally protected sites.
• 12 and over — adult pricing, adult tickets, adult ID rules.
• Child seats — available on request with 48 hours' notice. They are not standard in Indian taxis, so please ask rather than assume.

Some journeys are genuinely unsuitable for small children — long desert drives, sunrise starts, night walks — and we will say so rather than take the booking and hope. Anyone under 18 must travel with a parent or guardian.

Tell us what you need at the point of booking and we will tell you honestly what is possible. Much of India's heritage is stepped, uneven and several hundred years older than any accessibility standard, and we would rather be straight with you than sell you a disappointment.

• Wheelchair-accessible vehicles can be arranged in Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur and Goa with 72 hours' notice.
• Step-free routes exist at several major monuments, including the Taj Mahal complex, and we will plan around the ones that do not.
• Slower-paced versions of most walking tours are available at no extra cost — same route, more time, more places to sit.
• Dietary requirements, including strict vegetarian, Jain, halal and coeliac, are passed to every kitchen involved. Give us the detail; "no meat" means different things in different states.
• Assistance animals are welcome, though some religious sites restrict entry regardless of purpose.

India runs on a calendar of closures, and we plan around the ones we know about.

• The Taj Mahal is closed every Friday. No itinerary we sell will put you in Agra with a Friday slot for it.
• Several centrally protected monuments close one day a week, and museums commonly close on Mondays. The journey page states the operating days.
• Monsoon — June to September on the west coast, later in the east. Boats stop, some forts close on heavy-rain days, and drives take longer. We do not cancel for rain alone; we do reroute.
• Desert camps run November to February. Outside that window the heat makes the overnight version unsafe and we will not sell it.
• Festivals, state visits and elections can close a monument or a road at a day's notice. Where that hits a confirmed booking we move it, or refund it in full under the refunds policy.
• Air quality in the northern plains is worst from late October to early January; on the bad days we will suggest an indoor alternative rather than pretend it is fine.

• Government photo ID for every adult; passport and visa for foreign nationals, in the original.
• The voucher, on your phone or printed.
• Modest clothing for religious sites — shoulders and knees covered, and shoes that come off easily.
• Cash in small notes for tips, shoe minding and anything bought from a stall; UPI works almost everywhere else.
• Water, sunscreen and a hat between March and June. Layers for a desert night, when it genuinely gets cold.

Call the operator number on your voucher first — they are the ones with the car and the fastest route to a fix.

If you cannot reach them, call us on 9232115455.

Tell us the same day even if it got resolved. We log every incident against the operator, and two bad reports in a season take a journey off sale until it is fixed. That feedback loop is the only reason the catalogue stays honest.