The Wanderlust Paul Morrison Guide Award 2008
A Third Nomination for Sameer Rathore – PLEASE VOTE!
The ultimate award for the ultimate guide!
This is very exciting for all of us at Imaginative Traveller and, of course, for Sameer. We congratulate and thank him very much for all his great work over the years. Read more about this remarkable guide below but in the meantime, if you have travelled with Sameer and Imaginative Traveller in the past you can help make it third time lucky by joining the many people who are voting for him. Please email topguide@wanderlust.co.uk putting ‘Sameer Rathore’ in the subject line and include your thoughts on why Sameer should win this ultimate accolade. For further information please go to www.wanderlust.co.uk/guides. The closing date for submissions is 19 May 2008.
We’ll keep our fingers crossed that 2008 is Sameer’s year!
Sameer Special Departures
Keep your eye out for our Special Sameer Departures. If you want to return to India to enjoy Sameer’s leadership once more or would simply like to experience this for the first time then watch out for a series of specific trips we will be running from the new 2009/10 brochure. We know these tours will sell out quickly so do book promptly. For further information contact editor@imtrav.net.
Sameer Rathore – Guide of the Year?
Out of the many distinctly wonderful tour leaders we have, Sameer Rathore stands apart. He has received consistently excellent feedback since starting to work for us as a tour leader in July 2004 and all clients, without any exception, enthuse about his qualities as a tour leader. He is an extraordinary good tour leader of the highest calibre who has helped us to raise the standard of tour leading in India to a very high level. All tour leaders look up to Sameer and try to learn from him. Sameer comes from a Rajput royal family with an ancestral fort in Baghela, south of Jaipur. He was Head Boy at Mayo College, India's leading private school, where the children of the Indian Royal Families were traditionally sent to be educated. Sameer says that Rajasthan is without a doubt his favourite place although he also enjoys leading tours throughout India. Being a member of one of its royal families, Sameer has proved to be an ideal tour leader for our "Amongst The Maharajas" tour, his personal favourite. This tour stays exclusively at Heritage Hotels which date back through many generations, often in quite remote areas. In fact, Sameer's family has a personal friendship with the owners of many of these unique heritage properties.
Sameer is the quintessential gentleman from another era. Along with this charm, his intimate knowledge of the customs and traditions of Rajasthan is a great asset. He shows immense pride in his culture and background, and works tirelessly to ensure that clients leave with a full understanding, and invariably a favourable impression of, Rajasthan and therefore India as a whole. What is remarkable about him is his personal attention to detail, and to each individual client. His intrinsic warmth and ease in dealing with people ensures that his guests are looked after in the most attentive way. Clients have consistently commented that they are hugely impressed at the time and care taken by Sameer to answer each and every question, and to ensure that each and every client is enjoying their experience of Rajasthan.
Have you met many other guides that will explain every dish, with a brief description of the ingredients so that guests can tell one curry and one subzi (vegetable) from each other? Or give the meaning of each song and the significance of it at a folk music performance? Or even take groups to his own home in Ajmer (close to Pushkar) where they get to meet his welcoming family and enjoy some fabulous traditional food.
In a hundred different ways, Sameer unfolds the culture of India and specifically that of Rajasthan for his guests. He feels blessed to be working in tourism as he loves to introduce so many people to the wonderful historical and cultural delights India has to offer though finds it hard to come up with the words to do it justice! What he loves most about tour leading is “sharing my home land with people from all over the world” – and most clients leave with promises to return on the condition that their ‘favourite Sam’ will be their tour leader. We once ran an special tour, meant exclusively for past clients of Sameer. The departure was fully booked within a few days! Watch this space for further departures.
Sameer is really happy that so many of his past clients have supported him for the Wanderlust Paul Morrison Guide of the Year Award and we all truly hope that he wins, though he is still tops in our book no matter what the outcome of course. We, at Imaginative Traveller, are extremely proud and fond of Sameer and know he is destined for great things. We hope that he will stay with us for as long as he enjoys leading tours and then go on to restore his family home, Fort Baghela. That way, many more guests can enjoy his hospitality in his own home.
VOTE FOR SAMEER NOW!!!!!
Sameer’s favourite tours:
What YOU had to say about Sameer and his tours:
“We have just returned from a tour of Rajasthan, ‘Amongst the Maharajahs’ with Imaginative Traveller. It was a great experience, well organised, good accommodation, visited many wonderful locations and we will recommend it to all who are thinking of visiting India. We would particularly like to commend our tour leader Sameer Rathore. He was by far the best tour leader we’ve experienced. He was ever courteous, welcoming and knowledgeable. Nothing was too much trouble and on the odd occasion when problems arose he dealt with them swiftly, efficiently and with good humour. We consider Sam to be a great asset to your company”.
“We have just returned from the ‘Amongst the Maharajahs’ tour and, although I filled in an evaluation form for the tour leader, I just wanted to write and thank you because it was such a wonderful holiday. Obviously we carefully chose a tour which we thought would suit us and we were certainly not disappointed; it fully met and really exceeded our expectations. There were so many good things about it that I cannot possibly list them all, but the quality of the tour leader was a huge factor in making this holiday such a success. The fact that Sameer was a Rajasthani and communicated his pride and enthusiasm as well as his immense knowledge was crucially important. He was also very committed to Responsible Travel and gave us lots of helpful comments and guidance about this.”
“Firstly thank you to Imaginative Traveller. We had a fantastic time. The vehicle was really comfortable. The driver and his helper could not do enough and always had smiles on their faces. The guide - Sameer Rathore - where to begin? Nothing was ever too much trouble for him. Always polite and treated everyone equally. The information he passed on was interesting and not an overload of useless information. The maps he gave everyone were really helpful in the big cities. The country, people and food I loved. Accommodation was also great. I know that the other people on the tour felt the same as I did. I want to go back and see more of the country one day but am worried the rest won't live up to the standard set on this tour!”
“I am sending you an email to praise Sameer Rathore, who was the tour leader for our tour ‘Amongst the Maharajahs’. I arrived at my local hotel in New Delhi too sick to continue with the tour. Sameer was very solicitous and called me each day at the hotel to see how I was feeling and to arrange transportation from the airport in Udaipur to the hotel when I re-joined the trip. Sameer made sure that I regained my health and took me to the local doctor for examination and medication. I was impressed with his caring concern and helpfulness for each member of the tour as well as his kindness towards me. He is also very well informed about the history and customs of India in general and knowledgeable about the local history regarding the places we visited on the trip. He was very efficient in organizing the many details required in making sure the trip went smoothly. Thank you for selecting Sameer Rathore as the tour leader for my group and thank him for making it possible for me to enjoy the trip.”
“I have just returned from the ‘Amongst the Maharajahs’ tour. It was the best trip I ever took and my opinion was shared by all members of our group. We had only 11 participants in our cosmopolitan group: four Australians, fourBritish, one from South Africa and my Polish niece and me. Everyone was very nice, easy going and interesting. Our tour leader was absolutely outstanding. His name was Sameer Rathore. He was the kindest person with a superb sense of humour. We had a lot of fun and laughter. Rajasthan is so beautiful and this trip allowed us to see some off the beaten track places like Pachewar and interact with local people. Thank you so very much.”
