Frequently asked questions

It depends entirely on the mission, and published timelines are indicative rather than binding. Schengen applications typically run 15 to 25 working days and stretch beyond 40 in peak summer; UK standard service is around three weeks; US interview slots at Indian consulates can be months away; Japan is often 5 to 7 working days; UAE and Singapore e-visas usually clear in 3 to 5. Apply as early as the mission permits — Schengen now accepts applications up to six months before travel, and there is no advantage in waiting.

No, and no agency honestly can. A visa is granted or refused solely by the embassy, consulate or immigration authority concerned, on grounds it is not obliged to explain, and there is no appeal we can lodge on your behalf. Our 98.4% approval rate is a historical record of files we have handled, not a forecast for yours. Our fee buys professional preparation — correct category, complete documentation, a checked application and follow-up — and embassy fees are non-refundable whatever the decision.

The core set is consistent: a passport valid at least six months beyond your return with two blank facing pages, photographs to the mission's exact specification, confirmed flight and hotel bookings, six months of bank statements showing a healthy closing balance, the last three salary slips or income tax returns, an employment and leave letter or business registration proof, and travel insurance. Missions then add their own requirements — an invitation letter, a cover letter explaining your itinerary, a notarised affidavit for minors, or proof of property in India. We send you a destination-specific checklist so nothing arrives late.

Most countries require your passport to be valid for at least six months beyond your date of return, with a minimum of two blank facing pages for stamps and visa labels. The Schengen area works differently: validity of at least three months beyond your intended departure from the area, and the passport must have been issued within the previous ten years. A torn, water-affected or otherwise damaged passport is routinely refused at immigration even when the validity is fine. If yours has under eight months left, renew it before you book anything.

We share the refusal grounds wherever the mission states them and give you an honest view on whether a fresh application with strengthened documentation makes sense, or whether an appeal or a change of destination is wiser. Embassy fees, biometric charges and courier costs are paid to the mission and never refund. A refusal does not pause our cancellation tiers, so the charges applicable on that date still apply — this is precisely the risk that trip cancellation insurance absorbs, provided the policy was bought before the refusal.

Every minor needs their own passport; children can no longer travel on a parent's. Where a child travels with only one parent, a grandparent or a school group, most missions and many immigration authorities require a notarised consent affidavit from the absent parent or parents, copies of their passports, and the child's birth certificate showing both parents' names. Carry the birth certificate on the trip regardless, because several countries ask for it at the border to deter child trafficking. For divorced or separated parents, custody documentation is usually required as well.

Yes — it is mandatory on every international booking we operate, and the Schengen area requires a minimum of €30,000 medical cover as a condition of the visa. Look for medical treatment and hospitalisation abroad, emergency evacuation and repatriation, trip cancellation and curtailment, baggage and personal documents, and an explicit adventure rider if your itinerary includes trekking above 3,000 metres, scuba diving, skiing or rafting, all of which are excluded as standard. Declare pre-existing medical conditions honestly, because an undeclared condition is the single most common reason a claim abroad is rejected.

Under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme a resident individual may remit up to USD 250,000 per financial year for all permissible purposes including travel, which is far above what a normal holiday needs. In practice, carry roughly 30% as cash for tips, taxis, small vendors and rural markets, and load the rest onto a multi-currency forex card, which locks your rate and avoids the mark-ups credit cards apply overseas. Always decline the offer to pay in rupees on a foreign card machine — dynamic currency conversion typically costs 3 to 6% more. Keep the currency declaration form if you carry cash above the notified threshold.

You get a named consultant who knows your file, a 24×7 duty line on +91-9953590779 that reaches a human in any time zone, and a WhatsApp group created for your trip with your consultant and the local ground handler already in it. Page one of your trip pack lists escalation contacts, the local emergency number, your insurer's assistance line and the nearest Indian mission. You never have to explain your booking from scratch to a stranger.

Tell us immediately in the trip WhatsApp group — not when you get home. A room that is not what was promised, a guide who fails to appear or a vehicle that is unsuitable can almost always be fixed within a few hours while you are there, and almost never fixed retrospectively. Also raise it with the supplier at the time and keep whatever reference they give you. If it remains unresolved, write to us within 30 days of returning and we will respond substantively within 21 working days.

We operate a large number of solo journeys and we design them differently rather than simply selling the same itinerary to one person. That means arrivals scheduled in daylight, verified female drivers and guides where requested, hotels chosen for a lit, walkable, properly staffed lobby rather than for the lowest rate, airport pickups by a named driver whose photo and vehicle number reach you in advance, and a simple check-in protocol where you message the group on arrival in each new city. We also give honest area-level advice, including where we would not walk after dark, because vague reassurance helps nobody.

Yes, with notice — please raise it at the enquiry stage rather than after booking. We verify step-free access, lift dimensions, bathroom grab rails and roll-in showers directly with the property instead of trusting a listing checkbox, book vehicles with ramp or swivel-seat access, arrange wheelchair assistance at every airport in the routing, and deliberately reduce the daily pace and the number of sites. Some heritage locations — hill forts, stepwells, older temple complexes — genuinely cannot be made accessible, and we say so upfront and design around them.

Call our duty line and your insurer's 24-hour assistance number, which is printed on the policy card in your trip pack. We help locate a hospital that will direct-bill your insurer rather than demand cash upfront, arrange interpretation and transfers, keep your family informed, and coordinate with the nearest Indian mission if documents are lost in the process. Keep every prescription, invoice and discharge summary — insurers reimburse against documentation, and a claim without paperwork is very hard to win.

Report the loss to the local police first and obtain a written report, because no mission will act without it. Then contact the nearest Indian Embassy or High Commission for an Emergency Certificate to travel home, or a replacement passport if you have time. The single thing that halves the process is preparation: carry a photocopy and a phone scan of your passport stored separately from the original, plus two spare photographs. We hold your details on file and can resend copies of your documents within minutes of your call.

In five stages, with one designer owning your file from start to finish. First a 45-minute conversation about how you travel — pace, early mornings or slow breakfasts, museums or markets, what a bad day looks like for you — not just where you want to go. Then a destination and routing shortlist with honest seasonality notes, including where we would advise against your chosen month. Then a fully costed day-by-day draft within three to five working days, two rounds of revisions at no charge, and finally confirmation, supplier vouchers and a printed trip pack delivered seven days before departure.

For a domestic journey, six to eight weeks is comfortable. For international travel, three to four months. For peak windows — Christmas and New Year, Diwali, Japan's cherry blossom, European summer, East African safari high season — six to nine months, because the best lodges and guides are booked out a year ahead. Visa-heavy multi-country routings need four months minimum simply to clear the appointments. We will still take a request three weeks out, but the choice narrows sharply and we will tell you exactly what you are giving up.

Bespoke domestic journeys start at roughly ₹18,000 per person per day at our comfort tier, covering accommodation, transport, guiding and most meals. International bespoke travel starts at roughly ₹22,000 per person per day excluding international flights, varying widely by region — Southeast Asia sits at the lower end, Western Europe and Japan considerably higher. Below those levels a well-curated group departure genuinely serves you better than a thin bespoke itinerary, and we will say so rather than take the booking.

Yes — three-generation journeys are among the most requested trips we design, and they need a different method. We plan around the slowest walker rather than the fastest, split the middle of the day so grandparents can rest while teenagers do something active, book connecting or same-floor rooms rather than scattering a family across a hotel, brief kitchens on both grandparents' dietary needs and children's meal timings, and always build in a genuinely empty day. Groups above 20 travellers get a dedicated coordinator and a consolidated single invoice.

Yes, through a dedicated corporate desk. That covers venue sourcing and site inspection, negotiated room blocks with sensible release dates, meeting space and AV, group air with name-change flexibility where fares permit, ground logistics, team activities that people actually enjoy, and a single consolidated GST invoice so your finance team can claim input credit cleanly. Groups above 40 travellers get an on-site 99Travels coordinator for the duration, and we run a post-event reconciliation so you can see exactly where the budget went.

Always. You receive a complete costed day-by-day itinerary with named hotels, room categories, stated inclusions and an explicit exclusions list before any money moves. Two rounds of revisions are free, and most travellers use both. We do not ask for a deposit until you have read the document, asked your questions and told us it is right — a booking made before the traveller has read the itinerary is a complaint waiting to happen.