Unfortunately, no. I too wanted to ride an elephant when we took this tour in 2012. Apparently, Tauck at one time did elephant rides up to the Amber Fort in Jaipur. At some point a tourist was injured (I don't believe it was a Tauck guest) and Tauck stopped doing the elephant rides. They now go up to the fort in Jeeps. I asked my Tour Director and he said, "If you want to do an elephant ride, I'll arrange it, but you'll miss the tour of the fort." I passed and I'm glad I did. The Amber Fort (really a palace) is spectacular and you'll want to see all of it.
You'll have chances to see elephants close up, but no rides. Still, I recommend this tour highly. We've done seven tours with Tauck (and have three more booked) and this is one of our absolute favorites. Despite the lack of elephant rides, you won't be disappointed.
Thanks so much for answering my query, Ken. We decided instead to choose the Northern India and Nepal Tour (even though I warned my father that he would forgo a potential elephant ride). Apparently the sky-seeing view of Mount Everest was more desirable to him than his much-voiced desire to ride a pachyderm. We chose the November 17th tour (and I will not tell him about your reply because I want to see the Amber Fort). I am looking forward to seeing the tigers [I hope].
While Tauck doesn't arrange the elephant rides at the Amber Fort they ARE available and many of our tour members did them. They did NOT miss the excellent tour of the Amber Fort. The group will separate into those taking the elephants up and those taking the jeeps. They will meet and proceed to the tour at the top. The folks taking the elephants pay for them themselves, 900 rupees at the start and 100 rupees for the mahout at the top. Everybody rides the jeeps down from the top. The mahout will try to get the riders to tip more than the 100 rupees but that's no big deal. There is no real problem getting on our off the elephants for most folks. While Tauck wants to protect itself from the liability related to the elephants they do not prevent you from doing it. The folks on our tour who did it, enjoyed it. Its a slow rocking ride.
I would say that our group was actively discouraged from taking the elephant ride at the Amber fort. The reason given was that the elephants were not treated well, had a very long walk to the fort and were withheld food and water to get there. That was good enough for me. You get to see so many elephants up close on the INDIA trip, for us it was not a case of OMG we have to ride an elephant and anyway been there got the t- shirt, rode on an elephant's head at age two in a zoo, have the photo somewhere!
Comments
You'll have chances to see elephants close up, but no rides. Still, I recommend this tour highly. We've done seven tours with Tauck (and have three more booked) and this is one of our absolute favorites. Despite the lack of elephant rides, you won't be disappointed.