John & Judy,
We were on a land tour in India's 'golden triangle' area in March '08. We had a car, driver and pvt guide throughout and it all went very smoohtly. We began in Delhi, a large city much like many others..took the morning train to
Agra to enjoy the Red Fort & of course, the TAJ. Fabulous! Didn't notice any urine smells & certainly didn't see any rabid appearing animals! There were beggars as well as 'sales' men on the road to the Taj but our guide
spoke softly to them and tutored us not to speak at all..not even hello! We stayed at the Oberoi Amarvilas [upper floor] & loved it. Then on to
Jaipur/ Oberoi's Raj Vilas...and to Udaipur for its fabulous palaces and lake/ Oberoi Udaivilas.
We mostly ate in hotel restaurants except when touring at which time our guide chose a suitable restaurant. No GI distress.We flew Jet Airways from city to city. I haven't come to a final conclusion in my feelings about India [I had spent 2 days without guide in Mumbai and was completely overwhelemd!] but we have very positive feelings about this trip...so clearly I would vote for pvt guide, deluxe properties and more time. None of our travel was connected to
a cruise line so I can't comment about that.

You certainly don't need rabies innoculations. India does not require any specific immuni-zations but we had visited a travel doctor who recommended boosters of polio and tetanus
[always good to have],and oral typhoid vaccination. We had to catch up on our Hep A & B vaccinations,again a good thing to have wherever you go. He stated that there had been some cases of malaria from Delhi and strongly recommended that we take the Malarone for this; we did, without problems. Although at first I found this 'list' rather daunting, I have rationalized that all of these [except the specific Malarone] are good to have anyway for adventurous travel.