Half-Day Private British Heritage Tour with Lunch

Best in depth analysis of the history of a city we have ever had! Praveen is extremely knowledgeable about the history of Bangaluru, of India and how it all connects with world events at a given time. He’s also very fun to talk with.

My husband and I booked The British Walking Tour. However, we wanted to modify this tour to a shorter time since we were departing India that evening. Praveen was graciously accommodating and planned the perfect itinerary. We spent time in Lalbough Botanical Garden Which we absolutely loved. The rare and unique trees are magnificent and Praveen made this jewel of a park so interesting. We toured the market and had an amazing time, especially walking through the flower market. We made another stop at the remaining walls of the original city of Bangalore. He taught us so much about the role of the British East India Company in Bangalore’s history. Praveen’s love of history and his city is evident. We felt safe in his hands and would use his company again if the opportunity arises. Highly recommend! Thanks for an amazing tour, Praveen!

Our tour guide was responsible, knowledgeable and made our day run smoothly from beginning to end. We also got to enjoy many local delicacies and learnt a lot about not only the history of India, but also Lokesh shared with us about Indian and Bengaluru history, culture, religious beliefs, about the economy and more. We particularly enjoyed the local market experience and the local lunch experience.

This trip was informative and enjoyable. Praveen, the guide, is from Bengalaru, and he is able to appreciate this area from unbiased facts, and share the incidents and influences which shaped it in the past. He made each location fit in the jigsaw which was Bangalore. We would strongly recommend the tour.

Praveen is an amazing local guide who is very friendly, personable, knowledgeable and has a great passion for all things Bangalore. He is very happy to share his great depth of knowledge of history, places around the city as well as it's flaura and fona. He ends the tour with an amazing lunch as well which really was the icing on the cake for this tour. I cannot recommend taking this tour or booking anything else Praveen offers, he will not disappoint. Thanks again for showing Nicole and I a great day out in Bangalore!

Praveen is a natural storyteller which made this experience all the more worthwhile. The story begins at Cubbon Park and through his words you can imagine the old British neighborhood and army brigades come to life. Lunch spot is certainly local as confirmed by friends and family that lives in Bangalore. The famous banana leaf restaurant was well regarded by locals and was a family favorite to many. Praveen is from Bangalore so not only was this tour historical, he also shared how the city transformed through the decades in his eyes. Will certainly plan a tour with Praveen again if given the chance.

Absolutely amazing place .. the British architecture gives you a feeling of having visited some castle..The place is surrounded by a beautiful garden …

We started our Bengaluru British Heritage Tour in the neighborhood of Ulsoor, which was settled by Tamil people encouraged by the British to immigrate to become their support staff. The large Sree Someshwaraswami Temple contains numerous smaller temples and beautiful carvings and artwork, including a brass Nandi, the bull of Shiva, one of the most important Hindu gods. With our guide, Praveen of Hidden Gems Tours, we also enjoyed walking through Cubbon Park, which had many flowering trees in bloom. The High Court of Karnataka adjacent to the park and the Sheshadriiyer Memorial Hall (a library) both retain the dee red hue from British colonial times, Finally, Praveen explained the importance of the 19th century maharaja of Mysore, honored with a statue in the park. We learned that his decisions long ago in support of science and technology education helped Bengaluru to become the first Indian city with public lighting (street lamps) and ultimately led to modern-day Bengaluru’s position as India leader in engineering and computer science. Throughout the tour, Praveen provided excellent historical context to enrich our knowledge and appreciation of India. Plus, we totally enjoyed his company and could hardly wait for our next tour with him the following day. We very highly recommend Hidden Gems Tours!

Honestly my best ever tour experience hands down. Perfect English, air conditioned car, extremely knowledgable guide. I'm from Ireland, a country where our television was British, and we got to see how their glorious empire subdued the savages, while at the same time hearing stories in our history classes about how we were their savages not too long ago. Travelling to India was an opportunity to really see how another nation experienced those same people. I used to find history kind of boring and depressing, Irish people being killed by people with bigger guns until I started to hear the details that won't be on the exam. Like when people fought in the war for our independence the grandparents of those soldiers survived the famine. They probably heard the stories. So when I saw this tour I leapt at the chance, I really wanted to understand what it was like for Indians to be ruled by the same people that my grandparents fought. I couldn't have been luckier with my choice, Praveen has a real gift for making history come to life. In particular when we visited Trinity Church in Bengaluru, the place the British Soldiers worshipped. Some boy from Ipswitch gets on a boat, comes to India to make his fortune, lives in a bungalow with servants which he gets as part of the job making sure the natives don't interupt the wealth extraction, and that's where he put his rifle. There is the placque that commemorates his death, in a church where now Indian people still come to worship. At the end of the tour we went for some food, and omg South Indian food is the best :) After this trip I cancelled my other tours and booked the rest of my free days with Praveen. Best business trip ever.

This was a great tour. Praveen is extremely knowledgeable about the history of Bangalore, so we had a really interesting tour. He's so knowledgeable that I thought he must be moonlighting from a full time teaching job. But he says he's just a history buff. Finished off with breakfast under a Banyan tree. Great tour, recommended. - Bruce