Car & driver
Self-drive hire barely exists in India, and for good reason: the roads take years to learn. What you want instead is a car that comes with someone who knows them — which costs less than you would expect and removes the part of the trip most visitors dread.
The car is yours from the morning until you are done, not for a fixed number of hours with a meter running. The driver waits while you visit, knows where parking is, and keeps cold water in the car. You decide the pace; he decides the route, because that part is easier when someone drives it every week.
Every vehicle is air-conditioned, and the air conditioning is on before you get in. Which one you get depends on how many of you are travelling and how much luggage you have — tell us and we send the right size.
Some routes come up often enough to have a page of their own, with distances, timings and what is worth stopping for:
Agreed in writing before you travel.
They depend on the car, the distance and how many days. Rather than publish a number that turns out not to apply to your trip, we send a fixed quote once we know the route — and that quote does not change afterwards, whatever the traffic does.
Very friendly, full of anecdotes, and above all serious and impeccable driving in complicated traffic.
Never seen such a polite, patient and informative person. Would definitely recommend him to my friends.