The same two countries, travelled a dozen different ways. Start from the kind of trip you want rather than the map.
The routes most people come to us for — the ones that made our name.
The built history of India and Nepal: Mughal Agra and Fatehpur Sikri, the Rajput forts of Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Amber, the temples of Khajuraho, and the Durbar Squares of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur, still being repaired after the earthquake. Heritage days need timing more than anything else. Which gate opens first, which monument shuts on a Friday, when the light falls on the right face of the building. That is the part a driver who has run the route for thirty years is genuinely worth. These are the journeys built around what was built.
16 journeysTemples, bazaars, kitchens and the ordinary business of two countries getting on with it. The lanes of Old Delhi, the ghats at Varanasi before sunrise, the Newari towns of the Kathmandu valley, Lumbini where the Buddha was born, and the desert forts of Rajasthan that people still live in. Culture is the part of a trip most easily rushed. We build in the slow mornings that make it work, and we say plainly when a site deserves a licensed guide and when it is better walked alone. These are the journeys built around people and places rather than distance.
15 journeysMostly Rajasthan, and mostly better than the photographs. Mehrangarh standing over the blue city of Jodhpur, the desert fort at Jaisalmer where families still live inside the walls, Amber above its lake outside Jaipur, the lake palaces of Udaipur, and Ranthambore’s ruins inside the tiger reserve. These places sit far apart and the driving between them is long. We plan the days so you arrive with hours left rather than minutes, and we tell you which forts reward a guide and which are better simply wandered. These are the journeys through fort country.
8 journeysDelhi, Agra, Jaipur. The route everyone starts with, and the one most often rushed. We run it over four, six, seven and eight days, and the difference between them is not more sights but more room to breathe. Four days is tight, and we say so. Six or seven is where the route starts to work properly. Eight lets you add Ranthambore and a chance at a tiger. Every version is private: your own car, your own driver, your own start time, published day rates, and hotels you choose yourself.
7 journeysHow hard you want to work, and what you want outside the window.
What we mean by adventure is simple: days where the point is the doing rather than the looking. Trekking in the Annapurna and Everest regions, the jeep road to Lo Manthang, rafting the Trisuli, walking safari in Chitwan, the high passes between Shimla and Manali. Every one of these still runs the way the rest of our work runs — your own vehicle, your own driver, no fixed departure dates and no strangers on a bus. These are the journeys with something physical in them.
12 journeysJourneys where the road between two places is the reason to go.
10 journeysNational parks, riverbanks and birdlife, at the hours wildlife actually moves.
6 journeysRoutes that go properly up, with acclimatisation days built in rather than hoped for.
4 journeysShimla, Manali, Bandipur — cool air, pine and the pace dropping by half.
4 journeysCamel evenings in the Thar, dunes at sunset and a night under a serious quantity of stars.
3 journeysPlaces that are not on the circuit, for people who have already done the circuit.
2 journeysThe same country feels different depending on who is beside you.
Some journeys are about seeing. Some are about something else.
Route and timing built around the temples and ceremonies that matter to you, at the hours they actually happen.
8 journeysBuilt around light rather than opening hours — dawn at the ghats, dusk on the dunes, and time to wait.
8 journeysVaranasi, Rishikesh, Haridwar and Lumbini — the rivers and birthplaces people travel a long way to sit beside.
7 journeysStreet stalls, home kitchens and cooking classes, with someone beside you who knows what is safe and what is worth it.
3 journeysPractice at Rishikesh ashrams built into the itinerary rather than squeezed around it.
1 journeySame roads, same guides — different hotels and different vehicles.
We do not have a fixed itinerary published for these, but we build them regularly. Tell us which one fits and we will put a route together.
Most people are two or three of these at once. Tell us roughly what you want and we will work out the rest.
