Every journey we build is assembled from these. Pick what you want to spend your days doing and we will shape the route around it.
We have run these trips for close to thirty years — first as The Pearls of India, now as GoIndiaNepal. Nothing below is a packaged excursion sold on the day. Each one is built into your itinerary in advance, matched to your fitness, your pace and how much of the day you want to be moving.
Most of our journeys have city days in them: Old Delhi on foot and by rickshaw, Agra before the crowds reach the Taj, the bazaars and step-wells of Jaipur, the Durbar Squares of Kathmandu and Patan. A city day with us means the car and the driver stay with you all day, so you stop when something is worth stopping for and leave when you have had enough. Where a city genuinely needs a licensed local guide — inside the Taj Mahal, at Amber Fort, around the Kathmandu Durbar Squares — we will say so and arrange one. Where it does not, we will say that too, and you keep the money. These are the journeys with city days in them.
15 journeys See themNot every walk in the Himalaya is a trek. Plenty of our travellers want a few hours on foot rather than a fortnight — the ridge above Pokhara at dawn, the pine paths around Dharamshala and Dalhousie, the climb to Sarangkot, the trail between villages above Bandipur. On these journeys the car meets you at the other end, so a morning of walking does not cost you the rest of the day. No permits, no porters, no tents. Boots and a start time. These are the journeys with real walking in them.
8 journeys See themThe quieter half of both countries: the terai grassland of Chitwan at first light, the Ganges at Rishikesh before the town wakes, the desert outside Jaisalmer where the road simply stops, the tea and pine country between Shimla and Manali. Nature days are early days. We start before dawn more often than not, because that is when animals move and when the mountains are out. Your driver knows which viewpoint is worth the detour and which is a car park with a railing. These are the journeys built around what is outside the window.
8 journeys See themTwo very different parks. Chitwan, in the Nepali terai, is rhino country — one-horned rhino, sloth bear, gharial in the Rapti — with safaris by jeep and on foot alongside a licensed naturalist. Ranthambore, in Rajasthan, is tiger country in old Rajput hunting forest, where sightings are rarer and the ruins are part of the landscape. Park entry, jeep permits and naturalists are quoted separately from your vehicle rate, openly. Nobody can promise you a tiger. Anyone who does is selling something. These are the journeys with a safari in them.
4 journeys See themThree routes we know properly: Everest Base Camp over fourteen days, the Annapurna Sanctuary over eleven, and Upper Mustang behind the Himalaya, where the restricted-area permit alone is fifty dollars a day. Our treks are private. You walk with your own guide and porters, at your own pace, and the acclimatisation days sit in the itinerary because the mountain decides them, not a sales page. Teahouse nights, not tents. Lukla flights, national park fees and restricted-area permits are listed as separate costs, never buried in the headline price.
2 journeys See themSunrise on Phewa Lake in Pokhara, and the evening aarti watched from a rowing boat on the Ganges at Varanasi — two of the calmest hours you will spend on either trip.
1 journey See themAbove trekking and below expedition: the trekking peaks that need a rope, a climbing permit and a guide who holds the right ticket, but not a whole season at a base camp. Our Nepal journeys can be extended this way when you have the days and the fitness for it. Climbing permits, a climbing guide and technical gear are always quoted separately from the trek itself. The cost is real, and hiding it inside a package price helps nobody. Tell us what you want to climb and we will say honestly whether the itinerary you have in mind allows for it.
1 journey See themWhite water on the Trishuli, Seti and Ganges at Rishikesh, graded to your nerve — a half-day taster or several days camping on the sand.
1 journey See themWinter slopes in the Indian Himalaya around Manali and Auli — beginner lessons through to open powder for those who can already turn.
1 journey See themThese are not on a set itinerary right now, but we organise them regularly. Ask and we will add one to your route.
Tell us which of these matter most and our family team will send a personalised itinerary — usually within 24 hours.
