Holidays IN Rural India
Holidays IN Rural India
Holidays in Rural India
Holidays in Rural India creates meticulously researched, tailor made, and small group holidays, in the heart of rural India.
We believe that guests and hosts, and the environment, benefit from longer stays in one or two carefully chosen locations, staying in small, family run lodges, home-stays, and the occasional palace.
Where possible, we work with NGOs and social enterprises; supporting them; giving us locally lead experiences; and sensitively informing our engagement with communities.
‘You offer such an amazing and exhilarating slow journey into a magical world. It is a trip we will never forget.’ Alan and Helen
We encourage local expeditions on foot or by cycle wherever possible.
We are a woman-founded company with a largely female team. We employ female guides where possible and work with as many women led organisations as we can.
‘one of the most exceptional adventures I've been privileged enough to enjoy … as a visitor to a country, it's hard to feel like you are truly within the community, but this trip was different, giving our small group a glimpse of genuine rural life’ Georgie and Simon
Rural central India has always been where Holidays in Rural India’s heart lies, and as a foreign run company, and despite thirty-five years of travel experience in many parts of India (with decent spoken and written Hindi) we feel that focusing on what we know and love best gives us a better chance of sharing with others a richer more engaged experience in this vast and complex country. We have gently expanded east and west, but our offerings are deep rather than broad.
Central India, with its national parks, ancient monuments and diverse rural culture is the area of India to which we guide the largest number of our guests. Most people spend a part of their stay at Shergarh Tented Camp, near Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. From here one can head south to Bastar, where indigenous culture thrives; west to Bhopal and Satpura Tiger Reserve or north to Sarai at Toria for Khajuraho and Panna Tiger Reserve.
‘ ..heavenly Shergarh Tented Camp, with all its comfort and wildlife expertise and amazing al fresco communal meals. I swam in the lake, sketched at the village, watched the water buffalo, counted butterflies, went for night walks with resident naturalist Catherene, got up at the crack of dawn for safaris, saw deer and hornbills and jackals and turtles and a tiger and umpteen miraculous birds.’ Dinah
In Eastern India we work in Odisha, which has a wealth of under-visited Buddhist sites, beautiful landscape, amazing food, and a richly creative culture. It also has a surfeit of lovely places to stay, from low-key palaces to friendly home-stays. Moving north to one of our favourite cities, we try to show more of Kolkata’s fascinating history than just the colonial one. Up to the Himalayas for Kalimpong and a special simple rural retreat; or grander Glenburn Tea Estate. The mighty Brahmaputra river is an excellent route for travel and sightseeing and one can do so from the luxury of a smartly rennovated olf steam boat, or on a multi-day paddle down river in a raft, camping under the stars.
In Western India we side step the more famous, and far busier Rajasthan, and concentrate on Gujarat, and India’s westernmost region of Kutch. Remarkable for its stark landscape and great wealth of creativity, it is an arid land which has seen large movements of people in and out, bringing with them their traditional textiles as well as leather, lacquer and metal work, and a syncretism of faith than is rare in other parts of India. Kutch’s bird population is vast, especially in the winter months with huge flocks of migrants. The Bhuj House is base here and we offer small group textile tours as well as more general interest tailor made tours.
Our small group holidays work really well for solo travellers wanting a bit of company, or those who would like to do something a bit specialist (see our workshop-filled textile tours of Kutch, or our cycling trips in Kanha). We offer various fixed departure groups tours with a maximum group size of six, all led by expert tour leaders, most of them women.
All of our accommodation and experience providers are more than just business partners, they are friends. Holidays in Rural India’s guests invariably comment on the fact that this friendly connection embraces them when they travel with us.
