Old Delhi by cycle rickshaw
Weave through the lanes behind Chandni Chowk with a local guide, stopping at spice stalls, a Jain temple and a family-run sweet shop.
Experiences
Beyond the guidebook, with people who live there.
Walks, workshops, meals and ceremonies we have built with local hosts over many years. Add any of them to a programme.
Small moments that guests talk about for years.
Each experience is run by a host we know personally: a printer, a priest, a cook or a musician. Many support community projects.
Choose a country to see what is possible. Every experience can be private or shared, and timed around the rest of the itinerary.
A food walk with a Delhi foodie
Parathas, kebabs and jalebi at the places locals queue for, chosen by a guide who writes about the city’s food.
The Sufi quarter at dusk
Walk to the Nizamuddin shrine with a student guide for evening qawwali. The fee supports a neighbourhood NGO.
The quiet bank of the Yamuna
See the tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah and the Mehtab Bagh gardens, with the Taj Mahal across the water and none of the crowds.
Old Amritsar to the Golden Temple
Narrow bazaars, old havelis and the community kitchen that serves thousands of free meals every day.
Block printing in Bagru
Carve, ink and print your own textile with a family of printers who still use natural dyes.
Cooking in a Rajput home
Learn the slow-cooked dishes of Rajasthan from your hosts, then sit down with them to eat what you made.
An evening of sitar and tabla
A short introduction to Indian classical music, followed by a private recital in a lakeside courtyard.
A day in rural Mewar
Break the drive from Jodhpur in a farming village, with tea in a courtyard and lunch cooked over wood fire.
Evening aarti from the river
Watch the fire ceremony at Dashashwamedh Ghat from a private boat, then walk back through the lamp-lit lanes.
The hidden lanes of Kabir
A morning in the city’s least-visited quarter, where the poet Kabir wrote, past old temples and weavers’ homes.
Fort Kochi on foot
Chinese fishing nets, Dutch and Portuguese homes, a synagogue and the spice warehouses of Mattancherry.
Lunch in a Tamil home
Meet a writer and cook in her home for a banana-leaf meal and a conversation about South Indian life.
Adda over tea
Join locals for the very Bengali habit of long evening conversations about politics, poetry and football.
Meet a former Kumari
Hear what life is like for a living goddess, in conversation with a former Kumari and her family.
A session with a singing-bowl master
Learn how monks used singing bowls for healing and meditation, then try a short sound session.
Dusk at Boudhanath
Walk the kora around the great stupa with pilgrims as butter lamps are lit at sunset.
Drawing a mandala
Learn the sacred geometry behind Buddhist mandalas with a painter from the national arts school.
The climb to Tiger’s Nest
A half-day hike through pine forest to the cliffside monastery, with tea at the halfway viewpoint.
Dinner in a farmhouse
A hot-stone bath and a home-cooked meal of red rice and ema datshi with a farming family.
Picnic among the ruins
A home-style lunch beside the Kaludiya Pokuna pond, a quiet ancient site near Anuradhapura.
With the Vedda people
Meet Sri Lanka’s indigenous community, see their homes and hear how they live with the forest.
The hill-country train
Reserved seats on one of the world’s most scenic rail journeys, through tea estates and over the Nine Arch Bridge.
Manta season at Hanifaru
Snorkel with feeding manta rays in a protected bay, with a marine biologist on board.
Whale sharks of South Ari
A morning boat trip to one of the few places where whale sharks are seen all year.
Dinner on a private sandbank
A table set on a strip of sand at sunset, with a chef, a waiter and nothing else in sight.
Begin a conversation
Want something truly bespoke?
Tell us your group’s interests and we will design an experience around them, from a private concert to a day with a master craftsman.