Binsar to Jageshwar walking holiday, India
Big savings for parties of 4 or more. Includes transfers and rail journeys, all meals provided during your stay in the Himalayan guesthouses.
Private local guide for walks/treks.
Room only on other nights.
Description of Binsar to Jageshwar walking holiday, India
India trekking and walking holidays give you the chance to experience trekking in Himalayas across well-worn pathways leading from one mountain village to the next where locally-owned guesthouses offer hospitality and comfort off the trail.
An abundance of wildlife and stunning views make India trekking holidays sheer joy for outdoor walking enthusiasts with opportunities to meet local people equally as beneficial for both parties.
As this tailor made two week holiday includes trekking in Himalayas you’ll be led by a local guide who offers insightful knowledge both in terms of flora and fauna and as well as plenty of stories about local life.
Time spent in mountain villages invites cultural exchanges and chances to learn community work and unveil an authentic side to rural India that many big city tourists rarely get to experience.
Hospitality on this two week India trekking holiday starts at the airport as you’ll be met at the gate whereupon further rail and road transfers will be included both to and from trekking in Himalayas.
The nights spent at the Khali Estate, at either end of this tour, offer further insight into the history and heritage of contemporary India as well as putting you in close proximity to the protected and highly revered Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary. After you’ve met your guide you’ll experience life away from Khali as you visit a series of traditional Binsar villages where you’ll be invited to rest, relax and immerse yourself in the lifestyles of local people.
Stone terraces and warm cups of chai provide ample comfort for sitting as the sun sets against a backdrop of cricket or gooli-dandia springing into life just yards from your guesthouse.
Accommodation in Binsar villages is simple and straightforward with vegetarian meals all cooked at home and using locally-sourced ingredients, such as: coriander, buck wheat, rice, cocoa yams, lemons and pomegranates.
As this trekking India holiday features just four hours walking per day, on average, you’ll find several opportunities to explore and discover life off the trail with a visit to the Shiva temples at Jageshwar definitely a highlight towards the end of the fortnight.
Your guide is on hand to tailor your itinerary to best meet your requirements with a range of walks within the Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary taking you over high ridges and up mountain slopes or gentler inclines around Himalayan mountain foothills.
The wildlife that you’ll know doubt hear or see whilst trekking in India is extremely rich and varied in this more remote region with deer, boar, porcupines, pine martens, monkeys and even leopards all known to inhabit the local area alongside woodpeckers, eagles and vultures.
Whatever your trekking in India requirements; please get in touch so we can help you design the perfect Binsar to Jageshwar walking holiday to suit you down to the ground and up in the clouds.
Price information
Big savings for parties of 4 or more. Includes transfers and rail journeys, all meals provided during your stay in the Himalayan guesthouses.
Private local guide for walks/treks.
Room only on other nights.
Departure information
Travel guides
Reviews
2 Reviews of Binsar to Jageshwar walking holiday, India
Reviewed on 11 Oct 2019 by Janet Potts
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Waking up in the tented camp to see the sunrise on the Himalayas has got to be a highlight, really breathtaking and we heard leopards roaring at night although we didn’t see any. We added on a 3 day trip with a driver and guides to see Delhi, Agra and Jaipur which was definitely worth doing. We felt we couldn’t go to India without seeing the Taj Mahal, Red Fort, Amber Palace, Floating Palace and Lotus Temple just to name a few of the places we visited.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
If you want to see as much as you can you need to accept long drives and train journeys. Leave Western values at home. Accept that when you are out hiking up in the Binsar and Pindar valleys the guest houses and bathroom facilities are basic. Women need to be conservatively dressed with knees and shoulders covered and if you are fair haired you will get a lot of attention. Take a head torch and Life straw water bottles and hand sanitiser. We didn’t get sick at all! Tipping is customary and although each tip is only a pound or two it does add up. Basically anyone providing any service will expect a little something.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
The Binsar valley is a wildlife sanctuary no animals can be shot. Local guides and porters are used and the villages all benefit from tourism. For the Binsar and Pindar trip all tipping is done at the end of the stay and then is shared out among the communities. The hotels we stayed in have replaced single use plastic water bottles with bottled filtered water in glass bottles (we still decanted that into our life straw bottles). There is still a lot of work to be done to reduce rubbish though.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
An excellent experience. The operator went out of their way to ensure we had a wonderful trip. They had to customise the trip to suit our needs ( we even changed our itinerary half way through our trip) and we had phone calls to check everything was ok, texts giving us our drivers name and phone numbers. Nothing was too much trouble and they were always available to help.
Reviewed on 18 May 2017 by Fiona Waldon
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Although we did have extra days booked through our tour operator, a day trip to Agra to see the sights including the Taj Mahal, 2 day stay and safaris at the Corbett National Park and a stay in Naini Tal which were all wonderful the main part of the holiday which was walking and staying in the villages of the Binsar Forest Reserve in the foothills of the Himalayas was really memorable, the people were very welcoming, we got invited to a traditional wedding which was great fun, the food was really good and the wildlife, particularly the birds, were fantastic. We had 2 lovely guides who were great company and very knowledgeable. We shall remember this holiday for a long time and would love to go back.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Our tour operator had organised a great itinerary for us but I think it would have been useful to have had either a local sim card in our phones or one with internet. We just had our simple UK phones which were expensive to use and we did need to check up with our tour operator every now and then about what time and when we were doing things. If you have the choice May is probably not the best month to go it is a bit too hot to get the best of this trip but this was the only time we could go and still had a wonderful time.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
I certainly think the villagers in the Binsar Forest Reserve benefited from travellers coming to stay, they had lovely guest houses for us with comfortable bedrooms and washrooms all built with help from our tour operator. This gives them an income to enable people to stay in villages which are declining due to lack of income. The Binsar Forest reserve have very good policies to reduce environmental impact and conserve all the local fauna and flora. Our tour operator have encouraged them to help the villagers by building walls or fences to keep the wild boar and porcupines from their vegetable plots.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Excellent
Responsible Travel
Planet
We have won numerous awards for our approach to community tourism. We work with our partner communities in many ways to promote sustainable environmental practices, providing training and, where necessary, funding to help them. We have a network of regional coordinators who help local communities and ensure that training is relevant and fulfilling. We encourage all guesthouses to use green energy supplies, by installing solar panels for water heating and using solar lamps inside. We ask guests to use water filtered by their hosts to avoid bringing in unnecessary plastic bottles. We train local guides to identify local birds and animals, and encourage communities to see wildlife as a precious asset rather than a nuisance. Evidence is growing in Binsar that wildlife numbers are increasing, and the leopard is now seen far more frequently than in the past. We have also encouraged communities to dispose of household rubbish in sustainable ways, and guides have been into local schools to promote this.Our itineraries include travel by rail as much as possible, with connecting journeys using local taxi services.
People
Our style of community tourism is a true partnership with the host communities, and led to our winning Best for the Local Economy in the 2013 World Responsible Tourism Awards. Together with the communities, we build the guesthouses and the necessary infrastructure to provide memorable guest experiences. We train local people to be guides or cooks, and ensure that a village committee is formed to administer the enterprise and to ensure equitable distribution of income. We have brought over voluntary language teachers to teach English and, more recently, French. We encourage villages to give financial assistance throughout the communities according to need, and we make sure that anyone working for the enterprises is paid a fair wage. We are also instituting a system of independent audit to monitor the enterprises and the benefits they bring. Guests are seen as bringing real benefits, and so are welcomed warmly. We provide our guests with comprehensive background information that helps them to understand the communities and appreciate their cultures. Our local guides are encouraged to take guests to local artisans and markets, something which is much appreciated.We also have a Charitable Trust, which has worked with the communities on projects such as bag and soap making; this has brought in vital extra income, and helped stem outward migration from villages to cities.
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