North India small group tour
Highlights
Delhi | Jaipur | Agra | Agra Fort | Taj Mahal | Taragram paper making factory | Orchha | Khajuraho | Kama Sutra temples | Varanasi | sunrise boat ride on the GangesDescription of North India small group tour
Explore the highlights of northern India on this adventure tour from Delhi to Varanasi. Discover the Pink City of Jaipur, see the Mughal architectural splendours of Delhi and Agra, and soak up the ambience of holy Varanasi. This wonderful introduction to the magic of India includes lavish palaces, vibrant bazaars, Kama Sutra temple carvings, Bollywood blockbusters and the incomparable Taj Mahal.Admiring the manmade sights of northern India, from Jaipur’s Palace of the Winds to Agra’s Red Fort, is just one element of this trip. You’ll get to know the region’s people and culture, too. Share a home cooked meal with a Hindu family in Khajuraho, watch ancient bathing rituals and candle flower ceremonies on the Ganges and enjoy a cooking demonstration and dance show. This trip spends 12 days exploring, using everything from planes, trains and rickshaws to move from place to place, with nine nights in hotels and two in heritage properties.
Travel Team
If you'd like to chat about this holiday or need help finding one we're very happy to help. The Travel Team.
01273 823 700 Calling from outside the UK? rosy@responsibletravel.com
Check dates, prices & availability
Small group adventure - Comfort trips
What is a small group adventure?It's a great way to travel! Whether you are travelling on your own, with a partner or with friends, a small group trip is a fantastic way to see the world. You'll travel on a fixed itinerary that has been designed to help you discover the best of region. From the known highlights, the hidden gems that you won't find in the guidebooks.
Itineraries run on set departure dates, accompanied every step of the way by an English speaking local group leader. You chose the itinerary and the date that suits you best and you book on.
Why travel on a small group adventure?
Small groups allow us to explore where larger tour groups can't. Our maximum group size of 16 travellers allows us to use local transport to get from A to B, to visit rural villages, spend time with the locals and even stay at a local home overnight, and it allows us to give our travellers genuine, real life experiences of the countries we are visiting; what you'll be doing and how you'll travel depends entirely on your chosen itinerary.
Is an adventure right for me?
The word adventure means something different to everyone, and our range of trips reflects that. Whether you want to explore local markets, visit out of the way temples and meet local people or go on an early morning safari drive searching for the 'big five', we'll have a trip for you. If you are looking for a physical challenge such trekking the Kokoda Track or summiting Kilimanjaro, we can help with that too.
So what can I expect on this trip?
This is one of our Comfort trips, designed for travellers looking for more inclusions in their itinerary, a higher standard of accommodation and more focus on private vehicles over public transport.
Comfort trips are aimed at the adventure traveller who wants to discover the world up close, but with some creature comforts along the way. Dependent on the itinerary, there may still be a night multi-share accommodation (at a homestay for example), but this will be to ensure you don't miss out on a fantastic experience. Camping trips will usually stay in permanent, tented camps or some of the safari options may be lodge based.
You'll stay in predominantly 3 ½ star and above tourist class hotels with private, en suite facilities, although some itineraries will still include the opportunity to stay with a local family, spend a night on an overnight train or camp out somewhere amazing (without the hassle of putting up your own tent!).
You'll find a number of the meals are included (as per your itinerary) and when eating together we'll focus on smaller, often family run restaurants, often eating where the locals eat and ensuring that you are still getting an authentic travel experience.
Can I book my flights with you?
Yes! We are a fully ATOL bonded tour operator meaning that we can book flights from the UK as part of your holiday package. Just ask us for a quote including flights when you make your enquiry.
Responsible tourism
As the pioneers of responsible tourism, we screen every trip so you can travel knowing your holiday will help support conservation and local people.
The very ethos of our style of travel is responsible; small groups on fully escorted tours, experiencing the very best of a region, a culture and a landscape, with a friendly local hand guiding the way. Our itineraries are designed to give our travellers real life experiences without compromising the part of the world we are exploring; to travel responsibly is at the heart of our commitment as a global tour operator.India is one of the most exciting, colourful and inspirational countries on Earth, however some areas are not renowned for their cleanliness. We encourage all our travellers not to make this very real problem worse. Your group leader will be on hand to assist with the appropriate disposal of rubbish en route and we encourage all our travellers to use refillable water bottles with purification tablets rather than adding to the problem by purchasing a copious number of plastic bottles of water.
As a company we acknowledge that our responsibilities don’t stop when our tours end and on the way to Orchha you will visit one of the projects supported by our not-for-profit foundation. Taragram is a unique papermaking plant, set up to give tribal women from the area a chance to work outside the traditional areas normally afforded to them. All the paper is made from recycled clothing and wood pulp. Our foundation has been in operation for over 12 years and has distributed over AU$3 million to more than 70 non-government organisations since 2002. Donations come from our travellers and are then matched by us dollar for dollar.
The Impacts of this Trip
On this fantastic journey through the highlights of Northern India you can be sure that as well as a fascinating trip staying in comfortable hotels, you will be on a tour that will tread lightly, support local industry and initiative and help provide employment opportunities for the locals whose services we utilise. Through our policy on employing professional, local leaders to guide our groups, you will also benefit from a greater personal understanding of the history, culture and traditions of this vibrant and intriguing region.
The comfortable accommodations that we use throughout this trip are all reflective of the region through which we are travelling. The staff are all recruited from local communities and they give a great insight into the way of life in the region both past and present. We will travel on a combination of private vehicles and local transport, including journeys by boat, cycle rickshaw, the Delhi metro system and express train; using local transport is perhaps one of the best and most exciting ways to see a destination as well as being one of the most responsible.
Our emphasis on tour is real life experiences. To this end, our groups will get a lot of opportunity to discover India through its amazing food. From produce purchased from local vendors, snacks en route, to meals in traditional, regional restaurants, we will be supporting the local economy every step of the way.
Cultural interaction is a big part of this trip, and your group leader will be on hand throughout to gently guide the group when it comes to social interaction. Much of India is fairly conservative, particularly outside of the major cities where we encourage our travellers to dress modestly and respect the customs and traditions of a region. On this itinerary, we visit pilgrimage sites in Varanasi, the oldest mosque in Delhi, Sikh temples and dine with a local family, it’s vital that our group travel with a responsible outlook on cultural interaction, and make use of their leader to guide the way.
The very ethos of our style of travel is responsible; small groups on fully escorted tours, experiencing the very best of a region, a culture and a landscape, with a friendly local hand guiding the way. Our itineraries are designed to give our travellers real life experiences without compromising the part of the world we are exploring; to travel responsibly is at the heart of our commitment as a global tour operator.India is one of the most exciting, colourful and inspirational countries on Earth, however some areas are not renowned for their cleanliness. We encourage all our travellers not to make this very real problem worse. Your group leader will be on hand to assist with the appropriate disposal of rubbish en route and we encourage all our travellers to use refillable water bottles with purification tablets rather than adding to the problem by purchasing a copious number of plastic bottles of water.
As a company we acknowledge that our responsibilities don’t stop when our tours end and on the way to Orchha you will visit one of the projects supported by our not-for-profit foundation. Taragram is a unique papermaking plant, set up to give tribal women from the area a chance to work outside the traditional areas normally afforded to them. All the paper is made from recycled clothing and wood pulp. Our foundation has been in operation for over 12 years and has distributed over AU$3 million to more than 70 non-government organisations since 2002. Donations come from our travellers and are then matched by us dollar for dollar.
The Impacts of this Trip
On this fantastic journey through the highlights of Northern India you can be sure that as well as a fascinating trip staying in comfortable hotels, you will be on a tour that will tread lightly, support local industry and initiative and help provide employment opportunities for the locals whose services we utilise. Through our policy on employing professional, local leaders to guide our groups, you will also benefit from a greater personal understanding of the history, culture and traditions of this vibrant and intriguing region.
The comfortable accommodations that we use throughout this trip are all reflective of the region through which we are travelling. The staff are all recruited from local communities and they give a great insight into the way of life in the region both past and present. We will travel on a combination of private vehicles and local transport, including journeys by boat, cycle rickshaw, the Delhi metro system and express train; using local transport is perhaps one of the best and most exciting ways to see a destination as well as being one of the most responsible.
Our emphasis on tour is real life experiences. To this end, our groups will get a lot of opportunity to discover India through its amazing food. From produce purchased from local vendors, snacks en route, to meals in traditional, regional restaurants, we will be supporting the local economy every step of the way.
Cultural interaction is a big part of this trip, and your group leader will be on hand throughout to gently guide the group when it comes to social interaction. Much of India is fairly conservative, particularly outside of the major cities where we encourage our travellers to dress modestly and respect the customs and traditions of a region. On this itinerary, we visit pilgrimage sites in Varanasi, the oldest mosque in Delhi, Sikh temples and dine with a local family, it’s vital that our group travel with a responsible outlook on cultural interaction, and make use of their leader to guide the way.
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