Northern India holiday, by rail and road

Planet

CARBON REDUCTION
The Oberoi Cecil in Shimla sources 100% of its electricity from hydroelectric power, as part of its wider sustainability commitment.

At Judge's Court in Pragpur, the kitchen is largely supplied by the hotel's own 12-acre orchard and dairy, cutting down on transported and imported food.

The Punjab farm stay includes cycling between fields as one of its main activities, and much of the day-to-day movement around the farm itself is on foot or by bicycle rather than by vehicle.

The trip as a whole is built around rail rather than domestic flights, using the Shatabdi Express between Delhi and Amritsar and the narrow-gauge toy train between Shimla and Kalka in place of road transfers for those two legs.

Vegetarian food available.

ENVIRONMENT AND WILDLIFE

Pragpur was formally declared India's first Heritage Village in 1997, and its conservation since then has been overseen jointly by the Himachal Pradesh government and the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), protecting its cobbled streets and slate-roofed houses from unchecked redevelopment.

Judge's Court draws its water from a gravity-fed mountain spring rather than a pumped supply.

The Punjab Village Farm has planted more than a thousand native trees and plants on its grounds, which it says has brought a marked increase in local birdlife.

Both Judge's Court and the Oberoi Cecil occupy century-old buildings that have been maintained and adapted rather than demolished and rebuilt.

People

LOCAL ECONOMY
Judge's Court is a family-run, family-owned hotel employing around 40 local staff, and Pragpur is promoted by INTACH as a model of community-led heritage tourism, with guest accommodation spread across several village properties beyond the hotel itself.

Punjab Village Farm is staffed by local villagers, including the cooks who prepare its Punjabi food, and its stated aim is to help preserve the livelihoods and culture of the surrounding farming community rather than replace them with a resort-style operation.

Chonor House in Dharamsala is run by the Norbulingka Institute, a Tibetan social enterprise, so income from the guesthouse goes back into the Institute's own cultural and craft programmes rather than to an external hotel group.

EMPLOYMENT, INCLUSIVITY AND DIVERSITY
Norbulingka Institute, which runs Chonor House, employs more than 300 people from the Tibetan refugee community in Dharamsala, training them in six traditional Tibetan art forms under experienced masters as part of its wider mission to keep the craft skills alive.

The Claridges in Delhi is part of IHCL, whose Paathya ESG programme runs community and inclusion initiatives through the Taj Public Service Welfare Trust.