India guide
India is an explosion of colour. The Golden Triangle glistens with culture, Rajasthan has pink and blue cities, and Kerala has lush green Ghat Mountains...
Indian village tourism
A herd of buffalo wandered back from the fields, followed by women in brightly coloured saris, water gourds balanced on their heads. Blue jays darted overhead as smoke rose from the cooking fires and aromas filled the air. A reclining cow chewed on a cabbage, a man on a bicycle wobbled slowly past. The village children played on the path between the crooked houses while several village elders, pulling lazily on their smoking beedis, squatted by the track to discussed the day’s events. It’s a magical time of day when dusk settles in a thousand villages across the Indian subcontinent and the night creeps in. The Indians have a word for it: Godhuli, the homecoming.
Our Rural India Holidays
Sikkim & Kolkata cultural tour in India
Cultural and rural tours in beautiful East India
From
£750 to £950
9 days
ex flights
Ladakh cultural and rural tour, India
Stay with local families in beautiful Ladakh
From
£750 to £1250
9 days
ex flights
History, culture & wildlife of India holiday
From the Nilgiri Hills to the beaches of Goa
From
£1336
15 days
ex flights
Central India holiday, culture and wildlife
The very best of central India's wildlife and history
From
Rupee145000 to Rupee195000
16 days
ex flights
Rural India holiday, culture & wildlife
Authentic exploration of Central Indian village life
From
£2500 to £3000
14 days
ex flights
Ladakh and Changtang cultural tour, India
Cultural immersive tour ideal for couples and small groups
From
£950 to £1150
10 days
ex flights
Spiti Valley tour in India
Cultural immersion, adventure and rural experience
From
£650 to £850
9 days
ex flights
Cultural and rural tour of North East India
Cultural, rural and tribal holiday in North East India
From
£850 to £1150
12 days
ex flights
Central and Western India holiday, rural life
Truly rural India: Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, hidden Goa
From
£3000 to £3500
20 days
ex flights
Tiger and Kerala beaches tour in India
Tigers safaris in central India with backwaters of Kerala
From
Rupee182000
17 days
ex flights
Central India tour
A luxury tour of central India’s finest historical sites.
From
£3350
17 days
ex flights
Central India holiday, trekking and culture
A walking tour through the forested Maikal hills to Kanha
From
Rupee76000
7 days
ex flights
India cultural tour, Chattisgarh and Orissa
This trip offers an intimate look at remote tribal village India
From
£3135 to £3195
14 days
ex flights
Ladakh and Kashmir tour, The Hemis festival
Experience the colourful Hemis festival
From
£1695
11 days
ex flights
Birdwatching in India
Visit India's top birding and wildlife destinations.
From
Rupee227500
15 days
ex flights
Ladakh cultural tour, India
Ladakh-Moonscape: An extraordinary part of India
From
£1039
7 days
ex flights
Gujarat holiday and the Rann of Kutch, India
A fascinating mix of local village culture and wild landscapes
From
£2415 to £2750
15 days
ex flights
North East India tour of rural tribes
A discovery of the Khasis, Limbhu & Bhutias tribes
From
£3713 to £4000
16 days
ex flights
Himalayan Kinnaur, Sangla and Spiti Valley tour
Cultural immersion, adventure and rural experience
From
£800 to £1050
12 days
ex flights
Southern India tour, temples & nature
Tour from Coimbatore to Bangalore via Mysore
From
£494
6 days
ex flights
Sekrenyi Festival tour in Nagaland, India
Sekrenyi Festival Tour of Naga Tribes of North East India
From
£2350
14 days
ex flights
Walking holiday in India, Ladakh & Kashmir
Walking and camping holiday in beautiful Kashmir and Ladakh
From
£3015
15 days
ex flights
Delhi to Kashmir tour
Journey from Delhi to Shimla, Amritsar and Srinagar
From
£2865
14 days
ex flights
Ladakh & Kashmir holiday, India
Timeless monasteries, stunning mountain scenery and Srinagar
From
£2449
14 days
ex flights
Central India Buddhist heritage tour
Buddhist trails and caves, ancient temples, village life
From
£850 to £950
12 days
ex flights
Chhattisgarh to Orissa tour in India, tribes and villages
A journey through the tribal heartlands of Central India
From
Rupee160000
14 days
ex flights
Kashmir small group holiday, India
An extraordinary road journey through Ladakh and Kashmir
From
£2775 to £3040
14 days
ex flights
Ganges tour, Delhi to Calcutta
Explore spiritual India sailing on the Ganges
From
£2635 to £2795
12 days
ex flights
Northeast India tour, Tawang and its monasteries
A spiritual journey to India's largest Buddhist monastery
From
£1800
10 days
ex flights
Nagaland small group holiday, India
Experience the spectacular Hornbill Festival in Nagaland
From
£3595 to £3695
16 days
ex flights
Sadly, very few visitors get to experience the day to day beauty of rural India, focusing instead on well known urban centres such as Delhi, Jaipur and Agra. Estimates suggest that over 60 percent of the 650,000 British visitors to India in 2005 travelled within the Golden Triangle, their trips consisting almost solely of sightseeing tours to historical monuments, religious sites and heaving bazaars. With most companies offering similar itineraries during the peak tourist season, it can be hard for travellers to experience the "true" nature of India.
With this in mind, an imaginative company has come up with a novel way of getting their clients off the well-worn tourist trail, and into the heart of India, allowing them to witness firsthand life as it is lived by the vast majority of Indians. In these lesser travelled areas there is a cultural richness guaranteed to rival the palaces and opulence of Golden Triangle and a colour and tranquillity that will stay with you for ever. With a number of trips on offer, from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to Uttaranachal and the mighty Himalayas, this is an original way to explore real Indian life in a way that benefits both the visitor and the host. This is not just visiting - it is interacting as well.
Our top Rural India Holiday
History, culture & wildlife of India holiday
From the Nilgiri Hills to the beaches of Goa
From
£1336
15 days
ex flights
Tailor made:
This trip can be tailor made at a time to suit you and can be adapted to suit your interests, budget and requirements as necessary
This trip can be tailor made at a time to suit you and can be adapted to suit your interests, budget and requirements as necessary
Travel Team
If you'd like to chat about Rural India or need help finding a holiday to suit you we're very happy to help.
On these trips you might spend the morning with a farmer milking his buffalo, help him turn the milk into lassi and join his family for a local meal on a banana leaf plate. You might sit in the shade of a banyan tree beside a Shiva temple and listen to a sadhu preach. You could walk through the foothills of the Himalayas, stopping to talk to locals that you pass, or drift slowly down the holy River Ganges, camping by small settlements at night.
These trips utilise a variety of different accommodations, ranging from once-decadent, privately owned palaces to comfortable guesthouses and hotels. For a truly authentic experience the itineraries also include homestays with local families, giving you the opportunity to interact directly, to learn about their life and culture, and they about yours. In this way it will not only be your money that will benefit these communities but the cultural exchange as well.
In order to run these trips the company has developed unique relationships with many local people. Through the company’s interactive, socially-conscience tourism policy they have helped to provide an important additional income. In Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, all the company's clients join a tree planting scheme as well as help directly with the financing of rural village schools; in Calcutta they work with the street children to help give them a better chance in life.
In Kashmir the company works with and helps finance a woman’s handicraft cooperative. And on all their tours they employ local guides and drivers, stay in locally owned hotels and guesthouses, and often stay in their guides' villages and homes, which again diverts important funds directly into the area. The wonderful thing about this kind of tourism is that everyone gains – the locals gain income and get to play a part in the tourism industry. The visitors get to enjoy the fuss made of them, and experience a side of India that remains unseen by millions of other tourists.
More about Rural India
The best time to go on holiday in rural India varies greatly, from the mountainous north, through the deserts, to the hot, humid south...
Holidays in rural India take you beyond the Taj Mahal and tigers into traditional, welcoming villages - a side of India that few get to experience...
More relevant guides
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Photo credits: [Page banner: Abhijit Kar Gupta] [Bicycling in India: Juan Antonio F. Segal]
[Ladakh mountains: Praveen]
[Family with goats: Arian Zwegers]
[Banyan tree: Mike Prince]
[Homestay: India Untravelled]
[School children: Tom Maisey]
[Embroidery: Mike Prince]
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