Moderate-to-challenging walking on more rugged terrain with significant ascents / descents on most days. Compass skills may be required (check the individual holiday).
The season for this holiday is:
01 October 2019 - 21 December 2019
15 March 2020 - 26 June 2020
01 October 2020 - 21 December 2020
Travelling from the UK
| Outward route | Airline |
|---|---|
| Edinburgh - Delhi (via Dubai) | Various carriers (contact us) |
| Edinburgh - Delhi (via Heathrow) | British Airways |
| Outward route | Airline |
|---|---|
| Leeds Bradford - Delhi (via Amsterdam Schiphol) | KLM |
| Outward route | Airline |
|---|---|
| Gatwick - Delhi (via Doha) | Various carriers (contact us) |
| Gatwick - Delhi (via Dubai) | Various carriers (contact us) |
| Outward route | Airline |
|---|---|
| Heathrow - Delhi | British Airways, Virgin Atlantic |
| Heathrow - Delhi (via Abu Dhabi) | Various carriers (contact us) |
| Heathrow - Delhi (via Doha) | Various carriers (contact us) |
| Heathrow - Delhi (via Dubai) | Various carriers (contact us) |
| Heathrow - Delhi (via Muscat) | Various carriers (contact us) |
| Outward route | Airline |
|---|---|
| Stansted - Delhi (via Dubai) | Various carriers (contact us) |
| Outward route | Airline |
|---|---|
| Manchester - Delhi (via Abu Dhabi) | Various carriers (contact us) |
| Manchester - Delhi (via Dubai) | Various carriers (contact us) |
| Manchester - Delhi (via Heathrow) | British Airways |
| Manchester - Delhi (via Muscat) | Various carriers (contact us) |
| Outward route | Airline |
|---|---|
| Newcastle - Delhi (via Heathrow) | British Airways |
This list of flight options should be used as a guide only, and you should check each airline’s website for current routes, frequency and schedules. Not all flights operate daily, and may not run for the entire season. You should also heed the latest flight arrival time and earliest flight departure time stated in the connecting travel section, as it may not be possible to arrange connecting travel outside these times. Please do not book your flights until we have confirmed your accommodation to you. Alternatively, our expert reservations team will be happy to offer advice and to make flight bookings for you. We charge £30 per person for our flight booking service (£50 for India and Nepal). Your flights are then covered by our package-booking conditions, which give you greater protection in the event of delay or cancellation, as well as providing ATOL cover.
If you've experienced this holiday first hand, why not write a review?
We are keen for as many customers as possible to review their holiday. To make it easier to do so, we include a specific review section on our post-holiday questionnaire, and this is what we publish here, unedited. Read our full review policy >
Highlights included arriving at the tented camp in India and sitting looking at the Indian Himalayas and again sitting outside the tent with blankets and tea to see the sunrise the following morning. Sunrise from Sailung summit was another highlight.
As all the people involved were from the local communities, we felt as if we were part of the community rather than tourists. We enjoyed being vegetarians for 3 weeks, with a variety of local foods.
INNTRAVEL NOTE: These customers enjoyed our Towards Snow-Capped Peaks guided walking holiday in India followed by our Himalayan Panoramas guided walking holiday in Nepal
The holiday was an unforgettable experience. We really enjoyed our time in the Himalayan villages and experiencing the culture and hospitality of the people. The ultimate highlight was our night at the tented camp. Although very cold the views throughout our stay were breathtaking.
We loved this holiday and learned such a lot. The walking and the stays in the villages were something we could never have organised for ourselves and gave us a humbling insight into the lives of the people in this remote area. The information provided about the guest houses was helpful and accurate; not luxurious but our hosts had taken trouble to provide a welcome place to stay. The food was uniformly excellent, particularly when cooked in conditions that would defeat most of us. The scenery was, as expected, breathaking and our short walls around the different villages interesting and informative. All arrangements at every stage worked well and we felt incredibly welcome and looked after by all our hosts and guides. The golden triangle trip that followed was a real contrast and provided some amazing sight seeing. We were glad to do it this way round and felt it worked well as an introduction to different aspects of India. I'm quite sure we will be back for more in the future.
INNTRAVEL NOTE: Following their privately-guided walking holiday Towards Snow-Capped Peaks, these customers extended their trip with our Golden Triangle add-on
Highlights included arriving at the tented camp in India and sitting looking at the Indian Himalayas and again sitting outside the tent with blankets and tea to see the sunrise the following morning. Sunrise from Sailung summit was another highlight.
As all the people involved were from the local communities, we felt as if we were part of the community rather than tourists. We enjoyed being vegetarians for 3 weeks, with a variety of local foods.
INNTRAVEL NOTE: These customers enjoyed our Towards Snow-Capped Peaks guided walking holiday in India followed by our Himalayan Panoramas guided walking holiday in Nepal
The holiday was an unforgettable experience. We really enjoyed our time in the Himalayan villages and experiencing the culture and hospitality of the people. The ultimate highlight was our night at the tented camp. Although very cold the views throughout our stay were breathtaking.
We loved this holiday and learned such a lot. The walking and the stays in the villages were something we could never have organised for ourselves and gave us a humbling insight into the lives of the people in this remote area. The information provided about the guest houses was helpful and accurate; not luxurious but our hosts had taken trouble to provide a welcome place to stay. The food was uniformly excellent, particularly when cooked in conditions that would defeat most of us. The scenery was, as expected, breathaking and our short walls around the different villages interesting and informative. All arrangements at every stage worked well and we felt incredibly welcome and looked after by all our hosts and guides. The golden triangle trip that followed was a real contrast and provided some amazing sight seeing. We were glad to do it this way round and felt it worked well as an introduction to different aspects of India. I'm quite sure we will be back for more in the future.
INNTRAVEL NOTE: Following their privately-guided walking holiday Towards Snow-Capped Peaks, these customers extended their trip with our Golden Triangle add-on
The high camp at Jaikuni was amazing. The welcome, the food, the tents and we were so lucky with the views of the snow mountains - spectacular.
This has been an amazing holiday for us as a family and a great eye-opener and experience for our children aged 10 and 12. Very highly recommended.
Tips: We very much recommend an extra night in the Khali Estate on the way up, which was a lovely place to relax and recover from the journey. The Khali Estate is wonderfully tranquil and restorative and you are looked after very well there. It also helps with acclimitisation to the altitude.
Tips for coeliac visitors (especially those with coeliac children) - you MUST bring supplementary food as sometimes the food on offer is insufficient or simply unsuitable. For a child, it might also be worth bringing some small sachets of jam for breakfasts on the walk - at breakfast time, when everyone else is eating wheat chapattis with jam from a shared jar, and porridge with milk and sugar, it's a bit hard (for a child) to be expected to eat spicy chickpea dal with millet chapattis yet again.....
Our second Village Ways trip. Very different to the trip in the south but equally enjoyable and memorable. Seeing life in the villages was quite humbling.
The holiday was an extraordinary experience for us. We were overwhelmed by the beauty of the rhodedendron forests, the fields ready for harvest, the peaceful meadows, pristine landscapes, and of course by the stunning mountain views. The constant sound of bird-calls was an unexpected and wonderful aspect of the walk and one of our guides Lokesh was expert at helping us to see and identify many birds. In the villages we were looked after very well and the food was excellent. We saw women carrying enormous loads of wood, stones, cement, and harvested grasses. We saw women harvesting the fields by hand, threshing and winnowing on their front yards, and in all of these activities always dressed in traditional beautiful clothes. We saw colourfully painted houses in the villages, some with carved decoration on the front, with water buffalo occupying the downstairs rooms and very little of the furnishings that we consider basic. Life in the villages could hardly be more different to life in the UK. The holiday was educational, surprising, rewarding and very enjoyable. Staff at the Khali Estate were hospitable, friendly and interested in hearing about our experiences; Pooja helped us with a special transport request, which we appreciated. The organisation of the whole holiday was excellent.
A really amazing holiday. We loved every minute of it and would say it was ideal for keen walkers as a chance to truly get away from it all. The welcome from the villagers and the desire to make you comfortable in their simple homes was wonderful. The accommodation is of course, basic. At each stay there is a bedroom with twin single beds, plenty of bedding and hot water bottles! Just ask for extra bedding if needed. There was a bathroom at each place, two en-suite and the others were accessed outside. There wasn't a shower available everywhere and a large bucket of hot water is provided whenever you need it, slightly primitive but effective. You also have a dining/sitting room to yourself at each venue. Meals are generally served here and a wood-burning stove is kept well fuelled in the evening. Apart from getting into bed this is the best place to be once the temperature drops. The electricity supply can fluctuate and solar lighting is generally provided. We took head torches which proved to be invaluable, especially finding the loo in the pitch black! We also took a power pack which we charged when there was power and it meant we could charge phones/iPads/camera batteries when required. The phone signal is patchy but accessible at some point most days.
Our two guides were very good and paced the walking just right for us. There is a lot of climbing and relentless descents into the second valley and there is also the altitude. The first day we struggled with the atmosphere but it does get easier. We never felt rushed and always made the journey each day in good time. The views at any point are spectacular and the immersion in village life is especially delightful. The highlight of the trip was the night in the tent at 3100m. The view across the valley from here to the 'snow-capped peaks' of the Himalayas is stupendous and we could hardly bear to drag ourselves away the next day. A truly unique experience.
Our guides were happy to explain things to us and at all times we felt extremely comfortable and safe. The journey up to the valleys involves a train from Delhi, a great experience, and then a drive up to the Khali Estate for a halfway stop. This is an old colonial house with quirky rondavel rooms in the grounds and was a good introduction to the holiday. A second day of driving brings you up to the valleys - the roads deteriorate the further up you go. The return journey was designed to be done in one day but we felt that it was too much and we phoned the holiday company once we arrived in Supi and asked to change to a two day return - they were very happy to sort that out for us.
We combined our trip with a journey to Jaipur and Agra which gave a completely different aspect of India - the contrast is startling. We would highly recommend this holiday.
It felt like a real privilege to visit and walk between the village houses. The undoubted highlight, though, was the early morning view from the tented camp. I'm afraid we enhanced it by listening to Pink Floyd and we will never forget it (or, I think, see anything that compares).
Main tip would be to take the village guest houses for what they are - a real effort to provide the best of what's available.