15 days or more

Six trips in this catalogue run 15 days or longer. They go from 15 to 25 days, and from EUR 1,640 to EUR 3,140 per person. Every one is private and guided: your own guide, your own vehicle, your own start date. There is no group to join and no departure calendar to fit around.

The six long trips, and what each one is for

On the trails of the Maharajas — 15 days, from EUR 1,840. Rajasthan end to end: Delhi, the Taj Mahal at Agra, two nights in Jaipur, two nights at Ranthambhore with two shared safaris, the stepwells of Bundi, Udaipur, a night in the Deogarh palace, two nights at the Manvar desert camp, then Jodhpur.

India's facets & Maldives — 15 days, from EUR 3,140. Ten nights through Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur and Mumbai, then four nights in a Superior Beach Bungalow in the Maldives. It is the most expensive trip we sell, and the island half is why.

Impressions of Nepal – culture and nature — 17 days, from EUR 1,640. The Kathmandu Valley and Patan, Nagarkot, Dhulikhel, Bandipur and Pokhara, then six walking days to Poon Hill at 3,210 m.

Majestic Himalayas — 17 days, also from EUR 1,640. The same cultural first week, then eleven walking stages up the Annapurna valley to Annapurna Base Camp at 4,130 m.

North India – landscapes and culture — 21 days, from EUR 2,300. It starts in Ahmedabad, not Delhi. Udaipur, Deogarh, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner, the painted havelis of Shekhawati, Jaipur, Agra, then north to Rishikesh and Haridwar on the Ganges.

The diversity of South India — 25 days, from EUR 2,860. Chennai down the coast to Pondicherry, the temple towns of Kumbakonam and Madurai, Periyar, a night on a Kerala houseboat, Kochi, the Nilgiri toy train to Ooty, Mysore, Hampi, Badami, and four nights in Goa.

More days means more ground, not slower days

This is the thing to be clear about before you book. On the 21-day North India route you sleep in thirteen hotels over twenty nights, and only seven of those stops get two nights. The extra week over a 14-day trip buys Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Shekhawati and the Ganges towns — it does not buy lie-ins. Same on the 25-day South India loop: fifteen hotels, and the slow part sits deliberately at the end, four nights in Goa where the itinerary states plainly that there is no vehicle and no guide.

If you want long and unhurried rather than long and full, say so when you enquire. These are private trips, so a night can be added to a stop and a driving day can be split.

How you actually move

Mostly by road, with your own driver, in stages of a few hours between towns. The rail legs are day trains and narrow-gauge mountain lines, not sleepers: the small train between Kamblighat and Phulad through the Aravalli hills, which both Rajasthan routes ride; the train from Delhi up to Haridwar and back again on the 21-day trip; and the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, the rack railway up to Ooty, on the South India loop. None of these six itineraries uses an overnight sleeper train.

Internal flights are rare here. Exactly one is written into an itinerary — the hop from Jodhpur back to Delhi on day 14 of On the trails of the Maharajas — and a domestic flight written into an itinerary is in the price. India's facets & Maldives is the only trip that leaves the country, and the leg to Male is flown; international flights are not included, so ask us in writing which flights you are buying from us and which you are booking yourself.

The two Nepal trips cost the same and are not the same

Both are 17 days from EUR 1,640, and their first week is identical. What differs is the walking. Impressions of Nepal does six days between Kande, Ghandruk, Tadapani and Ghorepani, with a 4:30 am start for sunrise on Poon Hill, then drives back to Pokhara. Majestic Himalayas does eleven stages, with days of 13 km in seven hours and 15 km in six, up through Chomrong and Deurali to Machapuchare Base Camp at 3,700 m and on to Annapurna Base Camp at 4,130 m.

One detail worth knowing before you choose the base-camp trek: from Dovan upward you sleep in a shared room. Building is restricted in the Annapurna conservation area and beds are limited. If a private room every night matters to you, take the Poon Hill trip.

What is in the price

A German-speaking guide, breakfast, hotel accommodation, and someone reachable around the clock for the whole trip. Rooms are booked as Standard, Deluxe, Superior or Executive — we do not sell a five-star tier and will not pretend to. International flights are not included. Beyond breakfast, meals are generally your own except where the itinerary names one: the desert dinner outside Jaisalmer on the 21-day route, the cooking evening with a family in Agra, the food cooked on board the Kerala houseboat. Optional extras are marked as optional and cost extra — rafting on the Trishuli, the hot springs at Jhinu Danda, water sports in the Maldives.

When to go

For India, the long northern routes work from October to March. A 21-day drive through Jaisalmer and Bikaner in May is genuinely hard going, and we will tell you so. South India runs November to March. The Nepal treks are October and November, or March and April when the rhododendron forests below Ghorepani are in flower. The Maldives half of the 15-day trip is driest from December to April. Month-by-month detail sits in our guides to India, Nepal and the Maldives.