The Journal · From the Himalaya to the coast
Regions & Destinations
India and Nepal hold a lifetime of distinct regions — the backwaters of Kerala, the temple cities of the south, the imperial capital of Delhi, the sacred ruins of Hampi, the Himalayan north, the Portuguese coast of Goa, and the mountains of Nepal. This is our guide to the destinations that shape a journey, and how to experience each at its finest.
How Many Days Do You Need in Ladakh?
Ladakh's altitude changes the maths of a trip. A clear guide to how long you actually need — from a tight five days to an unhurried ten — with acclimatisation built in from the start.
The Best Time to Visit Ladakh: A Season-by-Season Guide
Ladakh's season is short and shaped by altitude and mountain passes. A clear month-by-month guide to when the high desert is at its best — and why winter is a different trip entirely.
Golden Triangle or Kerala: Which India Trip Is Right for You?
India's two flagship journeys, side by side. A clear guide to choosing between the monument-rich Golden Triangle and slow, green Kerala — or combining them into one trip.
Luxury Mumbai: A City Guide for the Discerning Traveller
India's restless, glamorous heart — a city of colonial grandeur, art-deco seafronts and the country's finest dining. How to experience Mumbai at its best.
Delhi: The Imperial Capital for the Discerning Traveller
Layered with a thousand years of empire, Delhi rewards those who look past the traffic. How to read India's capital through its monuments, markets and tables.
Luxury Kerala: Backwaters, Hills & Coast in One Journey
Kerala rewards the traveller who moves slowly through its three worlds — still backwaters, misty tea hills, and a palm-lined coast. How to combine them in luxury.
Kerala Backwaters: The Slow-Luxury Way
A network of palm-fringed waterways where the pace slows to the drift of a boat. How to experience Kerala's backwaters with privacy, comfort and depth.
Luxury Goa: The Quiet, Sophisticated Side of the Coast
Beyond the crowds and the party reputation lies another Goa — private, elegant, and steeped in Portuguese history. How to find the coast at its most refined.
South India's Temple Trail: Tamil Nadu & Beyond
Soaring, riotously colourful gateway towers and living rituals unchanged for a thousand years. A journey through the great temple cities of the south.
Hampi: India's Forgotten Empire in Stone
Among a surreal landscape of giant boulders lie the ruins of one of the greatest cities the world has ever seen. An introduction to Hampi.
The Himalayan North: Sikkim & India's Mountain States
Beyond the plains rises another India — Buddhist, mountainous and serene. A journey into Sikkim and the eastern Himalaya, in the shadow of Kanchenjunga.
Tea Trails of India: Darjeeling, Assam or the Nilgiris
Misty hills, colonial bungalows, and the world's most celebrated tea. A journey along India's tea trails, from Darjeeling to the southern hills.
Nepal After India: Pairing the Himalaya With a Palace Circuit
India's palaces and plains, then Nepal's mountains and monasteries. Why the two countries make one of the most complete journeys in the world.
A Private Taj Mahal at Sunrise: How It Actually Works
The Taj Mahal at dawn is one of travel's great experiences — if you arrive the right way. What a private sunrise visit really involves, and how to have it well.
Taj Mahal at Sunrise or Sunset: When Should You Go?
The Taj Mahal changes with the light through the day. A clear guide to whether sunrise or sunset is the better visit — and how to have it at its quietest.
Ladakh Beyond the Photographs: What the Mountains Actually Teach
The most photographed Himalayan landscape in India — and the most misunderstood. A genuine guide to encountering its depth in solitude.
Agra Beyond the Taj Mahal: What Most Visitors Miss
Almost everyone comes to Agra for a single morning at the Taj. The city rewards those who stay — a mighty fort, an abandoned imperial capital and the jewel that inspired the Taj itself.
India by Motorcycle: The Royal Enfield Road
There is no finer way to feel India pass beneath you than from the saddle of a Royal Enfield — the high passes of the Himalaya, the open desert of Rajasthan, fully supported and beautifully run.
Kolkata: The Case for India's Most Literary City
Kolkata is skipped by most first itineraries and missed by most second ones. It is the country's most bookish, most argumentative, most self-aware city — and the most rewarding to walk.
Lucknow: Manners, Monuments and the Best Food in North India
The Awadhi court left behind two things worth travelling for — an architecture of astonishing lightness, and a cuisine built on slowness. Lucknow is the most under-visited great city in the north.
Hyderabad: The Deccan's Own Idea of Luxury
Neither north nor south, Hyderabad was for a time the richest princely state on earth. What survives of that — the food, the jewels, the ruined fort above the city — is unlike anything else in India.
Mysore: The Palace, the Market and the Best-Kept City in the South
Mysore is orderly, green, and startlingly grand for its size. The Wodeyars ran one of India's best-governed princely states, and the city still shows it.
Chandigarh: India's Argument With the Twentieth Century
A capital designed from nothing by Le Corbusier, built by a country three years into independence. Sixty years on it is a UNESCO site, a working city, and the strangest thing in northern India.
The Best Time to Visit Kerala — and Why the Monsoon Is Not the Wrong Answer
Kerala's season is usually given as October to March, which is right and incomplete. What each part of the year actually gives you, and the case for going when nobody else does.
How Many Days Do You Really Need in Kerala?
Backwaters, hills and coast — Kerala rewards a slower pace than most of India. My honest answer on how long to give it, and what each extra day opens up.
Gujarat: The State India Skips
Four World Heritage Sites, including India's first World Heritage City. The only wild lions outside Africa, and 57 per cent of them now live outside the national park. The longest coastline of any Indian state — 2,340 kilometres, officially remeasured in 2025 and 46 per cent longer than the figure in every guidebook. And almost nobody goes.
The Ladakh Season Closes
The signboard at the top of Khardung La overstates the pass by about eight hundred feet, and the road it stands on has not been the world's highest for years. Almost everything published about Ladakh's winter is similarly out of date — including the part about the passes closing.
The North-East: Assam, Meghalaya and Nagaland
Rhino country, the wettest hills on earth, and a set of cultures that have very little to do with the India most visitors picture. Also the one part of the country where the paperwork genuinely decides the itinerary.
Design Your India Around Regions
Tell us what draws you, and a curator will compose a private journey around it — typically within one working day.
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