Your passport to adventure
PHONE: 0800 448 596
PHONE: 0800 448 596
Bursting with colour, sights and sounds, the diverse natural and cultural history of India is wonderful to immerse yourself in. On one of our India tours, you'll find that this beautiful country is the home of breath-taking contrasts, vibrant places and people, as well as the most impressive landscapes. All of our staff have visited and explored India, so we know it well and really enjoy opening its doors to new visitors, and showing repeat travellers places and experiences they haven’t considered before.
Our India tour range has been completely re-worked and updated with itineraries designed to strike a balance between including must-see sites like the Taj Mahal and the Golden Temple, with a range of different activities and local experiences much more off the beaten track. Examples could include a walk through fields and homesteads with a local villager on the opposite bank of the Yamuna River to the Taj Mahal, more exploration on foot through villages and markets, and performing Langar Sevar (helping prepare and serve food) in the huge community kitchen at the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
With an updated and improved selection of hotels, including some fascinating heritage properties, smaller group sizes, and excellent drivers and guides, we’re confident you’ll have a fascinating and rewarding time on any of these new India holidays. You will find both small-group, shoestring and tailor-made tours featured. All of our India holidays, including the group tour itineraries, can be run privately and customised to fit your personal requirements, interests, budget and available dates.
| Tour Name | Tour Type | Days | Start Date | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The best time to visit is between October to March as the weather is warm, dry and sunny.
India usually only experiences three seasons a year – mainly, summer, monsoon, and winter. The north of India will experience extreme heat in the summer and icy cold winters . November to January is the winter season whereas April and May are the hotter months – there is a brief spring season in February and March but mainly in North India.
India experiencing autumn is debatable but the ancients have identified such a season among the five other seasons – Vasanta - Spring, Greeshma - Summer, Varsha - Rainy, Sharat - Autumn, Shishira - Winter, and Hemanta - mild winter.
The Taj Mahal - bigger and more majestic in person. This world wonder was built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and took over twenty-two years to complete.
The currency in India is the Indian rupee (sign: ?; code: INR). The rupee is subdivided into 100 paise (singular: paisa). 5 rupees 75 paise would normally be written as ?5.75.
There are many ATMs in most towns, but we suggest carrying cash as a backup. A useful technique is to keep small notes (?10-50) in your wallet or in a pocket, and to keep larger notes separate. Then, it will not be obvious how much money you have.
Indian food has a well-deserved reputation for being hot, owing to the Indian penchant for the liberal use of a variety of spices, and potent fresh green chilies or red chilies powder - however the degree of spiciness does vary throughout the country.
It is, of course, impossible to do full justice to the range and diversity of Indian food - not only does every region of India have a distinctive cuisine, but you will also find that within a region its communities have different styles of cooking and often have their own signature. The adventurous traveler is to try various by lanes of the city and look for food in unlikely places like temples in search of culinary nirvana.
Anthony has been a pleasure to work with and when he is not available, other members of the team respond in a timely manner. I have booked a total of 6 trips since December 2013 and plan to book more to fill my bucket list.
Amazing tour. Any issues we had were addressed in a timely fashion and the resolutions were satisfactory. My only complaint is the driver picking us up was late and none of the cell numbers worked when we tried to call and figure out what to do.
My contact with Encounters representative was a pleasure, she answered my questions promptly, provided a quotation and changed it quickly when different flights were preferred. Both by e-mail and phone the response was very timely.
When a single women in her 50's, traveling from the US to Egypt, stumbles across a website offering a tour, and then they make her feel totaling comfortable about every step of the process, you know you've hit a homerun!
I purchased my rid tour as part of a group coupon. Is obituary hesitant but my tour was great. The staff at Encounters were professional and helpful. I had a lot of questions but no one made me feel like a pest. Good experience.
I always wanted to go to Morocco and I finally got to go last September. I'm glad I chose this tour group. They were professional and attentive. Good times!
Time: GMT+5:30
Dial Code: +91
Area: 3,287 million km²
Elevation: The lowest point In India is Kuttanad at ?2.2m (?7.2 ft.) | The highest point in India is Kangchenjunga at 8,586m (28,169 ft.)
Population: 1,354,051,854 (2018)
Capital: New Delhi
Governemnt: Parliamentary system
Language: Hindi, English
India also called the Republic of India is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast.
The Indian subcontinent was the birthplace of the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE. The following millennium saw the composition of the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism.
In 2017, the Indian economy was the world's sixth largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. After market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the fastest growing economies in the world and is considered a newly industrialised country.
With a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society, India also has a variety of wildlife in a collection of protected habitats. The Indian climate is greatly influenced by the Himalayas and the Thar Desert. Four major climatic groupings predominate India: tropical dry, tropical wet, subtropical humid and montane.
The two major language families that are spoken in India include Indo-Aryan (spoken by about 74% of the population) and Dravidian (spoken by 24% of the population). India has no national language, but Hindi has the largest number of speakers and is the official language of the government. English is used in administration, business and education. India is renowned for its religious diversity and Hinduism is the predominant religion, followed by Islam.
Our tailor-made tours seek to create a personalised experience – one that is completely exclusive to you. By taking all your interests and requests into consideration, we design an itinerary that ticks off your specific boxes. If you are after adventurous exploration, cultural immersion, a relaxing escape or a balanced blend of everything, we can make it happen.
A highlight of our tailor-made tours is that the itinerary is flexible and incorporates plenty of free time – so you can do some exploring on your own. Our local, friendly guides, experts in their country’s history and culture, will be happy to adjust the activities or your schedule as you travel.
If you are a group of friends, a large family or a company, our tailor-made tours are an ideal, stress-free option. You can even select your own hotels or make use of our recommended accommodation. We have a varied selection of sample holiday itineraries to choose from, either as they stand or as a base for inspiration.
Our video features aim to bring our adventure tours to life in a way that no photo can, giving you a great taste of the destination.
Need some travel inspiration or looking for some handy travel tips? Our blog provides excellent insight into our travel destinations - from tour updates to country guides, packing lists to little known things to do, you'll find it all in our travel blog.
Travel guide to some of the most beautiful and interesting place to visit on an Encounters Travel tour of India.
Landlocked 2,000-year-old Nepal is surrounded by China and India.
