Create your own India travel recipe with new bite-size trips from Rickshaw Travel

Rickshaw Travel has seen an extra buzz about India following the launch of a new tourist e-visa to India* and a major season of television and radio programmes dedicated to this beautiful and culturally diverse country. With more and more holidaymakers enquiring about this vibrant destination Rickshaw Travel has expanded their collection of specialist bite-size trips that can be blended to create a personal holiday recipe to suit.

Visiting India recently became a lot easier with the introduction of a new E-visa application process. UK citizens can now obtain a 30 day tourist visa online following a much more simplified process and for almost half the cost. Rickshaw Travel’s friendly India travel specialists will offer advice about the application procedure as part of the booking process.*

Rickshaw Travel creates meaningful travel itineraries and homestay options that help travellers get behind the scenes and feel closer to the country they’re visiting. Here they’ve highlighted their top trips and tips on how to get the best all-round India experience.

For foodies – sample a new bite-size trip: ‘Mumbai’s Secret Spices’

Travellers can spice up their life in Mumbai by sampling the sensational street food that this bustling city has to offer on a guided tour. Here guests can experience the exciting buzz that surrounds Minara Masjid and watch as vendors cook up truly authentic Indian treats in front of their eyes. Guests stay in a comfortable hotel in the popular Colaba district, walking distance to the famous Gateway of India.

This 3 day bite-size trip costs from £218 per person and includes 2 nights accommodation (based on two sharing), breakfast, evening street food tour including tasting 8-10 street foods and a taxi between Chowpatty beach and Mohammed Ali Road.

For transport, tea and train lovers – test out ‘Tea Time in Darjeeling’

On this bite-size trip travellers can wander through shady pine forests, stare up at snowy peaks and take scenic toy trains in Darjeeling, an atmospheric city strung along a Himalayan ridge. Divided from Bhutan and Nepal by a ribbon of mountains, the area is home to a mix of communities and surrounded by sloping tea plantations. During the trip guests will take the legendary toy train to Darjeeling, nestled in the shadow of Kanchenjunga, one of the highest mountains in the Himalayas. A mostly Tibetan tangle of steep, ramshackle streets and market stalls, it has an atmosphere all of its own.

This 4 day bite-size trip costs from £278 per person and includes 3 nights accommodation (based on two sharing), breakfast, transport by private car, guided excursion and toy train ticket.

For nature-lovers

Experience nature’s wonderland on Rickshaw’s Tigers and Turrets trip and get a rare glimpse of tigers in the wild

Search for tigers in Ranthambore National Park, one of the few places in the world to see them in the wild. It is also one of the most attractive nature reserves in Northern India. It’s a distinct and unsettling possibility that the tigers of Rajasthan could become extinct in our lifetime. In 2012, the Indian Supreme Court ruled that no new tourist attractions could be created in the tiger areas and only 20% of the tiger habitats can be open to visitors so the area has become a coveted landscape. The park has a nostalgic atmosphere, with hideouts that once belonged to maharajas scattered throughout the reserve. These hideouts overlook the lakes used as watering holes by sipping gazelles and occasionally patrolled by majestic tigers on view for a lucky few.

This 3-day bite-sized trip costs from £268 per person (based on two sharing) and includes 2 night’s accommodation in a luxury tent with breakfast and two game-drives.

Explore the backwaters and wildlife from a different angle

Sleeping aboard a wooden houseboat, guests will drift through tropical backwaters and spot wild elephants in the untamed jungle of exotic Kerala. They will trek into the forest to scout for sambar deer, wild boar and maybe even a mongoose or two. Kerala is India’s exotic, emerald heart, packed with lush scenery and a tangle of overgrown backwaters. During this trip, guests will travel from Fort Cochin into Periyar National Park, where they’ll set off on a walking safari through the jungle. Next, they’ll spend a night aboard a classic Kerala houseboat, drifting through the tiny canals under starry skies.

This 4-day bite-sized trip costs from £325 per person (based on two sharing) and includes 3 nights accommodation on a houseboat, breakfast, transport, excursion and entrance fee to Periyar with morning safari walk.

For Indian culture and history

Wonder at the sunrise over the Taj Mahal

India’s Golden Triangle is the stuff of legend, with the ethereal Taj Mahal at its pinnacle. Rickshaw Travel’s ‘Sunrise at the Taj Mahal’ bite-size trip encompasses a number of World Heritage Sites that all rank amongst the most amazing places on Earth. Bharatpur, Fatehpur Sikri, Agra Fort, and (last but not least) the Taj Mahal can all be appreciated on this rare journey between Jaipur to Agra. During this India trip guests will visit the mystical monkey temple of Galta, watch huge flocks of birds fly across the Bharatpur wetlands, wander through the abandoned ghost city of Fatehpur Sikri and stay with a local family to watch dawn break over the Taj Mahal.

This 3-day bite-size trip costs from £155 per person (based on two people sharing) and includes accommodation (priced based on two sharing), breakfast, private transport and a guided tour of the Taj Mahal and Agra fort.

See the Mystical Temples of the South

Guests on this trip will travel from rainbow temples to traditional French bakeries and windswept mystical beaches in Tamil Nadu. They’ll soak up the spiritual atmosphere of India’s sizzling south, where the locals are friendly and the food is fiery. Watching sunset prayer ceremonies and visiting authentic ashrams, guests will discover that Tamil Nadu is a sacred state, its rich ancient culture steeped in devotion and peppered with pastel-coloured temples. The cuisine is hotter than the weather, so guests will test their taste-buds too. Over six days, they’ll travel from Madurai to Chennai, stopping in several eye-opening places along the way and getting into the spirit of the south.

This six-day bite-size trip costs from £375 and includes 5 night’s accommodation (based on two sharing), breakfast, transport and excursions including a rickshaw ride in Madurai.

All these options and many more can be found at: www.rickshawtravel.co.uk where travellers can combine three or more bite-sized trips to create an individual journey or select from a series of recommended itineraries.

 

For more information visit: www.rickshawtravel.co.uk, email:
hello@rickshawtravel.co.uk, or call +44 (0) 1273 322 399