An eighteen-night sample journey for the traveller who wants both Indias — the marble forts and lake palaces of the north, and the slow, green waterways of the south. Stayed at the very finest properties throughout. Distilled from a private tour we built for two seasoned travellers.
Old & New — Humayun's Tomb, the cycle-rickshaw lanes of Chandni Chowk, the langar at Bangla Sahib.
The Gatimaan semi-bullet train, dawn at the Taj, the marble inlay workshops, sunset views across the Yamuna.
Two jeep safaris in search of the Royal Bengal Tiger, breakfast picnics in the jungle, an afternoon with Lakshmi the rescued elephant.
Amber Fort by open jeep, the City Palace, Jantar Mantar, the morning vegetable market, and a block-printing workshop in the old town.
A boat to Jagdish Temple, the painted halls of the City Palace Museum, a sunset cruise across Lake Pichola.
Gateway of India, the rock-cut caves at Elephanta, lunch at the Taj Mahal Palace, Marine Drive at dusk.
Mattancherry's Dutch Palace, the 16th-century synagogue, the Chinese fishing nets at sunset, and an evening of Kathakali dance-drama.
A traditional kettuvallam thatched-roof barge, a private chef on board, and one slow night drifting through coconut groves and paddy fields.
A lake-side resort, ayurvedic spa treatments, a dawn visit to the bird sanctuary, and the gentlest possible end to the trip.
A morning drive to the airport, a flight to Delhi, and the long flight home — with a chest of memories.
A handful of representative days. Every one of these is moveable, lengthenable, and re-shapeable around your interests.
A 7 AM transfer to Hazrat Nizamuddin and the Gatimaan Express — India's semi-bullet train — gliding from Delhi to Agra in 100 minutes flat. A short hop to Amarvilas, a settled afternoon, then the Agra Fort by guided tour at 2:30.
A visit to a marble inlay workshop — pietra dura, the technique that built the Taj — before a sunset stop at the Yamuna's far bank, the white dome glowing in the gold hour.
"As elusive as winning a lottery ticket" — what they say, locally, about tiger sightings. Same phrase, here, fits the Taj at dawn.
A 9 AM departure for the long road south through Rajasthan, with a stop at the eight-storey Chand Baori stepwell in Abhaneri — the location Christopher Nolan used as the prison-pit in The Dark Knight Rises. A picnic lunch by the cars.
Arrival at Vanyavilas — a luxury tented camp at the edge of the Ranthambore reserve — with an evening naturalist walk before dinner.
The geometry of Chand Baori is hypnotic — 3,500 steps in perfect zig-zags, descending into the cool dark. A photograph cannot do it.
An 8 AM start with a walk through the local vegetable market, the City Palace and Jantar Mantar, a photo stop at Hawa Mahal, and Amber Fort by open jeep.
Afternoon at a textile workshop — hand block-printing, the local craft Jaipur quietly invented — followed by the bazaars and the gem merchants who supply jewellers worldwide.
Jaipur is the only city in India where you can buy half a kilo of marigolds and a 2-carat emerald in the same afternoon.
A morning drive to Alleppey jetty, where a private kettuvallam awaits — the traditional Kerala rice-boat, thatch and dark teak, refitted for one couple, with a personal chef on board.
The afternoon drifts. Coconut groves slide past. Children waving from the banks. Lunch is fresh fish from the morning catch. Dinner is by lamplight as you moor for the night.
If the rest of India is a symphony, Kerala is a long, slow, single note.
An optional dawn visit to the Kumarakom bird sanctuary — Siberian cranes, white egrets, the kingfishers — followed by a morning ayurvedic massage at the resort's spa.
The rest of the day is yours. The backwaters move at the speed of a paddle. There is no schedule.
The end of every good Indian journey looks the same: a long pause to absorb what just happened.
A full day-by-day, room-by-room itinerary is written for you once we begin a conversation. This is the shape of the journey — yours will be one of a kind.
In the spirit of the original tour we built — Oberoi flagships throughout the north, and a heritage-grade lakeside resort in Kerala. Substitute, mix, or upgrade as you wish.
Equivalent properties — Taj, Leela, ITC and others — can be substituted at any city.
Marble forts, painted gates, garden tombs. Three weeks of north India is the architectural sweep of an empire — Humayun, Akbar, Shah Jahan, all in one trip.
Two safaris at Ranthambore, hidden in a luxury tented camp at the reserve's edge. If she shows herself, you'll never forget it. If she doesn't, the leopards, gaur, and sambar more than fill the morning.
Jaipur's pink palaces, Udaipur's white domes, Amber Fort by jeep — three nights in two of the world's most romantic cities, with a sunset boat across Lake Pichola.
Two nights at Nariman Point — Elephanta caves, Marine Drive, lunch at the Taj Mahal Palace. The colonial port with its modern, monied edge.
A 16th-century synagogue, a Dutch Palace, the Chinese fishing nets, and a Kathakali performance lit by oil-lamps. The historic spice-trade harbour, beautifully preserved.
A private rice-boat through Alleppey's coconut-fringed waterways, then ayurveda at Kumarakom. The slow, green decompression — the only way to leave India properly.
The itinerary above is one luxury edition we have built for travellers who wanted both the Mughal north and the green south, with no compromise on the room each night.
Yours may be longer or shorter, hold more days for one region, swap Oberoi for Taj, add Bhutan, or trade a city for a forest. We listen first, propose within a week, and refine until it feels right.
Delhi · Shimla · Mumbai · Pench · Kanha · Varanasi · Agra · Ranthambore · Jaipur · Udaipur
A north-India sweep with Himalayan hill stations, two jungle reserves, and the ghats of Varanasi.
Read the itinerary →India · Nepal · Bhutan — Kathmandu, Pokhara, Paro, Rajasthan, the Taj & Amritsar
The greater Himalayan + Rajasthan sweep — Everest from a mountain flight, Tiger's Nest, four desert citadels, and the Golden Temple.
Read the itinerary →We listen first, propose within a week, and refine until the itinerary feels right. No pressure, no packages — just a quiet, careful conversation.