Grand Tour of India: Rajasthan & Kerala Among Women

Landing in India can feel like stepping into another world. The local team will be waiting with a traditional flower garland, so your first moments are not spent searching for a driver or wondering what happens next. You can simply breathe, look around and allow the journey to begin.

After settling into the hotel, there is time to rest before meeting the other women. Some will have arrived alone, others with a friend or relative, but everyone shares the same mixture of excitement and curiosity. This first gathering is relaxed: names, smiles, questions and the comforting realisation that for the next sixteen days, you will not have to experience India on your own.

Today Delhi introduces itself in all its intensity. At Jama Masjid, you will stand beneath a vast sky in one of the country’s greatest mosques before climbing into a rickshaw for a joyful ride through Chandni Chowk. The streets move around you in colour, sound and fragrance, and it is often here that the group begins laughing together for the first time.

At Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, the mood becomes quieter. Watching the community kitchen prepare food for thousands of people is a powerful reminder of generosity without distinction. Continue past India Gate and Rashtrapati Bhavan, then enter the intricate world of Akshardham Temple. By evening, you will already feel that Delhi has shown you several different Indias in a single day.

Fly to Udaipur and watch the pace soften. Known as the City of Lakes, it has an elegance that invites you to slow down and look longer. At the City Palace, balconies, courtyards and royal rooms open towards Lake Pichola, creating the kind of views that make every woman reach for her camera and then forget to use it for a moment.

Continue to Jagmandir, Ahar and the craft village of Shilpgram, where rural traditions and handmade skills remain visible. The day rises towards the Monsoon Palace for sunset, when the city, hills and water turn golden below you. Later, share dinner beside the lake — one of those evenings when conversation flows easily because the setting has already done half the work.

Travel towards Pushkar, a small sacred city gathered around a lake. After the grandeur of Udaipur, its whitewashed streets, ghats and spiritual atmosphere create a different kind of beauty. Visit the rare Brahma Temple, then walk around the lake where pilgrims continue rituals practised for generations.

This is a day that leaves space for each woman to experience the place in her own way: perhaps through photography, quiet observation, a conversation with another traveller or simply sitting near the water. During the seasonal camel fair, the city becomes a whirl of animals, music and artisans; outside that period, Pushkar reveals a gentler and more contemplative face.

After breakfast, continue to Jaipur, where rose-coloured façades and the energy of Rajasthan’s capital replace Pushkar’s quiet rhythm. There is time to settle into the hotel before heading to Lakshmi Narayan Temple.

If the timing allows, attend the evening prayer. Bells, chants and white marble glowing as daylight fades create a beautiful first encounter with Jaipur. For many women, it becomes a moment of calm after the road — a chance to stand together without needing to speak and simply absorb the atmosphere.

Today Jaipur becomes your royal playground. Travel towards Amber Fort and make the traditional ascent by elephant, two guests per elephant, before entering courtyards, mirrored halls and chambers created for another era. Continue to Jantar Mantar, where enormous instruments turn astronomy into something you can walk through, and to the City Palace, still connected to Jaipur’s royal family.

Pause at Hawa Mahal, then enjoy the lighter, more personal side of Rajasthan: dress in traditional clothing for photographs, discover henna and watch artisans demonstrate block printing. A visit to a local NGO and a cooking experience inside an Indian home create time to meet women beyond the palace walls and share lunch around a table.

The day ends in Jaipur’s markets. Jewellery, fabrics and handicrafts fill the streets, but the pleasure is not only in buying something. It is in choosing together, helping one another with colours and perhaps finding the sari or textile that will always remind you of this day.

Leave Jaipur for Agra, pausing at Fatehpur Sikri, Emperor Akbar’s former capital. Its courtyards and palaces remain almost suspended in time, allowing you to imagine the women, families and ceremonies that once filled these spaces.

Continue to Agra and settle into the hotel. The evening is deliberately quieter, giving the group time to rest before the early start awaiting you. There is often a special anticipation tonight: everyone knows that tomorrow begins with one of the most famous and emotional sights in the world.

Wake before dawn and approach the Taj Mahal as the sky begins to brighten. The marble slowly changes from grey to pearl, then blush and gold. However many times you have seen it in photographs, standing here feels different. Some women become emotional; others simply smile. The beauty of travelling together is having someone beside you who understands the moment without needing an explanation.

The programme includes sari draping and two photographs at the Taj Mahal, creating a joyful memory alongside the monument’s great love story. After breakfast, explore Agra Fort and its views across the Yamuna before returning to Delhi. Travellers choosing the shorter Rajasthan journey may end the organised programme here.

Today the journey changes completely. Fly from Delhi to Kochi and arrive in the tropical south, where palms, sea air and a slower coastal rhythm replace Rajasthan’s palaces and desert colours.

In the evening, head out on the water for a speedboat ride through Kochi harbour at sunset. After the flight, it is a wonderfully simple pleasure: fresh air, changing light and the feeling that an entirely new chapter has begun. The women who have shared the north now discover the south together, already connected by the memories behind them.

Walk through Fort Kochi, where Portuguese, Dutch, British, Jewish and Indian histories meet in the same streets. Continue towards Mattancherry, its palace, synagogue and historic Jewish quarter. The pleasure of the day lies in the details: old façades, spice warehouses, places of worship and small scenes of coastal life.

In the evening, watch a traditional Kerala dance performance. Elaborate make-up, expressive eyes, hand gestures and music carry stories without ordinary words. Even without understanding every symbol, the emotion is immediate — and discussing the performance afterwards becomes part of the experience.

Leave the coast and climb towards Munnar. The road becomes greener with every kilometre, passing waterfalls and hills until tea plantations begin to cover the landscape like velvet.

On arrival, settle into the hotel and enjoy free time for a gentle walk. After the cities and flights, the cool mountain air feels restorative. This evening is less about ticking off a visit and more about looking around, breathing deeply and enjoying the quiet satisfaction of having crossed such a vast part of India together.

Today belongs to the women whose work shapes Munnar’s most famous landscapes. Meet tea pickers in the plantations, observe the precision of their gestures and learn about the rhythm of their days. The hills are beautiful, but understanding the women behind them gives the view an entirely different depth.

Continue to the tea museum and a local factory to follow the leaves from harvest to processing, then take part in a tea-preparation workshop and tasting. Later, visit Madupetty Dam, the surrounding tea gardens and Echo Point. By the end of the day, an ordinary cup of tea will carry faces, hands and stories you did not know before.

Travel to Alleppey and step aboard a traditional houseboat for one of the most peaceful days of the journey. The boat glides through narrow canals and open waterways while rice fields, coconut palms, village homes and everyday life pass quietly on both sides.

There is nothing to rush towards. Lunch and dinner are served on board, and the hours invite conversation, reading, photographs or comfortable silence. Sleeping on the water is more than an unusual night; it is a collective pause, a moment when the group can look back on everything already lived and simply enjoy being present.

After breakfast on board, continue south through Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala’s capital. Discover its temples, museums and palaces, keeping in mind the clothing requirements and local customs explained by the guide.

Arrive in Kovalam beside the sea and let the mood soften again. After two weeks of discovery, reaching the coast feels like an exhale. The rest of the day is free to settle in, walk near the water or share a quiet drink with the women who now feel far less like strangers than they did in Delhi.

Spend the morning discovering Kovalam and its harbour, watching coastal life unfold at a rhythm very different from the cities of the north.

In the afternoon, enjoy a traditional Ayurvedic massage in a peaceful setting. After days of movement, this is time reserved for your body and your own sense of wellbeing. The last evening is often filled with mixed emotions: happiness, gratitude and the realisation that the group has shared far more than an itinerary.

After breakfast, transfer to the airport for the flight home. The organised journey ends here, but its images will continue to return: Udaipur at sunset, the Taj Mahal in the first light, the hands of tea pickers, a houseboat moving through palms and all the conversations in between.

You leave with souvenirs, but also with something less visible — the confidence of having crossed India, the friendships created along the way and the feeling of having made space for yourself inside a very full life.