Travel Information

For most journeys, four to six months gives us room to secure the accommodation and guides we actually want rather than what happens to be left. For travel over Diwali, Christmas, New Year or the Indian wedding season, or where a specific heritage property matters to you, start nine to twelve months out.

We do take on shorter timescales. It narrows the choices rather than ruling the trip out, and we will tell you honestly what is still achievable at the time you come to us.

We listen. You tell us who is travelling, roughly when, what you want out of it and anything that has to be built around, whether that is a wedding date, a temple visit, an elderly parent's pace or a village nobody in the family has seen for forty years.

You get an outline itinerary and an indication of cost after that conversation, not before it. Nothing is booked and nothing is charged until you have seen it, read it and asked for changes.

As many times as it takes. Redrafting is the job, not a favour. Most journeys settle in two or three passes.

India is where our knowledge is deepest and it is what the site is built around today. The wider Star Tours network reaches beyond it, so if your journey needs a stop elsewhere, ask.

It depends on the length, the season, the standard of accommodation and how much private guiding and transport you want. Two families travelling the same route two weeks apart can pay materially different amounts.

Rather than publish a from-price that would mislead more often than it helped, we have written a page explaining what sits inside the number and what moves it. Read How Pricing Works, then tell us the budget you have in mind and we will be straight with you about what it buys.

No. Planning conversations, outline itineraries and redrafts are free. You pay when you decide to book.

Usually yes, and it is one of the more common shapes of journey we build. What makes it work is being honest at the planning stage about what a day can hold.

In practice that means fewer stops and longer stays, ground transfers replaced with short internal flights where the drive would be punishing, hotels chosen for lifts and accessible bathrooms rather than for character alone, monuments approached from the nearest gate rather than the photogenic one, and a genuinely free afternoon built into most days.

Tell us plainly about mobility, stamina and any condition that affects the pace. It is not a limitation on the trip, it is information we need to design it properly. Please also tell us about anything that might affect travel insurance or medical cover, and take specialist advice on both.

Yes, and it is worth telling us early because the logistics differ from an ordinary itinerary. Guests arrive from several countries on different days, the group grows and shrinks around the event itself, outfits and gifts have to travel, and the days either side are often busier than the wedding.

We handle the travel around the celebration rather than the celebration itself. That means arrivals, transfers, accommodation blocks, the trip people extend into afterwards, and coordinating relatives who are not all booking through us.

They are if the itinerary is a list of monuments. We build in things that hold attention: a cooking session, a stepwell they can walk down into, a boat, a night train if it suits the route, wildlife, kite flying, a craft workshop.

It also helps to slow down. A pool afternoon is not a wasted day on a family trip, it is what makes the next morning work.

This is one of the things we are genuinely good at, and it is rarely on anyone's itinerary because it is not a destination on any map.

Give us whatever you have: a village or town name, a district, a family surname, an old address, the name of a temple or a school. Our ground team in India can often establish what is there now, what is a realistic drive from where you will be, whether the road is passable in the season you are travelling, and where you could sensibly stay nearby.

We will be honest if it does not work. Some places are a long detour for a short and difficult visit, and it is better to know that while the itinerary is still on paper. Where it does work, it is usually the part of the journey families talk about afterwards.

Yes. Splitting the group is normal: grandparents on a gentler route, cousins doing something more active, everyone converging for a few days in the middle. It takes more planning and we would rather do that than force one compromise itinerary on people who want different things.

We brief hotels, guides and drivers before you arrive, and we confirm rather than assume. India being broadly vegetarian-friendly does not mean every kitchen understands what you actually need, and the gap between vegetarian and Jain is exactly where that breaks down.

For Jain requirements we are specific with kitchens about root vegetables, onion and garlic, and about preparation and utensils rather than only the finished dish. Where a property genuinely cannot meet it, we say so at the planning stage and choose differently, rather than leaving you to discover it at dinner.

Tell us and we will build it in. Fasting days, ekadashi, a period of satvik eating, no alcohol in the party, or one member of the family with different requirements to everyone else are all workable, and all easier to arrange in advance than on the day.

We pass allergy and medical dietary requirements to every property and restaurant on the itinerary in writing, and we will tell you where we think the risk is higher, for example street food stops or remote properties with a single kitchen.

For a serious allergy, please also take your own medical advice before travelling and carry what you need with you. We can plan carefully around it. We cannot guarantee a kitchen we do not run.

It is easily adjusted, and worth saying at the start of a meal rather than at the end of the trip. Regional cooking varies more than most visitors expect, and a well-briefed kitchen will pitch it where you want it.

Not by default. Many of our clients book flights themselves, use points, fly from different cities or extend the trip either side, and building an assumed flight into the figure makes it less useful rather than more.

We can arrange them, and we will coordinate arrival and departure timings with the itinerary either way. Tell us what you are holding and we will work around it.

Usually a private car with a driver, which gives you the freedom to stop, and for longer hops an internal flight or a train where the journey is worth having in its own right.

We will tell you honestly how long a drive takes rather than what the distance suggests. Indian road speeds do not translate from a map, and an itinerary that ignores that is the single most common reason a trip feels exhausting.

Often yes within a region, which matters more than people expect. A driver who has been with you for a week knows the pace of your family. Where the route crosses regions we sometimes change, and we will set that out in the itinerary.

Private local guides are included where they add something, which is most heritage sites and cities, and deliberately not everywhere. A guided commentary at every stop is tiring and some places are better walked without one.

You have a contact in the UK and a ground team in India, and between them the itinerary gets rebuilt around the problem while you are still travelling. This is the practical difference between booking through us and assembling a trip yourself.

A valid passport and an appropriate Indian visa or an OCI card. Which route applies to you depends on your nationality, your reason for travelling and how long you are staying, and the categories, fees and processing times are all set by the Indian government and change without much notice.

For that reason we do not publish the current requirements here. Check the Indian government's official visa service and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office travel advice for India, both of which are kept current. We will flag anything we think applies to your particular party during planning, but the responsibility for holding correct documents rests with each traveller.

Start this early. It is the single most common cause of last-minute problems and it is entirely avoidable.

An OCI card removes the need for a visa and comes with its own conditions, and there are recurring points that catch families out: the card being linked to a specific passport, rules on re-issue after a new passport is issued, and the position for children whose passports change often.

Because those rules have been revised more than once, check the current position with the Indian High Commission or the official OCI service before you travel rather than relying on what applied last time. Tell us who in the party holds OCI and who does not, since it can affect how we sequence arrivals.

This is a medical question and it depends on where you are going, the season, how long you are staying and your own health history, so it needs a GP or travel clinic rather than a travel company.

Speak to your GP or a travel health clinic at least six to eight weeks before departure, and check the NHS Fit for Travel and TravelHealthPro guidance for India. If any part of your itinerary is remote or at altitude we will say so, because it changes the conversation you should be having with them.

Yes, and we would ask you to arrange it as soon as you book rather than before you travel, so that cancellation cover is in place for the period when it might actually be needed.

Declare pre-existing medical conditions honestly, check the medical cover limit rather than only the price, and make sure the policy covers everyone in the party including anyone travelling on a different booking. For older travellers, read the age limits and the medical screening terms carefully.

Drink bottled or filtered water, which every property on our itineraries provides, and use it for brushing teeth too. Beyond that, most visitors are fine.

You do not need to avoid Indian food to stay well, and being over-cautious costs you most of what you came for. Eat where it is busy and freshly cooked, be more careful with anything that has been sitting, and take advice from your guide, who has more at stake in your week going well than you might think.

Shoulders and knees covered is the safe default for everyone at any religious site, and a scarf or shawl is the most useful thing in your bag because it solves most situations. Shoes come off before entering, and often socks too, so slip-on footwear saves a lot of bending.

Individual temples add their own rules. Some ask for specific dress, some restrict entry to non-Hindus, some do not permit leather items including belts and bags, some prohibit phones entirely. Your guide will brief you before each one, and nobody will mind you asking rather than guessing.

Loose cotton, long sleeves and closed shoes are also the practical choice for heat, sun and dusty sites, so this is less of a compromise than it sounds.

Ask first with people, and accept no gracefully. Inside temples and at ceremonies, assume not unless you have been told otherwise. Some monuments charge a camera fee and some prohibit tripods and drones outright.

Customs allowances for goods brought into India, and for gold and jewellery in particular, are set by Indian customs and are revised periodically, so we do not publish figures here that might be out of date.

Check the current allowances on the Indian customs website before you pack, keep receipts for anything new and substantial, declare rather than risk it, and be aware that the rules for gold differ by traveller and by length of stay. If you are carrying a significant amount, tell us during planning so we can factor in the time at arrival.

Tipping is expected for drivers, guides and hotel staff and it is not built into our prices. We will give you a practical guide with your final documents, based on what is genuinely current at the time you travel, rather than a figure on a web page that drifts out of date.

Carry small notes. It is the single most useful piece of preparation nobody mentions.

Cards work in hotels, established restaurants and larger shops, and digital payment is widespread. Cash still matters for markets, small stops, temple donations and tips.

Indian rupees cannot generally be obtained before you arrive, so plan to draw cash on arrival or shortly after. Tell your bank you are travelling.

Coverage is good in cities and along most of the routes we use, and every property we book has wifi. Expect gaps in the desert, in the hills and in parts of the backwaters, which some people count as a feature.

A local SIM or eSIM is cheap and worth it if you want to be reachable throughout. Ask us and we will point you at the sensible option for your route.

It depends entirely on where in India you are going. Rajasthan, Kerala and the Himalayan foothills have genuinely different seasons and a single answer for the whole country is no answer at all.

For a diaspora family the better question is often not when the weather is best but whether you can be somewhere specific for Navratri, Diwali, Holi or a family event. Those two answers rarely coincide, and we would rather build the trip around the thing you actually care about.

Our When To Go page sets out the seasons region by region with the festival calendar alongside them. It gives typical windows rather than dates, because most of these festivals follow a lunar calendar and move by two to four weeks a year - tell us your travel year and we will confirm the exact dates.