Private, on your own dates · India
A fifteen-day private food journey from Delhi to Varanasi: street food and spice markets in Old Delhi, a Mughlai evening in Agra, village and palace cooking in Rajasthan, Awadhi kebabs and biryani in Lucknow, and a vegetarian food walk beside the Ganges — with the great monuments of the north on the way.
Ask ten people in India what Indian food is and you will get ten answers, because the country cooks as differently from region to region as it speaks. This private journey follows those flavours across the north, from the lanes of Old Delhi to the ghats of Varanasi, and treats every meal as part of the route rather than a break from it.
Delhi comes first, with a walk through Chandni Chowk and the Khari Baoli spice market and a morning cooking with a local chef or family. Agra adds the rich Mughlai kitchen and the petha sweet shops that sit in the shadow of the Taj Mahal, which you see at sunset and again at dawn.
Rajasthan takes up the middle of the trip. In Jaipur there are palace-city bazaars and a thali dinner; outside the city, a village cooking session shows how the desert shaped the home kitchen. Jodhpur brings the Marwari table and the lassi and kachori of its old market, and Udaipur the Mewari cooking of the lake country, with the marble temples of Ranakpur on the road between them.
The last stretch changes the flavours completely. A flight takes you to Lucknow, where the slow-cooked kebabs and biryani of the old Awadh court are taught in a private masterclass. The journey ends in Varanasi with the evening aarti on the ghats, a walk through the vegetarian food of the old city, and a boat on the Ganges at sunrise.
The tour is private and tailor-made, with fourteen nights in hotels including a heritage property in Jaipur, daily breakfast and the meals listed in each day, a private car and driver for the road journeys, and guides for the food walks and sightseeing. Vegetarian, vegan, Jain, halal and gluten-free diets can be planned into every meal and class.
Hotels are named on your confirmation — all are of the stated category.
You leave from a different place than you arrive — book an open-jaw flight, not a return.
Private arrival and departure transfers are included.
India
Oct–Mar is the golden season across most of India. Monsoon (Jun–Sep) transforms Kerala and the Northeast.
Yes. The car, driver, guides and cooking classes are for your party only, and the itinerary can be changed to suit you.
Yes. Vegetarian, vegan, Jain, halal and gluten-free diets can be arranged for every meal, tasting and cooking class; tell us when you book.
No. The classes are hands-on and relaxed, and the cooks adapt them to your level.
October to March, when North India is cool and dry. April to June is very hot, and the monsoon from July to September brings rain as well as seasonal sweets such as ghewar.
By private car with a driver for every road journey, and by air from Udaipur to Lucknow, depending on flight schedules.
Breakfast every day, and the lunches and dinners listed for each day. The food walks include tastings.
The guides choose busy stalls that cook to order, and you can skip any tasting. If you prefer, the walks can focus on established restaurants and sweet shops instead.
Most visitors need a visa or an e-Visa, which you arrange before travel. Visa fees are not included.
Tell Tulli what you'd change — hotels, dates, an extra city — and she'll price it with our team and come back to you.