House of Travel Riccarton

Southern India

November 9 to November 28, 2024
Full tour itinerary and prices now available

It probably seems an age ago but many of you who came with me on my last tour to India asked me and our wonderful Indian guide Kush to come up with a tour to South India. And we have! We’re going to start in Chennai (formerly Madras), visit the most stunning Hindu temples in all of India, experience the hill country with its tea and spice plantations, visit the extraordinary Chettinad region, cruise the Kerala backwaters and as a grand finale see the Mysore Palace, one of the most stunning and largest royal residences in all of India. If you are interested in any of these tours, please do register your interest soon as some of these tours will have very restricted numbers. Expressing interest in the tours doesn’t commit you to anything but does mean you will be first to receive the full itinerary and prices as they become available.

Sri Lanka and the Seychelles

March/April

Sri Lanka is one of my favourite countries. There is so much to see and experience in a relatively small area. My tour will take us through ancient ruins, set in lush jungle, including the incredible Sigiriya fortress, the former kingdom of Kandy, one of the world’s best train journeys through the hill country, tea and spice plantation visits, Yala National Park and the historic coastal port of Galle.

The tour ends with a five-day stay on the exotic, stunningly beautiful Seychelles islands with their giant tortoises and gorgeous beaches.

The very best of Turkey

May

Many tours of Turkey are too short and don’t do this fascinating country justice. This tour definitely will! Along with several days to explore Istanbul’s magnificent monuments, the mind-boggling Grand Bazaar and its iconic setting on the Bosphorus Strait, we will visit Gallipoli, one of the world’s most legendary ancient ruins at Ephesus and take a day cruise along the beautiful Turquoise Coast. But we will also head further east to the remarkable cave cities of Cappadocia.

An Island Odyssey in Scotland – Orkney, Shetland and Outer Hebrides

June

Scotland’s isles are places of myths and legends, ancient history dating back to neolithic and Viking times, unique culture, superb scenery and wildlife and welcoming people. This tour will take us as far north as the Shetlands and Orkney and then across to the west coast and the Outer Hebrides. There will be opportunities to walk along pristine island beaches on Harris and Lewis, meet the locals in tiny seaside villages and as a bonus I also plan to take you on one of the world’s top train journeys, the West Highland Line – by the famous Jacobite steam train!

Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Iceland

July/August

This is a truly epic journey that will take us to some of the most remarkable islands in the Northern Hemisphere. Greenland is the world’s largest island and truly a place to see before it changes, probably for ever, as its ice continues to melt. We will visit the extraordinary glacial landscapes around Disko Bay, join a whale-watching cruise and check out the tiny capital of Nuuk. The tour also includes a grand circuit of Iceland that will include spectacular geysers, glaciers, waterfalls, mountains and fjords. We also explore the little known, but jaw-droppingly spectacular Faroe Islands, absolutely fascinating islands, many of which are linked by undersea tunnels and united by myth and legend

The Pamir Highway – Tajikistan and Uzbekistan

September

This is 2025’s true adventure experience, which will take us through one of the world’s most remote landscapes of snow-capped, craggy mountains and azure lakes as we follow the Wakhan corridor, where for centuries Silk Road merchants and Great Game players passed under the shadows of the Hindu Kush. We’ll meet locals in their villages and Kyrgyz semi-nomads in their yurt camps. We then travel to neighbouring Uzbekistan to explore two of the great cities of the Silk Road – legendary Samarkand and Bukhara.

Java by Train

October

This tour is ideal for people who prefer not to do long-haul flights and who also are looking for a shorter holiday. This tour will fit the bill perfectly as it will involve one longer flight to Singapore and then a short hop to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. From here we will embark on a series of rail journeys across the entire island of Java, ending up in Ubud, Bali. Travelling by very comfortable trains (sometimes pulled by steam locomotives) and staying in some beautiful heritage hotels and resorts en route, we will pass through jungle and rice paddies, past volcanoes and visit the largest Buddhist temple in the world.