How we plan a private journey, step by step

We plan journeys in seven lands only: Nepal, Rajasthan, Ladakh, North East India, Kerala, Goa, and Uttar Pradesh with Bihar. Every journey is private. That means a car and driver for you alone, a local guide at each place rather than a coach group, hotels chosen for your trip rather than a fixed list, and a route built around your dates. There is no departure calendar and no minimum number of travellers. A couple, a family of six and a solo traveller go through the same process.

Because nothing is fixed, the planning matters more than it would with a packaged tour. A good route in Rajasthan depends on which nights the palace hotels have free; a good route in Ladakh depends on when the passes open; a good route in Kerala depends on the monsoon. Our job is to know those things and to put them in front of you early, so the choices you make are informed ones. The five stages below are how we do it.

Each stage has a clear output, so you always know what you are agreeing to and what happens next. The table sets out who does what. Most journeys move from enquiry to booking in two or three rounds of emails or calls; journeys around a festival or peak-season palace hotels move faster, because the rooms go first.

An enquiry can be two lines or two pages. What helps most is honesty about the things that shape a route: how long you have, who is travelling, what you want to feel at the end of it, and what you would rather avoid. A family with a seven-year-old needs shorter drives than a couple; a traveller with a knee problem needs fewer steps; someone who has seen the Taj Mahal twice may want to skip it. We reply with questions before we send a route, because a route built on guesses wastes your time. These are the questions we usually ask:

If you do not yet know which land to choose, say so. Many enquiries begin with a month rather than a place: three weeks in February, or ten days at Christmas. We then suggest the two or three lands that are at their best in that window and explain the trade-offs, such as Rajasthan's palaces against Kerala's backwaters in January, or Ladakh against Kerala's monsoon in July.

• Your dates, and whether they can move by a week or two
• Who is travelling, with the ages of any children
• Which of our seven lands interest you, or what you want to see
• A rough budget per person, so we choose the right hotels
• Walking ability, altitude limits, diet and any health conditions
• Trips you have loved, or disliked, and why

The first route is a working draft, not a brochure. It sets out each day with the place, the overnight, the drive in kilometres and hours, the hotel we suggest and why, and an indicative price per person, twin sharing. Where there is a real choice, we show both sides: Rambagh Palace or The Oberoi Rajvilas in Jaipur, a flight or the road to Leh, Chitwan or Bardia for a Nepal safari. We also tell you what we left out and why, because a route is defined as much by what it skips.

Prices at this stage are indicative, because hotel rates move with dates and availability. As a guide, our 11-night Palaces of Rajasthan journey is from ₹6,50,000 per person, and our 10-night Spice hills to backwaters journey in Kerala is from ₹3,25,000. Your route will be priced for your own dates, hotels and group, and the price includes what we list and nothing hidden.

Most routes change once or twice. You might want a third night in Udaipur, a cooking class in Kochi, a day without a car, or a better room at one hotel and a simpler one elsewhere to keep the total where you want it. We also check the details that are easy to miss: whether the Taj Mahal's Friday closure falls on your Agra day, whether a festival will fill your hotel, whether Sarnath's museum is open, whether a pass in Ladakh is likely to be clear in your week.

When the route is settled, we send a firm price and the written terms: what is included, what is not, the deposit, the payment schedule and the cancellation terms. We do not book anything until you have read and agreed to those. If you want to wait, we can usually hold the plan, but not the rooms; in December, January and festival weeks, the best rooms go months ahead.

Changes after booking are possible, but they cost more as the date nears, because hotels and airlines set their own cancellation terms. That is why we try to settle the big choices in this stage, such as which land, how many nights and which palace hotel, and leave the smaller ones, such as a restaurant or a guide's focus, for nearer the time.

Once you confirm, we book hotels, cars, guides, internal flights and trains, and any special permits. Some of our lands need more paperwork than others, and the rules change, so check current status before you travel. Tiger safaris at Ranthambore are booked by zone and sell out in season. Nubra, Pangong and Hanle in Ladakh need protected area permits. Parts of the North East need an Inner Line Permit, and some areas a Protected Area Permit for foreign nationals. Most visitors to Nepal need a visa, and Upper Mustang needs a restricted area permit.

We arrange the permits we can, and tell you exactly which documents we need and when. Before you leave, you receive the final day-by-day plan, every confirmation, your driver's and guides' details where known, and the phone numbers you need. We also send notes on clothing, money, tipping and any health advice for your route, such as acclimatisation in Ladakh.

You are met at the airport by your driver, who stays with you for each land or the whole journey, depending on the route. Local guides join for the sites, chosen for each place rather than one guide for everything. Our team in India is on call 24 hours a day for anything that needs changing: a delayed flight, a day you would rather spend at the pool, a restaurant you want to try, or an illness that means resting rather than driving.

Plans do change on the road, and a private journey is built to absorb that. If fog closes an airport in January, we move you by car. If a road in Sikkim is blocked, we adjust the order of the days. If you find a place you love, we see whether another night is possible. At the end, we ask what worked and what did not, so that your next journey with us starts from what we have learned.