Vraiment Holidays began when two tour leaders got tired of running the same Golden Triangle loop forty times a year. We kept the parts of the job we loved — the research, the local fixers, the guest house nobody has heard of yet — and threw away the brochure.
Twenty-two of us now work out of Bhubaneswar and Puri. Every trip is drawn from scratch around one family, one couple, one set of appetites.
Most people arrive knowing the feeling they want before the place. Start here and we will suggest the region.
These are the regions our travel experts have lived in, driven across and go back to — which is why the detail holds up.
Konark, Puri and Bhubaneswar, plus Chilika at dawn for dolphins.
Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, with nights in family havelis.
The classic first trip, done at dawn and dusk to miss the coaches.
A private kettuvallam, then up to Munnar for the cold mornings.
Pangong, Nubra and the gompas, with acclimatisation built in.
Living root bridges, the clearest river in India, Kaziranga for rhino, and dawn on the Brahmaputra.
Short flights from Bhubaneswar, Kolkata or Chennai — and easy to pair with an Indian leg if you have the days.
India rewards the people who slow down for it.
India is not one climate. Tell us your dates and we will tell you honestly which regions are worth it — and which to save for another year.
Odisha, Rajasthan, the Golden Triangle, Kerala and every wildlife park. Cool, dry and busy — book early.
The passes open: Ladakh, Spiti, Himachal, Uttarakhand and Sikkim. The plains are best avoided.
Monsoon Kerala for Ayurveda, the Western Ghats in flood, Meghalaya at its wildest, and Ladakh still open.
Bhutan in spring and autumn. Thailand and Vietnam from November. Maldives and Sri Lanka’s south from December.
Nothing is sold off a shelf. The journeys on this site are starting points — we redraw them for every family that asks.
Your travel expert has driven the road, eaten at the dhaba and met the guide. If they have not, they will say so and hand you to whoever has.
The person who plans your trip is the person who answers when a flight is cancelled at midnight. No handover, no ticket number.
Walk in to Bhubaneswar or Puri, or call us, and book any one of these on its own.
Domestic & international
IRCTC, Tatkal & Rajdhani
Held on our own accounts
Transfers to 50-seat coaches
Fresh, renewal & tatkaal
Inbound e-Visa & outbound files
Overseas medical & cancellation
Currency & forex cards
Day outings for groups
Conferences up to 200
Five nights of Odissi against the floodlit Sun Temple, in our home state. We hold a small block of rooms in Puri and they go early.
Small things, mostly. They are usually what people remember a year later.
“The boatman stopped rowing so we could see the bottom. Nobody spoke for about a minute.”
“Our driver’s mother sent lunch on the second day. That was not in the itinerary.”
“Six in the morning, the horns start, and you forget you have a camera.”
“We asked to moor early and just read. They said most people do, by day three.”
Seasonal advice and the practical detail that decides whether a trip works.
From the first message to a confirmed itinerary. Nothing is charged until you are happy with the shape of it.
A season, a rough budget, who is travelling. “Somewhere cool in May, we hate crowds” is enough to start.
Twenty minutes, usually. We ask the boring questions early because they change the route.
Within about a week, day by day, with the reasoning. Redrafts are free and unlimited.
Only once the shape is right. Nothing buried, and no deposit until you say yes.
We book independent hotels and pay guides directly rather than through agencies, so more of what you spend reaches the people who actually showed you the place. No exclusivity deals steer your route, and we will say when a famous thing is not worth the day it costs.
The short answers. There are about twenty more on the FAQs page.
Four to six months suits most trips. A handful of things — the Konark festival, the Andamans in season, a particular tented camp in Rajasthan — sell out closer to a year out, and we will tell you which parts of your idea are in that category.
No. Every journey is private and built around your dates. If you would rather join a group we will say so honestly and point you at an operator who runs them properly.
There is no number we could put here that would not be a fiction. The same eleven nights can differ enormously by season, party size and standard of stay. We quote once we know the shape of the trip, itemised and in writing.
Yes. The travel desk handles air and rail tickets, hotels, cabs, passports, visas, insurance and foreign exchange as standalone bookings — no itinerary required.
