Rajasthan cycling vacation with Taj & tigers

Planet

We promote travel that does not exploit or harm animals and work towards the preservation of biodiversity. Our itinerary includes a visit to the Ranthambore National Park, one of the best places in the country to see majestic tigers and leopards in their natural habitat. 

We help our guests to discover the Ranthambore's exceptional wildlife, explore its heritage, enjoy its landscape and sample its delicious food and drink through a series of events and activities led by local experts, and encourage respectful behavior towards the protected area.

We collaborate with protected area administration and donate equipment (binoculars, bird guidebooks, and others) to protected area administration, in order to facilitate their job. We promote watching, enjoying, and learning about wildlife in its natural environment.

We have established cooperation with an NGO called "Tiger Watch”, at Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve. An organization’s primary objective is conservation and protection of wildlife and keeping tigers safe from extinction, through programs like infrastructure; capacity building, research, and wildlife monitoring, reduction of man-animal conflicts and direct emergency support.
We provide our support through donations and invite our guests to join us in this collaboration and contribute to the conservation of this valuable ecosystem.

2. Waste: We emphasize the use of electronic communications. Where not possible, when using paper forms for invoices, receipts, survey questionnaires, and others we choose the smallest possible size suitable to a quality job, while at the same time creating minimum waste.

3.Buildings: We stay in locally owned heritage hotels, thus helping protect historically significant buildings from demolition.

4. Transport: We choose to travel by bike, minimizing transportation carbon footprint, and educate our guides and guests on the importance of looking after the areas they are visiting. Where we use back up vehicles, we assess and maximize vehicle occupancy rate. We make sure that vehicles -either our own or transportation service companies’- get regular maintenance.

People

1. Friends & Neighbours: During our stay in Ranthambhore NP, we visit Dhonk, a responsible enterprise making handicrafts in the workshop
facility on site. It aims to provide a sustainable livelihood to people living near Ranthambhore. Their objective is to promote local talent and bring out the colours of Rajasthan in the blend of ethnic and modernistic for the consumer. It also saves the local artisans from disappearing and no longer producing their beautiful items.  

Everything is handmade and helps these people survive who otherwise were dependent on poaching (tigers). Dhonk provides training in crafts and selling products at the fair trade store. Local villagers are learning crafts and sewing to create alternative and ecologically friendly sources of income.
We encourage our guests to support local villagers and this impactful enterprise with purchases of beautiful textiles and crafts.

2. Traveling with Respect: We believe opportunities for meetings between local people and guests provide genuine experiences, promote cultural exchange and preserving of local customs. We encourage the sharing of interesting local customs like artwork or dancing.

The songs and dances of Rajasthan form part of a tradition which is passed down, from generation to generation. Our guests visit colorful folk music and dance performance of the nomadic Kalbeliya. The Kalbeliya women wearing intricately decorated black dresses, colorful bead jewelry, and expressive make up dance to folk music that man play. Popular instruments include dholak (a hand drum), khanjari and poongi (a percussion & woodwind musical instruments). The Kalbeliya dance is recognized as UNESCO intangible cultural heritage and it is not only a dance form but a matter of pride for the Kalbeliya community. We support the community’s effort to preserve their cultural heritage. Our guests experience is enriched by the local culture and traditions and our locals see tourism in a positive light because they feel sense of ownership and pride in it.