Kiplings Country

An imaginative, 16 night holiday in India following in the footsteps of Rudyard Kipling and visiting the places he loved and wrote about. The itinerary includes nights in Kanha National Park, the setting for ‘The Jungle Book’, before moving onto Varanasi and Lucknow, the setting for ‘Kim’, and a stay at the magnificent Wildflower Hall, in Shimla, where Kipling was a frequent guest.

Arrive Bombay. You will be met on arrival and transferred to your hotel on Marine Drive.

You will be met and escorted on a private sightseeing tour of Bombay.

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay on the 30th December 1865 to John Lockwood Kipling (Head of Department of Architectural Sculpture at the government School of Art) and Alice Kipling.

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You will be transferred to the airport in time to check in for your flight to Nagpur. On arrival, you will be met and transferred to Kanha National Park.

In 1894, this area, now known as Kipling Country, inspired Rudyard Kipling to write his epic work, The Jungle Book.

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Morning and Evening game drives into the park in search of the elusive Panthera tigris tigris.

You will be transferred to the airport in time to check in for your flight to Varanasi. Here you will be met and transferred to your hotel on the banks of the River Ganges.

In 1901, Benares (now known as Varanasi) was the setting for Kipling’s book ‘Kim’.

You will be taken on an early morning boat ride on the Ganges, followed by a guided walk through the narrow alleys of the old Varanasi city.

In the evening, you will be taken to see the Arti on the banks of the Ganges. This is a spectacular sight, where dozens of priests offer huge flaming lamps to the river, lighting it up with the glow. Offerings of lamps and flowers are made following this ceremony and it is a moving sight to watch hundreds of miniature lamps floating along this sacred river.

You will also have the opportunity to visit Sarnath.

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You will be met and escorted on a private sightseeing tour of Lucknow, accompanied by your guide.

In the book ‘Kim’, having spent his childhood on the streets of Benares, Kim is sent off to St. Xaviers school for Anglo-Indian children in Lucknow. St. Xaviers, under it’s real name of St. Martiniere College, still functions as a school. The curriculum and uniform remain firmly those of an English public school of the 1930"s, with khaki drill and the works of John Buchan are still very much ‘de rigeur’.

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You will be transferred to the airport in time to check in for your flight to Delhi. Here you will be met and transferred to your hotel in the centre of the city.

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You will be transferred to the station in time to catch the train to Kalka and the toy train onto Shimla. Here you will be met and transferred to Mashobra.

Kipling visited Shimla many times. The frescoe on the sanctuary wall of the Christ Church was copied from the original design by his father, Lockwood Kipling. Rudyard himself acted in a play, ‘A Scrap of Paper’, at the Gaiety Theatre, to raise funds for the church.

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You will be transferred back to Kalka in time to catch the train back to Delhi. Here you will be met and transferred to your hotel.

You will be transferred to the airport in time to check in for your flight back to London with Virgin Airlines.

PLEASE NOTE THAT OUR ITINERARIES ARE DESIGNED TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA OF THE POSSIBILITIES AND ARE NOT SET IN STONE. WE WOULD BE DELIGHTED TO QUOTE FOR A HOLIDAY OF YOUR DESIGN. TO BOOK YOUR HOLIDAY CALL ONE OF OUR TRAVEL CONSULTANTS ON :

+44 (0)20 8343 3446