No elephant rides, and no captive-animal shows
Why no elephant rides: elephants used for rides are wild animals kept in captivity. Their training and working lives raise serious welfare concerns, and the walk up to the fort in the heat is hard on them.
How you reach Amber instead: by car or on foot through the old gateways to Amber, early in the morning when the fort is quiet and the light on Maota Lake is soft.
- Elephant rides
- Never booked
- Up to Amber
- By car or on foot, early
- Captive shows
- None of any kind
- Camels and horses
- Short rides, light loads
- No performances: no dancing bears, no snake charmers, no monkeys on leads, and no elephant painting or bathing sessions sold as encounters.
- Animals where they live: from blackbuck grazing in the grasslands to cranes wintering in the desert. Our page on ethical animal encounters explains what we offer.
- Working animals: camels and horses are part of Rajasthan's working life, and the herding communities who raise them depend on them.
- How we ride: for a camel safari or a ride on a Marwari horse, we work with handlers who keep their animals healthy, rested and properly fed, and we keep rides short and loads light.
Fair pay for artisans and hosts
Paid for their time: craft families, haveli cooking classes, musical evenings and village walks. The people who host you are paid fairly and directly.
No disguised sales pitch: a visit is never an unpaid sales pitch dressed up as an experience.
- Hosts
- Paid fairly and directly
- Commission
- None for us, none for our guides
- Where you shop
- Makers named and paid properly
- Our own team
- Paid fairly, in season and out
- No commission shopping: it inflates prices, pushes travellers towards whoever pays the guide most, and often leaves the craftsperson with very little.
- If you want to buy: we'll take you to workshops and shops we trust, where makers are named and paid properly.
- Where to start: our crafts of Rajasthan page introduces the traditions, and block printing in Bagru shows what a good visit looks like.
- Our own people too: guides, chauffeurs and the support team who work long days in season. A journey that depends on underpaid people is not luxury.
Family-run havelis alongside palaces
Palaces, and more: we love Rajasthan's great palace hotels and use them often, and we build family-run havelis, small forts and rural lodges into most journeys too.
Money stays local: smaller family places keep more of what you spend in the town.
- Old buildings survive: your stay helps families maintain houses that might otherwise fall into ruin.
- A way in: they open a door into local life that a large hotel can't.
- What a haveli is: a haveli is a courtyard mansion, usually built by a merchant or noble family. Many in Shekhawati, Bundi, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer are now run as guest houses by their owners.
- How we choose: our guide to heritage havelis explains it, and what to expect.
- Careful camps: we prefer camps and lodges that are careful with water in the desert and with waste in the forests.
Respect at temples and in villages
Living places of worship: temples, mosques, dargahs and gurdwaras in Rajasthan are not museums. We brief every traveller before they visit, and our temple etiquette guide covers the detail.
Villages, as guests: we go in small numbers, with a local guide known in the community, and arrange visits with the households concerned rather than walking in unannounced.
- Dress
- Shoulders and knees covered
- Shoes
- Off where asked
- Head
- Accept a covering when offered
- Feet
- Never pointed at a shrine
- Photography
- Follow each temple's rules
- No sweets, pens or money for children: it teaches begging and disrupts schooling.
- If you'd like to give: we can suggest local schools or community projects that welcome support.
- Not a show: a wedding, a funeral or a festival is not put on for visitors. If you're invited, it's an honour. If not, we watch from a respectful distance or move on.
- More reading: our wider etiquette guide.
Photography with consent
We ask first: our guides ask permission before you photograph anyone, and help you do it gracefully.
A right to say no: many people are happy to be photographed, some aren't, and that's their right.
- Nothing staged: we never arrange photographs of people dressed up for tourists, and we discourage paying people to pose.
- Women in villages: please don't photograph women without clear permission.
- Inside temples and homes: never where it is forbidden or unwelcome.
- Honest pictures: our photography tips explain how to get beautiful pictures without intruding.
Supporting conservation through responsible safaris
Rajasthan's wild places, from the tiger forests of Ranthambore to the granite hills of Jawai and the grasslands of the Thar, are under pressure from roads, mining and tourism itself.
Done well: safaris bring in money that gives local people a reason to protect wildlife.
- Done badly: they crowd and stress the animals they claim to celebrate.
- Who we work with: safari operators and lodges that follow park rules, keep their distance, don't bait or chase, and employ trained local naturalists.
- Quiet over quantity: we'd rather you saw a tiger once, quietly, than five times in a jam of jeeps.
- How we plan them: our wildlife safaris page explains it, and the story of Bishnoi conservation shows why we take it personally.
Our commitments in brief
Animals: we never book elephant rides or captive-animal shows.
Fair pay: we pay artisans, hosts, guides and chauffeurs fairly, and take no commission on shopping.
- Where you stay: family-run havelis, forts and lodges alongside palace hotels.
- Respect: every traveller is briefed on temples and villages.
- Photography: people only with their consent.
- Safaris: operators who follow park rules and support conservation.
- Holding ourselves to it: we'll tell you if something we've arranged falls short of these commitments, and we'll put it right.