GREEN
HOMESTAYS
Comfortable eco-friendly homestays across India.
Comfortable eco-friendly homestays across India for the discerning traveler.
From the start of our operations in 2007, we’ve built up strong relationships with families in Ladakh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, and Uttarakhand who have opened up their beautiful homes for our groups. And our experience with these homestays has taught us this — there’s no better way to promote cross-cultural learning and understanding, than to stay with the local community in their homes and learn firsthand from them about their traditional ways and practices. Bridging the disconnects between different human cultures is one of our stated goals — and staying at family-run homestays has been a key way for us to do so.
Learning from this, we’re now developing Green Homestays in different villages (both across Ladakh and other regions) in consultation with the families that own them.
WHY GREEN HOMESTAYS?
Staying at a green or earth-friendly homestay offers several benefits that are mostly unavailable at other places. And what are these benefits? Please read on…
• Staying at homestays puts your money directly into the local economy. The more we support the local economy, the easier it is for the local community to continue with their traditional ways of life, particularly those that are sustainable.
• Our homestay hosts mostly prepare the local cuisine using locally grown produce from their own farms/ kitchen gardens. This reduces your carbon footprint by keeping your food miles low.
• By avoiding the use of processed foods and mineral water bottles, our homestays keep non-biodegradable waste to a minimum. All biodegradable waste such as excess food or kitchen waste, is generally consumed by their livestock or is composted.
• Migration to cities/ towns is reduced considerably as families are more willing to stay and work in their villages when a good income is assured from their homestays. This also allows them to continue with their traditional work of farming.
• Staying at homestays creates excellent opportunities for a deep cultural immersion for travelers, thereby helping them learn more about different cultures. It also helps our homestay hosts learn about urban lifestyles and the challenges these pose to environmental sustainability and the health of people and the planet in general.
LOCATIONS
As a beginning, we have Green Homestays available in Ladakh. But we will be expanding to other locations very soon. When you choose to stay at these homestays, you will experience all of the above, as well as getting a beautiful immersion experience into the local culture.
Our experienced facilitators and guides, who are from the local community, will accompany and guide you as you trek the gorgeous mountain trails, and spend time at the peaceful monasteries and the stunning lakes for which Ladakh is famous. They will also share their stories with you along with heartwarming tales of their land. Allow them to take you on a beautiful journey through their ancient history and culture.
ITINERARIES
INCLUSIONS
Comfort
Clean and comfortable rooms in both old and new houses located in pretty villages
Culture
One-on-one time with your hosts to get to know the local community and culture
Amenities
Fresh sheets, towels, and filtered/ boiled drinking water
Home-made Food
Delicious home-cooked food prepared mostly from fresh organic produce that is grown in their own farms/ kitchen gardens
Toilets
Clean dry-compost toilets (some homes may also have flush toilets)
Activities
Hands-on activities — cycling, day-treks, helping with the farming, etc. (you can choose some of this beforehand)
Over the many years we’ve been traveling across this beautiful country, the strongest relationships we’ve built have been with families in Ladakh, Kashmir, Meghalaya, and other parts of India. And we continue to stay with these families even today, adding to their income and minimizing our own impact on our planet.
Join us in our quest to make Responsible Travel the default choice for travellers like yourself, so that we can leave behind a cleaner, greener Earth for the generations to come. Email us at info@journeyswithmeaning.org for details about our Green Homestays itineraries.
Gallery
Thank you Journeys with Meaning for a fantastic trip to Ladakh. I really appreciate the kind of efforts the team has put in to make our trip comfortable. I am glad this trip gave me more experiences and learnings which I shall surely cherish life long. It brought us closer to the Ladakhi culture and people…
The most amazing part of the entire trip was the homestays which bring you closer to Ladakhi culture and does not make it just a sightseeing/ tourist trip. Definitely, this trip has left behind grand memories and learnings. Thank you for making it possible, even for the small group that we were..
SANCHITA SHINDE, LADAKH, Sep 2018
