“Travel does what good novelists also do to the life of everyday, placing it like a picture in its frame or a gem in its setting, so that the intrinsic qualities are made more clear.healthordisease.com. Travel does this with the very stuff that everyday life is made of, giving to it the sharp contour and meaning of art.” –Freya Stark
Cultivating a relationship with a trusted, experienced travel adviser can be the first step that makes the difference between a dream vacation that meets all your expectations and one that goes off the rails. ‘Without a travel agent, you are on your own’. Now with the ubiquity of the Web, there is also a new DIY breed of traveller – but the Web is not a connoisseur, and cannot provide the personal introductions to people and places that might lead you beneath the tourist veil. That is why Art of Living is here for you.
A happy traveller will always be in a state of “adequate preparedness”; will go with an open mind and welcome the serendipitous; will relish difference and diversity rather than seeking the safe and familiar; will be excited to have revealed to themselves aspects of themselves that may have remained hidden at home.
The allure of travel is that it can expand our horizons, enhance our sense of wonder about older civilizations, engender our empathy with cultures and faiths so different from our own, inspire awe in the face of stunning landscapes or extraordinary architectural feats, remove us from the mundaneness of our familiar environments, create a sense of excitement and adventure exploring the unknown, enrich our senses and sensibilities, indeed even challenge the prisms of our thinking and knowledge.
It can also concertina our frailties as we go beyond our comfort zone, cause frustrations with language barriers or in the ever more crowded airports and stations of the world, or uncertainty navigating unknown roads and untried hotels.
On our guided/escorted small group journeys we travel in great style and luxurious comfort, but what makes our journeys so memorable are special touches like the most fascinating, expert guides, the more scenic and slow road, that really special hotel and its best rooms, exceptional cuisine and culinary tastes, encounters with locals and artisans in their homes and studios, and a depth of conversation and immersion that is conducive to new and lasting friendships.
small group tour
15 Days
13 - 27 JANUARY 2021
Royal Rajasthan
Luxurious Exotic Estates
Rajasthan is where to fall in love with India.
Welcome to mystery, to enchantment, to unsurpassable beauty.
To ravishing colour and light. To timelessness.
To a kaleidoscope of cultures, religio...
small group tour
13 Days
7-19 June 2019
Sri Lanka:
The Gems
Sri Lanka, often described as a teardrop hanging off India’s southern coast and formerly colonised by the Portuguese, Dutch, and British, retains the staples of a colonial-era paradise—jungles, tea...
small group tour
15 Days
11-25 August 2019
Pearls South India
seductive south
South India is a “soft-landing’ for first time visitors to the subcontinent. For travellers who have visited the more hectic north, you will be seduced by her languorous sensuousness. The landscape...
12 Days
Mid May- Mid September
Trekking in Paradise
the Mystical Mountains of Kashmir
This tour is an exuberant and rewarding journey that will nourish heart, mind, body, soul and all the senses.... It has been designed for confident walkers and adventurers wishing to escape all ves...
small group tour
9 Days
20-28 January 2020
Jaipur Literary Salon
Jaipur Literature Festival
As the largest FREE literary festival on earth, the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival, directed by William Dalrymple brings together some of the greatest thinkers and writers from across South Asia an...
small group tour
10 Days
30 January – 8 February 2020
Gujarat Tribals + Textiles
off the beaten path’
This is an exotic odyssey through Gujarat in Western India for adventurers, collectors and photographers. Art of Living has designed this tour for guests who will enjoy an imaginative itinerary, wi...
small group tour
16 DAYS
22 May - 6 June 2020
Morocco the Magnificent
mountains, medinas, marrakesh and more
Typical of the style of Art of Living Tours, this captivating itinerary offers sublime and intimate riad and heritage accommodation, deep interaction with the local culture, authentic cuisine and a...
small group tour
14 DAYS
Bhutan
The Enchanted Kingdon
Bhutan is a country like nowhere else and a still relatively unexplored destination. For centuries, Bhutan has remained shrouded in a veil of mist and very little about it was known to the outside ...
small group tour
3 Days/Nights
10 - 13 February 2020
Sacred Music Festival
Music, Song and Dance
The three days at Nagaur is private and restricted to two hundred privileged guests, housed in gorgeous, well-appointed royal tents, the same ones we use on our Royal Rajasthan Tour. The fifteen te...
7 DAYS
Kashmir
The Enchanting Kingdom
“If there is a paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this”. Persian poet Jami
Kashmir has been romanticised by everyone from the 16th-century Mogul emperor Jahangir (who, when ...
small group tour
18 DAYS
16 October - 2 November 2020
SACRED PASSAGE TO INDIA
an Odyssey - off the beaten path and no ordinary journey
This is the ultimate Indophile’s journey of the subcontinent, designed for traveller’s who wish to explore a deeper experience and understanding of the sub-continent’s extraordinary culture, histor...
small group tour
11 or 14 Days
Exotic Cultural and Culinary Tour India
Exclusive Bespoke Tour
This exceptional and exclusive 11 or 14-day tour has been designed and conceived by Marieke Brugman, a renowned chef and teacher in her earlier career as co-proprietor of the Howqua Dale G...
small group tour
18 DAYS
23 April - 10 May 2021
Viva La Mexico
New Tour!
This exciting new small group, guided Tour explores the confluence between pre-Columbian, colonial and modern day Mexico – such a fascinating and multi-layered country. In mythology Mexico was vari...
tailored journeys
9 Days
SPAIN
A Gastronomic Pilgrimage in Catalonia, Basque Country + Rioja
Spain is infectious if not downright contagious, remarkable for her astounding diversity and the distinctiveness of character, temperament and mood to be found in the 17 regional Autonomou...
past tours | suggested itineraries
10 DAYS
La Vie en Provence
10-Day Culinary Odyssey
This 10-Day Culinary Odyssey can be tailored for private groups of six to eight+ friends/guests. At least 6 months notice is required for Marieke to host the program. The first four nights are in a...
small group tour
10 DAYS
12 - 20 April 2021`
CHARISMATIC CUBA
a beguiling mix of European, American and African influences
2019 marked the 500th birthday of Havana and sixty years since Fidel Castro swept into Havana to claim the island. The revolution has left an indelible impression on every walk of life in ...