MAKING MEANINGFUL CONNECTIONS
Experience the rhythms of village life
Stay at the heart of welcoming villages in beautiful, timeless regions
Experience the rhythms of village life
Our Village Guesthouses
With Village Ways you stay in very special village guesthouses, owned and managed by the village committee. We think of the guesthouses as ‘village homestays’ – offering a unique opportunity to experience village life as it is lived today. But these are so much more than typical homestays; you are hosted by a village, rather than just one family and your visit benefits the wider community.
You connect with your hosts in a special way and enjoy life at the heart of a village, without feeling that you are intruding in anyone’s home. The guesthouses are simple and comfortable, gently reflecting the way your hosts live in their own village houses.
A Warm Welcome
Your village team has received good training in hygiene, house management, hospitality and cooking but they are not professional hoteliers. Their welcome is genuine and warm, their hospitality natural. Your hosts, guides, cooks, housekeepers and porters are all drawn from different families through the village, sharing the pleasure of hosting you and the financial benefit.
There is ongoing monitoring to check these benefits are spread around the households over a season. Delicious home-cooked food, often vegetarian, is prepared in the dedicated kitchens over open fires, with most of the produce coming from the farms in and around the village.
The Guesthouses
The village guesthouses are either converted and renovated from an existing unused house, or specially built. Each Village Committee undertook the construction work to reflect the local style and traditions, varying by region. Local craftsmen undertook the work using traditional materials – stone, mud mortar, timber. Continuing investment is put into ensuring the guesthouses are maintained and improved.
The houses are furnished attractively and simply, with local materials wherever possible. Each house has a combined dining and sitting room, often with a terrace to make the most of the views. Bedrooms are typically twin rooms, some with a simple en-suite and some with separate, shared washing and toilet facilities. All bedding is provided. You can relax and enjoy a good night’s rest after a day in the open.
What Are The Villages Like?
Every village is different, from tiny hamlets like Satri, where 3 or 4 family homes cling to the hillside with astonishing views of the Himalayas, to Motthakhara, a bustling, large village in South India, with a range of craftspeople and little shops, as well as farms.
What they share is a sense of the people being attached to the land, an attachment that goes back generations.
