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.

With Village Ways you experience authentic village life, staying at the heart of welcoming villages in beautiful, timeless regions. Our communities welcome guests warmly, and you feel genuine village life all around you. Men and women work the fields in traditional ways, mainly by hand; children make a ball from rags and play cricket on stone rooftops and small areas of flat land – and don’t be shy when they ask you to join in! These places can feel far from the modern world, but the villagers are rightly proud of their heritage, and delighted that guests travel vast distances to visit them.
Manisha Pande, Managing Director VillageWays
"Due to the experience in Village Ways, we have unity in our work, the unity of our village has been strengthened due to this." Khim Singh

Village Homestays.

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 of India and Nepal. 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.
Either limited electricity or solar power provides warm water for showers and power for light through the year. Water comes from the village’s own source and drinking water is boiled and filtered. These resources are limited and guests are asked to use them modestly.

What Are The Villages Like?

KERALA
Mothekara, Kerala
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.
Katdhara, Uttarakhand

Three Amazing Communities

To give you a feel of what life is like in our villages, we highlight three very different places.

Supi, The Indian Himalayas.
This village of stone-built houses stands on a hillside just beneath the towering peaks of the Himalayas, not far from the border with Tibet. Road access is difficult, along dirt roads, and this is an extraordinarily remote and wild place. In the village, though, there is a feeling of warmth and liveliness.
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Hacra, Rajasthan.
On the edge of the great expanse of the Thar Desert, Hacra is a traditional Rajasthani village, of small, family-run farms growing a range of crops. Many families also own camels. This is a peaceful fascinating place, amidst proud, hospitable people.
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Motthakkara, Kerala.
In India's deep south, in the scented hills of Kerala, Mothakkara is a delightful village set at 1000m, with views across splendid tea gardens Here, villagers rely on farming, growing mainly coffee, rubber, jackfruit, pepper and some areca. Pepper and spice production are the mainstay of the community. This is a village full of life and activity, where women play a major role – all our guides here are female, and a highlight of any visit is to witness the women's drumming group performing.
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