About
We’re a small atelier. That’s the point.
Hideaways started in 2009 with a single trip Shailesh planned for his cousins. Bandhavgarh in October. The drives didn’t go to plan — they went better. The forest, that month, was the kind of place that rewrote your week.
Two trips became four became forty. Reena, an art historian by training, started planning the cultural circuits — Banaras, Jaipur, the small heritage towns where the families inside the walls mattered more than the walls themselves. By 2014 we had stopped doing anything else.
We’ve always been a two-person company plus a small team in Indore. We don’t scale by adding destinations we don’t know. We scale by doing fewer trips, better. If a place isn’t on our list, we send you to someone we trust.
We don’t take payment on the website. We don’t list prices. Every trip starts with a conversation — usually on WhatsApp, often over a few weeks — and the trip we plan is the trip you couldn’t have planned yourself.
That’s really all the marketing we have.
Co-founder · Wildlife & Himalayas
Shailesh has been to Bandhavgarh fourteen times since 2009.
I went the first time as a tourist. The second time, the naturalist I'd met asked me to come back in a different season — and that's how this began.
Fourteen years on, I plan central-Indian wildlife trips because the forest keeps changing the question. We don't book rooms — we plan field days, with the right naturalists, in the right months.
Outside the parks, I plan Himalayan walking trips — Spiti, Ladakh, Garhwal, Sikkim. Same logic: season first, weather window second, the family who'll have you for tea third.
“The forest doesn't owe you a tiger. The trip is the days around the tiger.”
Co-founder · Cultural & Heritage
Reena plans the trips you couldn’t have found yourself.
I trained as an art historian. Banaras was the first city I felt I'd lived in before I'd visited it. Heritage travel is where India quietly outclasses everywhere else, and I've spent twelve years building relationships with the families and craftspeople who make those trips real.
The people I send you to — saree weavers in Banaras, block-printers in Bagru, a haveli kitchen in Jaipur where lunch lasts three hours — are people I've known for years. That's the whole job.
“You don't go to Banaras to see Banaras. You go to be quiet for a week.”
The team
Two more people, one small office.
Nishant
Handles bookings, lodge negotiations, and the WhatsApp inbox at odd hours. From Indore. Has been to every park we plan.
Anjali
Logistics, transfers, and the spreadsheet that keeps the season from collapsing. From Mumbai, lives in Indore now.
How we work
01 · A conversation
Usually on WhatsApp, sometimes over a few weeks. We’re trying to understand what kind of trip will change your week.
02 · A draft
A written-up plan: regions, lodges, days, the rough cost. Nothing booked yet. We iterate until you say yes.
03 · The plan
We hold the rooms, brief the naturalists, and send a final document. You pay part of the cost to confirm.
04 · The trip
One of us is reachable on WhatsApp the whole time. After, we’ll ask for honest feedback — that’s how we improve.
Travelers we’ve taken with us
“Hello Shailesh, Kellie and Wynona both are saying how much your services were appreciated. They really couldn't have done it without you and your team. Thank you so much for keeping in contact with me throughout the planning and coordinating. It was a pleasure working with you.”
Reach us
We’re in Indore. Tell us where you’re going.
WhatsApp — usually fastest.
hideaways.indore@gmail.com — if you prefer email.
Hideaways
305, Vishal Astra, 12, A/A, AB Rd
next to IDBI Bank Branch, Scheme 54 PU4
Indore, Madhya Pradesh 452010
India