SO! First of all, if by some chance you haven’t seen my India trip/plans/adventure, I totally suggest you check it out—- if you’ve ever dreamed of traveling there of course! Otherwise, no problem, maybe skip it πŸ˜‰ Second, this post is about two weeks over due— but that’s what happens when you try to juggle blogging, cookbook writing, mothering, house-keeping, gardening, and everything else under the sun (I’m an over achiever— it’s complicated). 
SO, okay, you’ve checked out the post— maybe you had questions or still have questions, right? Well, Lisa and I thought it would be helpful to round up the most frequently asked questions (or just a general, things you should know) and put them together for you guys. If you’re interested in the trip, then the best tip I can recommend is requesting an itinerary. 1. It will answer a lot of questions. 2. It’ll bring up a lot more specific questions. You can request an itinerary by visiting HERE (the link is on the right side). Or you can email lisa directly (lisa@aboveclouds.com) — but she’s in Nepal for the next month (booooo, wahhhh) so her awesome assistant (Julie) will be answering all your questions for you (yayyy!).

onto the questions:


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Space is limited, what does that mean?
Space is limited! No one wants to go on a trip with 50 people, that’s overwhelming and crazy. We’re capping the trip to 14 people max, but really, we’re probably capping it off even smaller. We’re both believers in quality over quantity. We like to leave the number at 14 for now, so you know the absolute max that will be joining us and you don’t go expecting a certain number and finding out it’s double later.

Is there still room?
There is still room! We have a few people signed up. And there is a good amount (a lot!) of opened applications (yay!), and a TON of people who have requested itineraries and information.

What is the deadline?
Well, we can’t give a specific deadline, once it’s capped, it’s capped, that’s it. And we have no way of knowing how many people will apply and who will be a good fit— until it all happens. There’s no specific time, we just recommend that if you’d like to come, you put in an application and put in a deposit to save your spot. If you’re coming, your deposit must be in before december.

When is the trip?
February 28th to March 12th, 2015– door to door.

Are families/kids welcome?
Well, I’d hate to say that families are not welcome— but really, with the schedule and the nature of the workshops/activities (textile making, yoga, sunrise AND nighttime exploring, etc), this trip isn’t really ideal for kids, especially smaller kids. Have an older kid that would do well in out of county travel? Then lets talk about it and see if it’s a good fit!

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And my boyfriend/husband?
Sure! Honestly, when we first started this idea we thought it would be really great to do a women’s geared trip— but as we got further into planning, we knew that while that’s a fun idea, we like the idea of inviting anyone who find this itinerary to be their dream trip!

Is your family coming?
Marlowe is not. Alex and I have a pretty good rule in place that unless we are staying with family, we’d like to visit the place first, before bringing marlowe. Atleast for another year or so. But three/four is a bit small for this travel— if we planned a slower and more rural schedule, fine, but like I said, this is more geared for adults. Alex, I’m not sure. We have a few family trips planned next year, so he’ll probably use his time off for those πŸ˜‰


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Whats the price?
Welp, that’s in the itinerary. Full disclosure: I asked Lisa, do we share price? How does this work? She said it’s standard for the company to share that along with all other information in itinerary— which you request, she keeps track of, and you both have all the information— that makes sense.

Note: What I suggest is: requesting itinerary— then clicking the links to the hotels (some, like the roop niwas provided the images for this post!), checking out how awesome, beautiful, and (some are) pretty extravagant, and reading through the schedule carefully to see everything the trip includes— it’s A LOT. Also, beyond the price, you get a lot of things you wouldn’t get planning this at home— fun details, access to otherwise very difficult.impossible to plan workshops, an in country cell phone (yes seriously, how awesome is that? to stay connected to the whole group if you decide to do your own thing and need assistance!), private group yoga classes, etc etc.  Once you start really researching and adding stuff up, you can see pretty clearly, we’re not making money on this— just two friends, with a big idea. Partay.

What’s included in price?
Drea: “almost everything!”
Lisa: “for the most part, the last page of the itinerary is detailed in full trip costs and explaining whats included and what isn’t.”
So, if you request an itinerary, you get basically all the information on whats planned, from yoga, to workshops, to every meal (restaurants/cooking lessons), to hotels, to everything— it’s included. We’ve had a few people ask how much the morning yoga would cost, or the workshops, etc— the price that is on the trip includes all of that. Blammo, awesome (very hard to come by) trip planned with everything sorted and (inexpensively) priced for you.


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Yoga classes, entrance fees, tips, hotel fees and inclusions, do I bring money for this?
These things were all included in our final price because we wanted to make this trip really exciting and personal, while offering people a less worrisome, more relaxing travel that wouldn’t necessarily come with far away and longer trips like this— thats what above the clouds does. We don’t want people to have to worry, “did I bring enough for this, or can I cover this?”

From Lisa: While we are on the ground there will be a few of us “working” – Andrea and I will be there – along with a Head Guide (Rubina – she is the one who scouted this trip a few weeks ago and took all the photos you see on the website and itinerary along our route!) as well as local guides (experts and locals in the particular areas/sites we’ll be visiting that will help share the important details locals know best).  Between the four of us – we’ll take care of paying for entrance fees, tips, included rickshaw rides – so you need not worry about having cash on you for those types of things. The only time you’ll need access to money is for non included items of a personal nature (like if you see a souvenir along the way that you like).

From Drea: The other things not included in price are awesome (extra– you’ll be making and keeping some) textiles to bring home, delicious spices (yum), basically any gifts/souvieneers, booze, and laundry. 

What about airfare costs?
Well, airfare is very much dependent on where you live, right? We didn’t include this cost into the price because this will vary greatly on where you live. It’ll be much cheaper for someone from Europe to fly in than someone from New York. If you do a quick search from your location to Delhi for the itinerary dates, you’ll get an idea of your airfare costs. When you do your actual booking, above the clouds is more than happy to help you make sure you have the right dates, times, and everything else in order!

Research and vaccinations?
From Lisa: As soon as we get you registered into the program we send you a full pre-departure packet, which includes all the details about preparation, medical details, vaccination suggestions and much more! We’re happy to help and go back and forth with you so that you feel as prepared as possible before this big adventure. Preparation is a big part of what we do – prepared clients are the happiest ones while on a big adventure! 

I’m hoping to share more details soon, but knowing me and my blogging time management, it might be another while or so. In the meantime, the images, unless noted, were provided by the narain niwas hotel, one of the pretty places we’ll be staying in for three nights (above). As well as the roop niwas kothi, another place we’ll be staying on our trip πŸ™‚ Want more details on the trip? Check out my original blog post: HERE or the above the clouds ohdeardrea travel page to request an itinerary. 

I hope you guys had a great week! It was fast for me, but I’m still pooped!  Have a great weekend, cooking, playing, gardening, travel planning, or whatever else you might be doing πŸ™‚ 

8 Comments

  1. I love that you make sure to specify that you need to bring booze money. This sounds like my kind of trip!!

    • I know, right? I wish you were coming? Are you coming? you should come.

  2. Ok, so I GOTTA know, is one of the textile workshops with Blockshop Textiles or their blockprinting shop, Bagru Textiles??

    • No actually. All workshops planned are with Indian men and women teachers—- I actually just heard of/randomly stumbled upon them yesterday and loved their images! I had never heard of them before, it was pretty fitting though πŸ˜‰

    • If you don't already, you should follow Blockshop Textiles AND Bagru Textiles on Instagram. So much visual pleasure! And the Stockman sisters who run Blockshop are in Jaipur right now.