A remarkable place becomes a richer story when someone helps you read it. To mark twenty years of destination expertise across Asia, luxury adventure company andBeyond is launching a new collection of five Limited Edition Small Group Journeys led by people whose lives have become intertwined with the landscapes, species and cultures they reveal. From the forests of eastern Nepal to the riverbanks of the Ganges and the high valleys of Ladakh, these journeys invite guests into landscapes that have shaped the lives of the people who know them best. Scientists, naturalists, historians, conservationists and documentary makers become more than expedition leaders; they become interpreters of places they have spent decades learning to read.
“People often think the rarest part of a journey is the species, the sighting or the place itself,” says Suhail Gupta, Managing Director of andBeyond Asia. “In reality, the rarest thing is perspective. Over the years, andBeyond has worked alongside remarkable people whose curiosity has been shaped by decades in the field. These journeys allow them to share not only what they know, but how they have learnt to see.”
The collection will operate through a limited number of departures in 2028. Intimate group sizes, carefully selected expedition leaders and access shaped by long-standing regional relationships allow guests to move beyond conventional touring and spend time inside someone else’s lifelong fascination. Whether tracking red pandas in the eastern Himalaya or exploring the many stories of the Ganges, each journey is designed around the idea that understanding enriches experience. Guests will not simply be seeing a species, landscape or cultural landmark, but will be discovering the history, relationships, research and lived experience that give it meaning.
Red Pandas and Tigers, Nepal.
Renowned naturalist Harsha Jayaramaiah leads guests from the misted forests of Nepal’s eastern Himalaya to the river systems and grasslands of Bardia National Park. One of India’s most respected wildlife interpreters, Harsha has spent more than two decades studying mammals, birds and reptiles across the subcontinent, learning to read the signs that make a landscape legible.
The journey begins in Kathmandu before continuing to Jaubari in Nepal’s eastern Himalaya, where local trackers help reveal the quiet presence of red panda, and then travels west to Bardia in search of tiger. Through Harsha’s patient observation, each encounter becomes part of a wider story, revealing that wildlife is rarely understood through a single sighting but through the relationships, traces and patterns that surround it.
Snow Leopard Expedition, Ladakh, India.
For many wildlife enthusiasts, the snow leopard is an elusive ambition. For Dr Raghu Chundawat, it has been his life’s work. A pioneering wildlife scientist, Dr Chundawat helped transform scientific understanding of snow leopard ecology in India and accompanies guests throughout the expedition, sharing knowledge gathered over decades of research in the Himalaya and Trans-Himalaya. Tracking takes place in the Rumbak Valley, where the search for snow leopard opens into a deeper reading of the mountain ecosystem. Through his perspective, prey, terrain, climate, conservation and community life are revealed as parts of one connected story, allowing guests to understand not only the species itself but the demanding landscape that makes its survival possible.
Rediscovering Monkey Kingdom, Sri Lanka.
Hosted by andBeyond Private Guide Toby Sinclair, this journey explores the landscapes made known to global audiences through Disneynature’s Monkey Kingdom, connecting the long-running primate research at Polonnaruwa with Sri Lanka’s living culture and ancient history. At Polonnaruwa, guests enter a landscape where generations of toque macaque have been observed among the remains of an ancient royal capital, their family relationships, alliances and individual behaviours recorded over decades. The wider journey travels through Wilpattu National Park, Sigiriya, Anuradhapura and Kandy, revealing how the island’s natural and cultural histories continue to shape one another.
Toby’s knowledge of the filmmakers and researchers behind the story allows guests to move beyond what appeared on screen and understand the years of patient work that made it possible.
From Himalaya to Kolkata, a cruise down the Ganges, India.
Beginning at Devprayag, where the Ganges is formed, this journey follows one of the world’s great rivers from its Himalayan origins through Varanasi and onward to Kolkata. Guests are accompanied by andBeyond Private Guide Toby Sinclair, who served as an Associate Producer on the acclaimed BBC series Ganges, researching, planning and facilitating filming across the river system. Moving between spiritual centres, riverside communities and historic places, the journey traces how the river gathers meaning as it travels across the country. Toby’s experience of following the Ganges through a filmmaker’s lens brings its many stories into conversation, revealing how wildlife, faith, geography and daily life meet, diverge and flow together.
From Patna to Kolkata, a cruise down the Lower Ganges, India.
Acclaimed historian and author Rudrangshu Mukherjee joins guests on a voyage through the Lower Ganges, exploring the river as a corridor of ideas, trade, faith and empire. Travelling through historic settlements, sacred Buddhist sites, colonial trading centres and riverside communities, guests discover how geography influenced the political and cultural forces that shaped eastern India. Rudrangshu brings the river’s past into conversation with the present, giving meaning to places that might otherwise appear as little more than points on a map. Through his scholarship, the histories of those who lived along the riverbanks become visible, as does their enduring influence on India today.
Twenty years in the making.
andBeyond’s story in Asia began in India in 2006, laying the foundation for what would become one of the region’s most respected luxury adventure companies. From the outset, the company designed immersive journeys shaped by deep local knowledge and long-standing relationships with naturalists, communities and conservation partners who help steward these remarkable landscapes. Since then, its presence in the region has grown through years of listening and learning, supported by relationships with those who understand its landscapes, wildlife and cultures from within.
An early chapter was the creation of Taj Safaris with Taj Hotels. Beginning with Mahua Kothi in Bandhavgarh in 2006, the partnership expanded across Bandhavgarh, Pench, Panna and Kanha National Parks, creating India’s first circuit of wildlife lodges. Together, the two companies helped guests experience Central India’s wild places with greater depth while bringing wider attention to the landscapes that sustain them. This commitment extended beyond the journeys themselves. In 2011 and 2012, andBeyond supported key conservation initiatives in the region, including the translocation of gaur to Bandhavgarh National Park, helping restore a species that had disappeared from the reserve.
As andBeyond’s understanding of the region deepened, so did its presence within it. Locally based teams were established in Bhutan in 2010, Sri Lanka in 2012 and Kathmandu in 2014, allowing the company to build enduring partnerships and shape journeys around the character of each destination rather than a single way of travelling. In 2023, the opening of andBeyond Punakha River Lodge marked another important step: the company’s first owned lodge in Asia and a lasting expression of its commitment to the region.
These Limited-Edition Small Group Journeys draw on everything the past twenty years have made possible. They bring together regional knowledge and trusted relationships, opening the door to people whose understanding has been earned over a lifetime. andBeyond brings the pieces together, but it is the generosity of those experts that allows guests to see more, ask better questions and return home with a different way of understanding Asia.
These are journeys shaped not only by where they go, but by who opens the way. For a few days, guests are invited to look more closely, listen more carefully and encounter Asia through the perspective of those who have spent years understanding it. Bookings can be made through an andBeyond travel specialist or a preferred trade partner.
