The essence of travel, we feel, is the joy of discovery, to stand in awe at the grand designs of nature and the fascinating ways different people have adapted to their environment. To travel is to find and find out, be amazed, learn and enjoy, and come back with a new perspective.

The tours we offer are based on the way we travel. We feel that to come away with the enriching experience that travel can give, the traveler’s attitude is key. We feel there is no point in traveling if you’re looking for the same comforts, the same food and lifestyle that you are used to at home. It’s all about having a open mind and engaging the experience.

Apart from this, JTT’s idea of traveling can be summed up with the words: authentic, non-intrusive and responsible. JTT offers tours that are simultaneously exciting and enriching, sometimes loaded with adventure, but always with an open eye for the fasinating nature, wildlife and culture at hand, each uniquely client-centric. Being seriously committed to responsible tourism and eco-friendly practices, we endeavor to approach tourism from a sustainable perspective. For instance: we try to work with local communities where we can, to make sure they benefit from our involvement and your presence. And we don’t leave plastic mineral water bottles behind, nowhere.

WHO IS WHO

Jan Knaapen has traveled and lived in India since 1988. Most of the traveling part has been in the Indian and Bhutanese Himalayas, especially on foot and on horseback. After fifteen years of organizing and leading tours – and working as a landscape ecologist alongside – he took up travel writing and photography. This has resulted in numerous articles on his adventurous (and sometimes not so adventurous) travels in India and elsewhere, and a travel guide in Dutch on trekking in Ladakh. After ten years of writing and photographing he went back to being a travel designer and tour operator, still focused on the most fascinating part of Asia: the Himalayas.

Suchie Dutta Knaapen is a freelancing copy editor/writer who happily crossed over to the kaleidoscopic world of travel when she encountered her future husband, Jan. It was love at first sight albeit with two subjects: her future husband and the mesmerizing Himalayas. Since then, life has been the most exciting roller coaster ride imaginable with travel at its heart. Today, Suchie divides her time between taking care of the new traveler in the family, their daughter Teesta, and working for JTT.

ALL THE OTHERS

We have six local partners with whom we design and execute the tours. These are not agents, but partners, both in terms of the division of the work and with regard to profit sharing. Most of these partnerships are based on a long-standing friendship going back 20 years or more. To say these are ‘trusted’ partners would be an understatement.

And then there are dozens of local guides, naturalists, drivers, cooks and horsemen who eventually make the tour happen, and whose commitment and enthusiasm is what the clients take home as their travel experience. Without them, our tours would not be there. We’re very particular about who guides our trips and who drives our clients because your experience depends on their skills and knowledge. Our tour guides may have very different backgrounds, but they all have a passion for guiding, and a thorough knowledge of the destinations they work in. Having been born and raised there, they can tell you first-hand about culture, history and wildlife, and introduce you to to their favorite places and people.