Twenty-five years in.
Still discovering

I have spent twenty-five-odd years sending people to India. Lived there too, for a while, and I still go back and forth.

Nothing goes up on this site until it has been checked: the hotel, the rate, the small print. Our curators in India do that work, and they can tell the difference between a hotel that photographs well and one that is actually good. Quality check by Indiaesque means exactly that. It is a habit from twenty-five years of promoting holidays through the big deal portals, where nothing ran unchecked, and it is the best thing I took from them.

How do we pick the places? Honestly, instinct. I call it the Something About Mary principle. Some places just have something about them. A haveli in Jaipur that has been one family's home for 160 years. Sanjay and Pratibha's house in Agra, two minutes on foot from the Taj ticket window. If a hotel could be anywhere, we leave it to the booking sites.

One thing worth knowing about the money. Whatever the trip — a single night in a haveli or a two-week journey — you book with Indiaesque and you pay Indiaesque. The hotels and the local teams who look after you are ours to pay. One booking, one point of contact, every price with taxes in.

The club is free, it lives on WhatsApp, and members hear about new finds first. That is the lot.

One more thing. The name is pronounced India-esk . Hardly anyone gets it right the first time. We have decided to like that about it.