Guaranteed Departures from Just 2 People
All High Places trips run with a minimum of two guests.
£100 off per person for groups of 4 or more.
Some companies find their roots in a business plan. Ours began rather differently — with a passion for the India and the Himalayas, a small group of curious travellers, and the kind of on-the-ground knowledge that only comes from actually being there.
That was 1985. Long before “authentic travel” became something tour operators put in their marketing, we were doing it. Ladakh when it had barely opened to foreign visitors. Trekking routes in Kashmir that most people had never heard of. Rajasthan beyond the Golden Triangle. Nepal’s high passes with small groups who wanted something real.
The team that started those early journeys is still with us. Still on the ground. Still the people who make every High Places trip work.
High Places itself has Sheffield roots going back to the late 1980s, when Bob and Mary — a Yorkshire teaching couple with a serious case of wanderlust — started taking friends on treks in India. What began around a kitchen table grew steadily into a proper adventure travel company, with a loyal following of travellers who kept coming back year after year.
When we took on High Places, we brought with us something the original founders didn’t have: a team already embedded on the ground in Asia, carrying four decades of experience, already knowing which guesthouses were worth the trek and which were best avoided, and with relationships built through years of actually being there — not appointed from a distance.
It wasn’t so much a change of ownership as a natural evolution — a Sheffield adventure spirit meeting deep Asian expertise, the two becoming something stronger together.
Post-Covid, we made a deliberate decision. Rather than trying to cover the world, we committed to doing fewer things rather better. India and the Himalaya — done properly, with genuine depth, by people who genuinely know what they’re talking about.
High Places is run by Sunny Wattal, who grew up between two worlds — northern India, where his family has been involved in guiding and travel for four decades, and the UK, where he has built the business from Sheffield.
The on-the-ground operation in Asia has been at the heart of everything since 1985. What began as a deep love for guiding travellers through extraordinary Himalayan landscapes grew into something rather more substantial — a full operation with genuine local relationships, trusted contacts built over years, and an instinctive feel for these destinations that no amount of desk research can replicate. That operation has since been recognised with two national tourism awards, and has long been trusted by international travel companies to deliver journeys for their own clients. When you book with High Places, that same expertise and rigour works for you directly.
In the UK, Sunny is supported by a small and longstanding team. Paul, a director of High Places, has been with the company since the Bob and Mary days — he handles the finances and between the two companies acts as the steady backbone of communications that holds everything together. Between them, the team handles bookings, client care and the hundred small details that make a journey run smoothly. We are not top-heavy — and that’s rather the point. It keeps us nimble, keeps our prices honest, and means you’re always dealing with someone who actually knows your trip.
Here’s something the big operators won’t always tell you: things occasionally go sideways in India and the Himalayas. A road closed by a landslide. A flight cancelled without warning. A traveller who needs a doctor at altitude, quickly.
When that happens on a High Places journey, you are not waiting for a UK office to contact an agent who contacts a local fixer. Our person on the ground is the local person. They answer the phone. They know the right hospital, the alternative route, the contact at the airline. They’ve handled monsoons, altitude sickness, road closures and cancelled flights — and they’ve dealt with it all before, usually more than once.
That, quietly, is what makes us rather different. Not the logo or the certificates — though we have those — but a team that genuinely knows these places and genuinely cares what happens to every single person we send there.
Since the early days of High Places, we’ve believed in travelling thoughtfully — small groups, unhurried itineraries, and stays that put money into local communities rather than bypassing them. Maximum twelve on group departures, often fewer. We avoid the rushed, whistle-stop approach and give our travellers time — to absorb a place properly, to wander occasionally, to actually talk to the people they meet.
Some of our travellers have been coming back since the early days. We like to think that says something.
High Places Ltd is fully ATOL and ABTOT bonded — your money is protected on every booking, without exception. We are members of Responsible Travel and recognised by Travel Aware. Group departures run with a maximum of twelve and are guaranteed from just two participants, so you won’t find your trip quietly cancelled because numbers weren’t quite there.
We are a small team and we rather like it that way. Call us, drop us an email, or send a WhatsApp — you’ll reach someone who knows exactly what you’re asking about and will give you a straight answer.
