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About us

About us

Why Should You Break Away?

Lockdowns, deadlines, itineraries – we all have something we need to take a break from. The question is, especially in uncertain times, is how best to do in the safest, surest manner on the subcontinent. Breakaway is the answer to that question. We’re not just a travel company as much as a company of travellers who have broken away from the clichés of travel and love nothing more than to help you look deep into the eyes of India’s people and thus, into her very soul.

Founded by a traveller who is an authority on the country’s handmade heritage and supported by a team of wanderers who love sending travellers off as much as setting off themselves, Breakaway is where you can choose a carefully curated itinerary or ask to have one made especially for you.

Come discover India
beyond the brochure.

Come, Breakaway.

Come discover India beyond the brochure.

Come, Breakaway.

When we set up over a decade ago, our signature experience was Beyond The Brochure, a defining and much-loved collection of journeys that stayed true to its name and offered not an itinerary but an imagination of the India experience that would be crafted specially for every guest. Our team of intrepid adventurers went travelling through some of India’s most visited landscapes and dug deep to find gems so hidden that they didn’t find much mention in tourism brochures, hence the name. These experiences have been compiled to give you a taste of the food, culture, and heritage of those destinations that few others might have even seen, leave alone sampled.

From arts, crafts and textile trails to plantation tours, solo travel, pet-friendly holidays and bespoke escapes, every journey is thoughtfully curated and tailored to your interests. We take the time to understand what inspires you, then connect you with places, people and experiences that offer a deeper, more authentic view of India.

Meet The Team

Shilpa Sharma
Curation & Business Development
After two decades of travelling across India during her time with FMCG and retail giants, Shilpa decided to leverage her insights and learnings from travelling across India and launch Breakaway to help the discerning craft bespoke travel experiences across the subcontinent. Her standing in the craft & textile and F&B sectors means that doors open for her guests that most can’t even knock on. She co-founded Jaypore, a portal that defined Indian handmade products online and blended her love of food and travel into co-founding Mustard, a concept restaurant that tells travel tales on a plate. Best of all, Shilpa is an avid solo traveller which makes her uniquely placed to create special trips for women breaking away alone.
Bindu Menon
Operations & Customer Service

A Malayali born and raised in Jaipur, Bindu is that rare being in the travel world – someone who loves sending people off more than taking off herself. Her mother swears it began from the cradle, when rocking Bindu to sleep would make her motion sick. Nothing rocks her now, though. Midnight requests, drivers and guests not finding each other, guests realising they are claustrophobic after clambering into a train – Bindu breaks it all down without breaking a sweat. Which is more than she can say about that time she ventured up to Kaza. With motion sickness pills, of course.

Geetika Sachdev
Content & Communications

Geetika handles everything to do with communication, including the social media feeds that the rest of our dread. Besides strategising content and working for reputed publications like Zee Zest, Mint Lounge, The Hindu, and Moneycontrol as an independent journalist, she is always on the lookout for undiscovered sights and sounds. It’s her love for travel and all things unconventional that led her to be a part of Breakaway and ever since she’s been handling communications and storytelling for us. When not writing, you’ll find Geetika raiding the best cafes and book stores in town.

Sonia Poddar
Business collaborations & account development

Sonia Poddar leads business collaborations and account development at Breakaway, bringing extensive experience across sales, retail and distribution. Over the years, she has worked with SMEs, start-ups and luxury lifestyle brands, helping drive growth in both Indian and international markets. Having lived across four countries, including six years in Southeast Asia, Sonia is deeply passionate about travel and the perspectives it offers. An Iyengar yoga practitioner and advocate of mindful living, she also enjoys discovering vegetarian culinary experiences around the world.

All Journeys Are Best Savoured With

Like-Minded Travellers

The spirit of collaboration defines us and much as the desire to innovate drives us. This is why we have something unique to us – Breakawayers. Simply put, these are domain experts from various fields like textile design, gourmet world cuisine, wellness, art history, photography, and creative writing, to name a few. Wanderers at heart who’d love nothing more than to help you see and hear anew via their storytelling. They pack years of experience and passion to ensure that every breakaway does what you’d expect – live up to its name.

Priyanshi Saxena
An art advisor who’s worked with leading contemporary galleries across South Asia, Priyanshi helms the art advisory PSArts, building and managing art collections, and consulting on the South Asian Art Market. She is also the director of Indian Art Market, which works on reviving, restructuring, and connecting the regional art market, especially in regional languages in India. She has also contributed to books on art and has written pieces for leading publications.
Prof. Meenakshi Singh
Meenakshi is a designer, educator and craft expert with over 30 years of experience in textiles, design education and artisan development. Trained at NID Ahmedabad, she has worked extensively with craft communities across Rajasthan and Gujarat and taught at leading design institutes. She was the former Dean of the Indian Institute of Crafts & Design, Jaipur, has co-founded Khatu Designs and curates Khatu Culture Trails, celebrating craft, culture and sustainability.
Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu
Writer of travel guidebooks. Travel and food columnist. Literary critic. Blogger and author. Content developer. Chronicler of the colonial heritage of the Himalayas. Storyteller extraordinaire. We’re really glad for the agrarian upbringing that helped Puneet (as she’s fondly known) farm out into a wide range of passions that helped her breakaway.
Shabri Wable
Inspired by the sheer beauty of handmade products, Shabri discovered that the process is equally important especially to make consumption more conscious. She relocated from Pune to Bhuj where she works closely with the pastoralist communities and interprets their sartorial culture via Bajra, her clothing label.
Sunaina Suneja
Over a 30 year career, Sunaina has worked closely with women artisans in the villages of Punjab, which led to her helping revive Phulkari embroidery, a vivid form symbolic of Punjab. She’s also spent years promoting Khadi, the fabric that Mahatma Gandhi used to symbolise India’s independence struggle. These deep immersions have left Sunaina with a wealth of anecdotes and learnings on handicrafts, which she shares freely with travellers on her trails with us.
Rajni Upadhyay
A tour guide licensed by the Ministry of Tourism & Culture, Rajni is one of the few female guides in what is a male dominated profession. Originally from Delhi, she is now based in Jaipur from where she leads tours across North India. She speaks Italian and has earned a scholarship to Italy, which is just one more example of her love for travel and how it inspires her to go the extra mile.
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Traveller speak

First trip to India - outstanding experience with Breakaway from planning through execution. The Breakaway team was always very responsive and connected us with the best hotels, guides and drivers. Highly recommend !!

Stephen Cucchiaro

Dec 2023 (Delhi, Agra & Jaipur) First time India Travellers

Amazing experience exploring the textile industry of Jaipur and beautiful monuments. It was a 1st class experience. The communication was professional and warm and I particularly appreciated all the tips and suggestions outside of our itinerary.

Andrea Morris

Dec 2023 (Jaipur) Women’s Trip

Best Travel Agency for trips in India. Super professional! We had a really great Time! Can recommend this agency to everyone who wants to have a lifetime experience in this beautiful country !

Herbert family

Mar 2024 (Jaipur) Milestone celebrations

Had such an amazing travel experience with Breakaway. Shilpa and Bindu worked with us over a few weeks to create the perfect itinerary throughout Rajasthan, and as high as our expectations were, everything was even more perfect than we’d imagined.

Alex Keane

Jan 2024 (Rajasthan, Delhi Agra) Art & History

I traveled to India recently for book research, and I am so glad I was introduced to Shilpa! First, about our tour with Breakaway: Shilpa and Bindu customized a tour of the golden triangle. All three tour guides were great in their own way. Bindu was lovely to deal with and super responsive at all hours.

Frimet Goldberger

(Delhi Agra Jaipur) Art & History