10 Unmissable Textile Tours and Craft Tours in India

Are you the kind of traveler who loves a dive into the art and crafts scene of any place you go to? Do you love watching artisans create from scratch? Or learn ancient techniques of weaving, craft making, and watch experienced hands at work creating magic with their fingers?

Here is a list of craft tours and textile holidays in India that you must check out.

Sources (Clockwise from top): BoutiqueTours, MastyaCrafts, GoIndia.about 

1. Textile tour in Kutch, Gujarat: Kutch is a destination quite popular among art and textile lovers already. The Mumbai-based Neha Gandhi of Matsya Crafts can take you on an unhurried, customized journey to the craftsmen of rural Gujarat.


2. A Textile Trail in Kanchipuram by Breakaway: All die-hard Kanchipuram saree lovers must do this one to know where your "temple borders, checks, stripes and floral buttas" are coming from. Visit the traditional looms to see how your Kanchipuram saree gets woven from raw materials sourced from all parts of the country.  


3. Indigenous textiles, jewelry, and handicrafts in Delhi-Nagaur-Jodhpur-Jaipur by Prior Knowledge: This is a 12-day tour initiated by David Prior. Prior Knowledge is "a membership-based ‘travel society’ – a luxury service with a not-for-profit arm, focusing on truly unique travel experiences that highlight and preserve culture, rather than exploit it."


4. The Crafts and Textiles of Kolkata and West Bengal for the longer vacay-goers: This is 11 Days/10 Nights and is organized by Lost and Found Travel. Visit weaver villages around Kolkata known for their silk and cotton hand-woven saris, dhotis, jacquards, and jamdanis. They promise explorations of silk farming, cork carving,  textile villages around Shantiniketan, a community workshop for embossed leather goods, and much more.


5. Legends of Lucknow: A Craft & Textile Exploration by Breakaway: Let the words on the website speak for themselves, "Drape yourself in the stories that make chikan so delightful to wear. Let the divine fragrances of ittar transport you to the heavens. Allow the traditions of naqqashi to delicately engrave their way into your heart." And indulge in "Ganjing" - this is a term used to describe ambling and shopping in the wide lanes and bylanes of the city's Ganj market."


6. Visiting the Looms in Tamil Nadu by Breakaway: A journey to Tamil Nadu's vibrant and time-tested expertise in textiles through Kalakshetra (Chennai), Kanchipuram, Auroville (Pondicherry), Karaikudi, Gandhigram, and Madurai.


7. Bagru Block Printing Workshop, in Bagru, Rajasthan by Vedic Walks: If you're hard pressed for time in Rajasthan, this one is for you. It gives you a quick half-day with the bagru artists in their workshop.


8. A 12-day tour to remote tribal villages on the east coast of India by the UK-based Colouricious Holidays. This tour gives you a chance to "visit indigenous peoples in their heritage villages, making their cultural crafts for their livelihood"


9. Painted Histories - Rajasthan by Breakaway: Peak into lesser known art forms, their creators and cultures - miniature art, Bundi style of painting, Kotah style, the Kishangarh style and so on in Rajasthan.


10. A Brush with Nilgiris by Breakaway: The photographer, painter, traveler Mukesh Munim offers 2/3-day workshops in photography and painting (oils, acrylics, pastels). This tour also offers a stay at a farm "at the Khans' whose 22-acre property is a naturalists haven and who have also turned cheesemaking into a fine art". This is an ideal one for artists and art lovers who want to create in the lap of nature.

Don't you feel like packing up your bags and heading out now? Any of these craft tours in India could be an ideal exploratory vacation for a creative traveler, offering a chance to briefly immerse into our artistic traditions.