Request an invite to write for Field Notes

Request Invite

Have an amazing travel story to share. Request and invite to write. Learn More

Our Story

Great D’Tour an experience-first travel marketplace — built for travellers who care about what they do, not just where they go. And for hosts who’ve built something worth experiencing

About Field Notes

Travel decisions deserve better information than what most of the internet offers.
Field Notes is GDT’s travel journal. We started it because we noticed something: the best travel writing wasn’t trying to sell you anything. It was honest, specific, and actually useful. So that’s what we set out to publish — stories and research that help you plan, think, and choose. Whether you book through GDT or not.
No sponsored content. No listicles engineered for clicks. No FOMO bait. Just writing that respects your time and your curiosity.

Trip Intelligence

Our most in-depth content. Research-driven guides built around regions, places, and experience types are designed to help you understand a destination before deciding to go.

Travel News

What’s changing and what matters. Destination updates, seasonal advisories, visa and regulatory changes, and travel trends worth knowing is kept current and concise.

Real Journeys

Stories from travellers and the hosts behind these experiences. The people who run treks, retreats, craft workshops, and off-road expeditions. Honest accounts worth reading.

Introducing Great D'Tour

Coming in 2026—a revolutionary platform for discovering and booking niche travel experiences that go beyond the ordinary.

Adventure Sports

From mountain trails, open waters, chase motion, master skills, adrenaline,
untamed horizons.

Wellness Retreat

Slow down through healing rituals, mindful retreats, nature-led restoration, and deeply renewing escapes.

Cultural Immersion

Step into living cultures through rituals, spiritual, festivals, crafts, food, stories, and shared traditions.

Wildlife & Nature

Follow birds, forests, night skies, wild creatures, and elemental landscapes that awaken wonder.

Adventure Sports

From mountain trails to open seas, chase motion, mastery, adrenaline, and untamed horizons.

Wellness Retreat

Slow down through healing rituals, mindful retreats, nature-led restoration, and deeply renewing escapes.

Cultural Immersion

Step into living cultures through rituals, homestays, festivals, crafts, food, stories, and shared traditions.

Wildlife & Nature

Follow birds, forests, night skies, wild creatures, and elemental landscapes that awaken wonder.

Share your Story

Tell us about the experience that changed you. We’re looking for authentic voices with compelling narratives that deserve to be heard.
Share your stroy to editor@greatdtour.com

  • List Item #1
Request Invite to Write
Request Invite to Write

Become a Host

We will soon begin our onboarding process for our Founding Vendor Cohort. Re-visit this section to send us your application to our team at onboarding@greatdtour.com

  • Download Partnership Guide (PDF)
Join Waitlist

Frequently Asked Question

TRAVELLER

What is Great D'Tour and how does it work?

Great D'Tour is an experiential travel marketplace, a platform where you can discover, research, and book genuine travel experiences directly with verified independent operators across India and Global destinations. Experiences range from a single day to multi-day programmes across four categories: Adventure, Wellness, Cultural Immersion, and Wildlife & Nature. Every host on GDT goes through an invite-only onboarding before they can list. Our in-house travel curators evaluate each operator for expertise, safety standards, and experience quality. If they do not meet the standard, they are not listed. Once you find an experience, you can check the operator's full profile and credentials, read verified reviews from past participants, review the itinerary and policies, and book securely on the platform. Nothing is hidden behind a booking confirmation.

GDT is available across India and is not limited to specific states or regions. At launch, GDT covers experiences across Indian destinations and select International destination. If there is a quality host/operator running a genuine experience anywhere in India, or outbound destination are eligible to list. GDT is India-first by design. The platform is built to surface the full breadth of Indian operators experiential travel offering, including destinations and experiences that rarely appear on mainstream platforms. GDT plans to expand to more International destinations over time, and GDT Field Notes already covers select global destinations as part of that forward roadmap.

Most OTAs, travel aggregators, and travel agents are built for volume and convenience. They work well for flights, hotel stays, and standard packaged tours. But experiential travel have different needs that these platforms were not designed to serve. On most aggregators, you rarely know who is actually running the experience, the operator’s background, safety record, and expertise are either hidden or hard to verify. Information is promotional rather than practical. And curation is minimal, any operator willing to pay to list can appear, giving travellers no reliable way to evaluate quality differences. GDT is designed specifically around these gaps. Every operator is evaluated before listing, not self-registered. Every experience is supported by independent, research-backed editorial content, not promotional copy. The platform is built to help you find the right experience for you, not simply the most popular one.

Every operator on GDT goes through an invite-only onboarding before they can list on GDT, covering expertise, safety standards, experience quality, and delivery track record. An operator who does not meet the standard is not listed. Before you book, you can see the operator’s full profile including their background, credentials, certifications, years of experience, and verified reviews from past participants, all visible before booking, not after. On the platform side, GDT is Startup India certified, GST registered, and incorporated in India. We operate under applicable Indian consumer protection and data privacy regulations. Booking, cancellation, and refund policies are published clearly on every listing. Payments are processed through a secure payment gateway. If something goes wrong with a booking, there is a clear resolution process and a direct way to reach our support team.

For multi-day experiences on GDT, most operators offer end-to-end packages where accommodation, meals, and local logistics are included as part of the experience. Some experiences may also include flights and visa services, which will be specifically mentioned on the listing. GDT does not separately provide booking for flights or standard hotel stays at the moment. For help understanding what a destination requires in terms of getting there and how to prepare, GDT Field Notes covers detailed information including transport
options, how to reach the location, permit requirements, and what to expect on arrival. For any specific queries about the tour you can reach out to the GDT support channels.

GDT Field Notes is live now. The marketplace follows as we complete onboarding our first set of curated hosts and operators. The marketplace goes live in the summer of 2026. We are planning early-bird goodies for curious travellers. If you want to be part of the early-bird program, write to us at earlybird@greatdtour.com

An experiential travel guide goes beyond listing attractions and hotels. It gives you the practical, honest intelligence you need to understand what an experience actually involves before you commit to it — terrain, difficulty, cultural context, permit requirements, seasonal conditions, and what to genuinely expect. GDT Field Notes is exactly that. It is a collection of deeply researched journals covering destinations, experience types, travel intelligence, real traveller stories, and travel updates across India and global destinations. Written and fact-checked by a veteran community of experienced travellers and geographic experts, every claim is verified against official sources — GI tag registries, UNESCO databases, wildlife census data, state tourism records. The goal is straightforward: give anyone researching a travel experience the specific, reliable information they need to make a good decision, whether or not they ever book through GDT. GDT Field Notes is free for life.

GDT Field Notes is invite-only for contributors at the moment. If you have an interesting travel experience or story to share, you do not need to be a professional writer. Send us your story about what you experienced and why you think it belongs in GDT Field Notes. We review every submission and our editorial team will reach out if it is selected. Selected contributors are automatically eligible for early-bird goodies. Send your story to editor@greatdtour.com

When you book an experience, you pay the price as listed by the operator directly. GDT does not add any markup. What you see on the listing is what you pay. The platform offers flexible payment options and all transactions are processed securely. GDT earns a commission fee from the operator on completed bookings. GDT Field Notes is free for life to use. Use it to research and plan your next trip, save or bookmark a trip planner for future reference, share it with a friend, or simply comment with your insights.

HOST & VENDOR

What is Great D'Tour for a host or experience operator?

GDT is a travel-tech conversion platform, not a lead generator. When a traveller books your experience through GDT, you receive a confirmed, paid booking. The platform handles booking confirmation, payment collection, cancellation processing, communications, and review collection. You focus on delivering the experience. Unlike OTAs or aggregators that list thousands of undifferentiated options, GDT limits listings to a small, curated group per experience category. Your listing is not competing against hundreds of similar operators. The traveller who finds you on GDT is already looking for exactly what you offer and arrives with the context and confidence to commit. GDT earns only on completed bookings. When your listing performs, GDT earns. When it does not, GDT does not charge you.

GDT is built for operators who offer genuine multi-day or immersive experiences in these four categories: Adventure, Wellness, Cultural Immersion, and Wildlife & Nature. This includes established operators, independent guides, wellness practitioners, retreat owners, craft artisans, life coaches, creators, naturalists, cultural curators, and expedition leaders, DMCs across any stage of business development. Scale is not the criterion. The quality of what you have built and your ability to deliver it independently is what matters. GDT does not work with generic sightseeing tours, transport-only providers, or drop-in hourly sessions without a packaged experience component.

GDT onboarding is invite-only. There is no walk-in listing. If you believe your experience fits GDT’s experience philosophy, express your interest to our onboarding team at onboarding@greatdtour.com. The onboarding team reviews every submission, assesses your fit, experience quality, safety standards, and delivery history, and reaches out with next steps. Operators selected during GDT’s current pre-launch phase are eligible for the Founding Member Cohort, with specific benefits that are not available after the platform opens to the general operator base.

GDT is in its founding period, the window before the marketplace opens to the general traveller base. Early partner operators, called Founding Partners, receive long-term benefits that operators who join later will not. Commission rates are locked at listing level for 24 months, protecting early partners from rate revisions as the platform scales. Organic marketing support starts from day one regardless of listing slab; for later operators this unlocks only at higher tiers. Each founding partner’s host story is researched, written, and published through GDT’s channels during the pre-launch period, meaning the traveller who has been following GDT’s build-up knows who you are before the marketplace opens. All founding partner benefits are contractual, documented in a plainlanguage Founding Partner Agreement. Category positions fill on a rolling basis and close when full. To know more write to onboarding@greatdtour.com

GDT charges a commission on completed bookings only. There is no listing fee, no monthly subscription, and no charge until a booking completes and the traveller has paid. Commission is set at the listing level, not at the vendor level. For each experience you list, you independently choose the commission slab that suits that product. A vendor with multiple products can have each listing on a different slab, based on that product’s margin and how much operational support you want GDT to provide. To know more write to onboarding@greatdtour.com

Yes, and it is free. GDT believes that some of the most meaningful travel experiences involve contribution rather than consumption. Volunteer tourism, environmental conservation programmes, community-led immersions, and CSR activities that involve no transaction can be listed on GDT at zero commission. No booking revenue needs to change hands through the platform for these listings. GDT is committed to supporting sustainable, responsible, and community-centred travel. To know more about volunteering listings write to volunteer@greatdtour.com

Every listing on GDT gives you a professional, bookable presence on the platform with your full experience description, itinerary, policies, availability calendar, and host identity. Every listing generates a short-link you can share through your own channels so the traveller lands on your listing, a complete itinerary and a bookable page rather than an enquiry form, payment link, or PDF. Beyond the listing itself, GDT provides a range of operational, marketing, and commercial support that increases with your chosen listing slab. To understand the slabs and the benefits that suit your business, write to onboarding@greatdtour.com

Yes. Non-GST registered operators can list on GDT. GDT understands the realities of operating in India’s experiential travel sector where genuine, niche, highquality operators are often not GST registered, particularly at early stages. Where GST obligations apply to transactions on the platform, GDT covers the compliance requirements on your behalf. For details on how this works, write to onboarding@greatdtour.com

Yes, entirely. There is no mandatory inventory commitment on GDT. You control your availability calendar through your vendor dashboard, which dates are open, how many participants you accept per batch, and when a slot closes. You also choose your booking model per listing: instant confirmation, where bookings are locked automatically with real-time notification to both you and the traveller, or request-to-confirm, where you review each booking request before it is
accepted. If your availability changes, a batch fills, a date becomes unavailable, a programme is postponed, you update it in your GDT dashboard. GDT does not require you to commit dates you cannot service.

No. You set your own pricing. You list your MRP and run discounts at your own discretion. GDT does not determine or interfere with your pricing decisions. GDT maintains minimum pricing guidelines to protect the integrity of listings and the traveller experience on the platform, but within those guidelines, pricing is entirely yours to manage, the same way you would price and discount through your own retail channels.

GDT is built with the Indian travel sector in mind, which means flexibility in how payments are collected. You choose your payment model at each listing level. You can opt to collect the balance payment directly from the traveller yourself, or enable GDT to collect full payment on your behalf, where the traveller pays the complete amount on-platform and GDT settles to you according to the agreed payout schedule. Each option suits a different operational setup and can be set differently for each listing. For questions about payment options, write to onboarding@greatdtour.com

Scroll to Top