Tiny houses in India

Tirthan Valley sits at the edge of the Great Himalayan National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and has grown into a trout-fishing and trekking base that stayed quieter and less commercial than its more famous neighbour. Manali, an hour or so further north, is the established Himachal hub — the gateway to Solang Valley and the high Rohtang Pass, busier and more built up, with a long-running backpacker and honeymoon trade.

Coorg, in the Western Ghats of Karnataka, is a different India entirely: a hill region of coffee and spice plantations sometimes nicknamed the Scotland of India for its mist and green hills, with a single verified treehouse tucked among the trees.

Our verified stays across all three are dominated by treehouses — Tirthan Valley and Manali both have several, alongside cabins, domes and a pod. March to June and September to November are the clearest windows for the Himalayan valleys, avoiding the summer monsoon and the harshest winter cold; Coorg is at its greenest just after the monsoon, roughly October to March for comfortable temperatures. Our verified selection is still small — a promising start in a country with an enormous amount of ground still to check.