Freida Pinto on Her Favorite Hotels in India, 1 Must-try Street Food, and What First-time Visitors Should Know

Before Freida Pinto became a household name with her breakout role in Slumdog Millionaire, she hosted the travel TV show Full Circle. “I feel very lucky. The show took me to some amazing destinations—Afghanistan being one of the most beautiful,” she says, recalling how she celebrated a birthday there while filming. “That experience—traveling to different places every month—changed me. Of course, it was rigorous shooting, but it gave me a [new] view of the world. We think we know everything, but we’re just a tiny speck. What we think is the be-all and end-all really isn’t. There’s a lot more to see.”

When Pinto reflects on her childhood in Mumbai and her travels throughout India, our 2027 Destination of the Year, the state of Sikkim stands out. “It’s not a popular travel destination because tourists usually go to the Golden Triangle—Delhi, Agra, Jaipur—or Rajasthan or Kerala. All beautiful, by the way, but the road less traveled is in the northeast,” she says. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, Sikkim holds a special place in Pinto’s heart. “Just before I went to college, my family of four went to Sikkim and made the most beautiful memories,” she adds.

Pinto recommends exploring northeastern states like Sikkim and Meghalaya on a longer road trip, particularly for more experienced travelers. For those seeking a more luxurious, but still culturally rich, escape, she suggests Kerala. “Go to an Ayurvedic spa, experience a houseboat, and watch kalaripayattu in the evening, so you can see a very ancient form of martial arts [in India],” she says.

For hotel-obsessed travelers who choose their destinations based on where they’ll stay, Rajasthan should be on the list. “I was amazed by the amount of havelis (traditional mansions) and palaces that have been converted into hotels in Rajasthan,” Pinto shares, remembering the time she spent hopping between properties while filming Trishna. The northwestern state is also home to two of her favorite hotels in India: Taj Lake Palace, Udaipur and Rambagh Palace, Jaipur.

Freida Pinto

What is your go-to jet lag remedy?

Don’t sleep during the day. You adjust to the time zone you’re in much faster.

Food that reminds you of home?

A lot does, but dosas definitely remind me of home.

Favorite place you’ve ever visited?

Japan and Spain.

Place you still want to visit?

Argentina.

Favorite filming location?

Ireland. We were shooting in a part of Ireland where Vikings was shot as well, and it was stunning. The cliffs into the ocean—it’s just something else.

Most unusual thing you always pack?

I don’t know if it’s unusual, but I always carry my sound machine. I don’t like what the brown or white noise sounds like on my phone, and when I am trying to get into a deep, deep state of rest, I have to have that same noise I’m used to.

Though she has traveled extensively throughout India, there are still more destinations left on Pinto’s list. “One of my favorite things to do growing up was to keep an atlas and mark the places in India and around the world that I wanted to visit. I clearly remember marking the Lakshadweep Islands, and I still haven’t been there,” she says. The archipelago of 36 islands off the coast of Kerala is India’s smallest union territory.

When it comes to exploring a country as vast and diverse as India, with its many climates and cultures, Pinto has some advice: “For the American tourist traveling to India for the first time, I would say, prepare yourself for the extremes. You can get that quiet and stillness the world [associates with] India—people come here to heal or transform themselves. But you’ll also get the maximum limit of everything: the chaos, the traffic. I sometimes get overwhelmed by the noise and chaos, so I have to find my bearings, too. But I would say prepare yourself for the two extremes.”

Of course, as in any destination, Pinto reminds travelers to be mindful and respectful: “You are entering a different culture. There are a different set of rules here. People live by them. Be respectful of them, and be open to learning.”

She also advises travelers to familiarize themselves with “what kind of eating and drinking habits might get [them] in trouble,” but encourages them not to be afraid to try India’s incredible street food. “What is life without Indian street food?,” Pinto asks, saying pani puri is a must-try. “There’s literally nothing in the world like it. Nothing.”

After years of traveling the world and now living in the U.S., Pinto says her relationship with her home country has evolved. “I appreciate the things I don’t find in my country that I took for granted when I lived here. For example, community, which isn’t something you even have to go looking for. It’s just given to you. And by that, I don’t mean family members. I mean your neighbors, who become part of your community,” she shares. “I grew up knowing my neighbors’ kids, and everyone is an auntie or an uncle. Unless and until you’ve had that experience, you cannot imagine what that feels like.”

That sense of community is also one of the things that attracted Pinto to her latest project, Unaccustomed Earth, which premieres on Netflix on Dec. 17, 2026. Pinto stars in the eight-episode drama series, based on Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story collection of the same name, which centers around a Bengali Indian American community in Massachusetts.

She says she is “extremely proud of the show,” acknowledging that being part of the culture portrayed on screen can make you critical of anything that feels gimmicky or pandering. “What I absolutely love about the entire team—from the costume and production designers and set decorators to our writers, directors, and every member of the cast—is that we are unapologetically owning this culture. I’m representing people like myself, who lived in India for a long time, then lived in America for a long time, who love things about both cultures.”

She adds, “I understand that entirely because that is me. That is who I am. We portray that through food, costumes, and language—we speak some Bangla in the show, although my Bangla isn’t that great. [It also comes through in] how we raise our kids, the different ways of parenting, and the mixing of Indian and American [cultures]. It’s so rich in that sense, in telling the stories of love, duty, marriage, and heartbreak. Everything has a cultural nuance to it.”

That cultural nuance and attention to detail are among the things Pinto is excited to share with audiences. “I feel very excited about putting this out into the world and showing people that there is more to India than they think. You know, it’s not just butter chicken and chicken tikka masala,” she says. “The show talks about Indian Bengali food and it is a whole different set of spices and flavors, which I’m excited for the world to see.”

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