Redback Travels takes pride in organizing trips that are truly an authentic travel experience.
We immerse our guests in the local culture through engagements with spiritual leaders, families, shopkeepers and outdoors people.
Our guests partake in traditional ceremonies, commune with nature on hiking, biking and rafting excursions, and service school children and villages in need. We heighten this authenticity by staying in charming family-run guest houses, comfortable boutique hotels, incredible houseboats, deluxe tents and simple ashrams. Our goal is to open hearts, minds, bodies and souls in order that our guests go home with an experience like no other.

Ashley Ruback
Director | Trip Leader

Ashley got the travel bug in 1996 after spending three months backpacking in Africa on a NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) trip. As a result, she traveled extensively throughout Central/ South America and Europe. An avid yoga practitioner since 1992, she travel to India for the first time in 2004, during a three month hiatus from her graphic design job at Nike. It was the experience of a lifetime. Ashley wanted to share her experience with others and led two groups of high school students through Northern India. Working with local guides and agencies, she learned how to skillfully navigate a group in India. In 2008 she and yoga teacher, Ryan Redman, brought their first group of adults.

Ashley’s outdoor endeavors include climbing the Matterhorn, Mt. Kenya, fifteen “14ers” in Colorado, Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams. She has backpacked on countless multi-day trips, run 10 marathons and currently travels all over the world to mountain bike, ski and hike. Yoga has been an daily part of her life for almost 20 years and she completed her 200-hour Anusara-Inspired training with Sarahjoy Marsh.

Ashley graduated from Duke University and Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design with degrees in Art History and Graphic Design. She currently resides in Portland, Oregon with her husband, Adam, 2 year old son, Carter, and their dog, Summit.


Holbrook Newman
Head Leader | Yoga Teacher

After 12 years of working in finance in New York City, Holbrook decided to leave the corporate world to pursue her passion for yoga on a full-time basis. She is a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) through Yoga Alliance and has practiced various styles of yoga (including Ashtanga, Hatha, Iyengar, Kundalini, Vinyasa) for over 15 years. She teaches yoga to adults and children and has completed two teacher trainings in New York - an intensive 200-hour teacher training for adults with Alison West, and the other for children at Karma Kids Yoga. In addition to yoga, she is passionate about traveling around the world, especially in Asia and Africa. In 2007, Holbrook embarked upon a three month, self-guided tour of India where she explored the country and spent time at various ashrams practicing yoga and meditation. For the past 3 years she has returned to India to attend the International Yoga Festival in Rishikesh and further explore India. In addition to yoga and travel, Holbrook is an avid watercolor painter, tennis player and golfer. She is a graduate of The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, CT and holds a B.A. in History with a minor in Art History from Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. She is a native of Winston-Salem, NC.

Ryan Redman
Trip Leader | Yoga & Ayurveda Teacher

Through a keen interest in Yoga stemming back to his early adolescence, Ryan began exploring contemplative practices of India at a very young age. Throughout his travels in India, Ryan encountered many renowned teachers such as the Dalai Lama, Sri Satya Sai Baba and Swami Muktananda, who have all inspired him to a dedicate his life to the pursuit of discovering genuine happiness for himself and others.
  Ryan began teaching Yoga when he was 21 while also attending the University of California at Santa Barbara. During this same time Ryan encountered the erudite scholar and devout Buddhist teacher B. Alan Wallace, whose work continues to inspire many of Ryan's teachings today. With over three years of intensive study in India, Ryan has grounded the essence of his teachings in Yoga Philosophy and Buddhism. Alongside his passion for teaching, Ryan continues to cultivate mindful living with his wife Paige and their two boys, Satya and Taj.

Nathan Parr
Travel Agent

Nathan has a Bachelors degree in Religious Studies and a minor in South Asian Studies from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon where he still resides today. He first traveled to India in 1994 on an immersion program and has had an unquenchable interest ever since. While on this program he studied art, history, architecture, religion, culture, rural development, and Hindi while focusing his attention the Sadhu (Holy Man) tradition. He has traveled extensively throughout India, from southern tip of Kanyakumari to the northern glacier of Gangotri, from the tea fields of Darjeeling in the east to desert fortress of Jaisalmer in the west. He has visited countless temples including his favorites, Chidambaram, the temple of Nataraja, and the Jain temple of Ranakpur. He was lucky enough to participate in the largest gathering of people on earth, the Kumbh Mela. It is through these experiences that he developed an intimate understanding of the Indian worldview and a deep spiritual connection with the Hindu path. Nathan currently works as a travel agent specializing in international airfares and travel itineraries.

Alex Cole
Trip Leader

Alex traveled to India for the first time in 1991 not knowing what to expect. Over the next 10 years he spent most of his time in India and lived in Varanasi, Tamil Nadu, and all over the Himalayas. He studied yoga, meditation and Reiki, but really his favorite way to explore its beauty was sitting on the ghats in Varanasi and drinking chai. Alex has traveled extensively including a hitch hiking trip from Tibet to Katmandu, led horse drawn tours in Alaska for six months, traveled from Central to South America, and also in the bush of Australia.
  In 1999, Alex was diagnosed with Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma. After a year of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, he turned his focus to alternative therapy, acupuncture, emotional therapy and a strict regimen of juicing, herbs and a macrobiotic diet. This is when his Yoga practice really began. Now a resident of Los Angeles, he practices Anusara yoga and did his teacher training with Noah Maze and Naime Jezzeny in 2004. Alex lives with his new wife Sarah, and their two dogs.