Planning for a Holiday!!

   The thought of “going on a holiday” is such a happy thought that it can put a smile on almost everyone’s face. Actually, the fun starts with planning the holiday, the hours, days & weeks of planning for that weeklong holiday or just that weekend getaway is equally exciting as going on the holiday itself. Nowadays it’s very easy to research on a new destination and feels like a breeze if compared to about a decade back.

I still remember spending hours together at those long booking queues at the railway counter exactly two months prior to the date of the journey trying to get confirmed tickets. Sometimes we were successful and sometimes not. The times we were able to get tickets we felt like God and other times when we couldn’t, we used to look up to the “devils”, the booking agents for their divine intervention. Most of the time they “managed” to get us tickets. 

After tickets it was the turn of hotel bookings, transportation etc. again we were at the mercy of the tour operators for advance bookings, payments and confirmations. Even after taking all the necessary precautions there was no guarantee that the holiday would go as planned. In short there was always an element of uncertainty, a risk… no a “huge” risk according to many… therefore these people never travelled to new destinations and limited their visits to their respective native places or religious tours. In fact it was difficult for them to understand the concept of leisure holidaying. 

The biggest advantage of travel according to me is the learning that you receive, the better understanding of people, their life, their ways and why they are as they are.  

In the recent past this outlook has changed though, stable economy, advancements in web media, online bookings & online travel agents has been a major factor in this new wave of change. People today are looking to travel further. They love to experiment & explore new destinations, understand new culture and meet new people.

A major part of this shift should be credited to travel websites wherein one can plan their holidays up to the last detail. With a wide choice of travel options ranging from airlines to trains to buses and even local cabs, one can decide the options based on their travel plans. Here you are the boss & don’t have to depend on what the tour operator is offering.  You can fully customize your holiday according to your wish.

Hotels are another section where these websites excel, they are armed with photos, videos and information of almost all the hotels listed on their sites, so much so that when you actually visit that hotel you get a feeling of déjà vu. Some hotel deals come with sightseeing and meal options, giving the user an option to suit his plan & pocket.

Then there are websites like tripadvisor that give you information, reviews & ratings by the people who have actually visited those places, so that you may plan accordingly and decide whether to visit a place or give it a miss.

Some of the major players in India are

make my trip

expedia

cleartrip

irctc.co.in

Many of these websites fight for the same pie of the cake so don’t hesitate to call them up to customize your holiday and ask for better deals, you may even end up paying much less than you actually budgeted for. 

So go ahead and have a sooper holiday!