Vietnam was the golden child of 2025, and is likely to be popular next year as well.
Credit: Photo by author
If someone had told me years ago that the best way to understand the psyche of the modern Indian would be through travel requests, I would’ve told them to get some fresh air. Yet here we are. After years of curating itineraries professionally, I’ve realised something startling.
My inbox is India.
Every desire, insecurity, aspiration and delusion shows up in the travel requests I receive. Because, unlike political surveys or market research, nobody performs their “best self” when asking for a holiday.
So here is my cultural study. A whole country, decoded through its travel requests and by the time you reach the end, you may spot yourself lurking somewhere in here too.
Packed with ‘experiences’
We want to live many lives. Ideally, all at the same time. There is something deeply endearing about the modern Indian traveller. One holiday is never just a holiday. Ask anyone why they’re travelling, and you’ll get a vague but poetic answer like, “We want to experience that country.”
Believe me, ‘experience’ is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence. Because when you ask, which experience? The answer is: all of them.
They want serenity, indulgence, adventure, introspection, Instagrammable corners, family bonding, and a shopping haul that proves your rupees were put to work. Anything less feels like a missed opportunity.
A family once asked me to design a Bali itinerary that had to have the spiritual temple visits, indulgent nightlife, kid-friendly beach clubs, some romantic photo shoots at the Instagrammable spots, sensory educational workshops for kids, all the best shopping spots, and also away from the crowds.
One trip must relax the adults, educate the children, fix family dynamics, produce profile pictures, heal burnout, justify school leave, strengthen marriages, deliver “me time,” and ideally unlock some personal transformation.
Yet, I’ve started to see it differently. Indians don’t buy single-purpose anything.
Bournvita jars become dal storage, old T-shirts become pocha, and takeaway boxes become tiffin. Why on earth would a holiday have just one function?
If we have spent savings, endured the visa process, begged HR for leave, and managed school schedules, the trip must justify its existence.
Reelification of travel
There was a time, not very long ago, when people went to Paris because they liked art, bistros, and the chance to watch the Eiffel Tower. Today, people go to recreate a stranger’s eight-second montage.I routinely get references sent to me, all with identical claims: “this will blow your mind”, “why is no one talking about it”, and “this is the must-visit hidden gem”.
If reelification has done anything, it has turned bucket lists into aesthetic pressure. And this doesn’t just stop at the places we should visit; these influencer reels have declared what we should feel, eat, wear, and capture once we get there.
I once had a traveller reject a stunning budget ryokan because it “didn’t look Instagrammable enough.” The poor ryokan had onsen, Kaiseki meals, and 150 years of history, but it lacked a bathtub with Mt. Fuji views and an archway for a slow-mo walk.
We expect trips to behave like content reels: fast-paced, fully lit, and curated. The only glitch is that life has poor lighting and bad hair days.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe influencer reels didn’t ruin travel. Instead, they inflated what we think travel owes us. In this case, turn our lives into one “mind-blowing” cinematic aspiration.
And in a country where one trip must already multitask, is it any surprise that we also expect it to look like a Vogue editorial while doing it?
Comfort of Indian food
A few years ago, a client messaged me from Paris. Not to marvel at the Louvre, but to tell, with joy, “The Indian store near Gare du Nord has Haldiram’s.” The Eiffel Tower can inspire awe, but nothing moves an Indian traveller like finding flavours from home in a foreign climate.
We want to step into new worlds, inhale foreign air, expand our minds, and yes, update our Instagram bios with flags of all the destinations we have experienced, but we would also really appreciate knowing there is dal, dosa or, at the very least, French fries within walking distance.
We surge towards wonder — glaciers, geishas, gondolas — but retreat instinctively to comfort. The traveller who was moved to tears by the grandeur of the Bavarian Alps sent me a voice note asking if he could find Maggi in Füsen. One wonders if emotional vulnerability makes the digestive systems of Indians slightly homesick.
Perhaps this is neither insecurity nor contradiction. We are living in a country where reality refreshes itself faster than our Instagram feed. So when we travel, we carry comfort along in the form of Maggi, pre-mix masala chai and freeze-dried pav bhaji.
And there is something undeniably human about that, like the child who needs a favourite toy when sleeping somewhere new.
Where India wants to go next
After all this decoding of who we are as travellers, the natural next question is, where are we going next?
Vietnam was 2025’s golden child and shows no intention of stepping off the stage. It managed what Switzerland, with all its Bollywood glory, could not: it made us feel clever for choosing it. Many are now pairing Vietnam with Cambodia, because Indians enjoy a bargain, especially when one can boast “two countries, one trip.”
Requests for the cherry blossom season in Japan roll in months, sometimes a year in advance. The Philippines has entered the honeymoon chat, mostly because there is finally a direct flight, and don’t we adore efficiency?
China is tiptoeing back. Curiosity is returning, along with questions like “Do they speak English?” Women’s groups are flocking to South Korea for skincare, kimchi and the possibility of being swept across the street by a well-dressed man with tragic childhood trauma.
While the East is basking in attention, the West isn’t sulking. Europe has settled into two seasons: the April-to-August summer stampede and the November-December Christmas-market marathon.
Eastward, ho!
So yes, 2026 looks eastward, outward and slightly inward too. Two years as the ‘itinerary whisperer’ have revealed the India inside us — hopeful, demanding, indecisive, occasionally unreasonable, and always lovable. If you recognised yourself somewhere in these words, congratulations. You are gloriously, unmistakably Indian. And my inbox thanks you for the material.
(The author is an ‘itinerary whisperer’ and creates custom travel itineraries.)