JOIN USShiva Swaroop is travelling to Anantapur to be with his family and celebrate ‘Ugadi’ in full fervour. He does this every year for all possible festivals and this time is no difference. Many like Shiva are planning ahead on how to spend their extended holiday weekend.
“My brother and I make sure we are at home for every festival. This year too we are planning the same. Since ‘Ugadi’ is falling on a weekend, it is an added advantage. We will be accompanied by 2 of my friends and we are planning on doing a road trip to Anantapur. We are looking forward to spend quality time with family and celebrate the festival with much enthusiasm. Since it is about 3 hours drive down, we will only be returning back on Monday, so we get some relaxed time with family,” says Shiva.
While most people have taken a day off on Thursday as well, there are those who have extended their holidays in order to explore their place of interest in detail.
Sandip Mondal, along with his 5 friends are planning a trip to Bhutan and Sikkim (starting from the coming weekend till the end of the month), just to be away with the scorching heat for a couple of days.
“5 years back, there was no need to go to any other place for holidays as the weather here was brilliant. However, the scene is different today, the weather has become extremely hot and we thought North East would be the best place to visit during the summer,” he says.
“We had planned this 2 to 3 months ago. Now, thanks to this holiday weekend, it is finally happening,” he adds.
Out of the 6 people, 2 of them will be doing a trip on bike and the rest of them plans to travel by train. Sandip explains, “We will be travelling by train to the closest place to Sikkim and Bhutan, which is the New Jalpaiguri, where we will meet two other friends of ours. The reason we chose train travel is because we will get more time to spend with each other during the journey.”
The group will engage themselves in trekking and camping in Bhutan whereas, Sikkim having a more motorable terrains, they plan to do a ride through the them. Considering the hot weather in the city, many are finding this a chance to escape the heat and visit places close to Bengaluru.
Jyothi Nair, the founder of ‘Beautiful Journey’, a women’s travel group, says, “Since it is getting hotter by the day, many people prefer to go to a colder place and even beaches and fully functional resorts with their family,” she says.
“They want to unwind and make the most during the extended weekend holidays. One can look forward to Kabini, Yercaud, Puducherry, Goa and even the not very popular beaches of North Karnataka like Gokarna and more,” she adds.
Havil Mitra, who is in Delhi for an official visit, wants to spend his holiday weekend by visiting places close to Delhi.
“I am planning to visit Kasol as it is near Delhi. A couple of friends and I are looking forward to spending our long weekend in the best possible way. Kasol will be our base camp and we plan to trek in a few places near by. It will be a nice getaway before we start yet another week.”