A beer cycle trundles past the cafe-lined streets of Amsterdam. It’s filled with a bunch of 20 and 30-somethings, laughing, pedalling and chugging pints. One would imagine they have been friends for ages, but in reality they just met, a couple of days ago. Most of them are solo travellers out to discover the world and tick off adventures on their bucket list.
Being a solo traveller has its perks, like the freedom to be spontaneous and the thrill of taking on a new world by oneself. But practically speaking, there are a few downsides: safety and cost, for instance. From a cobbled side street that may or may not be risky to explore, to a cabin on that cruise that charges for two, or a four-wheel drive on that safari for five, some experiences are just more hassle-free — and sometimes even more fun when shared.
Building a group of paratroopers ring in free fall.
- Ngorongoro crater in Tanzania is the
- world’s largest volcanic caldera
- The crater is home to 25,000 large animals and 500 bird species, including lions, zebra, wildebeest and the black rhino
- It is the site of the
- largest annual animal migrations on Earth, involving one million wildebeest and 72,000 zebra every year
A growing number of travel companies are tapping into this particular need, targeting adults below the age of 35, travelling by themselves. While family holidays and group outings still form the largest chunk of travel clientèle in India, these startups are focussing on the solo and the young, for multiple reasons. Their biggest motivation is that they have been young solo travellers themselves, and are aware of the pitfalls. Avid traveller Ayush Jain founded the Mumbai-based When In City when he realised that most of the backpackers he met during his travels weren’t Indians. It was very common for him to bump into a like-minded traveller of roughly his age, from a range of countries, in a range of countries. But the absence of his own country’s folk stood out. “When you are in the age group of 18 to 32, you can travel independently and don’t have to spend as much money,” points out Vaijayanthi Kari, who runs the outfit with Ayush, “But when you’re travelling with children or with family, you naturally want to look at everyone’s comfort and convenience.” Needless to say, this makes a budget trip more difficult.
On the go
So, When In City’s holidays are designed to suit the budget of “early professionals, those who have been working for about three years or so,” says Vaijayanthi. They take groups of 15 to 30 people, within the age group of 18 to 32, to trips around Southeast Asia and Europe, for what they believe are comparatively cheaper rates. “One of our most popular trips is Amsterdam – Berlin – Prague – Budapest, which costs about ₹58,000 to ₹65,000 for 12 days,” she says, by way of example. Though there’s plenty of partying if you’re up for it, expect fewer hotels and more hostels, tents and train rides. The costs cover everything from cycling tours and river cruises to pub crawls: there’s something for everyone, depending on which trip you choose.
Hop on a ship to visit Antarctica
G Adventures, on the other hand, has some extreme experiences on offer for it’s India-based clientèle. While the shipline — based in Canada — takes “18 to 30-somethings” on budget trips with loose itineraries to pretty much every continent, its Indian branch Expedition Voyages focuses on, well, expeditions, to the Arctic and the Antarctic. “We pair solo travellers of the same gender and room them in the same cabin,” says Shanthini Manohar, marketing manager of Expedition Voyages, which handles operations in India. Like-mindedness is guaranteed, she says, simply by the nature of the trip. “These are not light, easy holidays, but difficult expeditions undertaken only by those who are really passionate and understand what they are doing,” says Shanthini. And this shared camaraderie makes the trip that much more thrilling.
Penguins in Antarctica
One of the earliest movers in this space was Contiki, formed in 1962. The company organises trips for 18-35-year-olds to more than 50 countries. One of their unique points of focus is that of eating local: expect plenty of family-run restaurants, and even meals served in kitchens and dining rooms of private homes.
While they currently take travellers to destinations around Asia, Europe, New Zealand, the US and Canada, the London-based company also has nine African trips up its sleeve, it being the maiden destination outside Europe. Choose between the southern and eastern African region on one hand and North Africa and West Asia on the other: trips range from five short days in Egypt to an extensive 13-day itinerary around East Africa, covering everything from restaurants in Nairobi to a trip to the Ngorongoro crater.
Europe alone forms a third of all their itineraries. “Contiki owns a number of properties across Europe: a château in France, a chalet in Switzerland, a number of wood-lined cabins in Italy,” informs Priyanka Pawar, Contiki’s sales manager for India, adding that accommodation can range from these to hostels and tents, depending on the trip. There are also add-on, “me time” experiences a traveller can purchase, to break away from the group for a while and “say, do some wine tasting in Tuscany or visit a hot lagoon in Iceland,” she says. “We understand that some travellers also value their time alone.”
