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Ravi Teja Sharma Bangalore
The new breed of Indian travellers is going crazy. Every opportunity to travel is being grabbed, be it a short or an extended weekend.
 
Festival time again is family time and people are exploring options to spend them in a special way.
 
No, not everyone is rushing to Europe this time of the year "" it will be too cold in Europe in a while. So travel agents are suggesting alternate holidays. Ankur Khanna of Tristar Holidays says South-east Asia is hot at the moment. It's anybody's guess why? Shorter travel time, I guess.
 
So, people are looking at places like Mauritius, Phuket, Koh Samui, Maldives, Langkawi, Hua Hin. You guessed right "" people just want to enjoy the beaches at the moment, have themselves a fun time.
 
The length of one's stay obviously, depends on the time at hand. Nevertheless, a typical holiday in Mauritius would be for 6 nights-7 days and could cost anything upto Rs 1 lakh. Yes, five-star luxury et al.
 
Monies (Source: Tristar Holidays):
Five nights in Phuket for Rs 75,000-80,000
Six nights in Koh Samui for Rs 90,000
A week in Maldives for Rs 1.1 lakh
Four nights in Langkawi for anything between Rs 70,000-80,000
A spa week in Hua Hin at Shivasom for about Rs 1.2 lakh
 
Though the rest of Europe will be cold (literally and India-wise), Paris will still be hot (for Indians), feels Ankur Khanna. Any of you getting married soon? Well, this is the time for a lot of marriages in India, so a lot of honeymoon travel will happen too.
 
Arun Khanna of Stic Travels explains that not a lot of people will be interested in off-beat destinations at this time of the year. They have been getting queries primarily for Thailand, Singapore, Langkawi, and some for Spain, Greece and Rome as well.
 
Abercrombie & Kent (A&K), which sells some very high-end luxury packages, has got a lot of requests for Mauritius, Maldives, Australia, New Zealand and Egypt. "Egypt is selling hot," says Nikhil Kumar at A&K. It's summer time in New Zealand and Australia
 
Some very high-end clients of his have also asked for south of Italy "" Sicily and Sardinia "" and south of France.

 

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First Published: Oct 14 2006 | 12:00 AM IST

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