If you are reading this in Delhi I know how you feel, we are reeling at 45-46 degree Celsius and escape is constantly on our minds. After all it is the perfect time for family travel. The temperatures are scorching, the schools are closed and that big family trip can be planned now! Above all most of us want to escape the heat, if only for a few days.
Whether you prefer the package holidays or you swear by DIY time is just right to get away. There are plenty of tour packages from Delhi both for India and abroad. However, if you are stubborn like me and would still like to go the DIY route there are even more options waiting to be explored.
However when was the last time when you traveled during summer vacations to one of the popular tourist spots within India? Do you remember the crowds? And the rush in the trains? Cheap train tickets make destinations affordable for everyone but given the capacity of our railway system summer train travel becomes one of the most challenging thing. Also all the tickets to the trains are almost gone by now and if you even have wait list 1 chances are no one will cancel their long planned holiday. This has actually happened to a friend. She had wait list 1 on a South bound train and it remained firmly stuck there.
Escape to the Hills!
Also there was a time when summer vacation meant a visit to the favorite aunt and spending time with cousins. I still remember those summers, where I would climb up the mango or the blueberry (jamun to be precise), get bruises and cuts and enjoy large family meals. Such holidays are probably not so popular any longer? I am told that many parents in the metro cities feel compelled to take a vacation abroad otherwise their child will feel left out after everyone returns to school and starts talking about their foreign trips. Times are surely changing.
So given the scenario I approach the summer vacation trips a bit gingerly. I remember being stuck at Joshimath during summer with my husband and both of us were really taken aback by the number of people we saw at the place. It was packed to capacity, lunch time meant most restaurants would be full. It also meant a lot of litter thrown around. Hotel prices would also head sharply in northerly direction. Even the most basic hotel would come at a steep price.A few trips like this and we started avoiding the main places during the school holidays. This trip to Joshimath was actually a short one as we were heading on a trek after two days of rest and those two days were more than enough.
In Search of Peace
But now we have our school going daughter, and summer vacations are slowly climbing back on our charts. She is still in KG 2 so we are fine, we just take her on small trips and we take turns to go trekking. But there will be a time when we will have to make our peace with traveling in summer time. Till then we are not venturing out to any mainstream place during the summer holidays in India.
What is your take? Are you brave enough to go to popular tourist places during the school holidays?
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