“When we think of vacations these days, we think of road trips,” says award-winning food blogger Chandrima Sarkar. Chandrima and her husband, Himadri Sekhar Sarkar, were living in Mumbai and took the first long-distance family road trip during the pandemic, just to be safe. It was a journey from Mumbai to Kolkata via Delhi, a total of about 3,000 km.
What started as a compulsion turned into passion.
read more
“We, as a family, enjoyed our first road trips so much that we became addicted to road trips. The freedom to plan your holiday as you wish, stop where you want and have your own car at your destination, makes road trips a favourite choice these days,” says Chandrima.
It seems that Indians have suddenly discovered this love for the road.
Rahul Ghosh, a motoring journalist for twenty years, is a witness to this phenomenon. “Earlier, it was the adventurous youngsters who went on road trips. Now, it’s more about families travelling long distances together on four wheels,” says Ghosh.
And why wouldn’t that be the case?
The roads are wide and inviting, and the cars are safer and more comfortable. Train travel has become more expensive and unbearable, and airfares have skyrocketed. These and a dozen other factors have come together to put up the signposts: the golden age for that family road trip is now.
What car holidays also offer is quality time for all the family, without distractions.
MORE PAVED ROADS, GAS PUMPS AND BETTER CARS
Travel time has become shorter and no destination seems too far. Where experienced hands on the wheel could previously manage 400-500 km, now even 800 km seems perfectly feasible.
India has been rapidly building paved roads.
The total length of National Highways in India has increased by 60% in the last decade. The length of National Highways stood at 1.46 lakh kilometres as of December 2023.
Software developer Anirban Mazumder, a resident of Bengaluru who regularly takes vacations himself, says travel time will decrease further thanks to the new highways.
“Earlier, the journey from Bengaluru to Mysuru used to take 3.5 hours, now it is an hour. The BKV Expressway will reduce the travel time from Bengaluru to Vijayawada from 13 hours to just six hours,” says Mazumder.
The government focus on highway infrastructure has significantly reduced travel time and increased the enjoyment of mobility, said Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing & Sales, Maruti Suzuki India.
“This, coupled with the ample availability of fuel stations across the country, has led to more people opting for road trip holidays over other modes of transport, which often require extensive planning,” Partho Banerjee tells IndiaToday.In.
Better cars complement the smooth highways. In terms of both comfort and safety, cars today are built for long journeys.
“Luxurious interiors with ergonomic seats, ample space and climate control systems ensure a relaxing journey for all occupants. Drivers can have peace of mind with advanced safety features such as airbags, ABS, ESP and hill-hold control,” Banerjee said.
Thanks to economical engines and the increasing use of alternative powertrains, such as powerful hybrids and CNG, driving with the family is also becoming more affordable.
How a car holiday from Delhi to Udaipur in Rajasthan is cheaper than traveling by plane or train. (Image: Arun Uniyal/India Today)
FAMILY ROAD TRIP IS MORE ECONOMICAL THAN AIR, TRAIN TRAVEL
How to make a road trip cheaper? Rahul Ghosh of Auto Today does the math for us.
“Let’s consider a family of four for this. If you are planning a 2,000 km road trip, which is quite common these days, the fuel cost should be around Rs 20,000. Add to that a few thousand dollars in tolls,” says Ghosh .
Depending on the hotel choice, it will be significantly less than the Rs 14,000 that airlines charge per person for a return ticket, Ghosh said.
That’s not all. He says you also have to factor in the cost of getting to and from the airport, and the hassle and expense of hiring sightseeing taxis.
“Overall, the experience and costs will be much lower during self-driving vacations,” says Ghosh.
Road trips can also be started impulsively. For both air and train travel, tickets should be booked well in advance.
While dynamic pricing and crowds have made train travel more expensive and nightmarish, the shortage of planes has pushed airfare beyond the stratosphere.
Once Indians like Meghana J. from Bengaluru enjoyed the convenience of road travel during the pandemic, there was no stopping them.
Meghana, whose Instagram account Life2Wander, a travel blog with more than 40,000 followers, says she and her partner take a short road trip every month and a longer trip twice a year.
Meghana, an IT professional, from Bengaluru, on a road trip with her partner to Himachal Pradesh. Her travel-focused Instagram account has more than 40,000 followers. (Image: Life2Wander/Instagram)
“I end up taking five to six road trips a year with my family in Mysuru,” Meghana tells IndiaToday.In.
The IT engineer’s first trip was to Himachal from Karnataka after the Covid lockdown. Since then, she and her partner have vacationed in Nepal, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Kerala and Goa.
SAFER ROADS, BETTER ROAD ASSISTANCE AND FACILITIES
Both the distance and frequency of road trips Indians take have increased in the years since the pandemic.
“Earlier, road trips were only within Karnataka, but post-pandemic, we started travelling a lot more and covering longer distances,” says Meghana.
What has helped families travel without confidence is a greater sense of safety and security.
The law and order situation in the country has improved and roadside facilities have also improved.
“Safety and security were a concern. And remember, cars in the past were not as reliable as those of today. And finally, the pervasive fear of not being able to find a toilet made road travel difficult for the women in the family, says Rahul Ghosh of Auto Today.
Ghosh, who has seen the world of road travel change over the years as a motoring journalist, says things are drastically different now.
“Roads have become much smoother and faster. Cars have become extremely reliable and more importantly, most of the sections are secured and hence the fear is gone. Also, there are rest areas all over the highways with clean toilets and in some cases even gourmet food,” says Ghosh.
All this, he says, adds to the driving experience and that is why most Indian families opt for their own cars over other modes of public transport during their vacations.
Most car insurance and car companies also offer 24×7 roadside assistance. This has taken away the fear of being stranded in the middle of nowhere in case of car breakdown.
“For Maruti Suzuki customers, the extensive network of 5,000 service points across the country ensures that help is always close at hand, providing added convenience and support during their journey,” said Partho Banerjee of Maruti Suzuki.
Here’s how a road trip compares to the rising airfares and train tickets from Mumbai to Goa. (Image: Arun Uniyal/India Today)
HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR A FAMILY ROAD TRIP?
A family outing, even in the early 2000s, meant booking train tickets in advance, packing some parathas and pickles for the journey and booking a hotel at the destination.
Today, most impulsive travellers pack their bags in minutes during long weekends and hit the road full speed after filling up the tank. Hotels, with online B&B facilities, are booked en route and branded franchise outlets and dhabas along the highways ensure that there is no need to pack parathas and pickles.
However, food blogger Chandrima Sarkar says she always packs plenty of snacks and ready-made meals for long-distance travel. This is also necessary because of her 14-year-old daughter traveling with her.
“We pack a good amount of snacks for the road trip and also plenty of water so that we don’t have to drink water from outside,” says Meghna, the IT professional and Instagram travel influencer.
She says a prerequisite for any long driving holiday is to understand the place in terms of weather, plan the route, get the car serviced before the trip and make sure the car documents are all in place.
You can also learn almost everything about the route and destination by doing online research. There are several websites and social media pages that share the experiences of travelers.
One of the oldest and most popular is Team-BHP.
The Team BHP website, founded in 2004 by motorcycle enthusiasts for unbiased vehicle reviews and discussions, features thousands of road trip and off-roading posts. There are travelogues and subforums that answer travel questions.
Then there is YouTube, where you can watch videos of the roads and the experiences of road trippers, for example about cooking and sleeping in a car.
The explosion in the number of Instagram handles and YouTube handles sharing road travel accounts also demonstrates the popularity of self-drive holidays in India.
Software developer Anirban Mazumder and a few of his friends started a Facebook page called Indian Road Trippers a few months ago.
Bengaluru-based software engineer Anirban Mazumder (third from right) and a few of his friends started a Facebook page called Indian Road Trippers. The page is aimed at sharing and collecting road trip experiences.
“The Indian Road Trippers group is the go-to resource for all things travel, whether you are an experienced traveler or a novice,” says Mazumder, who has taken family road trips to Kolkata and Kanyakumari from Bengaluru.
Mazumder says the platform helps you access expert tips, travel guides and practical advice so you can plan a family road trip around India with confidence.
WHY THE BEST TIME FOR A ROAD TRIP IN INDIA IS NOW
Kamaljeet Singh, a resident of South Delhi, owns a car but uses a two-wheeler to commute to work to avoid the nightmarish city traffic jams.
Singh uses his premium hatchback to take his family on self-driving vacations. The four have been to various parts of Punjab, Himachal and Uttarakhand, including Hemkund Sahib and the Valley of Flowers, popular road trip destinations from Delhi.
Rahul Ghosh of Auto Today says that the trend of self-driving vacations has taken off in India, evident from the fact that people are now looking to buy sport utility vehicles (SUVs) for road trips.
In 2023-24, half of all cars sold in India were SUVsan exciting fact for a price-conscious country, where even until a few years ago entry-level models accounted for the majority of sales.
“SUVs offer better ground clearance and therefore better go anywhere. This makes them perfect for road trips. SUVs are also spacious for comfortable long trips and offer ample luggage space,” says Ghosh.
It’s not just that roads, cars and facilities are improving, the mindset and resources of Indians are also changing rapidly.
Indians were raised with the home-car dichotomy as a sign of their professional success. There had to be a house before the car.
However, that logic has been turned on its head and a large proportion of Indians, especially those living in cities, now own a car. For the dream home, which is usually on the outskirts of the city, a car is needed.
And it is that car that now takes Indians to their dream destinations in the country.
The idea is to break free. Escape the routine of everyday life, the confines of the city and mass transport. The four wheels have given the Indians wings and a sense of liberation.
Published on:
June 30, 2024
