Bike-hike-go!

From the sands of Rajasthan to the greens in Darjeeling, cycling and hiking on personalised itineraries is the new favourite among travel enthusiasts in India

Over time, the average Indian traveller’s definition of a holiday has undergone quite a few transformations. Today, it is not just about a good place to stay, good food and good sights. As a part of the larger movement towards experiential vacations that tap into a destination’s cultural core rather than simply skimming its surface, the most recent holiday fad is the customised biking-and-hiking tour — from the sands of Rajasthan to the greens in Darjeeling and the hills in Sikkim, cycling and hiking on personalised itineraries is the new favourite among both young as well as seasoned travel enthusiasts in India.

“Indian travellers today are more evolved and spontaneous, and constantly on the lookout for new experiences. They are not interested in the typical tourist style visit to any new destination. Those kinds of biking and hiking tours are known to be common, ordinary and even monotonous at times. They curb the potential of reaching out to unseen, extraordinary places that on-the-go travellers today seek most keenly. And that is where customised biking and hiking tours step in and provide the opportunity to discover unacknowledged and unknown pristine places, which is the primary reason for their gaining popularity in recent times,” points out travel expert Priyanka Jena, who is the founder of The Holiday Studio, which also organises personalised cycling tours.

Vikram Ahuja, founder of Byond Travel, adds that there are a number of other factors that have also led young, adventurous travellers to this particular mode of vacationing. “The first would be the growth of communities/interest groups. More and more people are now keen to take up interests such as biking or hiking, encouraged by the increasing number of organised meet-ups happening around specific interests and hobbies. Cycling has seen a huge resurgence led by groups planning weekend rides, overnight trips and even short trails in an organised group. The largest cycling groups on Facebook, for example, have over 25,000 members each. Travel as a shared experience to members of these communities is therefore an obvious choice and this is where, for us at Byond, we focus on bringing such like-minded folks together to participate in travel journeys with this common shared interest in mind,” he says and adds that unlike a few years ago, the number of travel companies offering specialised bike tours has increased, which has led to increased accessibility of this particular kind of vacation experience within a safe and guided environment. “The biking tours we do, for instance, are always accompanied by a medical and support vehicle and we have an expert rider leading the group. This makes it easier for beginners or novices to experiment with this form of travel and all of them usually end up enjoying it.”

Are biking tours better suited to seasoned travellers, or to adventure-seekers who are trying them out for the first time “It really depends. We’ve seen that, typically, the interest for taking up this mode of travel is more amongst people who are open to new experiences and to new ways of experiencing a destination in general. This can imply a new adventure seeker and can also mean a more well-travelled individual who has been there, done that, so to speak,” Ahuja says.

He adds, “Interestingly, we’ve seen that an older demographic (>50 years) is definitely more open to cycling trips than other segments. Families are another captive segment since this sort of vacation offers a nice bonding experience for kids and adults alike.” Jena, on the other hand, points out, “More and more new travellers are now opting for customised biking tours with increasing interest in off-beat destinations. Seasoned travellers make their own path as opposed to new travellers, who usually need guidance and help with respect to directions and the safety aspects of the whole thing, and request for customised tours with expert help.”

Emphasising that India has a particular kind of potential for such tours, Rajeev D. Kale, President and Country Head, Leisure Travel, MICE, Thomas Cook shares, “With a country as diverse as ours, such road trips offer a delightful opportunity for travellers to explore the various dimensions of cultures and landmarks the way they wish to. Whether one wants to get a taste of fresh air across beaches at Goa, relive heritage sites across Pondicherry, splash along waterfalls in Kanyakumari, ride across the rain forest in Wayanad or the coffee estates in Coorg, one is really spoilt for choice right now.” Jena goes on to share that some of the most popular Indian destinations include Rajasthan, Karnataka and Kerala. Ahuja adds that internationally, Vietnam and Cambodia by cycle are extremely popular. “Another very popular activity we carried out recently was a cycling activity in Spain by the beach. They have these tandem cycles that allow two or three people to hop onto one bike and ride along the beach. It’s very popular among families,” he says.

Looking ahead at the future of this space in India, Kale affirms, “Factors like the development of infrastructure, increase in connectivity and focus on health have gone a long way towards encouraging such special interest holidays that include cycling/hiking and I see the trend booming in future too. Let’s also keep in mind that the added convenience of various apps and GPS systems has simplified navigation beyond imagination. Also, given the emphasis on quality ‘me-time’ in this day and age, a customised biking-hiking holiday makes for a dream vacation — your time, your pace, your convenience and your preferences all rolled into one!” Ahuja sums it up saying, “There is a preference within the new generation of travellers to prioritise value, safety and quality of service over the age-old mentality of best price and offer for a travel holiday. This also means that people are now more open to newer modes of exploration than they have ever been before. Customised cycling tours are a cost-effective, healthy means to just such an experiential getaway and so I see it going strong in future too.”