Priya Pathiyan
Deputy Editor
Increasingly, luxury travellers are seeking out serenity as much as they want a certain level of pampering. The pandemic created a demand for wellness travel and tranquil escapes like never before.
It isn’t just about physical comfort now… a destination has to provide a sense of overall wellbeing. Resorts that offer all-pervasive peace are considered much more valuable than those that are still stuck in the time warp where noisy restaurants, loud music, and a louder aesthetic held cachet.
The more I talk to people about their travel style, the more I see how it is changing. A former teacher, all of 50, and mother to a pretty, young vocalist with a bright future, told me how she prefers not to tick off all the must-dos in a destination. Rather, she makes time to just sit in a pleasant spot and watch people in the foreign land go about their daily lives. Often, she engages in conversations and such exchanges give her a deeper sense of connecting to the country than just visiting monuments or entertainment venues as a tourist.
A young couple I know, a successful food entrepreneur and popular deejay, and his wife, a trained animal behaviourist, spent almost a month in Amsterdam recently, but didn’t do the museums, the red-light district tours, or the canal boat rides. Instead, they spent days exercising in the morning sunshine, reading books in the park, cycling, swimming, and eating to their hearts content.
This sort of slow and meaningful travel is what people aspire to these days. Which is where our video story this week comes in, a luxury houseboat stay in already-serene Srinagar, which promises you the much-in-demand ‘sukoon’. I stayed at this Sufi-inspired there for just a night but even today when I think about it, the time I spent watching the colourful coots from my chaise lounge by the window was what made me mindful of my breathing, slowed down my always-racing thoughts, and put me in the mindspace to actually soak in Kashmir the way it should be done. Wishing that you find such calm and contentment on all your travels too.