Families to hit the road to spend Diwali weekend

Families to hit the road to spend Diwali weekend

Pratiksha.Ramkumar@timesgroup.com

Coimbatore:12.11.2020

With Diwali falling on Saturday and most offices and schools declaring Friday off, many families in the city have decided to drive to nearby hill stations or resorts to make the best use of the long weekend. Pointing to the restrictions on bursting firecrackers and large social and family gatherings, they say there is no point in staying home to “celebrate the festival”.

Entrepreneur couple Amritha and Dinesh Kumar from Nav India are heading to a home stay at Top Slip with their two children and their siblings’ families to celebrate Diwali. They plan to spend the festival morning on a twohour trek. Amritha says, “Living in apartments, we don’t want to stay cooped up for this festive weekend too. We have decided to show our children a new place and a different experience, instead.”

Most of the families have chosen destinations that are less than six hours away and opted for a two to three-night stay. Popular destinations include Ooty and Coonoor in the Nilgiris, Kochi and Kumarakom in Kerala and Coorg and Kabini in Karnataka.

Anahita Mukherjee, who is travelling to Coorg with her husband for the weekend, says, “Earlier, Diwali was a happening occasion with gettogethers and marathon cards sessions. Now that they are not advisable, there is no point in staying back home.”

Meanwhile, for many homestays and hotels, the upcoming weekend would be the busiest one since the lockdown came into force in March. Ritesh Choudhary, general manager of Savoy - IHCL SeleQtions in Ooty, says, “We have hit 90% occupancy. Coimbatore is our second highest source of guests, after Bengaluru.”

Except for a room, Coco Lagoon at Pollachi is also full for the weekend.

This is despite many hotels charging up to 15% premium for the weekend after seeing the traction. Rooms at such hotels cost anywhere between 8,000 and 13,000, inclusive of taxes, a night. “We see more people wanting to travel now just to take a break in a safe place, giving safety a priority over all other considerations,” says Ritesh.

Pointing out they are seeing an exponential increase in people travelling with their pets for vacation, he says, “We are pet friendly with our pawcation initiative.”

There is also demand for small homestays with limited rooms but a lot of open space.

Ambereena, who manages Serendipity group of hotels, says, “At least two of our properties - 180 Mc Iver and Ambereena - are full with large families booking three to four rooms in a single property.”

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