Every year, we spend days and nights slogging away at work just so we can afford spending some extra money during the festive season. Since everything from electronic appliances to clothes to accessories are on sale during the festive season, most of us make big purchases around then.
Whether it’s for us or for a loved one, material possessions have somehow become more important to us now than ever before.
However, what we don’t often realize is that an expensive watch or a smartphone aren’t experiences. For some reason, we have lost the zeal to spend on nurturing experiences that stay with us for a lifetime. Even though travelling may end up costing way less than an expensive gift, we still for some reason spend 5-figures during festive season on material possessions
During this period, our spending can be anywhere between ₹5,000 to ₹50,000 and beyond, but let’s take ₹15,000 as an average.
Imagine taking your loved ones on a trip at half the cost during the festive season. Not only will it be a bonding experience, you’ll also gain a lifetime's worth of memories.
So maybe now’s a good time to pick up that bucket list again because here are 10 places you can visit this year instead of buying an expensive gift:
1. Atana Hotel (sea-view) – Dubai: ₹3,571
A premium smartphone costs anywhere around 50 grand whereas staying at one of Dubai’s lavish hotels will cost you only a fraction of that. When one of the options is to wake up in a sea facing hotel, it isn't really much of a choice.
2. Country Inn and Suites by Radisson – Candolim Beach, Goa: ₹4,999
The fact that we don't spend our festive season traveling starts to make less sense once you realize that you can be living at The Country Inn in Goa for less than the cost of a fancy dinner.
3. Delhi to Maldives flight: ₹8,488*
While buying the latest DSLR is great but imagine flying to Maldives with family at less than half the price of a DSLR. After all, what’s more important; creating memories or capturing them?
4. Delhi to Kathmandu flight: ₹5,800*
For those of us who can't skip work for too many days, Kathmandu is a great little escape that costs a lot less than a branded wrist watch.
5. The Corbett Downtown Resort, Lansdowne: ₹5,500
Why spend a fortune to buy an iPhone when you can be spending the holiday season with your loved ones living in a wooden resort in the hills of Lansdowne. This is way better than an expensive gift.
6. Delhi to Cochin, Kerala: ₹9,100*
If given a choice between spending an extravagant holiday season in polluted big cities and in the lap of nature, exploring the backwaters of Kerala, what would you choose and why is it Kerala?
7. Ladakh Residency, Changspa Ladakh, Leh: ₹4,891
A lot of us has made Leh-Ladakh plans and cancelled them. However, when the accommodation in Ladakh is this inexpensive, there’s really no reason to be spending your holiday savings elsewhere.
8. Delhi to Gangtok flight: ₹4,601*
It’s a good thing everyone doesn’t know that visiting the heavens is this inexpensive. Living right in the lap of the Himalayas among surreal sceneries is a once in a life experience, one that’s way more memorable than any material gift can ever be.
9. Houseboat Naaz, Kashmir: ₹7,650
Imagine spending your vacation in a luxurious Shikaara on slow moving water in heavenly Kashmir. Only a few of us manage to make this dream a reality. At these prices, there's no reason why we shouldn't.
10. The Golden Tusk, Ramnagar, Uttarakhand: ₹7,054
Most of us spend all of our time in concrete jungles, working day and night to save some money so we can buy expensive gifts. But the feeling of living in a luxurious resort around an actual jungle is quite priceless. An expensive gift is nice but it isn’t nearly as valuable as spending holidays in the picturesque countryside.
Specially when Cleartrip is offering discounts like never before, it makes more sense to invest in travel than material possessions. With their sleek user-friendly interface, booking flights or hotels is as hassle-free as the steep discounts they're offering. Who knew traveling to such serene locations and creating a lifetime of memories would be so easy on the wallet?
This festive season, Cleartrip is empowering us to invest in a lifetime of memories by choosing to travel over buying expensive materialistic things. For various reasons, we never thought of spending our festive savings on travel. However now with India's biggest travel sale, our spending habits during the festive season are bound to change, for the better.
With this masterstroke, Cleartrip is already hijacking some of the most popular festive season sales by encouraging people to spend on travel as opposed to things. Thanks to Cleartrip, expensive gifts may soon be a thing of the past as lucrative travel sales are now a reality of our times and we can't be happier for it.
We live in a world of increasing convenience. Keeping that in mind, Cleartrip has launched a print ad with a QR code which when you scan takes you to a web application. On this web application, you can scan the price of any object and it'll bring up a travel offer of similar value for you. If you scan the price of branded sneakers, say about ₹4,999, the web app will show you a lucrative travel offer that'll cost you less than the sneakers. Quite a cool innovation, this one.
So, what would you choose: a gadget on EMI or a hotel room in London?
*DISCLAIMER: Flight prices are dynamic and are subject to change based on a variety of factors.
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