The 22 best things to do in India

From dynamic Cape Town and cosmopolitan Johannesburg to wildlife-filled expanses of wilderness such as the Kalahari and the Drakensberg Mountains, South Africa is rich with adventures. The best time to visit will depend on where you want to go and what you want to do when you get there.

With its year-round tropical climate, top-notch infrastructure, abundant green spaces and awesome child-friendly attractions, the tiny island nation of Singapore is a fabulous destination to discover with your pint-sized posse in tow.

Only 25% of Indians traveling abroad purchase travel insurance well in advance while making travel arrangements, while the majority of them wait until the last three days to buy it, according to data compiled by insurance aggregator Policybazaar.

While it’s a popular holiday destination year-round, deciding on the best time to visit Sri Lanka can depend on several factors, from the areas you plan to visit to the activities you want to enjoy. The country’s position in the Indian Ocean means it experiences several different weather systems, so travelers seeking sunny climes should be able to find what they are looking for at most times of year. 

Antitrust watchdog Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved Tata group’s plan to merge its full-service carriers Air India and Vistara. 

Grand Cayman has long been a popular destination for travelers in search of white-sand beaches, excellent snorkeling and diving spots, and well-heeled accommodations. Just 22 miles long and eight miles wide, the island is the largest of the Cayman Islands and has a reputation for providing travelers with a quiet, low-key getaway. And with most of the action happening near the famous Seven Mile Beach, only 15 minutes from the Owen Roberts International Airport, travelers can start their vacations minutes after landing.

The luxury travel network Virtuoso® has revealed the winners for its 2023 Best of the Best awards announced at this year’s Virtuoso Travel Week held in Las Vegas at Bellagio Resort & Casino, ARIA Resort & Casino, and Vdara Hotel & Spa. The 35th annual gala spotlighted the network’s most esteemed travel agencies, advisors, and preferred partners.

As long as people have been traveling, they’ve sought mementos and souvenirs. Ancient Egyptians and Romans brought spices, animal skins, and gold back from foreign trade missions or conquests. Modern travelers hunt for handicrafts or traditional art, tangible reminders of other places to use in their own lives at home: a Moroccan rug splayed across the living room floor, a gleaming Venetian glass vase to fill with wildflowers.

India is expected to overtake Germany to become the world’s third most powerful travel and tourism market by 2032, according to World Travel and Tourism Council’s Economic Impact Research.

The Google pages of many hotels — including premier properties — in the Himalayan hill towns of Darjeeling and Kalimpong in West Bengal have been defaced for fraud ahead of the holiday travel rush. Anybody looking for hotels in Darjeeling using the search engine will come across prominent photographs containing the hackers’ phone numbers over a section displaying pictures of rooms and amenities. “We have been lately facing incidents where fraudsters are posting their mobile numbers with payment options to book not only our properties but also several others in the region. We are continually monitoring this and flagging all such posts as ‘spam’ for Google to review and have them removed,” said Viraj Oberoi, director of Elgin Hotels & Resorts, a luxury heritage hotels chain with properties in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Sikkim. Cyber miscreants are removing hotel details and creating their own profiles with personal contact details, said Sandipan Ghosh, general secretary of regional travel trade body Eastern Himalayas Travel and Tour Operators’ Association. “Surprisingly, they’re also luring customers to pay in advance while knocking off the goods and services tax charge,” Ghosh said. In India, the goods and services tax on hotels range anywhere between 12-18 percent, depending on the pricing. Customers, while trying to book hotels online for Darjeeling, have been duped to pay advance amounts to bank accounts which don’t belong to the owners of the accommodations. “We’re in touch with the cyber cell department to track such incidents closely and take action accordingly,” Ghosh added. 

India will invest around $12 billion over the next two years in airports, aircraft and recruitment to meet the booming demand for air travel. The country aims to increase the number of airports from the present 148 to 220 by 2025, for which private builders will contribute roughly $9 billion, with the balance coming from the government-run Airports Authority of India. It entails new terminal construction, greenfield projects, and refurbishment of existing buildings, including old military airfields from the colonial era, as per a Bloomberg report. “We need to put in place the civil aviation infrastructure and capabilities that by 2047 would be able to support a $20 trillion economy within India,” said the country’s civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia at the ongoing CAPA India Aviation Summit in New Delhi. Scindia said passenger capacity at India’s six major airports is expected to grow to 420 million in four years from 192 million today, and Indian carriers’ fleet will grow to 2,000 aircraft in five years from 700. Additionally, India has eased leasing rules for airlines to lease more aircraft to address aircraft shortages as travel rebounds from the pandemic. He also highlighted how India had tweaked its airplane leasing program to enable airlines to add more aircraft to meet passenger demand, including more “wet leasing,” or renting of planes with crew, for domestic and international routes. Tata Group-owned Air India last month announced a record order for 470 jets and is due to take another 25 leased aircraft.

Indian companies have failed to set targets to reduce corporate travel emissions, according to an annual report by campaign group Transport & Environment. Globally, only 50 companies out of 322 have set targets to reduce business travel, with information technology (IT) services company Wipro paving the way in India. Wipro has achieved a 15-20 percent reduction in air travel emissions between the 2015 and 2020 period. Among all 10 Indian companies featured in the ranking report, only IT services provider Tech Mahindra reports on air travel emissions specifically. “Advancements taking place in India are mostly being led by the technology industry. We invite these technology companies to continue to work on their travel policies and demonstrate leadership to catalyze change in other industries,” said Denise Auclair, corporate travel manager at Transport & Environment. Of the companies that have targets, only four companies meet the “gold standard” of reporting air travel emissions and commitment to reducing them by 50 percent or more, by 2025 or sooner. These are Novo Nordisk (pharmaceuticals, Denmark), Swiss Re (finance, Switzerland), Fidelity International (finance, Britain) and ABN Amro (finance, the Netherlands).