More and more Indian travelers are choosing extreme road trips to see the world

Meenakshi Sai, 51, looks like any other Indian woman, dressed in a sari and sporting a bindi on her forehead.

But unlike many women in her country, she has been driving since she was 18. According to the Statista website, in 2020, less than 7% of India’s 236 million drivers were women.

“I have been driving as long as I have been allowed by law and have always enjoyed the freedom it has afforded me and the feeling of being independent,” Sai said. “After my only daughter went to boarding school, I had a lot of time on my hands. I started traveling a lot, both alone and with friends.”

Sai was part of a team of eight Indians who drove 20,000 km (12,430 miles) across five countries, from Coimbatore, India, to St. Petersburg, Russia, to spread awareness about cervical cancer.

More and more Indians are now undertaking road trips – both within the country and beyond, alone and in groups – as access to better vehicles and roads grows in the country.

There is also the increase in slow travel. However, Sai took his first trip in 2016, before it became a trend.

“I went to Thailand with a group of 20 people,” she said, “from Manipur in northeast India to Bangkok, taking 13 days.”

Her next big trip was from India to London, which she described as “complicated”.

“It took me six months to come up with the itinerary,” he said. “It was difficult to find anyone in my circle of friends and family who had the time or was willing to invest money in this journey.”

Finally, through social media, she found two women – one from Mumbai, the other from Pollachi – who were interested in joining her.

Tata Motors sponsored the trip, which was extended for more than 14,900 miles and coincided with the 70th anniversary of India’s independence. The journey lasted 70 days, taking the three women through 24 countries, including Russia, Poland and Uzbekistan.

“We were traveling about 600 kilometers a day,” Sai said. “Many countries had granted us visas with specific dates, so we couldn’t afford delays, even a few hours.”

Road conditions combined with climate change and altitude levels made travel difficult, she said, as did the fact that she is a vegetarian, which made it difficult to find adequate food options in many countries.

“I ate a lot of potatoes and bread in countries like Kyrgyzstan where there was a lot of meat,” he said.

Sai now runs an overland guiding company that organizes road trips through countries such as Namibia, Georgia, Armenia, Nepal and Mongolia.

“Driving through a country is the way to see it, connect with the locals, stop wherever you want, cross borders and thrive in uncertainty. I also love the freedom the open road gives me,” he said.

In 2001, 51-year-old Mumbai resident Rishad Saam Mehta drove from Delhi to the Nubra Valley, an area of ​​Ladakh in northeast India.

“It was my first trip to the Himalayas, and I didn’t know how dangerous, narrow and high the roads were, and the havoc that altitude can cause physically. It was a lesson learned the hard way,” said the journalist and author .

Since then, Mehta has undertaken more than 100 road trips across around 50 countries. One of the most exciting trips was the trip from Munich to Mumbai, which lasted two months and visited eight countries.

He also drives different cars, depending on the trip, he said.

“I took a ride in a Ferrari through the Bavarian and Austrian Alps, then a snow ride in Spiti, northern India, in a Toyota Fortuner, then an autumn ride in New England in a Ford Bronco,” he said. “These were all the favorites.”

His advice? “There are many amazing trips around the world, some I came across by chance, some I researched in advance… but the company must be good, otherwise it’s a disaster,” she said.

Tushar Agarwal, a software engineer, drove from London to Delhi in 2010.

He said the 51-day trip changed his life and prompted him to resign from his job in London, return to Delhi and co-found a company called Adventures Overland with his friend Sanjay Madan in 2012.

“I felt like this was my purpose in life… I couldn’t look back,” Agarwal said.

Today, Adventure Overland is one of India’s largest road travel companies. Organize selected driving trips around the world.

Agarwal has traveled to 92 countries and has undertaken trips to six continents. His The most adventurous journey, called “Great India World Trip”, is now a 10-episode series on Discovery Channel. Together with his co-founder Madan, the The journey took them across six continents and 50 countries, securing them a Guinness World Record for the longest car journey in a single country for their 10,600-mile journey across Australia.

Traversing beautiful terrain and driving through unfamiliar territory, crossing borders, and dealing with unfamiliar foods and adverse weather conditions may not be for everyone.

But as Mehta said, “The sense of freedom and not being shackled to schedules and schedules… and also the spontaneity it offers, makes riding the ultimate adventure.”