Freedom from work: Hyderabad based techies pack their bags for long weekend

HYDERABAD: With the Independence Day falling mid-week on Wednesday, many Hyderabad-based techies are now packing their bags getting ready to fly off to their favourite destinations. Working five-days a week, most of the IT employees have opted to either opt for a work-from-home or take a leave for Thursday and Friday and avail a 5-day-long getaway far from the city. Amongst the top destinations preferred by the techies this year, a surprise name is that of Bali.

“As a trend, we have noted a sudden spurt in bookings for Bali this month. It is slowly emerging as a preferred location as it has Visa-on-arrival facility So for those who opt for last minute plans, this international destination is an easy choice.”

“Moreover Hong Kong, which was another sought-after destination for Hyderabadis, has been seeing a lot of Visa rejections. Bali is one of the places that fits in the same economical bracket and thus fast emerging as a favourite getaway,” informed Venkata Krishna of Thomas Cook, a travel aggregator.

While they have noted about 20 per cent spike in number of booking to this destination this month, they attribute the rise to single IT employees going in groups as they individually have higher income capacities.

As a local favourite, while many this year had their bookings in place for Kerala, the floods played a spoilsport forcing people to settle for Ooty and Coorg as other options.

“I was excited for the Neelakurinji bloom and boat race and had even booked tickets for these, but I had to cancel all my bookings due to the floods. Instead, we are now planning for jog falls, Chikmanglur in Karnataka,” said Abhishek Kumar, an IT employee. Other travel aggregators like Make My Trip witnessed a surge in bookings for many areas in the north India as well.

“Most people are now enquiring about North Indian destinations like Manali and Shimla for the long weekend as South has already been visited,” said Mohan Menon of Make My Trip.