Blessed are the curious for they shall have adventures – Lovelle Drachman
Have you ever planned a surprise trip for someone you love? Where you book the tickets and take care of the hotel reservations and all the person has to do is pack their bags and get ready to be surprised. Now, imagine that there's a company that does the same for you. How amazing would it be, especially for hardcore travellers, to take a trip and not know where the destination lies! Here's a travel company that's doing just that. And it isn't located somewhere across the ocean on foreign soil!
Based in Mumbai, WanderTrust, founded in August 2017 by Sanket Somani, will let you wander off the cuff to your heart's content because they believe that nothing makes you feel more alive than travelling. When you travel with them, all you need to do is state your desired travel dates and budget, fill out a form about your personality ('cause that's how they pick the perfect place for you) and mention travel preferences. Once you reach the airport, railway station or bus terminal on the day of your departure, you get to open an envelope revealing the destination. It can be anywhere from a remote hill station in Himachal Pradesh to the pristine beaches of the Andaman Islands.
So, let's give you the lowdown of how it works. You first visit their website, WanderTrust.in and fill out a survey form. "The form requires you to specify the places you have already been to and where you don't wish to go. The form is tailor-made for every traveller so that we don't miss out on any of the details. Often times, people have been curious as to how we ensure that we don't send our clients to places they've already been to. That is why we emphasise on collecting the necessary information," says Sanket.
The traveller then has to provide their preferred travel dates and budget details on the form. Following this, the WanderTrust team will call you for a budget confirmation.
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And then the fun begins! WanderTrust will send you a teaser mail to get you excited ten days before the departure date. The mail will contain details like the kind of clothes to carry, the weather conditions of the place, departure location and time. But the mail still won't reveal the name of the destination. Just a day before your departure, you will receive an envelope that contains your tickets, hotel vouchers, and itinerary. And you are sorted!
Like most dream jobs, Sanket's love for planning surprise trips began when he was a child. He completed his BTech in Mumbai and went on to work at Accenture. But he soon realised that this was not his cup of tea and he wanted to do something in the travel domain. Sanket's brainchild, WanderTrust, came into being after he had planned a surprise trip for his friend's girlfriend. "I did not think twice then, I just planned it and kept the destination a surprise for the girl as she stayed in the US. I planned her trip to India so that she could meet her boyfriend here. When I finally saw how happy they both were, that was the moment I thought of this. It took a lot of hard work and research to set it up and make it work. We have been receiving satisfying reviews and people get excited by the idea as the concept is something that hasn't been done before in the country," says Sanket.
WanderTrust has also started organising international trips, but only to countries which provide visa on arrival. "If you want to go to Europe or the US, we would have to get the visa done earlier and that would take away the surprise element," concludes Sanket.
