Letter from the Editor

MY LOCKDOWN

I have never been home for this long at a stretch.

The lockdown confined us within our houses, but in a subliminal way, it also opened us up to emotions that we would’ve never paid heed to otherwise. This jolt came at a time when fast travel was becoming the norm. As I, along with the rest of India, gear up for the ‘new normal’, I also know that I will miss the time I spent at home, and the company I kept for the better part of the day. Or better still, it’s probably time to plan a road trip with my dog, Kara (in pic)! This time, we vow to make it slow, responsible, and rejuvenating.

MAY HAS BEEN A SURPRISINGLY

hectic month for us. Besides coordinating a cover shoot remotely (thanks to WhatsApp and FaceTime!) all the way in Amsterdam, Travel + Leisure India & South Asia launched an annual property, #TNLOutreach, a series of webinars with stalwarts across the tourism, hospitality, and aviation industries to present all the key trends that travellers can expect in the post-COVID-19 era. Our Travel Trends report (p. 13) is one of the most insightful and concise guides on where to travel, when to travel, and how to travel AC (after coronavirus). As part of this series, T+L

editors from around the world came together for the first time ever to delineate how our content will reflect the current times and the near future.

Our cover star Diipa Khosla—influencer, social activist, and an accomplished content creator herself—sportingly agreed to a no-production shoot on the roads of Amsterdam to reflect what might become the essence of rebound travel: road trips. In her interview, she shares her earliest travel memories and what her ideal set of wheels would look like (p. 38). When travel does swing back into action and a new normal is established, domestic trips will probably see the first takers. So, to aid your travel plans, we have a list of 10 road trips that you can easily take within India (p. 05). That’s not all, though. Our experiential series on road trips goes beyond borders—to the base camp of Mount Everest (p. 50), to the culture cornucopia of Kyrgyzstan (p. 54), to the many adventures of Europe (p. 66), all the way to Canada (p. 62)! Award-winning lensman Steve Winter gives us a glimpse of the jaguars of Pantanal, Brazil, in Through The Lens (p. 42). As India (and the world) slowly but surely moves towards ‘Unlock 1.0’, we have our hearts singing, souls smiling, and that itch in our soles getting stronger every passing day. After all, we all need to #stepahead!