About Us

Hello! I’m Kavita, Welcome to my blog!

Born with the travel bug, my family of 4 Holiday Maniacs love to go on DIY (Do it Yourself) Holidays.
Through this blog, I share my detailed itineraries, in-depth planning, research and experiences to help you plan a perfect holiday and save money and time in the bargain.

We’re

• Indians
• Vegetarians
• Teetotallers
• Travel as much as possible depending on leaves and finances
• Try to take at least one or two international holidays in a year and a few extended weekend holidays in India
• So far we’ve travelled to over 35 countries across 6 continents

Our travel style

• Explore new destinations each time – the world is too big and life is too short!
  
• Visit a mix of touristy and offbeat places
• Prefer a bit of luxury
• Love to fit in as many sights as possible on the international holidays but plan for a couple of relaxing days on the Indian holidays
• Explore a country to the fullest rather than just put a stamp on our passports and move on
• Don’t like hiking – not our cup of tea (as you can guess from our photos)!

Some of our adventures include skydiving in Canada, Alaskan cruise, rafting in Bali, wildlife safari in Kenya, shark cage diving in South Africa, microlight flight over Victoria Falls, our first road trip in New Zealand, our first time snorkeling in Greece, Machu Picchu in Peru, wildlife cruise in the Galápagos, Iguazu falls in Argentina, the Olympics in Brazil, driving through fjords in Iceland and many more.

Why 4 Holiday Maniacs?

Travel Planning is my passion. Here I share:

• Itineraries – I spend way too much time planning a holiday so that there is no regret of missing out on anything later
• Meticulous planning – I believe in planning every minute detail as it saves precious holiday time
• How to be a DIY traveller – Over the years, I’ve realized booking everything on your own is way cheaper than booking a tour package
• Good and bad experiences – I think it is very important to paint a real picture for you
• Photos – I don’t use filters or Photoshop for any of my photos, so it’s the real deal
• Adventures – Love to search for unique adventures specific to a country. This is what makes a trip memorable!!
• Misadventures – Everything doesn’t go as planned, it’s part and parcel of travel

About ME

An engineer by education but my passion led me into the travel world. After a degree in Production Engineering, I landed up with a job in the Software industry. I was not satisfied and resigned in a week to explore an interest that I’d be happy doing. This led me to my passion for travel planning and I started a small travel company – Flexi Travels. I’ve been running it for 5 years and eventually took a plunge into Travel Blogging.
I love scenic places, natural beauty, adventures, wildlife and trying new food but I’m not a fan of museums or historic places. I get very hangry when I can’t get good food.

My Role – I’m the planner, researcher and I book everything for our holidays (besides constantly annoying the family with my demands).

About my Family

Dad

He loves to spend money only on travel. He got us all addicted to travel by taking us on at least one international holiday a year. In the pre-internet era, he planned all our trips where he would book either a group tour if it involves multiple cities or book an individual package through a travel agent if it involved one or two cities.

He likes to ride on every possible train, bus, tram, cable-car and boat, especially liking the mini-trains for tourists. He likes cultural shows, sightseeing spots and is always in hurry to cover all the places. Contrary to the rest of us, he is not adventurous. He develops a new fear on every trip. Hence, now he has a huge bag of phobias including long flights, self-driving, heights, gravel roads, seasickness, and cold weather.

His Role – He does all sorts of jobs like making inquiries on the phone, getting out of the car to ask for directions, getting food on the go etc. (besides complaining at the sight of the smallest adventure).

Mom

For travel, her only motto is to explore a new destination each time rather than going back to the same place again and again. She is the one who dragged us into adventure activities and took us on our first roller coaster ride in Bangkok back in 2002. Before that, my brother and I were scared of everything, like my dad, but now we are always on the lookout for adventures and we greatly thank her for it. Since then, we’ve done skydiving, bungee jumping, zip lining, jet boating, shark cage diving and many more adventures together. 

Her Role – She handles all the packing, passports and money (besides, of course, taking care of her 3 kids).

Kapil (Brother)

He has done Mechanical Engineering from IIT and MBA from IIM. As an exchange student, he has spent three months backpacking across Europe. Therefore, he dissuades us from travelling to Europe often (as he has already been there).

He loves a mixed bag of everything – road trips, scenic places, museums, wild life, natural beauty, historic places – basically everything other than shopping. He doesn’t have the patience to wait for anyone of us if we stop to shop or to search for food. Instead, he loves to order room service and, believe it or not, if required, can even go without food for days (he claims he already has a lot of stored inventory in terms of food)!

His Role – He basically has 2 jobs – porter and driver. He lifts all luggage in and out of airports and takes care of all the long drives. Also handles the visa formalities for international trips (besides always fighting with me needlessly and questioning my travel plans even though he has no alternatives of his own).