Bae-cation: Singles are taking holidays to find love

Swiping is so last season. Singles are signing up for meet-cutes in the mountains and flirty ice-breakers on the beach. Could matchmaking vacations help us find love?

Picture this: A cosy bonfire in the mountains of Jibhi, Himachal Pradesh. A group of men and women all dressed up in glittering saris and kurtas. There’s a cocktail-sangeet night, a mehendi and baraat spread across three days and four nights. Except there’s no wedding. The guests are 25- to 40-year-old singles who’ve signed up to take a chance on love on a matchmaking vacation organised by Capture a Trip. It’s not quite Love Island. There are no cameras. But there are plenty of opportunities to get to know someone: On a trek to the local fort, on a dedicate-a-song-to-your-crush session, while playing rapid-fire games with your match, and dancing to Bollywood songs. Even if you return unlucky in love, you’ll have had a little break.

For a generation struggling to find love, the elaborate set-up makes sense. Young people, after all, are hoping for meet-cutes in grocery stores, cafés, gym raves and bars. So why not holidays? It happened for Raj and Simran in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), to Celine and Jesse in Before Sunrise (1995) and to Liz and Felipe in Eat Pray Love (2010). Tinder even introduced Passport Mode in 2015, letting users change their virtual location and match with people in cities they’re visiting. Singles’ cruises have been around since the 1990s. A pretend destination wedding isn’t so farfetched.

Does it really lead to Do Not Disturb? Or is it a holiday from hell? It depends on how much you believe in love.

Neeraj Narayanan, founder of On His Own Trip, introduced singles’ trips about two years ago, to give young people what the Tinder experience and one-evening-long mixer could not. The hope was that a three-day trip could offer a more natural, relaxed environment for others to get to know a vetted, verified stranger. Travellers often started dating during his regular trips to Bhutan, Meghalaya and Lakshadweep anyway. “At least 25 marriages have come out of people who met on regular trips,” he says. He met his wife while leading a trip in the Andamans eight years ago.

Other entrepreneurs, such as Nishant Yadav, who founded Trip Paglu in January 2026, have seen enough public interest to organise seven matchmaking trips to offbeat locales around Tirthan. Vande Mahipal’s company, Raahi Trail, organised its first singles’ trip to Manali this year. “There’s no algorithm here rating people as potential partners. Instead, they connect organically,” he says.

The vibe is more chill than horny. A 28-year-old chartered accountant from Mumbai says he signed up for Trip Paglu’s matchmaking holiday to Jibhi in May, where he found himself drawn to a woman in the group. Both say they share an interest in food and travel, but she, a mechanical engineer from Delhi, says she fell for him on a particularly tough trek. “I liked how thoughtful he was,” she says. “He wasn’t just looking out for me, he was looking out for everyone. But he noticed when I was tired and brought me water, asked if I wanted anything to eat, carried my bag and held my hand on the tricky parts of the trek.” They started dating soon after and have been together for three months.

The itineraries for singles’ trips usually mix sightseeing with bonfire nights and laid-back socialising. Hosts organise low-pressure games such as Never Have I Ever, Two Truths and a Lie, or Who’s Most Likely To, to encourage the group to open up. “Sometimes something very casual becomes a trigger for a deeper conversation,” says Narayanan. “Someone might mention anxiety, which opens up space for others to be honest too.” Tinder could never.

With some activities, the conflict is built in. Trekking and canyoning is “where you see a completely different side of a person: How they behave under stress, how they respond to others, how supportive they are,” says Narayanan.

Yadav says the slow, multi-day unwinding is the point. “It takes one night to break the ice. The second night you start seeing who each person is gravitating towards. We also personally ask people if they like someone, and if that person reciprocates, then we communicate it to both of them.”

But matchmaking trips are more work than a one-off singles’ night. Yadav says their vetting process includes a 20-minute conversation with a participant, to gauge their personality. There’s a series of social media checks, those who sign up must declare in writing that they are single, and organisers are extra vigilant about those who misbehave, and come on too strong on a trip. A man on Yadav’s trip “tried to be over-friendly with women, making them uncomfortable,” he says. He was sent home immediately.

Vacations, however, can only do so much. On Raahi Trail’s three-day matchmaking trip to Manali in May, Mahipal says one couple matched successfully. Yadav says that 30% to 40% of people on his trips express romantic interest in a participant either during or after the holiday. “They stay connected after the trip, and we often find out they’re dating through our WhatsApp channels.”

Narayanan remembers organising a trip to Bhutan in 2024, at which one particularly smooth guy had two or three women crushing on him. “The women would turn to me to mediate. Things got super emotional.” But during a trip to Meghalaya the same year, of the 10 participants, two couples emerged. He encourages people to arrive with an open mind. “You might meet someone interesting, and if something develops, that’s great. But the primary purpose is still to enjoy the trip.” And if you don’t find your LOML? At the very least, you might leave with a few new friends.