Hindustan Times ·
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.
