ScoutMyTrip: The Beginning of Road trips

While we are in it together, each one us has our own road trip story. We all met up in Theog earlier this year with just one agenda – kick starting ScoutMyTrip, just before winters made way for summers. We spoke at length about our travel while the friendly caretaker Mr. Negi cooked up the best vegetarian food he could (Yeah! We ended up in a place which was vegetarian!).

Ladies and gentlemen, presenting – The united inspirations of ScoutMyTrip

Here’s Our Story

Deepak:

My Love affair with the roads started because my father is a vagabond! His and my mother’s idea of a holiday involved our trusty ambassador car and the open wide roads in the country, basically going on a Road trip.

As I grew up and started travelling on my own, paucity of time and sometimes plain old laziness, prompted me to fly to different locations to enjoy what could be seen as a popular destination. But I realized that the “getting there” was more fun than “being there”. That was the germination of ScoutMyTrip. How can we collect all the information we need to travel to a place on the road without wasting time by going to multiple websites and blogs! How do we get this very helpful community together so that more and more people can see India the way it should be seen- from your car window or helmet visor!

Lo and Behold – ScoutMyTrip, where you never travel alone! Where Road trips are the way to Travel.

Neeraj:

That first-ever road trip to my hometown and back in circa 2008. The travel plan was horrendous, practically non- existent and thus the experience horrible. Planning resulted in sticky notes all over the car with names of places jotted all over – all that I could find using Google Maps. There was no information of road conditions or routes, we reached Lucknow by 2300 hrs from Noida and had to lie to our parents that we have reached Faizabad and are settled in a hotel for the night- and then I kept driving, reaching Faizabad around 0100 hrs. With no information on accommodation, we settled for a dingy guest house full of crawling insects. Eating breaks were impromptu and quite often left a bad taste in mouth – literally! Somehow I managed to reach home by next evening. A Road trip gone wrong for sure!

Then I started scouring through the Internet to get better route information – maps, forums, blogs, travel meetups – anywhere that I can get information. I’m now a moderator at a renowned travel forum – DevilOnWheels! Nowadays, I am called “Aawaara Kahin Ka Nahin” (or the Sanskrit equivalent- Yayawar) I love wandering in the Himalayas – try asking me about the Northern Himalayas and you will, I guarantee get more that you asked for!

And so, when you pour the expertise (IT Industry), passion (travel) and knowledge (both) in a pot and boil it for long, you create ScoutMyTrip – an idea that would change the way you travel. An idea that encourages Road trips to places and beyond.

Vineet:

A better part of my road trip experience has been with organized clubs and on two wheels. I ride a Royal Enfield I fondly call ‘Laetitia’; and she’s been there and done that. In the last six years I have had her; she’s done a little over 125,000 kilometers mostly on the highways. While I was riding with clubs, most of the research work was done by designated captains or leads so all one had to do was follow them and they took care of pretty much everything.

But in the year 2014, when I decided to start riding on my own and planning on different places I realized the sheer amount of research the ride captains used to put into planning one road trip was mind boggling. There were just too many variables to consider; and too many websites to juggle around with. A lot of information was available on forums and not very searchable especially road conditions. The thing with travelers is, information is available but there is too much to sort through.

Picture this – you want to plan a road trip. Would you want information in data points or in long form texts? Which form of presentation is more usable and practical to apply?