Big Idea

Quench your wanderlust

Shefali Walia is your solo travel guide

Vishal Koul

If you need to quench your thirst of travelling alone, then WeTravelSolo, a travel start-up, might be the perfect place to plan your upcoming tour. “This is a platform to bring together people who prefer travelling solo,” says founder Shefali Walia. The trips are a mix of those planned by experienced travellers as well as in-house staff.

“While general travellers double up as trip-crafters and suggest possible places that can be visited, we have three-four trip planners who figure out the cost involved in every trip,” adds the 27-year old. Bootstrapped with an initial investment of ₹10 lakh, the start-up comprises of 10-12 people and its website traffic is 15,000-25,000 visits every month. Walia has organised around 18 trips till now and has about 300 registered users.

Walia can not only set up a weekend trip to McLeodganj, Dhanaulti, Panna, Udaipur etc but also to South East Asia. The travel group normally consists of 8-12 people ranging in the age group of 27-35 years. While the traffic is all-India, we get the maximum business from cities like Delhi and Chandigarh for now,” she adds. 

On average, a night’s stay along with travelling, food and activities costs around ₹6,400 per person. “It usually ranges within ₹6,100-₹ 9,100 per person (within India),” explains Walia. With the intention of getting more solo travellers to their dream destination, the start-up is preparing to launch its mobile application by mid-December.