Date:06/04/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/04/06/stories/2005040600821700.htm

Back Pune tour planners reinvent travel idiom

Our Bureau

For an estimated Rs 2.50 lakh, the Khatus promise clients a 19-day holiday, which will take them across and beyond the Arctic Circle.

Pune , April 5

INDIAN holidaymakers shell out loads of moolah for vacations that give them nothing in return, according to Pune-based former air force fighter pilot Mr Hemant Khatu and his wife.

But the duo, who run Hans Adventure Holidays in Pune, promise to bring the zing back intovacations.

So, how about champagne and caviar as you watch the midnight sun from Europe's northernmost point, the North Cappe? Or setting out on a whale safari from the Andenes on the edge of the continental shelf, where a stock of sperm whales feed regularly?

If history is more your style, how about exploring St Petersburg, the Hermitage, the Winter Palace and the St Isaac's Cathedral?

For an estimated Rs 2.50 lakh, the Khatus promise clients a 19-day holiday, which will take them across and beyond the Arctic Circle, starting from Oslo, Norway, touching Nordkapp at the northernmost point in Europe and ending in Moscow, Russia.

"Everybody does sensational Singapore, limitless US, Fabulous Far East and Exhilarating Europe but holidays are the time when one can actually experiment and experience stuff that will change the way you look at the world," says Mr Khatu.

He says a backpacking tour of Norway last year with his wife, opened his eyes to the possibilities that the region presented for adventure holidays.

The duo, who have been running adventure tour holidays in India for the last five years, are now the sole general sales agents of Robinson Scandinavia, an in-bound tour operator into that region and have now come up with tour packages that will be conducted in through May-September. The tour includes scenic Oslo; Europe's largest glacier, the Jostedal; and the Lofoten Islands.

The itinerary also covers a reindeer safari,, visits to Sweden's Ice Artcentre, Stockholm, Finland's old capital Turku and Helsinki, before heading to Moscow and then back to India.

The tour is also being organised to coincide with the centenary of Norway's freedom from Sweden. Mr Khatu says this means more excitement for visitors since the country will go into a festive overdrive.