99 Epic Ways To Celebrate The New Year Differently!
It is upon us! The turn of the year, of the decade! Soon it’s going to be 2020, a year filled with new hopes and possibilities! We also know a lot of the readers are going to be celebrating it, by stepping up their dancing abilities at parties, or enjoying movie marathons, or even by just watching the good old television. Nah, this time around, let’s do things a bit differently.
Put on your adventure hats and discovery goggles and check out this list of activities curated just for you, and spice up the New Years’ this time!
Family, Friends and Fun!
- Game night! Board games, video games, you name it!
- Dinner plans at a never before tried place
- Paint the house!
- Movies Night!
- A LAN party! Let’s see who gets the high score on Counter-Strike this time!
- Throw a themed party!
- Sleepover Party! Perfect for all the catching up to do before the year ends!
- Overnight stay at a hotel
- Create a memory board of your favourite moments from the year
- In case you already don’t have one, start a new year tradition with family and/or close friends
- Attend a live concert
- Quiz competitions for the year gone by
- Treasure Hunting! Make it as crazy as can be!
- Conversation Starter game – something to help reflect and learn from 2019
It’s All About You!
- Simple! Take a break!
- Start a joyful ritual, something you actually like doing, and helps you – writing or reading, or targeting that hiking
- Make a playlist that puts you in a positive place. Celebrate the positivity!
- Start journaling! Maybe start with a gratitude journal and soon you’ll find that the world is your oyster!
- Go give yourself a spa visit, and leave 2019 behind
- Invest in yourself, financially, materialistically or intellectually
- Restart a hobby
- Get inked!
- Get a makeover! New Year, new style!
- Catch up with friends you’ve lost touch with
- Volunteer at a local NGO
- Celebrate all that you’ve achieved this year (finally)!
- Create that bucket list
- Gift yourself something you’ll be thankful for.
Travel! Who Doesn’t Like to?
- Go on an adventure! Rock climb, paraglide, Hot Air Balloon, you name it! Head on over to Under the Over in Lonavala, Pune
- Travel to that one place you’ve been meaning to
- Get to know a new culture – Enjoy a Sikkimese Night at Sterling Gangtok, or The Toda Culture Trail at Sterling Ooty – Fern Hill!
- Watch the sunrise from a place that is important to you, like at Terrace Gardens, Munnar, where you get to see the sunrise from above the clouds
- Get the thrill and fun from a Himalayan Safari over at The Sanctuary, Dharamshala
- Candle-light dinner for making those moments much more special over at Sterling, Puri.
- Rekindle romance by visiting the Taj by the moonlight at Sterling Agra.
- Relish authentic cuisines from authentic places! Try out Goan delicacies like Prawn Balchao at Sterling Goa Bardez, or the Keralite cuisine at Sterling Munnar
- Check out the thrill of mountain biking. Try it out with Sterling Ooty – Fern Hill!
- Try out trekking! There’s this amazing trek over at Rock Perch, Yercaud, that lets you walk through coffee plantations.
- Visit the ‘White Desert’ over in Kutch, Gujarat
- Get spiritually cleansed for the New Years in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
- Taste some French history and culture in Puducherry
- Taste the coffee made right in Coorg, Karnataka, also called the Scotland of India
Movies/TV Series/Books To Binge On
* M- Movies, B- Books, TV – TV series
- The Lord of the Rings (M/B)
- Harry Potter (M/B)
- Mission Impossible (M)
- Ocean’s 11(M)
- Love, Simon (M/B)
- Pirates of the Caribbean (M)
- The Marvel Cinematic Universe (M)
- Breaking Bad (TV)
- Stranger Things (TV)
- Doctor Who (TV)
- House of Cards (TV)
- Game of Thrones (TV/B)
- Friends (TV)
- The Curious Incident of Dog in the Night-time (B)
- The Great Gatsby (M/B)
- The Mistborn Series (B)
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower (M/B)
- Jurassic Park (M/B)
- Birdbox (M/B)
- The Martian (M/B)
Little-Known Travel Destinations
- Enjoy the Coaker’s Walk, a walkway by the lake, offering stunning views of the valley, in Kodaikanal
- Halebid in Karnataka, known as the Gateway to the Seas, offers a rich history of the Hoysala Empire
- Majuli, Assam – The largest river island in the world offers you rich culture and unique views
- If you want to get away from the tourist-centric places of Himachal Pradesh, have a stop by Khajjar, a town that offers blue skies, green meadows and blissful times
- Talsari Beach in Odisha is one of the less frequented offbeat beaches that charms tourists with backwaters and scenic beauty
- Spiti Valley Though not as unknown anymore, it is still an offbeat destination with history, culture and adventure activities, waiting to be explored
- Kalimpomg, in West Bengal, is a little known hill station with picturesque backdrop of the Himalayas, and scenic charm
- A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Valley of Flowers in Uttarakhand has about 300 species of flowers blooming, a sight you get to enjoy only after trekking and taking in the views to the destination.
- The Manas National Park in Assam boasts of an elephant reserve and a biodiversity reserve for that bit of peace we seek
- Savandurga in Karnataka is to Bangalore as what Lonavala is to Pune – a major weekend haunt for the people for trekking and camping, and just taking their time off
- Bhimbetka caves in Madhya Pradesh are filled with history, containing rock paintings as old as 30,000 years, and proof of human life from around the time
- Go on a moonlit ride between marble gorges of up to 100 feet that is romantic as well as awe-inspiring at the Marble Rocks of Bhedaghat, Madhya Pradesh
- The serene hill station of Panchgani in Mahabaleswaram offers trekking and visits to the nearby strawberry farms
Dishes To Usher In The New Year With
- Kulfi made with bananas, pistachio and cardamom
- Kachoris, but stuffed with cheese and jalapenos!
- Jalebis made of apples, fried golden and dipped in sugary goodness
- Good ol’ chole bhature
- Creamy ras malai
- Get your baking hats on with some choco chip cookies!
- You can’t go wrong with some gajar ka halwa either
- The ever-loved Laddoos
- The classic chicken tikka masala
- All the Naans! Garlic, butter, you name it!
- Mmm, Biryani!
Little-Known Adventure Activities
- Go on a night jungle trek in the Periyar Tiger Reserve Oooh! get the New Year rolling in with adrenalin pumping over at Sterling Thekkady
- Go biking and camping and take in the scenes of Har Ki Doon Valley
- Head over to Treetop Riverview in Corbett to experience Ground Zorbing Ball, an outdoor activity that gets you rolling, literally!
- Explore some amazingly interconnected cave systems over in Meghalaya
- Walk over some thick layers of frozen ice as a part of the Chadar Trek in Ladakh
- Go skiing; we know how limited the options are in India, so head on over to White Mist in Manali
- Get some rolling action on an ATV ride over at Dancing Leaves, Mussoorie!
- Go cycling in places with amazing views, like beachfronts! Visit Emerald Bay in Karwar for this experience
- Get some adrenalin action by trying bungee jumping or rafting over at Rishikesh!
- Discover some underwater life by going snorkeling off the coasts of Andaman
- Biking trip through Manali to Leh
- Challenge the waters with river rafting in Rishikesh
- Experience nature in its truest form with the mysterious Roopkund Trek through Himalayas
Plan your holiday to these epic locations and many more amazing destinations with Sterling Holidays and celebrate New Years’ like never before with us.