About The Bucket Trips
We don't sell holidays. We design memories.
A small, obsessive team of travel designers building one-of-a-kind trips for travellers who refuse to settle for the templated version.
Our story
Born from a love letter to the world.
The Bucket Trips started in 2014 with one belief — that the best holidays aren't picked from a brochure, they're built around the person taking them.
Twelve years later, we've designed trips across sixty countries for over five thousand travellers. Some came back for their honeymoon. Some came back with their grandchildren. Most just kept coming back.
We're a small team of travel designers, on-trip concierges and obsessive planners. We've slept in every hotel we recommend. We answer our own WhatsApp messages. That's the promise.
12+
Years curating
60+
Countries
5,000+
Travellers
98%
Repeat & referral
Meet the founder
Sonum Bhandari
Founder & CEO
"Travel isn't a transaction — it's a memory you'll replay for the rest of your life. Every itinerary we send out has to earn that bar."
Sonum Bhandari founded The Bucket Trips with a simple obsession — that every holiday should feel personal, considered and quietly extraordinary. After more than a decade in the travel industry and 50+ countries on her own passport, she built the company she always wished existed: one where a real human picks up your WhatsApp, knows your taste, and sweats the small stuff.
Today she leads a tight-knit team of travel designers and on-trip concierges, personally reviewing standout itineraries and answering traveller messages well past midnight. If you've ever spoken to The Bucket Trips, chances are Sonum has read your trip brief herself.
The journey
Twelve years, one milestone at a time.
- 2014
The first itinerary
The Bucket Trips begins as a side project — three friends planning honeymoons for their college batch over WhatsApp.
- 2016
First international FIT
A 22-day Europe trip for a family of seven that becomes the blueprint for everything that comes next.
- 2018
1,000 happy travellers
We hit our first thousand, and 71% of bookings already come from referrals.
- 2020
The pandemic pivot
We pause new trips and spend the year rebuilding processes, supplier contracts and our on-trip concierge from scratch.
- 2022
24×7 WhatsApp concierge
Live across timezones — a traveller never waits more than 9 minutes for a response.
- 2024
Ten years in
60+ countries, 4,000+ travellers, an NPS that won't quit.
- 2026
Where we are today
A small, obsessive team of travel designers. 5,000+ travellers and still answering our own messages.
What we believe
Four small things that change everything.
Personal first
One traveller, one designer, one thread.
Insider always
We share the stays we'd book ourselves.
Family-feel
From your first hello to your last 'we're home'.
Quietly proud
98% repeat & referral. We let that talk.
Meet the team
The people you'll actually talk to.
Aditya Rao
Founder & Chief Trip Designer
60 countries, 12 years, one obsession — finding the stay nobody else knows about.
Kiran Menon
Head of Experiences
Ex-hotelier turned travel detective. If there's a hidden tasting menu, Kiran has been there.
Priya Shetty
Lead Travel Designer — Europe
Lived in Lisbon, fluent in five languages, and impossible to surprise on a Greek island.
Rahul Banerjee
Lead Travel Designer — Asia
Knows Bali, Japan and Vietnam better than most locals. Will plan you the perfect ramen detour.
Sneha Iyer
On-Trip Concierge Lead
The voice on the other end of WhatsApp at 3am when your flight's delayed in Doha.
Vikram Joshi
Lead Travel Designer — India
Born in Jaipur, schooled in Munnar — there isn't a fort or a backwater he hasn't slept in.
In the press
Kind words from kinder writers.
"Quietly one of the most thoughtful FIT outfits in the country."
"Where travel feels like a friend planned it."
"A WhatsApp-first travel agency that's redefining the trade in India."
"Their on-trip concierge is the kind of safety net every traveller secretly wants."
IATA Accredited
TAAI Member
Adventure Tour Operators of India
ISO 9001:2015
Let's plan something you'll talk about for years.
A 30-second message is usually all we need to get started.