8 activity-based outing options in India that help your startup team members build stronger bonds

Priyanka Choudhury, a startup employee, often felt shackled and trapped accomplishing everyday tasks, targets, and meetings. She wondered what she could do to kill the monotony of her work life and break the fetter of time-restricted environment. This changed after she visited Play Arena, Bengaluru, with her team members. Play Arena offers you everything a sports enthusiast usually scouts for –from zorbing to go-karting to tennis, badminton, football, and swimming.

She remembers how her tedious life was filled with colours of excitement at the announcement of team outing. The team outing not only gave her a break, but also the flexibility to strengthen her relationship with her colleagues and make new friends from other departments as well.

This is one of the many fables of how the corporate world has evolved over the last decade beyond promotion and incentives to engage their employees. Be it a day long break full of sports-related activities or a one week holiday, team building activities help employees build trust among each other and improve their productivity in office premise. When a particular assignment is delegated among the team members, the strong indulgent would eventually help them develop effective communication and problem-solving skills.

Here's a snapshot of some of the destinations across India where teams can converge for activity-based offsites.

Play Arena: Based out of Bengaluru, Play Arena has a six-acre arena where you can enjoy 30 types of sports starting from zorbing to go-karting to tennis, badminton, football, and swimming. Its PlayStudio offers daily and weekly sports buff and its members can access their sports club. One can also enjoy indoor games with its trampoline parks, indoor climbing, flight simulators, and a host of other activities.

Adventure Ahoy: It is situated 50 km away from Bengaluru city. The adventure site contains volleyball court, football field, cricket pitch, badminton courts, and lockers. One can rejoice by participating in activities like Zip Line (70 metres), dynamic obstacle course, water-based activities (like kayaking), paintball arena, climbing wall, and high-ropes.

Fun and Frolic: The resort is based out of Manesar, Gurgaon. With its substantial play area, one can explore activities like football, basketball, cricket, table tennis, golf, and indoor activities like chess, karaoke, carom, TT, and so on. It offers facilities like swimming pool, little golf course, rope course action like commando intersection, swinging scaffold, and more.

Adventure Camp: Based in Badshahpur, Gurgaon, Adventure Camp allows you to put up tent, trek to nearby villages, enjoy rock climbing, rappelling, valley crossing, zorbing, jumaring, and more. Moreover, you can also explore the beauty of nearby villages by indulging in pottery, clay modeling, tractor ride, bullock cart ride, and camel ride.

Splash and Splurge: The resort is located in Shamirpet, Hyderabad. It comprises presidential suite, ethnic suite, leisure suite, honeymoon suite, and business suite. The resort’s signature suite is spread across thousand square metres encompassing its own pool, private garden, separate dining, and study room. One can participate in activities like football, basketball, cricket, sand volley ball, water rides, and more.

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Civet Creek Camp: Coffee and cardamom plantation, cloudy hills, paddy fields, and small river streams collectively amplify the beauty of this Coorg-based camp. It is located in the heart of Coorg surrounded by hills and forest area. It has a host of in-house activities and outdoor activities like trampoline, volleyball, cricket, bonfire and barbeque, and trekking.

Outbound Fun and Adventure: Situated on the crest of Tamhini Ghats, Khandala, it offers facilities like the outdoor centre and the management centre. The management centre is meant for indoor training programmes, conferences, symposiums, sales, and more. Its outdoor activities include rappelling, rafting, camping, and more.

Camp Mustang: Located near Delhi, Camp Mustang is surrounded by Aravalli hills with country side farms in the backdrops and is considered as one of the best destination for day outing, corporate and family events, and team building programmes. It conducts activities cycling, obstacle course, team building activities, village walks, rocketry, and astronomy.

The above list includes only some of the best team outing destinations in India. With more and more corporates opting for this trend to engage employees and improve productivity, many more are opening up. We would love to hear some more names from you.