Recently I made a trip to Hyderabad again and this time I took a couple of days to roam around the city solo. While I believe the best way to explore a place is by foot, when it comes to huge cities like Hyderabad that is not really possible. Destinations are far off and when I don’t really know a city that well, I prefer cabs. The thing with cabs though, is whenever I have booked all day cabs with local vendors, I have found them to be very expensive, in any city.

I had noticed #OlaRental on my Ola app before as I use the app daily to commute to work, but never really used it. Decided to use it during my trip to Hyderabad. The best part is that I was able to book the cab on an hourly basis and had a car at my disposal throughout my day.

Ola Rental is a great option for those days when you are out for hours and hours whether it is for meetings or shopping or sightseeing, like I did. My driver Shekar picked me up sharp on time and I headed to my first stop, Shilparamam.

Shilparamam is an arts and crafts village (something like Delhi haat) created with the objective of preserving traditional crafts. There are rural themed museums, sculptures, gardens, sketch artists, an amphitheatre and of course shopping.

Artisans from all over the country are here selling their artifacts in haat like stalls. You will find everything from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, literally! I spent about three hours walking around Shilparamam!

Shilparamam is situated in the buzzing IT area and the traffic gets crazy. Fortunately, I had my Ola Rental waiting for me! After exiting Shilparamam, I headed to my brother’s apartment to pick him up as we had plans for coffee and dinner. I had heard great things about The Roastery Coffee House in Banjara Hills and that is where we headed. I have a thing for cafes that are pretty, serve great coffee and have books, and that is exactly what Roastery is!

I was delighted! While the coffee is amazing, the desserts were incredible! Definitely going back there during the next visit.

After the lovely coffee and dessert, it was time for dinner. Bro and I had been craving sushi for a couple of days. We looked up a few places, and zeroed in on Hashi. Our Ola Rental guy Shekar quickly took us there as he swiftly yet safely navigated the crazy Hyderabad traffic. We ordered Salmon Nigiri and Tuna Maki. Both were oh so good!

And then after a fabulous day we headed home! The ability to keep changing destinations on your Ola app during the journey is such a time saver. No need to book cabs again and again throughout the day.

All in all, had a great day because I got the best car to travel thanks to OLA Rentals.