How the route, the climb and the money work

Yes, Safarnama is a virtual fitness challenge. You move in the real world (outdoors or on a trainer) and your distance and climb are mapped onto a real route through an Indian city. You never travel to the city, but every kilometre you cover is real.

Every activity you log, a Strava sync, a GPX or FIT file, or a screenshot you upload, adds its distance to your route. It doesn't matter where you actually moved; the kilometres carry you along the city's route from one monument to the next.

Each Safarnama route has a real climb built into it, these cities' forts and palaces tend to sit on hills and ridges. On a distance + elevation route, every monument has both a distance and a cumulative-ascent target, and it only unlocks once you've done both. It keeps the route honest: you reach a hilltop landmark having actually climbed to it. Prefer to skip the climb? You can score a route on distance alone instead, see below.

Every stop is placed using real published coordinates (Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, or a landmark's own geotagged photo), and elevation comes from satellite terrain data sampled at each exact spot. The distance between stops is a carefully researched estimate calibrated against real published reference distances for the area, not a GPS-walked or professionally surveyed route. We cross-check sources where we can and favour the better-corroborated figure when they disagree. Full notes on our method: see the help centre →

Your ascent builds up automatically from the elevation recorded in your Strava activities and GPX/FIT files, run or ride anywhere with hills and it adds up. No hills nearby? A treadmill incline, stair-climb sessions or a stationary-bike gradient all record ascent too. When you upload a screenshot instead of a file, you can enter the metres climbed by hand.

You've got options: set an incline on a treadmill, do stair or bleep-style sessions, use a gym stair-climber, or add a gradient on an indoor bike, all of it logs ascent. The climb targets are modest for most routes (roughly 250–950 m spread across a whole city), so a couple of hillier sessions usually keeps you ahead of the distance. Or…

When you start a city you choose how it's scored: distance + elevation (the full journey, both gates) or distance only (monuments unlock on distance alone; the climb is still shown, just for interest). Pick whichever suits where and how you move. You can change it later from the climb card on your dashboard, and the next city you start is a fresh choice.

Walk, run, cycle or hike; outdoors or on a trainer. If it has a distance and you can sync or upload it, it counts toward your route.

No. There's no countdown and no streak to lose. Safarnama reads your own pace, distance and climb per day, and projects when you'll reach the finish. Move when you can.

Whichever city you pick first is entirely free, with no time limit, every monument, start to finish. You walk one city at a time. From your second city onward, unlock it for ₹29–₹49 depending on its distance and climb, a whole themed trail for ₹109–₹219 depending on the trail, or all of India for ₹1299 (founding prices, until 30 November 2026). One payment, no subscription, yours forever.

No, one route at a time. You pick a city, walk it to the finish, then move to the next. It keeps each journey whole, and your distance and climb always count toward the city you're on. You can go back to a city you've finished any time, to re-read it.

Yes. A trail purchase includes every city on that trail, including the ones still being drawn, they open to you at no extra cost as they go live.

No. A free Strava account, or any device that exports a GPX/FIT file, is enough. You can even log from a screenshot of another app.

The activities Strava synced are removed and their distance and climb roll back out of your progress. Reconnect any time, your history re-syncs, and activities dated on or after the day you started a route count toward it again.