Out of Delhi for a day or 2

helpme

I will be in Delhi for a week before a friend meets up with me there. He will also want to stay in Delhi for a few days before we head around India so I just want to spend 3 or 4 days there initially. I am looking for suggestions for places to go for a day or 2 that are fairly close to Delhi. Not Agra as I will head there later and we are planning on going to Rajistan and also east eventually to Kolkata. I was thinking of perhaps Rishikesh? Because this will be at the beginning of July I know that not all places will be ideal at this time. Any suggestions on interesting places to go for a day or 2 and how to get there would be appreciated. Or great places to go in Delhi.
Thanks
ps. Thanks very much to those whose replied to my previous posts as I received lots of great tips.

SHIMLA

Rishikesh is one option, Lucknow is a second and Chandigarh a third.

Getting there - Lucknow and Chandigarh are each best accessed by the Superfast Shatabdi Express from New Delhi. For Rishikesh you have the convenient overnight Mussoorie Express from Old Delhi station.

If you do not want to go too far, there are plenty of spots in Haryana around Delhi like Kurukshetra, Dabchick, Hodal, Surajkund, etc. Haryana Tourism runs good hotels and restaurants at each spot.

The only drawback is the season - July is an awful time to tour North India, due to the general heat, rain and humidity.

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bijapuri

I'd vote for Mussorie, because of aforementioned heat and wet

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volga_volga

I had exactly the same question (a day or two out of Delhi) when i was staying there for several weeks and had only weekends to play with. So I did some research.

Rishikesh/Mussourie is OK if you are prepared to spend half of your time travelling. You'll spend half day getting to Rishikesh (and possibly more - to Mussourie) and half day - getting back. You'll be able to see Rishikesh, attend one evening puja and eat some great veg food and may be have one morning walk along Ganga... but three not two days would be a minimum for me for Rishikesh. see this thread on various options how to get there.

I also had a guide called "52 weekend breaks from Delhi" or sometning like that, published by one of the media group in India. Unfortunately for all the interesting weekend destinations you needed a car... and travel by public transport (may be Shatabdi Express excepted) would be long and tiring if you only have a couple of days. But you may enquire about this guide at your hotel/travel agent. SHIMLA has a point about climate in the North in July...

In the end, I grew lazy, spent a few weekends in Delhi and fell in love with the city. Explore the Delhi destination section of this forum and you'll get lots of interesting ideas.

radz

The books useful,if you want explore around Delhi,its available all bookshops.But the destination ,you cant manage as weekend trips,need more than 2 days,expect Agra few places.

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