Travel to Uttaranchal

hello all,

this is palladipal, frm mumbai, wishing to travel to the uttranchal for the first time n would like to seek some expert comments.
we as a couple are planning to travel to mussoorie, nainital,(covering ranikhet & kausani along) in the month of feb'08.

Could u guys plz suggest me as how to go about the entire tour of about 8 days. we r wishing to ve a stay at all the four places n then explore the areas around.

we would be possibly reaching delhi by the mumbai rajdhani exp, n as per my knowledge the train to either nainital or dehradun plys in the night. So is it convient to take a bus instead or spend time in delhi itself waiting for the train.

kindly suggest me as to cover the places in what sequence.(to catch up with nainital first or later)

palladipal

Your train arrives in Delhi in the morning right? You can take a bus to Dehradun after reaching Delhi. There are very frquent bus services. From Dehradun you can easily reach Musouree. From here you can go to Kausani via Karnapryag & Gwaldam. You have 8 days and want to visit & stay at 4 places. Traveling by public transport you will have very little time to explore.

thnx jyotirmoy,

as u said with 8 days it would be difficult to explore, how would it be if we ve a stay for 3 days each in nainital n mussoorie and a day each at kausani n ranikhet. would that again be a lot of hectic? as we r nature lovers would not want to spend entire time travelling!

palladipal

If you are a nature lover I would suggest going to Nainital & hiring a cab to visit Binsar, Chakauri, Sitlakhet, Ranikhet.

In eight days, I guess you will be traveling for almost 4 days, like 2 days, to-fro Delhi-Mumbai. 8 hours from Delhi to Mussoorie, means another day gone. Mussoories to Gwaldam to Kausani, another 8 hours, I am not sure if buses ply in this route, but another day gone. So you see, you have lost 4 days in Travelling.

So there are two options to solve this problem, either you restrict your travel to one district of Uttranachal, like Kumaon only.

Or hire a Taxi from delhi, which will cost very high.

This could be the tentative plan I can think of for Kumaon region. You will have to plan alot for local travel in Kumaon
Start Mumbai at 18:00 and reach Delhi 09:00, I am assuming its overnight journey.
Day 1 - Delhi to Nainital - 8-9 hrs by Bus, I am not if there are any volvo buses starts early. Most of them start at 17:00 from delhi.

Day 2 & 3: Around Nainital, Rope way, zoo, bhimtal, and around, I guess you may need a taxi for near by places.

Day 4: Nanital to Ranikhet, around 2-3 hrs of drive. You can stay at KMVN Guest House. But there is nothing much in Ranikhet except relaxing and nature. even the ranikhet market is in old ranikhet around 5 km away. There is very nice herbal garden at the end of market

Day 5 - option 1: Ranikhet to Kausani, once again a quite place, you can visit Baijnath temple , which 1 hrs away from Kausani. there are few hotel in Kausani. view of peaks from kausani is breathtaking.

Day 5-6 option 2-Ranikhet to Binsar & Bhageshwar

Day 7- Binsar to Nainital to Delhi. I am sure the best place you can catch bus from. I am only aware of Nainital.

Day 8 - Half day around delhi... in the evening train at 18:00 reaching mumbai 09:00 nextday

here is the travelogue of my last trip to kumaon. But I had the convenience of my own car: http://www.wheelsandroads.com/articl...ticleid=Kumaon

I would suggest that since you are looking to travelling by the Rajdhani, also try and look up flight fares as an alternative. You have time till Feb and you may likely get really cheap ones. If it suits your budget, take a flight one-way only - to Delhi. A flight will save you a night of travel and give you an extra day in Uttaranchal.

Another suggestion is to drop Mussourie from the plan. Its a little away from Nainital/Ranikhet and the Kumaon region in general. This will ensure that you are not constantly travelling. The travel time saved and the day spared from a night stay in Mussourie can be used in exploring places in and around Ranikhet, Nanital etc.

Mussorie to Kausani (via Gwaldam), I dont think its possible in one day, you have to halt somewhere.In fact you wont get a girect bus from Mussorie to either Gwaldam or Kausani..The best idea is as Sald said drop Mussorie, otherwise it would be very hectic.Stick to Kumaun region.Or do one thing ,from Mussorie take a bus to Nainital, yes one Uttranchal roadways bus run in this route.From Nanital you can proceed to either Ranikhet or Kausani..Ranikhet is exactly 60kms from Nainital(approx 3hrs by bus or 2hrs by taxi )while Kausani would be 120kms.As you a travelling in feb keep woolen clothings with you.There are good chances of snowfall in early feb.

Agree with said about considering flying, and also dropping Mussorie.

hey rkbharat

thnx a lot for ur itenary effort. It should really be a great help. In fact i ve 8 days to explore which exclude the mumbai-delhi and back travelling.

well but i guess as sald and piyush said i shld think of dropping mussoorie frm the plan as now i think it would be really a too much of a hectic.

i was jst a little too confused about capturing both regions together. well but with all of our expertise views i think my picture seems to more clear now.

thnx
palladipal

Hire a taxi from Nainital for the whole trip.
This will cover sight seeings & going from one hill station to another. There are Non A/c Maruti Van available foir hire. When I went in Feb 05 it was @ Rs. 1000 per day (expect some appreciation) including driver charges as the owner himself was the driver.

Good that you are dropping Mussorie from your plan as it would have been too much of travelling.

I would suggest you spend time in Delhi after arriving & catch the night train. If you decide to catch a bus then most of the day will be spent in travelling & you will reach Nainital late evening & will have to spend on hotel accomodation for that night.

Ronak.

To reach Nainital, two trains are available both terminating at Kathgodam.One starts at 10:45pm in night and another at 4pm both from old delhi railway station.Confirm the timings of the trains.They run on the daily basis.Night train reaches Haldwani(8kms before Kathgodam)at about 6-6:30am while the evening at 10-10:15pm.Buses are also available from Anand Vihar bus station both morning and in night.You can get buses from 7pm till 10pm.From Delhi to Nainital the fare is Rs180 in normal bus while in Ac buses its close to Rs350.Even if you dont get a direct bus to Nainital you can reach haldwani first, from there number of buses are available.Haldwani to nainital is 40km.

hey guys thnk u so much for all the help that u people provided. i have already started working out on the new plan, so that i can book my tickets to the earliest. i am all geared up to just set off to kumaon now.

well people now that we ve decided to take on to the kumaon now my query is that since feb would be an offseason, booking a tour right frm mumbai would be appropriate or going there and availing for some further discounts would help us out.
also hiring a cab in nainital for all 7 days is fine or should we book individual cabbies in nainital, kausani, ranikhet etc?
also can somebody help me with the rates that the cabbies charge on daily basis

I don't think that you need to book your tour from Mumbai.
Take the night train from Delhi and reach Kathgodam early morning. Hire a cab from from Kathgodam and set out on your trip.
Complete your travel in Kumaon and return to Kathgodam and return to Delhi by train/bus what ever suites you.

Hiring a cab for whole 7 days would cost you somewhere close to 7000 - 10,000.It also depends which taxi you are booking..Alto.Van aur Quallis, the rates will differ.Nowadays no period is off season in Kumaoun, except the rainy season.As you are travelling in feb ,possiblity of snowfall is on the card.This will make a huge rush to the hill stations(if it snows).
According to me you should not hire taxi for the whole seven days, it would cost you more(if its in ur budget, than its ok).From Haldwani take a taxi reach Nainital, cost around 200-300Rs,you can even take a bus if luggage is not a problem,you can get the buses within 20 minutes to Nainital.Importantly it depends how many persons are travelling.If 2 or 3 persons are travelling go by bus, if more hire a taxi, the amount will come more or less same.From Nainital you can again hire a taxi to reach Ranikhet or Kausani.It all depends how many places you want to visit.