[naveendhyani]

hey guys!

which are the best weekend getaways from delhi? pls share ur experience with kms, time travel and whatever else u can tell!

thanx.

[tsk1979]

Winters : Various wildlife parks like corbett, ranthambore, bharatpur-agra(birds), himachal for snow. Shimla is nearest
Summers : shimla or Uttranchal(Chamba Kanatal area is clean, stay away from mussourie etc., unless you like garbage)

[himanshugoswami]

winters: Jaipur, Udaipur (long weekend-at least 10 hrs drive), chail, Shimla, Mussoorie, Nainital

Summers- All the hill stations mentioned above, and corbett.

Adventure- Shivpuri for rafting, Barog for hang gliding.


BTW, naveen, what car have u decided to take to Leh?

Summers : shimla or Uttranchal(Chamba Kanatal area is clean, stay away from mussourie etc., unless you like garbage)

Actually, in the past couple of years, Mussoorie has cleaned up appreciably and is now probably cleaner than shimla.

[tsk1979]

huh, I guess I missed the clean parts. We went in may last year and it was a dump. Infact uttranchal and UP are not going to be on my list on most times.
Reasons : No availability of good cheap dhaba food as in haryana and himachal. Bad maintaince and no good budget hotels. Uttranchal has lost it when it comes to tourism

[naveendhyani]

Originally Posted by himanshugoswami

BTW, naveen, what car have u decided to take to Leh?

hi! i plan to take baleno for the trip. though it has a lower ground clearence than the SUVs i intend 2 put skid plates and underbody protection on this. i hope this will b powerful enough combination 2 tackle the heights and conditions at leh

[panky12345]

gyz gyz.....relax.....just try www.arounddelhi.com it's got everything u want rt from 1 dayers till long weekends, its free....just take the info!

[Shankyz]

Hi everyone,

Trying to search for some good places to visit for 1-2 days (Weekend) but can't find much ...It seems the NCR guys are not travelling much? Doing work all the time ? come on guys, lets put together some good info for weekend travel (1-2) days trip for places around Delhi?

and while we are at it , pls share you experiences to help me

Shanky

[tsk1979]

the problem with Delhi is that during summers the only nearby places are hills.
When you are talking about 2 days, the only places you can go to is Either Nainital region or Mussourie.

Delhi - Nainital is 5 hours if Moradabad highway does not have much traffic, otherwise it can take upto 10 hours or more. Once it took 24 hours.

Other option is places like shimla which are a good 8 hours drive away from Delhi.

Search through this forum, you will find lots of trip logs to himachal and Uttaracnhal but most of them were done in 3-4 days.

A good option is Corbett, which is 4-5 hours from Delhi, but is closed in summers and rainy season.

[diezel]

head out to Rishikesh, around 250 kms from Delhi on the Ghaziabad - Meerut - Haridwar. Best time to go is during summers before the rains. Amazing rafting/trekking experience. Can easily do it during the weekends and back.

Head out to Shimla, on the GT Karnal Road, atleast 8 hours drive through Chandigarh.

Try Manali, similar distance from Shimla.

Can also go to Rajasthan, but summers can be really hot, so recommended direction is towards the hills. Try Kasaul, one of the most beautiful places around Himachal. Its around 60kms from Manali.

And if you can plan well, you can go all the way up to Amritsar/Wagah Border, but will take you around 11 hours. Beautiful Punjab all the way with amazing dhaba food to taste. Except Rishikesh and Rajasthan, all the routes are from GT Karnal Road, so do try the paranthas at Murthal.

For the religious folks, head down south towards Agra, and there you can stop over at Vridavan and Mathura.

Then head out to Jaipur, ofcourse, try going up the Nahargarh fort just at the outskirts of Jaipur and feel the Rang De Basanti Experience. The view from there is breath-taking. For folks who are married, you can buy a lot of stuff for your wifeys.

For those looking for Clubbing experience within Delhi, try Elevate in Centrestage Mall, Noida, Tabula Rasa in Saket, and a new one, Six Month Country on Chattarpur Road, Mehrauli, on route Gurgaon.

Enjoy Delhi to Max.

[simply_sunny001]

River Rafting/Camping around Rishikesh is also a good option and so many 2D/1N packages are available.

check the following linky

ATI

[iraghava]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Delhi - Nainital is 5 hours if Moradabad highway does not have much traffic, otherwise it can take upto 10 hours or more. Once it took 24 hours.

Originally Posted by tsk1979

NH 24 its not an ordinary highway. Its highway through hell.
Sometimes truckwallas stop on the road to take a nap. If they sleep for 8 hours you have to wait for 8 hours.
Sometimes the dual carriageway ends in a bottomless pit which will take you to patal lok.

I know I am scaring you, but be scared, be very scared.
From 2006 to 2008, it has gone from bad to worse. Its a Golden quad construction proceeding in a time space warp which is running backwards.

So don't assume 600kms a day. On a good day you will average 30kms/ hour too.
It took me 6 hours to go to Moradabad from Noida(150kms), and that too because I went off road into the villages, people struck in the jam waited for 15-20 hours.

That road often sees day long jams.
I don't have any idea about how the road is after Moradabad, but if Delhi-Moradabad stretch is any indication, it will be a long long trip.
so best is to mark 2 nights halt and 3 days travel for your trip, and whenever you find a good stretch, try to cover the max distance that day.
Lucknow to Delhi is 440kms but often takes 12 hour +

Actually Tanveer most of what you're saying is nothing but sheer exaggeration of the real situation. I do the Delhi-Moradabad stretch at least twice a week (if not more) and have been doing it for years, even before any of the 4-laning work ever started. Heck, the bypasses you see today at Hapur & Moradabad didn't even exist, even on Govt. files when I started travelling on this stretch regularly.

Average time even today for me 2.5 hours one way, sure you get a jam or two once in a while but if I do the calculation before the 4-laning began or after it, the average for me is a jam every 20-25 trips if not more. And No, it cannot take you 24 hours to Delhi-Moradabad in a car. Has it ever happened to you personally or are you relying on hearsay??

Also, it is not part of the Golden Quadrilateral. And the stretch you refer to having day-long jams only does have them a few day a year, that is on the "Ganga Snaan" days when thousands of villagers load up in their Tractor-Trolleys & come to take a bath in the Ramganga at Brijghat just before Gajraula. Problem is that the bridge is only two-lanes wide & the villagers usually park their TT's in a haphazard manner causing all kinds of jams. Frequent passage of overloaded trucks & trucks with oversized cargo doesn't help either.

The creation of Uttrakhand and it's development as an Industrial area has hampered the situation further & has increased the volume of heavy traffic considerably as this is the only route to reach places like Kashipur, Rudarpur etc.

I still maintain that if you're an experienced driver used to driving on Indian highways it should not take you more than 3.5 hours to do the Noida-Moradabad without a break. Also, if need be do not be afraid to go into the wrong lane or go off-road as that is required to eb done at times. Hell, I had to do that same on the Delhi-Mumbai GQ stretch between Surat-Baroda to bypass the jam in my lanes.

Please stop scaring other travelers with these horror stories. This road does not "Often" see day long jams, once in a blue moon yes, it does but it is by no means a regular occurrence.

If anyone wants, I can even make out a list of places where delays can be expected at times so others can be more aware of the situation.

[nishantgandhi]

I recently did a Rudrapur-Delhi trip. We started at 4.30 pm and reached Delhi at 9.30 PM, with a 45 min rest in between. I have done Delhi-Rudrapur, Delhi-Corbett and Delhi-Nainital trip a number of times and the duration quoted by Ishan is quite alright. And to say that I am a very peaceful driver on highways!

Another option for a weekend trip to consider is Lansdowne. Its a beautiful army cantonment hill station and about 7-8 hrs from Delhi. You got nothing but greenery, nature and hiking through forests to do! Perfect for unwinding and relaxing on a weekend. Although, I would advise you to avoid the Moradabad strech at late night

[tsk1979]

@iraghava, what I said is an exaggeration from the point of view of a frequent traveller. In 15 trips you will see a jam maybe once.
But for holiday travelers the case is different, because we travel on long weekends.
Long weekends in India are more often than not due to a religious festival, which means thousands descend to wash their sins in Ganga river.
This means chaos and traffic jams.
So for a holiday traveller the probability of a long Jam increases to 30% instead of the 5% for a regular traveller.
Morever a regular traveller, and even a frequent highway traveler can anticipate traps where double lanes vanish into single lanes, or unmarked obstructions on roads crop up like no man's business, but for the occasional traveler these are death traps.
I saw 6 accidents while going towards moradabad in that 150km stretch, and while coming back I counted 8. 2 of them were very bad in one case a two wheeler had left its imprints on the roof of a scorpio.

This is no safe highway with accident rate being so high.
To add to the mess NHAI is making things bad to worse by opening sections of 4 laning without any signboards warnings and markers.

As per my experience I have done 6 trips on this highway(3 going 3 coming back) and there were jams during 2 of those trips.

30% hit rate I must say.

[diezel]

hey guys,

Traffic is a part of our lives anyways, so why crib about it. Anyways lets all of us help Shanky plan his weekends around Delhi as much as we can.

In the end, the fun part of being around Delhi is that the Hills are nearby which if you plan well, leave on Friday night and return Sunday night, is very much possible.

So have good weekend trips around.

Cheers

[Shankyz]

Originally Posted by diezel

hey guys,

Traffic is a part of our lives anyways, so why crib about it. Anyways lets all of us help Shanky plan his weekends around Delhi as much as we can.

In the end, the fun part of being around Delhi is that the Hills are nearby which if you plan well, leave on Friday night and return Sunday night, is very much possible.

So have good weekend trips around.

Cheers

Thanks Buddy,

@iraghava, tsk - Thanks for sharing your experiences, lets move away from the debate and focus on the topic

I guess my options are limited here, since I will be going with family and children won't really appreciate all the "Hariyali, fresh air and quiet" stuff, so choices at the moment are limited to Shimla & Nainital. Any other options ?

Is Nainital doable in 5 hours from Delhi (May leave as early as 4.30 AM)