[nilanjanray]

Originally Posted by Singh09

There are few things to keep in mind if you are planning to take this route:
- Avoid taking this route during any "Nahan" or any festival that is related to Nahan or River Ganga.
- Never take this route during "Kanvar". Sometimes they open one side of the road for both side traffic. Which may cause a big jam (I have been a victim of this situation for a couple of time

Thanks. I have been trying to figure out whether there is such a festival around June 9, Seems not, as per Google.

[Singh09]

Originally Posted by nilanjanray

Thanks. I have been trying to figure out whether there is such a festival around June 9, Seems not, as per Google.

Yes buddy 9th June looks clear to me as off now. No festival or "Nahan" during the time period.

Also guys be careful on "Amawas" as lot of people tend to take a dip that day in the Ganga.

[luxo_barge]

Hi everyone,

This thread has been a very useful piece of info for me. I'm heading to Mukteshwar on 12th June, 2015 & will be coming back to Delhi on Sunday. I have a few queries. I'll be grateful if someone can guide.

1- Are all Sundays observed as 'Snan' (holy bath) days? What is the probability of a massive jam (6hrs types as mentioned above) on Sunday, 14th June?

2- We're a group of 5 couples & two very small kids. We're confused whether to take own cars or hire a 12-seater Tempo Traveller. Considering the time spent on-the-road, will the Tempo Traveller be as comfortable as our cars (Ertiga & Innova)?

3- I'd be very grateful if I can get a hint on comfort levels in a Tempo Traveller as it's going to be the first time that we'll be travelling by it. Are the seats well cushioned? How well does the air-con work, since it is summers & we'll spend a considerable time on road.

Looking forward to the responses. Thanks in advance.

[Singh09]

Originally Posted by luxo_barge

Hi everyone,

This thread has been a very useful piece of info for me. I'm heading to Mukteshwar on 12th June, 2015 & will be coming back to Delhi on Sunday. I have a few queries. I'll be grateful if someone can guide.

1- Are all Sundays observed as 'Snan' (holy bath) days? What is the probability of a massive jam (6hrs types as mentioned above) on Sunday, 14th June?

No buddy all Sundays are not observed as "Snan". And you are good to go on 12th June. Infact i'll be leaving for home (Moradabad) as well on 12th June from Gurgaon.
The key point is when to leave so that you cross Ghaziabad and Dasna toll tax before traffic hits

Originally Posted by luxo_barge

2- We're a group of 5 couples & two very small kids. We're confused whether to take own cars or hire a 12-seater Tempo Traveller. Considering the time spent on-the-road, will the Tempo Traveller be as comfortable as our cars (Ertiga & Innova)?

If you don't have any problem in driving than you can go ahead with your own cars. And I guess Innova would be more comfortable, not sure though but generally it's a comfortable car.

[crazy_abt_cars]

I have driven to Mukteshwar many a times but have recently discovered the rampur bypass - kaladhungi - suar - kathgodam route. This route is horrible for a good 10 - 15 kms .
10th June 2015 I would again ventue out and would return on Sunday . Just wanted to check , if any one has some information on the Ganga Snan at Garh , on these dates - 10th Wed and 14 Sunday June 2015 ?
Would be of great help if somebody could share some info.
Thanks

[Singh09]

Originally Posted by crazy_abt_cars

I have driven to Mukteshwar many a times but have recently discovered the rampur bypass - kaladhungi - suar - kathgodam route. This route is horrible for a good 10 - 15 kms .
10th June 2015 I would again ventue out and would return on Sunday . Just wanted to check , if any one has some information on the Ganga Snan at Garh , on these dates - 10th Wed and 14 Sunday June 2015 ?
Would be of great help if somebody could share some info.
Thanks

You are good to go buddy. 10th to 14th June is all through, no "Ganga Snan".

Usually if there is any "Snan" then it comes in the newspaper.

[himanshu.singh]

Hi All,
I will be going to Mukteshwar this weekend. Just wanted to check if anyone has any recent update on Rampur > Bilaspur > Rudrapur stretch?
Shady Lawer mentioned in April that resurfacing work is going on. Last time I visited (Jan 2014) this stretch was in pathetic condition.
I also read that Moradabad >Kashipur > Kaladhungi > Nainital > Mukteshwar road is pretty good. If anyone can confirm about the condition of this stretch, it will be immensely helpful.

[drnarenderdutt]

Hi
I went on June 9 this year. Road repair was going on then. Most of the stretch was pathetic. I suspect rains would have damaged the roads again. Likely to find it in bad shape. When I went a carelessly driving sedan driver drove over a deep ditch. His car suffered damages and he had to stop for repairs. Hatchbacks and SUV did better.

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by himanshu.singh

Hi All,
I will be going to Mukteshwar this weekend. Just wanted to check if anyone has any recent update on Rampur > Bilaspur > Rudrapur stretch?
Shady Lawer mentioned in April that resurfacing work is going on. Last time I visited (Jan 2014) this stretch was in pathetic condition.
I also read that Moradabad >Kashipur > Kaladhungi > Nainital > Mukteshwar road is pretty good. If anyone can confirm about the condition of this stretch, it will be immensely helpful.

Do update, as I'll be going to bhimtal and was looking for which way to take.

[atul.sxna]

Hi,

We did Delhi to Mukteshwar in July and took the rampur<bilaspur<rudrapur route. The whole stretch till Mukteshwar was a pleasure to drive on.

However, we also planned another trip to Bhowali last weekend of Sep and was SHOCKED to find that the stretch between Rampur and Rudrapur is ONLY potholes. There is no decent tarmac to drive on!!! The only explanation i could give for such deterioration within 3 months were the rains!!!

[himanshu.singh]

Thanks Atul,

However, the post came a little late in the day for me. I am posting my travelogue below for the benefit of those who plan to take this route in near future.

P.S. the road conditions change quite dramatically in UP. So I would say that the suggestions do have an expiry date

[himanshu.singh]

Drive to Nainital/Mukteshwar from Delhi
Hi Everyone,
I recently visited the secluded town of Mukteshwar. While planning for this trip my biggest concern was the route. Having driven on Rampur > Rudrapuur stretch earlier, I was aware of the pathetic condition of the road, and wanted to avoid it somehow. Unfortunately, after reading through some or the suggestions made by other travellers, I thought that other options are equally bad and stuck to this route itself.
However, I had a similar harrowing experience with bad roads and bad traffic. Here is an account of my onward journey to Mukteshwar:
We Left At 6.30 Am From Noida. We reached the Hapur Bypass toll Plaza at NH24 around 7. However, even in the morning it took us about 5 minutes to reach the toll gate (toll paid Rs. 20). Next destination was a stop for breakfast at Gajraula. It is a little over 100 kilometres from my place. The drive was pretty smooth and the average speed was well over 70 KMPH. But the real challenge was at Brijghat toll plaza before Gajraula. Here we wasted almost half an hour to reach to toll booth. The toll here is 45 bucks, and there is some work going on a few lanes so the jam was pretty big already. From there it hardly took 10-15 minutes to reach the eateries of Tadka/McDonalds/CCD etc. Time to reach tadka was approx. 9.30 am. We Left this place at around 10. Anyone who is new to this route must know that it is by far the best place to eat in the entire Ghaziabad to Rampur stretch. Therefore, rather than spending time on breakfast at home, we aim to reach here at the earliest and take a first pit stop here, even if it seems a little early on the trip.
Next we left for Moradabad. Again the traffic was pretty smooth but there was again some waiting at first the Joya toll plaza (Rs.60) and then again at Moradabad toll plaza (toll Rs.80). From there on it was a smooth drive till Rampur. We touched Rampur by 11.0 am.
At Rampur we took a left to enter Rampur city. The city traffic was a bit slow, but no major scares. Right in front of Rampur railway station, we took a left to move out of Rampur and in the direction of Rudrapur. Though I was scared even at the onset, but the initial phase was pretty good. The drive till Bilaspur was largely uneventful. The road was much better with only a few potholes here and there.
Bilaspur to Rudrapur: This is where the real ordeal begins. The road was just as bad as it was last time round. Large potholes, which some people rightly call craters, occupy most portions of the road. To our utter bad luck, a truck broke down midway between Bilaspur and Rudrapur. Since the road condition is so bad, and the road as it is very narrow, it took us close to an hour to cross the bottleneck. Total stretch from Rampur to Rudrapur is approx. 50 km. Of this we travelled the first 30 kms in less than an hour. But the second leg of nearly 20 kms took us more than 1.5 hours to cross.
We crossed Rudrapur city by 1.30pm. Already tired and exhausted by poor road conditions and even worse traffic, I wanted to take a break. However, I still had a long way to go and thankfully the kids were sleeping. So I decided to exert myself more and cover as much distance as possible. The road conditions change from worst to almost the best, once you cross Rudrapur. From Pantnagar industrial area, there is a slight right curve. It is important to take this right because the straight, basically goes nowhere. I went straight on my last trip and after wasting a few minutes to realize my mistake was forced to return back. However, immediately after taking the right curve, there are two options. First is to take a left and other to go straight. While both roads lead to Haldwani, the later (left turn) is a better option. The road condition is smooth and it has very less traffic. However, going straight has its own benefit. Just after touching Haldwani, there is a bypass which help avoid the city traffic of Haldwani and Kathgodam. Thankfully there was a middle way! Just before Sheetal Hotel (about 200 meters before it) and after about 1 Km from Kumaoni Rasoi, a road goes to the right. We took this road and it led us straight to the highway. We took a left towards Kathgodam on the highway and just about half a kilometre later (just before AIM institute of hotel mgmt.) we saw the board indicating the bye pass. One should really be careful at this point as the board is not very prominent and could easily be missed, especially if one is driving a bit fast.
Once we took the bye pass, it was all smooth driving from that point on. The bye pass takes one right past Kathgodam railway station and into the hills. After a short trip, we saw the left curve towards Bhimtal. It was a decent road and we reached Bhimtal in less than an hour from Kathgodam. Time to reach Bhimtal was 3pm.
From there on it took us a couple of hours of uphill drive to reach Mukteshwar. The road condition is good and slightly better than Kathgodam > Bhimtal route. There was some repair work going on the stretch, but it is quite common in the hills. We finally reached Mukteshwar, dead tired and completely exhausted, at 5.30 pm.
With just two breaks of about half an hour each, it took us almost 11 hours to reach Mukteshwar. The drive was very tiring and exhausting. The bad roads and even worse traffic made it all more painful.

[himanshu.singh]

Now the good part: return Journey from Mukteshwar
Determined not to take the Rampur route, I chose the route from Kaladhungi this time round. There were two options. Either to go via Nainital or via Bhimtal. I took the later route for two reasons. Being a long weekend, I was aware that Nainital was chock-a-block. I knew it would take a lot of time to cross Nainital. Secondly this route meant that entire stretch would be on the hills. Though more beautiful, it is also more taxing for me as well as the passengers.
I left Mukteshwar at 7.45 AM. I overlooked the turned to Bhimtal and only realised the mistake after I was about 4.5 kms past that point. I came back and realised why I missed it. The road is almost a U-turn for those coming from Mukteshwar and there is no signage. So the only way to take it is to be carefully looking for a U turn going up, after you have come nearly 8-9 kilometres from Mukteshwar. It cost me close to half an hour, because of this miss. Anyway, the road till Bhimtal is mostly downhill. The road condition is not perfect, but it’s not bad either. Same could be said about Bhimtal > Kathgodam road too. We took our first stop at Kathgodam. The time was 9.30 by then. We left at around 9.45 for Kaladhungi. There is a bye pass from Kathgodam to Kaladhungi. This helps avoid the city rush of Kathgodam, which is otherwise quite painful. Just look for a road (slightly bigger than normal roads) going towards right and take it about a kilometre inside of Kathgodam. Once you take it, the journey is a little slow but smooth. This joins into the Haldwani > Kaladhungi > Ramnagar road. This is by far the best road of the entire stretch. The journey of about 60 odd kilometres was completed in just about an hour. I decided to take in extra fuel at this point as the reading was already well below half point. At the petrol pump itself I enquired about the road condition to bazpur vis-à-vis Rampur to Kashipur. Decided to take the Rampur > Kashipur >Moradabad route. It was an excellent choice as the road condition was simply too good to believe. In fact till Thakurdwara (which is a few kilometres after Ramnagar), it is all Uttarakhand. So the road condition was expected. However, real surprise was the stretch between Thakurdwara and Moradabad. It was something I never expected in UP. It is a state highway which is in a better shape than even some of the expressways. The ride till about 20 kilometres from Moradabad was great. This is when bad luck struck. A truck broke down on top of a bridge and closed almost both sides of the road. We had to turn back a kilometre and take another bye pass. The condition of this road too was good, though not great. There was a flyover getting constructed atop a railway track. There was another railway track on the way. As luck would have it, we had to stop both times. But it was nice village scenery so we did not mind waiting there. More so since there was no air or noise pollution outside. Finally, it took us to outside of Moradabad. I took a left which said Delhi via Moradabad bye pass. The right would have taken me to Moradabad city. While the bye pass had less traffic initially. It connects onto a state highway going towards Amroha. We went to the opposite side of Amroha and after about 2 kilometres, took a right turn inside a congested market. However, just after a 100 mtrs. or so we reached NH 24. By that point, we had avoided the most expensive toll of Moradabad and headed eastwards to Delhi. The traffic was smooth till Gajraula, where we had to stop again for refreshments. Gajraula to my place was just about 100 kilometres, but it took us about three and a half hours owing to severe traffic jams: first in Hapur and then just in front of Ghaziabad toll. Even NH 24 had a jam, but I saw it on google already and took a turn towards Crossing Republic to avoid it. I finally reached home at about 7.30pm, again almost 12 hours after I left. However, this was a much pleasant ride. The extra time taken was partially due to my mistake early on and majorly due to extra stops we made on the way. The one at Gajraula was pretty lengthy one as we knew we have almost reached our destination and did not want to cook/order dinner at home. The Jams at Ghaziabad were completely unavoidable.

[himanshu.singh]

Hi Everyone,
I recently visited the secluded town of Mukteshwar. While planning for this trip my biggest concern was the route. Having driven on Rampur > Rudrapur stretch earlier, I was aware of the pathetic condition of the road, and wanted to avoid it somehow. Unfortunately, after reading through some or the suggestions made by other travelers, I thought that other options are equally bad and stuck to this route itself.
However, I had a similar harrowing experience with bad roads and bad traffic. Here is an account of my onward journey to Mukteshwar:
We Left At 6.30 Am from Noida. We reached the Hapur Bypass toll Plaza at NH24 around 7. However, even in the morning it took us about 5 minutes to reach the toll gate (toll paid Rs. 20). Next destination was a stop for breakfast at Gajraula. It is a little over 100 kilometres from my place. The drive was pretty smooth and the average speed was well over 70 KMPH. But the real challenge was at Brijghat toll plaza before Gajraula. Here we wasted almost half an hour to reach to toll booth. The toll here is 45 bucks, and there is some work going on a few lanes so the jam was pretty big already. From there it hardly took 10-15 minutes to reach the eateries of Tadka/McDonalds/CCD etc. Time to reach tadka was approx. 9.30 am. We Left this place at around 10. Anyone who is new to this route must know that it is by far the best place to eat in the entire Ghaziabad to Rampur stretch. Therefore, rather than spending time on breakfast at home, we aim to reach here at the earliest and take a first pit stop here, even if it seems a little early on the trip.
Next we left for Moradabad. Again the traffic was pretty smooth but there was again some waiting at first the Joya toll plaza (Rs.60) and then again at Moradabad toll plaza (toll Rs.80). From there on it was a smooth drive till Rampur. We touched Rampur by 11.0 am.
At Rampur we took a left to enter Rampur city. The city traffic was a bit slow, but no major scares. Right in front of Rampur railway station, we took a left to move out of Rampur and in the direction of Rudrapur. Though I was scared even at the onset, but the initial phase was pretty good. The drive till Bilaspur was largely uneventful. The road was much better with only a few potholes here and there.
Bilaspur to Rudrapur: This is where the real ordeal begins. The road was just as bad as it was last time round. Large potholes, which some people rightly call craters, occupy most portions of the road. To our utter bad luck, a truck broke down midway between Bilaspur and Rudrapur. Since the road condition is so bad, and the road as it is very narrow, it took us close to an hour to cross the bottleneck. Total stretch from Rampur to Rudrapur is approx. 50 km. Of this we travelled the first 30 kms in less than an hour. But the second leg of nearly 20 kms took us more than 1.5 hours to cross.
We crossed Rudrapur city by 1.30pm. Already tired and exhausted by poor road conditions and even worse traffic, I wanted to take a break. However, I still had a long way to go and thankfully the kids were sleeping. So I decided to exert myself more and cover as much distance as possible. The road conditions change from worst to almost the best, once you cross Rudrapur. From Pantnagar industrial area, there is a slight right curve. It is important to take this right because the straight, basically goes nowhere. I went straight on my last trip and after wasting a few minutes to realize my mistake was forced to return back. However, immediately after taking the right curve, there are two options. First is to take a left and other to go straight. While both roads lead to Haldwani, the later (left turn) is a better option. The road condition is smooth and it has very less traffic. However, going straight has its own benefit. Just after touching Haldwani, there is a bypass which help avoid the city traffic of Haldwani and Kathgodam. Thankfully there was a middle way! Just before Sheetal Hotel (about 200 meters before it) and after about 1 Km from Kumaoni Rasoi, a road goes to the right. We took this road and it led us straight to the highway. We took a left towards Kathgodam on the highway and just about half a kilometre later (just before AIM institute of hotel mgmt.) we saw the board indicating the bye pass. One should really be careful at this point as the board is not very prominent and could easily be missed, especially if one is driving a bit fast.
Once we took the bye pass, it was all smooth driving from that point on. The bye pass takes one right past Kathgodam railway station and into the hills. After a short trip, we saw the left curve towards Bhimtal. It was a decent road and we reached Bhimtal in less than an hour from Kathgodam. Time to reach Bhimtal was 3pm.
From there on it took us a couple of hours of uphill drive to reach Mukteshwar. The road condition is good and slightly better than Kathgodam > Bhimtal route. There was some repair work going on the stretch, but it is quite common in the hills. We finally reached Mukteshwar, dead tired and completely exhausted, at 5.30 pm.
With just two breaks of about half an hour each, it took us almost 11 hours to reach Mukteshwar. The drive was very tiring and exhausting. The bad roads and even worse traffic made it all more painful.

[mayankk]

Thanks guys. Collatedthe information from here, and other threads, so it seems the best option is to do Rampur-Suar-Bazpur-Kaladhungi-BHimtal?
Do point out any flies in the ointment. I'll be travelling with a 19 month old, and any travel time cut down is easier on him.