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Recently did Nainital - Delhi while coming from Binsar.
Updated : 15th March 2011

Our route was Nainital - Kaladungi - Bazpur - Moradabad - Delhi
Nainital to Bazpur is a dream dream run - very quick. However at Bazpur, a railway crossing wasted 15mins. Bazpur to the place where you touch the Morabadad bypass is mess.
The 50km section takes 1.5 hrs due to 70% of the route being off-roading. A big vehicle / SUV helps. Do not take a sedan / hatchback with full load on this route. Take the Kashipur route instead if u dont have a big vehicle with good clearance.

For those doing Nainital - Delhi, this route is good apart from this little mess. We took 7.5 hrs to Delhi from Nainital from this route including a 30min halt at McDonalds at Gajraula.

Hi,
I have been following this site for a long time. Probably never got a chance to post anything on this site.

Ok, So I just upgraded from a Santro to a VW Vento in Delhi. I now plan to drive down my VW Vento to Nanital for the long weekend. Could someone tell me the best route to take from Delhi and approx how much time it will take to drive down. Also any Good eating joints.

Thanks a Lot
Prasanth Kumar

Just returned last week, from a 5Day Delhi-Nainital-Ranikhet-Delhi trip on my Scorpio. Left Delhi at 5.30am on Wednesday, touched Garhmukteshwar Bypass around 7. Till here, the roads are perfectly fine. But the nightmare starts after this, due to some road widening & flyover construction work, the area was a total mess, right upto Brijghat. Cars, trucks piled up in endless queues with nobody to guide or clear the jam. No policemen, no volunteers, everybody finding their own way. Believe me, I am yet to encounter such a wild jam in 29years of my blissful life.

Spoke to 2-3 truckies, and according to them, some of them have been stuck since 9pm last night:Shockked: I cross-checked with a few more and their replies really scared me. Not to be bogged down further, took some calculated risks on my Scorpio, broke through the endless queues and made my own road. I was really surprised when my humble steed crossed many a sections which were purely meant for 4x4's. Still, it took me around 90mins to clear this mother of all jams.

McD's around Gajraula was my next stop, which took around 30mins. Refreshed, started at around 9.30 reached Moradabad, and now had 3 options to Nainital.
1. Moradabad-Thakurdwara-Kashipur-Ramnagar-Kaladhungi-Nainital (Goes through Corbett)
2. Moradabad-Tanda-Darhiyal-Bazpur-Kaladhungi-Nainital (Supposedly the shortest route, and recommended by many Bhpians in the past)
3. Moradabad-Rampur-Rudrapur-Haldwani-Kathgodam-Nainital

Chose the 2nd Route, as it was the most recommended route here at T-Bhp, though some of the members have warned about bad roads on this stretch lately. Still thinking of this as the shortest route, carried on. But the state of roads right from Tanda till Bazpur, would frighten the toughest of the SUV's. Crossing Tanda is itself a big task, 30mins is bare minimum, with all the non-sense one could expect from a small town. Once I reached Bazpur, the roads seemed to be butter all the way till Nainital via Kaladhungi. The hilly drive starts after Kaladhungi, and I must say, is quite steep and with very sharp curves. Without any further drama or twists, reached my hotel in Nainital at 1. I would advice all BHPians to avoid this route, and don't even dare if you are travelling with family & kids.

Stayed at Shervani Hilltop Hotel for 2 nights, and next stop was Ranikhet for another 2 nights. The road to Ranikhet is just about average, nothing to complain about. It took me 2.15hrs to reach my hotel in Ranikhet.

On my way back to Delhi, started from Ranikhet around 11am and chose the direct road to Ramnagar (-Kashipur-Thakurdwar-Moradabad), instead of going again to Nainital to chose Option 2 or 3. So basically Route1 was what I chose for my return journey. The Kaladhungi-Nainital hilly road seemed like anyother road after going through this mother of the curviest roads ever built. Rest the roads were all fine till Kashipur, and this road goes through Corbett, and quite a scenic drive.

The roads from Kashipur till Moradabad is again in a bad state of repair, with huge potholes, which can easily damage the tyres and rims if one is not careful. This route was certainly better than Route No2, but for people not planning to visit Corbett, I would recommend Route No.3, which seems to be the safest and best option.

Didn't feel like stopping at any place else except McD's, so stopped there again for about 45mins, and the fear of the Wild Traffic Jam at Brijghat was back again. Didn't try any off-roading this time, as things appeared much more civilized and the snake queues were atleast moving every few mins. Cleared this section in 1hr this time and reached home around 10pm.

Hi Guys.. Planning a trip to Nainital on 19 May 2011. We will be leaving at 0500 taking Delhi-Hapur-Rampur-Haldwani-Nainital route. Since we are 10 people so we will be taking two cars (one's mine and other is my cousin's A4). Any update on the route is appreciated.

Another question regarding the same is which car should I take -
1. Skoda Laura
2. Merc 350 CDI (I really want to take this but unsure about the roads)

Thanks,
Manu Chawla

Hey Manu,

If you are taking Rampur-Haldwani route, go ahead with your Merc wihtout any worries.

planning a sat-sun trip to Nainital this weekend,
Heard that everytime you take a round of the mall road in your car, you have to pay the toll/eco tax again (everytime you enter the mall road),
Can anyone who recently visited Nainital confirm this

Does anybody have the update on the road from Delhi to nainital. This monsoon was heavy, have the roads held up?

Hi Team,

Found this thread using site search -- decided to bump rather than create a new one.

It's Easter long weekend -- that time of the year when all we Delhi-ites decide to play bumper cars on the roads to various hill stations. Though I swore I'd never do another long weekend, alas -- this is the only time when everyone gets off from work. So here we go!

Decided to take my new Yeti on her maiden road trip to Ramgarh. Booked a cottage at the Neemrana Cottages, Ramgarh for Fri night / Sat night and planned to be back on Sunday.

From this thread, I gather there are two popular ways to get to Nainital (also echoed in BCMTouring threads).

1. Delhi - Moradabad - Tanda - Chaupura - Bazpur - Kaladhungi - Nainital
2. The traditional Delhi - Moradabad - Rampur - Rudrapur - Haldwani - Nainital

Any advice on the first route? From what I have heard, the Moradabad to Bazpur stretch is a nightmare? I'm REALLY looking to avoid getting stuck in a jam. My daily commute from Vasant Kunj to Noida has got me enough of those, day on day!

Hello,
I will suggest you to take 2nd route, as 1st one is really a nightmare not only because of traffic, but there are plenty of potholes to break your back.

The traditional route is far better now a days, mostly 4 laned road and add to that flyover has started working one way over rampur railway crossing where mostly traffic jams occur.

On a whole please avoid first route and go ahead with 2nd one.

Have a wonderful journey.

Cheers
Sameer

Is it still true? This road used to be great, but broke during 2010 monsoons. I heard they repaired it in end 2011.
Anybody used this recently?

Thanks Sameer! That's what I heard too -- I'll take the traditional route unless someone else has a better idea?


I'd really like to know! Forewarned is forearmed!

I used it in mid 2011, the stretch was like hell. As my native's place is in rudrapur so they keep using this route often for his business trips, he said still road is not upto the mark, it's much better then what is used to be in 2010 but still traditional route will be best to reach nanital.

Sameer

Hey please refer to my reply above, i will suggest you take traditional route, unless you hear someone praising this route who traveled recently through the route via bazpur.

Cheers
Sameer

1. I traveled to Nainital one day after Holi'12. I took first route in morning while going to Nainital. There was no jam. There are no major potholes but there's no road for around ~15km. Travelling at no-road in my Figo with four persons at 30kph was no problem. I recommend this route during daytime due to extremely pleasant scenery in last 30km which makes the route worth tolerating.

2. I returned to Delhi at night through 2nd route. Smashed through countless major potholes at high speed for a stretch of ~15km due to darkness and tailing buses/trucks. Otherwise Roads are incredibly smooth and very fast.

If I had to go to Nainital again, I would pick first route in morning to go there and pick 2nd route at night while returning to Delhi.

Hope this helps :)

Thanks for the advice! I'm all set to leave at 5.30 am tomorrow -- will update when I'm back!

Thanks and Happy Easter Weekend everyone -- drive safe.

Hi,

Don't mean to confuse you any further; I took the first route on the day after Holi'12 and there were 5 of us in a brand new Innova, including a 'first-time-out-of-US' american. It was a nightmarish drive for what I thought was approx 50 km; last 30+ km made up for the nightmarish drive with drive through Corbett and further up the hills. We stayed there for 3 days and took the second route to return; we were traveling at night (left nainital after 10 pm) and were stuck 20+ km just before moradabad bye-pass in a traffic jam which looked like a long, never ending queue of trucks and other vehicles from both side. Most of the truckers were sleeping in their trucks. It took us almost 3 hours to clear.

Hope you have a better luck on your drive to and back from Nainital.

Before anybody asks me how did the American take it; he has decided to trim down his road trip plans. Sad but true.

Cheers, Sid