Haridwar - Dehradun travel diary

It was Feb 2020 when we decided to take a short road trip from Delhi. Destination was locked to Haridwar and Dehradun and we started packing. Now looking back when I see I am so glad that we took that trip before COVID hit the entire nation and kept us locked in our homes.

So we started our journey to Haridwar first in the morning by 7.30 then we stopped for breakfast by 10.30 at Shiva Tourist Dhaba. We had aloo parantha which was nice and then we proceeded towards our destination. We reached Haridwar around afternoon, even though the journey is around 3-4hrs but it took time for us as my daughter was small so we took breaks in between . 

We stayed at Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya, the rooms we decent and food was homely fresh cooked. In the evening we went for Mansa devi temple by ropeway. We had good darshan as it was not very crowded and then we headed back to the ghat to witness the Sandhya aarti.  The aarti takes place at Harki paudi and the timing is 6pm in summers and 5.30pm in winters. It is advisable to get at the place half n hour before so that you get proper seat as it gets crowded .

The aarti is mesmerizing and the entire environment is full of energy. Don't miss this if you are in Haridwar.

We had dinner at nearby street resturant. There are plenty of street side vendors which you can try for. Poori bhaji i something which is quite famous there, so we also tried the same .

Next day morning we went for "snaan" at the ghat. To reach there you need to walk a little or else you can also take tuk tuk or rikshaw which drop you at certain point and then you can walk alongside "ganga river". There are portable changing rooms made for women, where you can go and change after taking holy dip. After the snan and breakfast there we started our journey to Dehradun. 

The journey to Dehradun took almost 1.5hrs and we had lunch at Bikanerwala on the way to hotel. We checked in to hotel Red fox at around 4pm. The rooms were really nice and spacious. The breakfast buffet of this hotel is also nice and has lots of variety which we tried next morning. 

After breakfast we went to Shahstradhara , it is almost 40-45min journey, with some steep road at few places. But the drive itself is quite nice and picturesque. We had fun in the waters and then we headed to Buddhist monastery. It's well maintained and peaceful. Within the premises there is cafe as well so we had lunch there. By the time we returned it was evening so we headed back to hotel took some rest and then went to have some dinner.

Next day morning was our checkout, so after breakfast we headed back to delhi.

The drive is really beautiful as it's between the forests. The roads are well maintained and route is quite picturesque. 

We stopped at hotel to grab some lunch and then we reached back to delhi by the evening. Even though the trip was of 4 days but it gave a memory of lifetime. 🙂