Travel style · Kumaon
Road trips in Kumaon
The high roads, driven at the right speed
The Himalaya has some of the highest motorable roads in the world: Manali to Leh, the Spiti circuit, Sela Pass, the Old Silk Route. We plan them with acclimatisation days, a driver who knows the bends and honest drive times.
Photo: Abhijit Kar Gupta from Kolkata, India · CC BY 2.0 · CommonsA mountain road is slow. Two hundred kilometres can take eight hours when the road climbs over a pass, crosses snow-melt streams and waits for a landslide to be cleared. We plan drives in daylight, keep long days to one in three, and build a spare day into any route that crosses a pass above 4,000 m.
Kumaon is the eastern half of Uttarakhand: lake towns near Kathgodam, the old Chand capital of Almora, oak sanctuaries like Binsar, the stone temples of Jageshwar and the Johar valley at Munsiyari. Go March to June or September to November. Five to nine nights by train, shared jeep or private car covers the best of it.
Trips
Road trips trips in Kumaon
Photo: Skalvanov · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Comfort
Kumaon lakes family holiday
Private car with driver
Photo: Travelling Slacker · CC BY 2.0 · Commons
Saver
Munsiyari and the Johar valley by shared jeep
Shared jeeps and buses via Almora, Chaukori, Thal and Bageshwar
Photo: Krishan09 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Saver
Long weekend from Delhi: Nainital and Bhimtal
Overnight train to Kathgodam, shared taxis and walking
Photo: Skalvanov · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Signature
Kumaon in depth: lakes, orchards and oak
Private car with driver
2 places
Where to go
Photo: Abhijit Kar Gupta from Kolkata, India · CC BY 2.0 · Commons
Chaukori
A quiet ridge facing Panchachuli, near the Patal Bhuvaneshwar cave
Photo: Original: Harshit SR Derivative work: Unpetitp… · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Ranikhet
A tidy army cantonment, orchards and pine walks on the queen's meadow
Experiences
Days that fit the style
Photo: Original uploader was Tribhuwan at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons
Panchachuli sunrise from the Chaukori ridge
Wake early and walk to the edge of the Chaukori ridge to watch first light hit Panchachuli's five summits and the long …
Photo: Lalitgupta isgec · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Down into the Patal Bhuvaneshwar cave
A narrow, steep passage leads down into a limestone cave 160 m long and 90 feet deep, where priests guide pilgrims past…
Photo: Parthasarathi Chattopadhyay · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Ridge and village walk from Chaukori
Walk from the Chaukori ridge through oak and pine forest and orchards to nearby hamlets, past terraced fields, naulas a…
Photo: Ibn Batoota · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Commons
Kumaon Regiment museum and cantonment walk
Visit the museum of the Kumaon Regimental Centre to understand the regiment that recruits from these hills, then walk t…
Photo: Ibn Batoota · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Commons
Chaubatia orchards and viewpoint
Ten kilometres south of Ranikhet, Chaubatia's government orchards and fruit research centre fill a slope with apple, pe…
Photo: Mrneutrino · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons
Bells of the Jhula Devi temple
On the road from Ranikhet to Chaubatia, the Jhula Devi temple is hung with thousands of bells offered by devotees. It i…
Where to sleep