The Uttarakhand Road Trip Guide: Garhwal, Kumaon and Which One You Actually Want

Uttarakhand gets treated as one destination and it is really two. Kumaon, in the east, is lakes and orchards and colonial hill towns at moderate altitude, reached in a long day from Delhi. Garhwal, in the west, is pilgrim roads climbing into serious high mountains along the Ganga and the Alaknanda. They share a state government and not much else, and the single most useful decision you can make about an Uttarakhand trip is which half you are going to.

Everything below assumes a Delhi start, which is where most of these trips begin. From Chandigarh, Dehradun and the Garhwal side are closer; from anywhere east of Delhi, Kumaon is.

Kumaon: the weekend half

Delhi to Nainital is about 300 km and seven to eight hours, and that is the outer limit of what a two-day trip can absorb. Nainital itself is crowded and commercial in a way that surprises first-timers - the lake is lovely and the Mall Road in May is a traffic jam with a view.

The better move is to use Nainital as an entry point and sleep elsewhere. Within an hour or two of it:

• Bhimtal, Sattal and Naukuchiatal - the other lakes, 20-25 km out, quieter, cheaper, and the reason to come to the district at all.
• Mukteshwar - about 50 km on, 2,300 m, cliff-edge views of the high peaks on a clear morning and almost no crowd.
• Kausani - 120 km from Nainital, famous for a long, unobstructed view of the Nanda Devi range. Worth it only on a clear day; in cloud there is nothing there.
• Binsar and Almora - forest and old hill-town architecture, the most pleasant driving in Kumaon.
• Jim Corbett (Ramnagar) - 65 km south of Nainital, and a genuinely different trip. Safari slots book out weeks ahead in season; turning up hoping for a jeep is how people end up at the buffer-zone gate.

Garhwal: the serious half

Garhwal starts at Haridwar and Rishikesh, which are four to five hours from Delhi on genuinely fast road, and then climbs. Rishikesh is the one place in the state that works as a one-night trip: rafting on the Ganga, the suspension bridges, and a large, cheap backpacker economy. It is 240 km from Delhi and you can leave on Friday evening.

Beyond Rishikesh, the distances stop behaving. The roads follow river gorges, they are narrow, and the state is geologically young and actively falling apart in places.

• Rishikesh to Joshimath - about 250 km and nine to ten hours. Not five, which is what the map suggests.
• Joshimath to Auli - 14 km by road or a cable car. Auli is the state's ski slope in winter and a straightforward meadow walk in summer, at about 2,800 m.
• Joshimath to Badrinath - 45 km, and the base for the Valley of Flowers and Hemkund Sahib treks from Govindghat.
• Rishikesh to Kedarnath (Gaurikund) - roughly 210 km of driving, then a 16 km walk or a pony. This is a trek, not a drive, and people underestimate it every single season.

Matching route to days

• 2 days: Rishikesh. Or the Bhimtal-Sattal lakes if you leave early on Friday.
• 3 days: Nainital with Mukteshwar, or Jim Corbett with a booked safari, or Rishikesh plus Devprayag.
• 4-5 days: the Kumaon loop - Nainital, Almora, Binsar, Kausani - at a pace that is actually pleasant. Or Rishikesh to Joshimath and Auli.
• 6-7 days: the Valley of Flowers, in season. Rishikesh to Govindghat, the trek to Ghangaria, the valley itself and Hemkund Sahib, and back.
• 10+ days: a Chardham circuit, or Garhwal and Kumaon in one trip. Both are long and neither compresses.

The monsoon is a different warning here

Every Himalayan state says "avoid the monsoon". In Uttarakhand it carries more weight than elsewhere, because the Garhwal river valleys are where the 2013 floods happened, and landslides still close the pilgrim roads for days at a stretch most years.

• Kumaon - March to June and September to November are the good windows. Winter is fine at Nainital altitude; snow closes the higher roads around Mukteshwar and Kausani occasionally.
• Garhwal, low (Rishikesh, Haridwar, Devprayag) - year-round. Rafting season is roughly September to June; the river is closed in the monsoon.
• Garhwal, high (Joshimath, Badrinath, Auli) - roughly April to November for the roads. Badrinath and Kedarnath shrines open around late April/early May and close in November, and the dates shift each year.
• Valley of Flowers - a genuinely short window, roughly July to early September, because the point of it is the monsoon bloom. This is the one case where you go INTO the monsoon deliberately, and you accept the road risk to do it.
• Monsoon, statewide - July to mid-September. Do not plan a tight schedule, and do not plan to be in a river gorge on a day of heavy rain.

Permits, paperwork and the green tax

For Indian nationals nothing in mainstream Uttarakhand needs a permit. Three things do come up:

• Out-of-state vehicles pay a green tax at the border checkposts. It is small, it is legitimate, and it is collected online or at the post.
• The Chardham yatra has used a registration system in recent years, and Kedarnath in particular has had daily caps. Check the current position before you commit to dates.
• The Valley of Flowers and Nanda Devi Biosphere areas charge an entry fee and require you to be out of the valley by evening - it is a day walk from Ghangaria, not a camping trip.

Carry the actual documents - licence, RC, valid insurance, PUC. The border posts on the Delhi-Haridwar and Delhi-Kathgodam roads do check.

Vehicle notes

• Cars - a standard hatchback does all of Kumaon and everything in Garhwal up to Joshimath without complaint. The steep hairpins above Devprayag will want first gear with four people and luggage aboard.
• Motorcycles - the best way to do Kumaon. In Garhwal, be aware that a wet gorge road with a loose surface and a drop on one side is a genuinely different riding problem from a dry mountain road.
• Brakes - descending is what destroys brakes in these hills, not climbing. Engine-brake in a low gear rather than riding the pedal for twenty kilometres down to the river.
• Fuel - fill at Rishikesh, Srinagar (Garhwal) and Joshimath. The gaps between them are longer than they look.

Money and groups

Uttarakhand splits costs the same way every road trip does: fuel, tolls, the green tax and the vehicle do not care how many people are aboard, while rooms and food roughly track headcount. Four people in a car is the point where a Garhwal trip stops being expensive and starts being cheap.

Have a look at upcoming trips for Uttarakhand runs that already have seats free, or the travel clubs that do the Rishikesh and Kumaon routes on a regular calendar. Agree the money rules before you leave with how to split trip costs fairly.

If this is your first long mountain drive, read the road trip safety checklist and the Himalayan packing list first. For the neighbouring state, the Himachal road trip guide covers the same ground for a different set of mountains.