Travel in Haridwar

One tour in our India programme stops in Haridwar: North India – landscapes and culture, 21 days, from EUR 2,300. Haridwar is day 19 of 21, and it gets one night, at the Haveli Hari Ganga on the river or a similar hotel. Rishikesh, about 20 km upstream, gets two. So this page describes the last three-night block of a long trip, not a stay.

You arrive by rail. On day 17 a train takes you from Delhi to Haridwar at the foot of the Himalayas, and you carry on by road to Rishikesh the same day - on that day Haridwar is the station, not the stop. The itinerary does not name the train or give a time, so ask for the exact service when you have dates. Day 18 is a full day in Rishikesh: a morning puja and meditation in the ashrams, the market streets and temples on both banks, the Laxman Jhula suspension bridge across the Ganges, and the evening light ceremony at Triveni Ghat. Day 19 is the day Haridwar itself gets. You come down from Rishikesh to the Mansa Devi temple on the hill above the river, walk the cremation ghats, spend time in the markets, and stay for the Aarti on the bank in the evening, when flowers and lamps go onto the water. On day 20 you take the train back to Delhi and pick up Old Delhi the same afternoon - the Red Fort, the Jama Masjid, Chandni Chowk and the Khari Baoli spice market.

Now the part that matters more. Haridwar is the gateway to the Char Dham - Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri, Yamunotri - and to the road north into the Garhwal Himalaya. No tour of ours goes past Rishikesh. If the Char Dham is why you are reading this, we cannot sell it to you, and an operator who runs those routes will serve you better. The Kumbh Mela appears in the itinerary as background only; every trip we sell is private with no fixed departure dates, so there is no Kumbh group to join. Rajaji National Park sits on Haridwar's doorstep and no itinerary enters it - there is no safari here. Rishikesh is called the yoga capital of the world, and what this trip actually includes is one morning puja and meditation. Not a course, not an ashram stay, and no rafting on the Ganges. The Mansa Devi cable car is not listed as included, so settle with your guide on the day whether you ride or walk up, and expect to pay any ticket locally.

There is a bigger caveat. This trip does not begin anywhere near Haridwar. It starts in Ahmedabad in Gujarat, then runs through Rajasthan from day 3 to day 13 - Udaipur and Lake Pichola, the Jain temple at Ranakpur, Deogarh, the narrow-gauge train from Kamblighat to Phulad, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and a camel ride into the dunes, Bikaner, the Shekhawati havelis, Jaipur - before Fatehpur Sikri, Agra and the Taj Mahal at sunrise (closed on Fridays), then Delhi. Haridwar and Rishikesh are the last thing you do. To reach them you buy sixteen days of Gujarat, Rajasthan and the Mughal cities first. If the upper Ganges is the only reason you are travelling, a Uttarakhand specialist will do a better job than we will.

If it is the river ceremony you want rather than Haridwar specifically, Varanasi is the shorter answer: two of our fifteen India tours go there, Golden Triangle & Spirituality at 8 days from EUR 1,175 and Royal Rajasthan & Varanasi at 14 days from EUR 1,520. Both cost less and take less time. And note that our other Himalayan trip, Colourful Rajasthan & Himalayas, flies east to Bagdogra for Darjeeling and Kalimpong - a different mountain region entirely, nowhere near Haridwar.

Every trip is private and guided, with a German-speaking guide, 24-hour contact and a bottle of water on arrival. Because it is private, the route can be reshaped: if the Rishikesh and Haridwar days are what you want and Jaisalmer is not, say so when you enquire.