Planning a trip to Nainital

After our recent trip to Austria, Ankur and I have been wanting on plan a trip to a hill station in North India. Somehow, Austria has made us fall in love with the mountains once again, after almost five years of having loved only beaches. We have been discussing where to go next and there are many names that we have researched. Nainital is one name that always pops up when hill stations in India are discussed. While Ankur has been to towns near Nainital, he has never been to Nainital. Thus, starts the process of figuring out the doability of a trip to Nainital in the months to come. 

Scenic Nainital

As is the case while planning most trips, the first step is to find cheap flights from Mumbai to Dehradun or to Delhi. Dehradun is the closest airport to Nainital at a distance of about 285 km. The road trip from Dehradun to Nainital takes about 7 hours. Another alternate route is to fly to Delhi and then take a bus or a train to Nainital. The distance between Delhi and Nainital is about 310 km. However, the roads are much better and this distance can be covered in little over 6 hours by car.

The next thing to do is to figure out where should we stay… we will need to find a suitable hotel in Nainital. As we do not intend to hire a car while we are in Nainital, our preference is to stay in a hotel that is conveniently located at the town centre. This will ensure that we are close to the restaurants & dhabas and can feel the pulse of this much talked about hill station. Obviously, we are eyeing a hotel that has views of the Kumaon hills casting shades of blue in the horizon or those of the Naini Lake. I would love to have a room that has a balcony and lets me work on the blog as I get some vitamin D in the warm sunlight. I am sure that Ankur would prefer to enjoy his book in the crisp Himalayan breeze that carries hints of alpine fragrances. We are hoping to be able to find a hotel to suit our budget as well as our requirements. 

Room with a view?

There are a few things that we want to see and and do in Nainital – boating on the lake, gorging on delicious North Indian food in little restaurants, paying our respects at the Naina Devi temple and taking a detour to the sleepy town of Kausani to visit the Anashakti Ashram of Gandhiji.

Naina Devi Temple

However, for a place as scenic as Nainital, Ankur and I have no intentions of visiting many tourist attractions. We would rather walk hand in hand, hop along the slopes, run around trees and make our own little movie, the Bollywood style.

Room with a view?

Have you been to Nainital? Is there something that you highly recommend? Let us know so that we don’t miss out on the fun!