When you have serious craving for mountains and can’t wait for a long weekend – head to Lansdowne. Located at just 250 kms from Delhi, Lansdowne is a small hill station in Uttarakhand.

(It is at a distance of 40 km from Kotdwar, 106 km from Haridwar, 131 km from Rishikesh, 158 km from Dehradun and 250 km from Delhi)

How to Reach Lansdowne from Delhi –

Most preffered way to reach Lansdowne is by Road. Drive your Car or hire a taxi maybe. The best route to drive from Delhi to Lansdowne is Delhi – Ghaziabad – Hapur – Meerut –  Bijnor – Najibabad- Kotdawara – Lansdowne. It is a  7-8 hours journey including 2-3 small tea breaks.

You will find some lush green farms after crossing Meerut , where you can take small tea breaks. After Kotdawara, the uphill to mountains begins.

In Lansdowne, do not expect huge mountains as in Himachal Pradesh or Upper Areas of Uttarakhand. But, in all, it is a good visit place when you want to relax for 1-2 days and do not want to travel much.

What to do when in Lansdowne –

• As such, there is nothing very exciting to do there. People generally visit Lansdowne just to relax and chill for a while. Although, To make it more exciting, you can camp on your own and skip staying in hotel rooms.

• There is a small market area/Mall road with some restaurants and shopping.
• Tip and Top – This is the highest point in Landowne which has one amazing view. If you try and explore a little around tip n top area, you will find some trails to short treks. Most people don’t know about these treks , so you will go in total solace in between forests with big trees around.
• Sun set Point– There is one sunset point from where the sunset is very clearly visible.

• Bhulla Lake – There is one small lake, which i don’t think is worth visiting.

 

Where to Stay in Lansdowne –

There are a lot of hotels in Lansdowne area ranging from budget hotels to 3 star hotels. Most of the hotels have playing area (badminton, table tennis, etc), open lawns, etc so that people can relax inside hotel premises only.

There is one GMVN (Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam) hotel also in Lansdowne which is owned by Uttarakhand government and is located at Tip n Top. You need to book this in advance from their website as it is booked for most of the time in year, generelly on weekends.

The place where I stayed, and liked the most in Lansdowne is ‘Jungle Resort‘ and ‘ ‘Anand Retreat’. Both of these places are located far from the hush hush of main Lansdowne. You will get to see some most amazing views and the back side of Jim Corbett national park from this Resort. As these stays are located far from roads, you can easily find some small morning treks.

Best time to Visit Lansdowne –

The best time to visit Lansdowne is duing Monsoon (July-September). During this time. you will find greenery all around and a little mist on the air adds to the beauty.