If you've never done a weekend out of Delhi, start with Rishikesh. It's close, the buses are cheap and frequent, and in two days you get the river, the hills, a bit of adventure and one of the best evenings in north India.
Getting there
The bus is the simple way. At our last check, a typical Delhi–Rishikesh service took about 5 h 30 min, the fastest about 3 h 30 min, with fares from ₹290. Leave on Friday evening and you're there by about midnight; leave very early on Saturday and you're there for lunch.
If you'd rather fly, Dehradun's Jolly Grant airport is about 14 km away. Haridwar, 19 km away, is the bigger railway town and worth an evening of its own.
When to go
From our climate data for Rishikesh:
- October to December: 7–29°C and almost no rain (about 1 rainy day a month). The best time.
- February to April: 9–33°C, dry. Good, but April gets hot by midday.
- May and June: around 35°C by day. Hard work outside the water.
- July and August: about 22 rainy days a month, and the river is too high for rafting.
Saturday: the rapids and Tapovan
- At 8 am, drive up to Shivpuri for the 16 km rafting run back to Rishikesh. You'll be on the water for most of the morning.
- Lunch at Little Buddha Café in Tapovan.
- Walk across Ram Jhula to Swarg Ashram. Look at the closed Laxman Jhula and the new Bajrang Setu.
- At 5:30 pm, the Ganga aarti at Parmarth Niketan ghat. Get there early for a step near the front.
Sunday: yoga, the Beatles and the ghats
Start with a drop-in yoga class at an ashram or a Tapovan studio at 7 am. Then go to the Beatles Ashram (Chaurasi Kutia), inside the Rajaji Tiger Reserve: crumbling meditation huts covered in murals, and quiet at 9:30 am.
Lunch at The Sitting Elephant in Tapovan, then Triveni Ghat and the market lanes before the bus home.
Add a thrill, or a day
The bungee jump at Mohan Chatti is the other big adventure here. With a third day, Kanatal (about 38 km) is cool, quiet and forested, a good contrast to the river.
Prices for your dates are on the Rishikesh weekend guide.
Questions people ask
How far is Rishikesh from Delhi by bus?
About 5 h 30 min on a typical service and 3 h 30 min on the fastest, at our last check, with fares from ₹290. It's the shortest hill-and-river trip from Delhi.
When is rafting open in Rishikesh?
Rafting stops during the monsoon, when the river is high, and runs again from the autumn. The months we plan around are October to December and February to April, when the weather is best too. Check with the operator for your exact dates.
Is Laxman Jhula open?
No, Laxman Jhula is closed. You can still see it, and cross the river on Ram Jhula or the new Bajrang Setu.
Plan Rishikesh for your dates
Your weekend and your group: the train or bus, where you'd stay, every day planned and one all-in price per person. We book all of it and confirm it before you pay.
Written by
Dhruv Shah
Founder, Tavora and RailRoute
I build Tavora and RailRoute. RailRoute started with Indian Railways data: which trains run on time, which routes actually work. Tavora uses it to plan weekends out of Delhi end to end. Here I write about leaving on a Friday night and being back for Monday.
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