Friends,
Just came back from a 1 week vacation to Uttaranchal. Started on Saturday morning (Mar 21st) from Noida to Naukuchiatal, stayed for 3 nights, then went to Binsar, stayed for 4 nights and then back to Noida to next Saturday evening (Mar 28th). Overall ~950KM trip by car (500KM on plains and 450KM on ghats).
Uttaranchal:
Uttaranchal in general is a beautiful state – clean, not crowded and green/serene unlike other commercialized hill stations. It has 2 main regions Garhwal and Kumaon. We went to Kumaon belt which is just after the industrial township of Rudrapur. The roads are good in most of the places. However, markings for diversions, distance etc is not well maintained and can be improved. People from these places are very soft spoken and hard working. Life on hills is tough and it can be seen from the way they manage everything on the hills. Most of the cities here are neither commercialized nor expensive as others. We couldn’t get much of local food this time because of being away from city but heard that they have local specialties from pickles to vegetables and sweets. The tourism is flourishing and keeping the state economy moving. There is lot of focus on improving the tourism including infrastructure and was visible all through out my trip in terms of roads, hotels, connectivity etc.
Naukuchiatal
Club Mahindra Dancing Waters Resorts:
- Latest resort in Club Mahindra. Huge Studio room with big bathroom, no kitchen though.. Had microwave and toaster on a table in the corner. No balcony but rooms on the backside have huge windows to get a view of lake and greenery around (not complete view though because of trees). There is no direct access to Lake from the resort, you have go by walk or vehicle as it would be around 2KM from road.
- No bath tubs or curtains in bathroom!!!! Toiletries are also not sufficient or good.. Any other hotel of this quality and rates gives a lot of complimentary cosmetics and toiletries items.
- Resort is more of a hotel, one building in the middle of a big open area. Has 32 rooms and all studio. It doesn’t have lift and has 3 floors total (ground + 2). Resort has very good pictures on the walls. Below picture is from the road above the resort capturing half part of resort building and open area on the sides.
- Activity room is on the 3rd floor and is a huge big place. Has a TT table, board games, a TV with play station (just one game), that is it.. It has regular kid activities stuff. Evening activities include tambola, bon fire with party games only. Has lot of scope but nothing done as yet. They have bat ball, badminton, football available for members use. Has a library with lot of thriller novels.
- They have tie up with an outside company for outside activities including trek and adventure activities. Charges from them are equally high and they along with staff always want people to buy those packages and spend large amount.. Focus is completely on selling rather than making the stay comfortable with good feedback of local areas and what to do where.
- Restaurant is as usual good but is small. We had all food at resort as it gives variety and is hygienic. Variety at buffet is good and taste is also good. They do not have live counter space for any time.
- It has big parking area in the front, and a large play and open area in the side and back. The place is very raw and would get developed sometime later. They have 2 hammocks and few adventure stuff in the premises itself on large trees. Back side has view of lake and hills behind and is a good place to enjoy the silence of the place.
Things to do:
- Naukuchiatal lake is huge and pretty. Not much crowded so you can enjoy the boating here. Naukuchiatal gets it name from nine corners lake but we couldn’t find 9 corners.. We could boat for hours without any crowd interfering and watching some beautiful birds on lake side. The famous lake resort is just next to lake, has its own boats, fishing area and lush green (infact it can be called a small forest).
- Sattal – Around 12KM from Naukuchiatal, this place has 7 lakes. You can do some trekking there to a small waterfall, do boating as well as kayaking in the lake and adventure activities including rock climbing, rappelling, valley crossing etc. Paragliding option is available but is hugely dependent on winds. It was closed during this time of the year.
- Bhimtal lake – Bhimtal lake is also huge and has a temple in the centre. Boats are available but row boats only with the driver, no paddle boats. It has nice walkway around the lake. There is a butterfly museum in bhimtal which has lot of butterflies.
- Nainital – Around 20KM from this place, we didn’t visit Nainital to keep ourself away from crowd.
- Trekking – Lot of trekking options all around. We trekked in the evening to behind the resort, to hills, villages and then walking next to lake. Again, you would see some amazing birds all around.
- Other options could be found from google and other travel websites.
Binsar:
Binsar Valley Resort:
- One of the Gold Crown resort from Club Mahindra and it truly is a wonderful place. Overlooking valley, just on the Almora bageshwar highway, resort is very nicely created and located.
- Resort is very well made and maintained. The architecture is beautiful with blocks in short distance and each block having 4-6 apartments in each. Green all around, with nice benches, swings at many places to sit and enjoy the beauty of nature. You can see a lot of birds in the resort which you would have never seen earlier. All rooms have nice balcony facing the valley. There is a small play area for the kids.. There is a big area in the back of the blocks to play cricket or any other game.
- Studio rooms are spacious with a small kitchen. Room has good ambience and has a sofa cum bed for 3rd adult. The toilets is spacious and good (they have shower curtains here).
- Binsar resort had 5 villas on a hill right in front of this resort. They are building a full fledged resort there with more rooms and it would be operational from April 2009. A road is being made to reach that place but is steep and thin so most probably only resort vehicle would go there. We walked to the new resort (took more than 30mins as it is steep and is pretty long as the road is being made on 2-3 hills).
- Resort is in the shape of a cashew, created almost 7 years back. The trees are one of its kinds and make the resort very beautiful. Every room overlook the valley so all are same. The tree in front of room had nice flowers and used to attract many birds (attached one picture below).
- Resort has a library with around 100 books and you can pick a good novel and spend all day sitting at multiple places in the resort, reading and enjoying the nature. If you are a true book lover, take your book along as their collection is not that great.
- Activity room is very small and not well maintained.. Has a TT Table, pool table, a small football board game, a TV with playstation (only one game which is charged 50Rs for 30 mins), activities for kids and few board games. They have good music system to enable Karoke and Dance Floor in the evenings but less space.
- Resort has a small grocery resort where you can get daily need stuff and few ready to cook stuff. Not the regular grocery stuff to enable cooking at room.
- Restaurant is typical Club Mahindra type, fun dining is a better option, considering the prices for La Carte Menu.. It is small though and hence crowded in evenings when most of the families eat at resort itself. Variety in Buffet is good and taste is good, has scope for improvement though for the prices charged. Timings for food is little short (8-10AM for breakfast, 1-3PM for Lunch and 8-10PM for dinner), would have preferred to have it little longer to take care of members gone on sightseeing or some other activities. Especially an issue when night activities start at 8PM (suppose to start at 7:30PM but is always late waiting for all residents to assemble) and goes on till 9pm and beyond.
- Resort is 20KM away from Zero point, 10KM from gate of the Sanctuary. So, as usual far from places. There is a small village nearby which has shops for groceries and daily needs. But NO RESTAURANT in that area so you have to eat at resort restaurant itself !!!
- There is no direct view of Himalaya peaks from resort (except for 1 small peak which gets visible on a clear sky day). You have to go to 5-6KM further back towards almora and some turns on the road has a little wider view with couple of peaks. Full view with 200+KM of Himalaya range and many peaks is from zero point.
- There is a very small parking area and hence a big mess. You have to leave the car key at reception as they keep pushing the car front and back. I had to tell them to park my car properly as they had parked 3 cars very closely in a small place.
- Staff is courteous and soft spoken. However, they are most of the time selling the cab and other holiday package which are very highly charged. Club Mahindra has lost the whole point there by making everything charged and that too very high.. They ask me everytime for referrals and I tell them I donot recommend Club Mahindra to anyone as they have cheated me and continue to do that to all new members.
Things to do:
- Bird watching – you can watch some good birds at the resort itself, can take a trek with a guide and see some amazing birds.
- Adventure activities such as rock climbing, rappelling, valley crossing etc.
- Trek to the new resort opening on the top of the hill.. Has nice pine trees all around and is a nice walk in the evening or early morning.
- Zero point inside Binsar Sanctuary. This place is 10KM from entry of the Sanctuary. This 10KM road is very narrow and enough for 2 small cars at most places. If any big vehicle comes from other side, you will have to adjust some place front or back to let them pass. Thankfully, there is not much traffic (we saw 4-6 vehicles in 10KM stretch from other sides both the times we went to this place). The roads go till the KVMN guest house and you have to walk 2KM from there to reach zero point. Sanctuary is said to have animals such as Leopard other than regular deer, fox, wild pigs etc. We went twice, didn’t see anything on first visit but were lucky to see a fox and another mammal on the second visit. Attached snap is of the first 4-5KM part of road which is good and wide enough for 2 vehicles.
- Zero point offers the magnificent view of Himalayas. You gotta to visit the place on a clear day to get the complete view as clouds will block everything. Carry a good binoculars to have a better look. On our first day visit, clouds came while we were on the way and we couldn’t see anything. Next day was a very clear sky and we went again. You got to see the Himalayas to feel the size and volume of it. It is just 25KM (aerial distance) and you can see 200KM of himalaya range in front of you. Many peaks including Nandadevi, Trishool etc are visible with snow on the top.
- There are 3 private resort and 1 Kumaon Vikas Mandal Nigam rest house inside the Sanctuary. None of them seem to have electricity and use solar heater for warm water and limited lights in the evening. KVMN property is just 2 KM from zero point and has a good view of Himalayas directly but is not well maintained.
- There are many places nearby which can be got from google and other travel sites.. There are nearby good towns such as Kausani, Ranikhet, Almora which is also very scenic. We decided to enjoy nature and resort and spent couple of days just driving on the roads, stopping on the hillside or villages and exploring places.
- Buransh (Rhododendron) flower is very famous in Uttarakhand, red in colour and juice is really good. If you see the trees of these flowers, they are completely loaded with them and looks stunning.
My Car "Ford Fusion":
- Got the tyres changed few weeks back to ensure smooth rides. Noise is reduced by a good margin. Got same Good Year which did well for 3.5years and 50K+ KM for Rs12.5K for 4 tyres.
- Got the car checked for all fluids, brakes and other required things for travel. I usually fold the back seats and put beddings so that my family can sleep or relax in the back while I enjoy the driving. But, one of the back seat didn’t fold for some reason and had to travel with normal seating. It was comfortable though. The power window switch problem reappeared for couple of windows and troubled during the trip.. Had to keep those windows close even though city driving in those hills were wonderful with nice breeze..
- Fusion performed as usual on the roads, very comfortable and smooth in driving. Got a good mileage as I’m not a rash driver, touched 100 only couple of times, else maintained 90 on good roads and lower on bad or ghat roads.. I didn’t calculate this time but I usually get a overall mileage of 16-17kmph including the 400KM of ghat driving and 550KM otherwise.
- Roads to few of the hills were steep and narrow and Fusion was up to the task. At one place, road was sleep and full of stones and very narrow. A young guy came on the bike and couldn’t control seeing a car on the turn ahead. I had to stop to let him stabilize and then pass without hitting me. I was on the climb so getting Fusion to move up on that slide was little tricky will slippery stones pulling it down. On the average or good roads, there is no stopping Fusion.
- Roads from Almora to Binsar was very bad.. I met few people in Naukuchiatal who were coming from Binsar. They said road is very bad, don’t go there etc etc.. They asked me which car do you have, I said Ford Fusion. The next statement was – you don’t need to worry, it has good clearance and can tackle bad roads well. I asked them which car were you in – they said Honda City. I looked at my wife who pressurized me for Honday city when I was buying Fusion and we both smiled. She also likes Fusion very much and drives much more than me. When I was finally on Almora Binsar road, it was really bad and can realize why they were so upset but Fusion handled it pretty well passing through potholes and no roads situation comfortably.
- Saw 2 Fusion during the complete journey. One on the highway and other near Almora !!
Roads:
Noida to Naukuchiatal:- Noida to Hapur (NH 24) – Good Road, 4 lane NHAI highway. Toll of 10Rs.
- Hapur to Gajraula (NH 24) – Bad Road, 4 lane in construction, many diversions with 2 way traffic. Gajraula has good hotel for food and other breaks.
- Gajraula to Moradabad (NH 24) – Good Road, 4 lane almost complete. Toll of 25Rs (2 toll gates are less than 1 KM away ).
- Moradabad to Rampur – Good Road, 2 lane and 2 way, but smooth ride till entry of Rampur. Railway crossing before Rampur is hopeless and involve 30-45min of average waiting because of long traffic pile (very stupid drivers block the complete road on both sides of crossing).
- Rampur to Kathgodam via Bilaspur, Rudrapur, Haldwani – Good road, 2 lane and 2 way, but smooth ride. No bypass so need to get into these small cities and they are crowded with bad traffic. Also, there are thin roads near Bilaspur and a small bridge which has one way traffic only holding you up for 15-20 mins. Once you cross Rudrapur, There is a diversion without any marking. Straight road takes you to Pantnagar, however left turn has to be taken for Haldwani and further. Roads from Rudrapur to Haldwani is very beautiful having forest on both sides.
- Haldwani to Naukuchiatal via Kathgodam, Bhimtal – Good roads. Kathgodam is the last railway station and Ghat roads start immediately after Kathgodam. There is diversion for Bhimtal after few KM of ghat roads. Once you reach Bhimtal, just next to the lake is the divertion for Naukuchiatal which is another 4 KM away.
Naukuchiatal to Binsar:
- Naukuchiatal to Bhimtal and then to Bhowali. Roads are good, mostly valley road with good views. Take the diversion from Bhowali for Nainital or Almora. Take the Almora road via Khairna, Khainchi Dhaam to Almora. Roads are good all the while till Almora, most of it being valley or ghat road. Khairna to Almora is very scenic with river kosi on one side all the while and mountains/valleys on other side. Not many restaurant or big places in between so take care of fuel, food etc either at Bhowali, Bhimtal or Almora.
- You have to cross complete Almora through the busy thin road. I found traffic jam both ways on this road when some folks park their car on these roads and there are bus/cars from both sides. Almora is a very nice city (much bigger than I thought). You have to take a diversion for Jageshwar from here which has the 8th shivling and a very famous temple.
- Roads from Almora to Binsar is in bad shape (lot of pot holes, old road needing maintenance and undergoing renewal at places). 30KM journey from Almora to Binsar takes an hour for sure with few villages on the way. There is KasarDevi temple on the way which is famous in that region. You reach the gate of Binsar Santuary from where there is a diversion. There are 3 private resorts and 1 government resort inside the sanctuary. If you are staying there, pay the toll and get into the sanctuary, resort is inside. If you are staying in Club Mahindra Valley resort, continue straight and the resort is 10KM further in the valley. Roads continue to be same with lot of maintenance ongoing.
Binsar to Noida:
- Follow the route back to Bhowali via Almora and then take the Kathgodam road to join NH 87 and then to NH24 (same route as Noida to Bhimtal).
