Uttarakhand — Nainital, Mussoorie & Rishikesh

The lake the town is named after, roughly two kilometres around and fed by underground springs. Flat-bottomed yachts and rowing boats work from the stand near the Mall, and the water is calmest in the early evening.

• Take a boat out on the lake
• Walk the Mall Road
• Browse the Tibetan market stalls

A shoulder of the ridge at about 2,270 m, reached by an aerial ropeway from near the Mall. On a clear morning the view runs along the Nanda Devi group and Trishul. Mounted telescopes on the deck help pick the peaks apart.

• Ride the ropeway both ways
• Use the telescopes on the viewing deck
• Visit the small Devi shrine behind the point

Also called Dorothy's Seat, a rocky outcrop on Ayarpatta hill named after a British artist whose husband built a stone bench here in her memory. It is the only point that shows the whole lake and the town in one frame. The last two kilometres are a bridle path — walk it, or take a pony, charged extra as applicable.

• Walk or ride up the bridle path
• Photograph the lake from the ledge
• Continue to Land's End if you have the time

A Shakti Peeth on the northern shore, rebuilt after a landslide flattened the original in 1880. It is a short, level walk from the boat stand and busiest at the morning and evening aarti.

• Attend the evening aarti
• See the peepal tree in the courtyard
• Walk on to the Flats

A set of six interconnected natural rock caves on the Sukhatal side, each named after an animal and lit inside. The passages are narrow and involve some crouching, which is exactly why children like it.

• Crawl through the tiger and bat caves
• See the musical fountain in the evening
• Sit in the hanging gardens above

The road that is effectively the town — running between the Library end and Picture Palace, closed to most traffic in the evening. It is the natural place to stretch your legs after the drive, with the valley lights below on one side.

• Walk from the Library to Kulri bazaar
• Look down over the Doon valley lights
• Eat something on the Mall

A five-stage waterfall about 15 km west of town, dropping into a pool that people bathe in. A cable car and a stepped path both run down to the base. It is at its fullest just after the monsoon and busiest at midday, which is why we go early.

• Take the cable car down to the pool
• Paddle at the base of the fall
• Stop at the terrace stalls above

The second-highest point in Mussoorie, reached by a short ropeway from the middle of the Mall. It takes its name from a cannon once fired from the summit to mark midday. The top looks north to the Bandarpunch range and south over the Doon valley.

• Ride the ropeway up and walk down
• Pick out Bandarpunch on a clear day
• Try the costume photo stalls at the top

The highest point on the ridge, in the old cantonment of Landour about 6 km east of the Mall. A Japanese telescope on the viewing platform brings in Kedarnath, Badrinath and Nanda Devi when the air is clear. The lanes around it are quiet, with colonial-era houses and a couple of long-standing bakeries.

• Look through the telescope on the tower
• Walk the Landour Chakkar
• Stop at a Sisters Bazaar bakery

A laid-out municipal garden about 3 km from the Library end, with a boating pond, an artificial waterfall and long flower beds. Straightforward and pleasant rather than remarkable, and easy on the legs at the end of a full day.

• Row on the small pond
• Walk the flower terraces
• Take the amusement rides with children

The iron suspension footbridge across the Ganga, first built in 1929 and long the symbol of Rishikesh. The old span is closed to the public on safety grounds, with the crossing now made by the bridge alongside it. The lanes on either side are full of small shops, cafés and the thirteen-storey Tera Manzil temple.

• Cross the river on foot
• Climb the Tera Manzil temple for the view
• Browse the shops in the lanes

The second footbridge, about 2 km downstream, linking Sivananda Ashram on the west bank with the Swarg Ashram side on the east. This is the quieter, more monastic half of Rishikesh, all bookshops, dharamshalas and vegetarian kitchens.

• Walk the ashram lanes
• Sit on the ghat steps
• Take the ferry back across

The main bathing ghat in the town itself, named for the meeting of three rivers in tradition rather than in fact. In the evening lamps are floated on the current and the aarti is sung from the steps.

• Float a lamp on the river
• Attend the evening aarti
• Watch the fish gather at the steps

The principal ghat of Haridwar, believed to hold a footprint of Vishnu, and the site of the Kumbh Mela bathing. At dusk the priests light tiered lamps and swing them over the water while bells ring from both banks. Leaf boats carrying flowers and a flame are floated downstream afterwards.

• Take a place on the steps well before dusk
• Float a lamp on the current
• Hold the chains at the bathing enclosure — the flow is strong

A temple on Bilwa Parvat above the town, reached by a cable car or by a walking path of roughly 1.5 km. Visitors tie a thread to the tree in the courtyard when making a wish and return to untie it once it is granted.

• Ride the cable car up
• Tie a thread in the courtyard
• Look down over the river and the ghats

On Neel Parvat across the river, a temple whose present building dates from the 1920s though the shrine is much older. A separate ropeway runs to it, and the walk up from Chandi Ghat takes around an hour for those who prefer it.

• Take the ropeway from Chandi Ghat
• See the Anjani Devi shrine on the same hill
• Photograph Haridwar from the top