Lansdowne a Hidden & Unexplored Weekend Destination near Delhi NCR

Garhwal Rifles

Lansdowne or Lansdowne is a beautiful town and a popular hill station situated on the Kotdwar - Pauri road at a height of 1,706 mt in Uttarakhand, India. Lansdowne got its name from Lord Lansdowne, who was the then Viceroy of India during the period of 1888-1894. Presently, Lansdowne has the command office of the Garhwal Rifles division of the Indian Army. Lansdowne is aproximately 240 kms from Delhi and 40 kms from Kotdwara. Kotdwara is the nearest Railway station and Bus terminal.

How to Reach: As Lansdowne is only 242 kms from Delhi, so there are many options to choose from, you can visit there through Train, Bus, Private Car or even Bike.

• Train: Nearest Railway Station is Kotdwara and there are frequent trains available from Delhi.
• Bus: One can easily get bus from Kashmeere gate ISBT to Kotdwara & it takes 6-7 hrs to reach there.
• Car: This is my personal favorite. You can easily reach kotdwara in 4-5 hrs & then 1-2 hrs to Lansdowne. The roads are smooth & your car can easily touch 100-120 km/h speed.
• Rent a Car: You can rent a car from Zoomcar & Myles according to your budget & group strength. 
• Bike: Motorcycle or Bike is also a good option to make the trip adventurous & unforgettable.  

Where To Stay: There are many Guest Houses, Hotels and Resorts available in kotdwara, Dugadda and Lansdowne. You can easily get super cheep hotels in kotdwara and dugadda which is around 20 km from kotdwara on the way to Lansdowne.

Best Season: I visited Lansdowne in April, August & October or should I say that I have had flavor of Lansdowne in autumn winter and summer & I must say I enjoyed all flavors so in my suggestion you can visit there throughout the year.

Popular For: Lazy Holiday, Weekend Getaway, Quite & relaxing hill station.

Places to Visit: Bhulla Lake, Tip n Top, Kaleshwar Temple, Bhim Pakoda, Tarkeshwar Mahadev, Church, Gharwal Mess etc

Weather: Lansdowne has Pleasant weather throughout the year from 10 degree to 26 degree.

Ideal Duration: 2-3 days are enough to visit lansdowne but as it is not too far from Delhi that is why it is the best weekend getaway destination & you can plan a two day trip to Lansdowne.

Map: Google Maps Link

My Experience at Lansdowne: First I want to tell you that I belongs to Uttrakhand (Pauri Garhwal) & our village is 60 km from Lansdowne and I have visited there 3 times. Now I am sharing my last visit experience to Lansdowne on 29th April 2017.

I was planing to visit Lansdowne from a while but every time it was cancelled, but in april 2017 the temperature crossed 40 degrees & it was high time to visit any hill station but because of my tight schedule I only have a weekend to plan my trip so I decided that my weekend destination would be Lansdowne as I had visited Lansdowne 2 times before. I asked my wife & she agreed without wasting a second so now it was decided that we are going to Lansdowne on 29th April 2017.

A day before the D-Day on 28th April 2017 we packed our bags, I fueled up my car (Maruti Alto) at evening & we are ready to go. On D-Day we woke up early at 4:30 am and started getting ready and at 5:30 am we left home, we choose this time because I want to cross Modinagar & Meerut before 8 am to avoid  traffic jams and I was right we reached Meerut at 6:45 am now we have 2 route options 1 is from Khatauli & another one is from Mawana. Khatauli is the longer route (260 km) & it has a toll road but as we are on time so I decided to take the Mawana road which is 250 km so we entered Meerut & from Begumpul we turned to Meerut Cant. and took the Meerut-Pauri Highway and through Mawana we reached Bijnor at 8:00 am then without wasting anytime we head towards Kotdwara through Kiratpur and Najibabad. 

We reached Kotdwara at 9:50 am & as we didn't had our breakfast yet so we decided to take 1 hr break in Kotdwara & had breakfast there at MyChoice Resturant , there are many food joints on the main road. In Kotdwara there are many Budget and Luxury hotels available so if you want to stay there then try Bharat Bhumi Hotel Opp. Police Station where you can get rooms starting from Rs.500 & other options are also available like Surya Hotel which will cost you around Rs. 3000-4000 / Night. 

Now we head towards Lansdowne the weather was pleasent and the road was smooth after a short drive of 11.5 km from kotdwara we reached Durga Mandir A famous Mandir (Temple) on roadside a must visit place.

Durga Mandir

Durga Mandir Full View