Collections · Quiet, lesser-ridden, worth the distance
Hidden gems — the offbeat rides
The rides in the library that almost nobody makes — an extinct volcano near Narnaul, a Dard valley beyond a Kashmir pass, a meadow ridge with no name on most maps, a fort swallowed by forest, a river of gharial in the badlands. Some are easy overnighters; some are full expeditions. All of them trade a busy road for a peaceful one, and reward the extra effort with somewhere you will have largely to yourself. Go before they are found.
42 routes in this collection · the full library
Delhi to Sardhana
Sardhana, a small town north of Meerut, was the seat of Begum Samru — a dancer who married a European mercenary, inherited his troops, converted to…
Best Oct–Mar
See the route → WeekendDelhi to Dhosi Hill
Dhosi Hill is an extinct volcano — a lone 700-odd-metre cone rising off the plains where Haryana, Rajasthan and the Aravalli tail meet, near Narnaul.
Best Oct–Mar
See the route → WeekendDelhi to Hansi & Tosham
Hansi, west of Hisar, is a walled town built around Asigarh (Prithviraj Chauhan's fort), with four surviving gates, the Char Qutub dargah, and a Jain-temple…
Best Oct–Mar
See the route → WeekendDelhi to Bairat (Viratnagar)
Bairat — today's Viratnagar, in Jaipur district — was a Mauryan regional capital, and it holds two of Ashoka's rock edicts, including the Bhabru…
Best Oct–Mar
See the route → WeekendDelhi to Hisar & Agroha
Hisar was founded by Firoz Shah Tughlaq in 1354, and his palace complex — Gujari Mahal, a pillared hall, a stepped tank — still stands, half-ruined,…
Best Oct–Mar
See the route → WeekendDelhi to Pinjore
Pinjore, just before Kalka on the Himachal edge, is best known for the terraced Yadavindra (Pinjore) Gardens — a 17th-century Mughal charbagh on seven…
Best Oct–Mar
See the route → WeekendDelhi to Kanvashram
Kanvashram sits on the Malini river in sal forest about 14 km north of Kotdwar, at the very foot of the Garhwal hills.
Best Oct–Jun
See the route → WeekendDelhi to George Everest & Benog
West of Mussoorie's crowded centre, a quiet ridge road runs out past Cloud's End to Park Estate — the ruined house and observatory of Sir George Everest,…
Best Sep–Jun
See the route → WeekendDelhi to Devalsari
Devalsari, in the Jaunpur block below Mussoorie, is a small village wrapped in old-growth deodar and oak that the community protects as a conservation and…
Best Mar–Jun, Sep–Nov
See the route → WeekendDelhi to Kanasar & Budher
Kanasar, about 25 km past Chakrata, is a clearing in deep deodar forest with a single enormous cedar — among the largest and oldest in India, its girth…
Best Mar–Jun, Sep–Nov
See the route → WeekendDelhi to the Aglar Valley
Behind Mussoorie, the Aglar river runs through a deep, terraced farming valley that most riders never see — Nainbagh, Thatyur and a string of hamlets on a…
Best Sep–Jun
See the route → WeekendDelhi to Chirbatia
Chirbatia is a scatter of houses on a high ridge on the little-used back road between Kanda (near Rudraprayag) and the Chopta area.
Best Mar–Jun, Sep–Nov
See the route → CampingDelhi to Deoria Tal
Deoria Tal is a small lake at about 2,400 m in oak and rhododendron forest above Sari village, near Ukhimath in the Kedar valley.
Best Mar–Jun, Sep–Nov
See the route → CampingDelhi to Khaliya Top
Khaliya Top is an alpine meadow at about 3,500 m directly above Munsiyari, facing the five-summited wall of the Panchachuli.
Best Apr–Jun, Sep–Nov
See the route → CampingDelhi to Dodital
Dodital is a small, spring-fed lake at about 3,000 m in thick oak and deodar forest in the Assi Ganga valley above Uttarkashi.
Best Apr–Jun, Sep–Nov
See the route → CampingDelhi to Kuari Pass
Kuari Pass, about 3,650 m above Joshimath, sits on the historic Lord Curzon / Nanda Devi trail — a route surveyed a century ago for its view.
Best Apr–Jun, Sep–Nov
See the route → CampingDelhi to Ali & Bedni Bugyal
Ali and Bedni Bugyal, above Wan village in the Nandakini valley, are among the largest alpine meadows in the Himalaya — open, rolling grass at…
Best Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct
See the route → CampingDelhi to Har Ki Dun
Har Ki Dun — the ‘valley of gods’ — is a cradle valley at about 3,500 m in the upper Tons basin, in Govind Pashu Vihar national park,…
Best Apr–Jun, Sep–Nov
See the route → WeekendDelhi to Sariska by the Tehla Gate
Sariska is a tiger reserve in the Alwar Aravallis, and most people see it from the busy main gate on the Alwar–Jaipur road.
Best Oct–Mar
See the route → WeekendDelhi to Keetham Lake & the Bear Rescue
Sur Sarovar — better known as Keetham Lake — is a broad reservoir inside a bird sanctuary about 20 km short of Agra, thick with wintering waterfowl:…
Best Nov–Feb
See the route → WeekendDelhi to the Chambal Ravines at Dholpur
The Chambal is one of the cleanest large rivers in northern India, and the National Chambal Sanctuary protects a long stretch of it for gharial, marsh crocodile,…
Best Nov–Mar
See the route → WeekendDelhi to the Nawabganj Bird Sanctuary
The Nawabganj Bird Sanctuary — officially the Chandrashekhar Azad sanctuary — is a shallow oxbow lake on the Lucknow–Kanpur road in Unnao…
Best Nov–Feb
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Kuno National Park
Kuno National Park, near Sheopur in the north-west corner of Madhya Pradesh, is the dry-deciduous forest and open grassland chosen for India's cheetah…
Best Oct–Mar
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Ratapani & Bhimbetka
On the Vindhyan escarpment south-east of Bhopal, the Ratapani Tiger Reserve wraps sandstone gorges, teak forest and the Ratapani lake around a population of…
Best Oct–Mar
See the route → WeekendDelhi to Alwar & Kesroli
Alwar is the closest of the Rajputana princely towns to Delhi and one of the least visited — the long hilltop Bala Qila, the lake-facing City Palace with…
Best Oct–Mar
See the route → WeekendDelhi to Mahansar & Ramgarh
The Shekhawati is an open-air gallery of painted merchant havelis, and most visitors see it at Nawalgarh, Mandawa or Fatehpur.
Best Oct–Mar
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Kishangarh & Roopangarh
Kishangarh, just off the highway near Ajmer, is India's marble-trading capital, and the runoff from its yards has turned a stretch of land into a startling…
Best Oct–Mar
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Nagaur
Nagaur, on the old caravan road between Jodhpur and Bikaner, holds the Ahhichatragarh (‘fort of the hooded cobra’) — a sprawling walled complex…
Best Oct–Mar
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Osian
Osian, about 65 km north-west of Jodhpur on the edge of the Thar, was a major trading and religious centre a thousand years ago, and it kept the temples to prove…
Best Oct–Mar
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Todgarh-Raoli & Goram Ghat
The Todgarh-Raoli Wildlife Sanctuary, in the southern Aravallis between Ajmer, Pali and Rajsamand, is a surprising pocket of dense hill forest, seasonal…
Best Oct–Mar
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Mahoba
Mahoba was a Chandela capital, and its rulers left a ring of great reservoirs — Rahila Sagar with its ruined sun temple, Madan Sagar with a submerged…
Best Oct–Mar
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Ajaigarh Fort
Ajaigarh is a Chandela hill fort on a flat-topped hill above the Ken river gorge, on the northern edge of Panna.
Best Oct–Mar
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Shivpuri & Narwar
Shivpuri was the Scindias' summer capital and hunting ground, and it kept the evidence: an ornate pair of marble chhatris in a formal garden, the Madhav National…
Best Oct–Mar
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Gandhi Sagar
Where the Chambal cuts the Malwa plateau on the Madhya Pradesh–Rajasthan border, the Gandhi Sagar dam has flooded a dramatic gorge, and the surrounding…
Best Oct–Mar
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Mandsaur & Sondni
Mandsaur — ancient Dasapura — sits in the far west of Madhya Pradesh, and just outside it, at Sondni, stand the fragments of two great victory…
Best Oct–Mar
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Shahabad Fort & Sorsan
The far corner of Hadoti, in Baran district, is one of the least-ridden parts of Rajasthan.
Best Oct–Mar (Jul–Sep for the florican)
See the route → OutstationDelhi to the Nelong Valley
North of Gangotri, past Bhaironghati, the Nelong (Jadhang) valley opens into a cold-desert, Tibetan-plateau landscape — ochre cliffs, thin grass, blue…
Best May–Jun, Sep–Oct
See the route → OutstationDelhi to the Milam Glacier Road
The Johar valley beyond Munsiyari was one of the great Indo-Tibet trade routes until the 1962 war closed the border.
Best May–Jun, Sep–Oct
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Panwali Kantha
Panwali Kantha is a wide alpine meadow at around 3,600 m on the historic foot-traverse between Ghuttu (near Budha Kedar) and Triyuginarayan (near Kedarnath)…
Best May–Jun, Sep–Oct
See the route → OutstationDelhi to the Gurez Valley
Gurez lies in the Kishanganga (Neelum) valley of north Kashmir, reached over the 3,300 m Razdan Pass from Bandipora.
Best Jun–Sep
See the route → OutstationDelhi to the Kutti Valley & Jollingkong
Past Dharchula and Gunji, the road up the Kuthi Yankti river runs to Kutti village at about 3,700 m — one of the highest permanently-inhabited villages in…
Best May–Jun, Sep–Oct
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Padum (Zanskar)
Padum is the main settlement of Zanskar — a high, dry, deeply Buddhist valley walled off by the Great Himalayan and Zanskar ranges, historically reachable…
Best Jun–Sep
See the route →Ride one with us
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