Garhwal has wildlife sanctuaries, temple towns, river camps, and spa resorts, and what we covered was a fragment of what the region offers. Hindu pilgrims would probably tour the Char Dhams (the "four sacred sites"- Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri, and Gangotri), or follow the trail of the Ganges through the Panch Prayag (the "five confluences"- Rudraprayag, Karnaprayag, Vishnuprayag, Devprayag, and Nandprayag). We decided to treat ourselves to a somewhat more materialistic holiday.

We began with a quick trip to the quaint old town of Dehradun in the Doon Valley, a lovely, laid-back town with a distinctly colonial air about it. Dehradun’s best known for the Doon Boys’ School, the Indian Military Academy (both out of bounds for the casual tourist), Ellora Bakery (highly recommended, especially for rusks!), and the splendid Forest Research Institute. After Dehradun, a drive through the forests of Rajaji National Park (which we later visited) brought us to Rishikesh, a town that’s swarming with yoga schools and temples in about equal number. Twenty-five kilometers downriver from Rishikesh is Haridwar, which is equally sacred and always teeming with pilgrims, a dusty and crowded town on the edge of the plains.${QuickSuggestions} This part of Garhwal is replete with temples, ashrams, and monastic establishments of various kinds. Some are genuine, many are pure fakery. While we were staying at the Glasshouse on the Ganges, we saw, every evening at dinner, a saffron-robed sadhu, with a sari-clad blonde in tow. The sadhu would spout philosophy and the girl would hang eagerly on every word of so-called wisdom. When I mentioned it to a friend of mine (who was born and brought up in Haridwar), he guffawed. "That’s an old trick," he said. "I have loads of pals who are clean-shaven and hang around in jeans all through the off-season. As soon as it’s peak season and the foreigners arrive, they grow beards and don orange robes and start passing themselves off as sadhus. Very lucrative business."

Don’t fall for upmarket sadhus pressing their philosophies on you - and don’t get coaxed into donating generously. The genuine ones are less inclined to be worldly. ${BestWay} Trains go till Haridwar; beyond that, it’s roads all the way. Most mountain roads, though narrow, are fairly good, well-tarred, and free of potholes. If you’re adventurous, you could try local buses: there are plenty of them connecting all the main towns in Garhwal. We weren’t that adventurous, so we stuck to our own car - and saw some rather frighteningly overloaded buses careening madly down the roads, horns blaring cheerily. For the more staid types, it’s probably better to hire a vehicle and get driven around at a slightly saner speed. Downmarket SUVs are available for hire both in Delhi, as well as in the larger towns of Garhwal, such as Haridwar and Rishikesh.

Most towns themselves are so compact that you don’t need public transport to move around - your own legs will do just fine.

From journal Garhwal: A Glimpse of the Ganges