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Sunday, July 9, 2017

Lansdowne, Uttarakhand Vlog | Road Trip

All of us deserve and need a break from the busy city lives that we are living today. It is important to rejuvenate ourselves so that we can work hard when we get back to our mundane lives. For me it is more about mental rejuvenation rather than physical.

So we recently went on a trip to Lansdowne, which is a small town in Uttarakhand. We had a 4 day long weekend and we did not want to waste it by staying at home. Hence, we planned a last minute trip.

Lansdowne is basically a cantonment area and doesn't offer much in terms of activities. I have grown up in a cantonment area and I know how difficult it is to enter one without the proper ID card. And to see the cantt. open for all the people was weird for me. There are very few basic tourist spots which can be easily covered in a day. So, if you are coming from Delhi you can drive here on an early Saturday morning and explore the town the same day and leave for Delhi on a Sunday afternoon. It takes around 5 hours from Ghaziabad to Lansdowne and the road is pretty good except for a few patches.

We were a little apprehensive about visiting Lansdowne in the month of July since it is the onset of monsoon. It was July 1st week and it did rain a little bit mostly late at night or early morning. Just a little bit of drizzling, not much.



HOTELS
There are not many hotel options in Lansdowne. I would highly suggest to take the hotel on the outskirts of the town/city from where it takes just 10 minutes drive to reach the main market. We stayed in the Green Palms on day 1 which is a decent property there. Other options would be Lans Castle and Blue Pine. Lans Castle is so overpriced though !

There are not good hotel options in the main market except for the Govt.(GVMN) rest house and the Fairydale resort(which I did not check out). Second day we stayed at the GVMN guest house. The food is very good and very reasonably priced but the rooms were not upto the mark. The GVMN compound is very well maintained though. We stayed in the hut which is separate from the main building and has its own personal lawn. We would sit out in the lawn with our tea and Saurabh would play his guitar. It was such a nice experience.



After I came back I also heard about this resort called Vanvasa. I am not sure of its location but it is somewhere in Lansdowne.

You would get all the necessary things in the main market and the main tourist spots are very close by.

The main spots to cover are: Tip N top, bhulla taal, museum, bhim pakora,few temples and churches.
We just went to the Tip N Top and the Bhulla Taal since the churches were closed for some reason and we had no interest in the temples and museums.


Also, I would recommend eating veg noodles and lassi at the Mayur Restaurant in the main market near Gandhi Chowk. We went there both the days. It was yumm!!
Also you can buy booze form the main market. Just ask anyone and they will help you. Just make sure to read the price before paying, since alcohol here is a lot more cheaper than UP but still some shopkeepers sell them for double the price.

There are just 3 ATMS in Lansdowne and no petrol pump nearby so make sure you come with a full tank. 1 ATM is in the main market, 2 at the Lansdowne entrance. There is ample parking space so that would not be a problem.

Overall you can visit Lansdowne only if you want to chill and relax and don't intend to indulge in any sort of activity.

You can also watch my vlog HERE


Lots of Love!
KJ




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