12 Day Rides From Rishikesh You Can Do Before Dinner
Not everyone has four days for Kedarnath. Most of our rentals are one or two days, and this is the list we give those riders.
All under 100 km each way. All doable on any bike in the fleet unless noted.
1. Kunjapuri Temple — 35 km
Leave at 4:30 AM, ride an hour of empty switchbacks in the dark, climb 300 steps, and watch Bandarpunch through to the Gangotri group turn pink. The best ninety minutes available here. Full guide →
2. Neelkanth Mahadev — 32 km
Thirty-plus hairpins through proper forest. Take the Ram Jhula forest road up and the Bhadrakali highway down. Watch for monkeys. Full guide →
3. Devprayag — 70 km
The best-surfaced road in the region, and at the end the Bhagirathi and the Alaknanda arriving different colours and running unmixed for a few hundred metres. Full guide →
4. Vashishta Gufa — 22 km
A meditation cave on the Ganga, ten minutes off the Devprayag highway. Quiet in a way Rishikesh itself never quite is. Combine with Devprayag.
5. Byasi and the Shivpuri café run — 35 km
Rafting country. A string of cafés on the river with the put-in points below. Good breakfast, short ride, and the road there is the enjoyable part.
6. Neer Garh Waterfall — 8 km
Just past Laxman Jhula, then a short walk up. Best in and just after monsoon when it’s actually running.
7. Chamba — 60 km
Up through Narendra Nagar on a long series of switchbacks to a small hill town on a ridge, with views back down over the plains. Junction for the Tehri and Mussoorie roads.
8. Narendra Nagar — 16 km
The shortest proper climb from Rishikesh. Fifteen minutes of switchbacks, and the whole Ganga valley below you. Good for a first ride on a new bike.
9. Kaudiyala — 40 km
Further up the Devprayag highway. Rapids, quieter than Shivpuri, and a good turnaround point for a half day.
10. Rajaji National Park boundary roads — 25 km
Toward Haridwar and along the park edge. Flat, forested, elephants genuinely present. Do not ride these at dusk — that’s not an atmosphere note, it’s advice.
11. Tehri Lake — 90 km
The furthest on this list and just about a day trip if you leave by 7. Ninety kilometres of good empty tarmac ending at a reservoir the size of a small sea. Full guide →
12. Kunjapuri plus Neelkanth in one morning — 130 km total
The best half-day available here. Sunrise at Kunjapuri, back down, across the valley, up to Neelkanth, and in Rishikesh for lunch having done both of the area’s best short rides before noon.
Which Bike
All of these are sealed road, so anything works.
- Activa 125 at ₹500 — fine for everything except Tehri
- Hunter 350 at ₹1,200 — best for Neelkanth’s hairpins
- Guerrilla 450 at ₹1,800 — best for Devprayag and Tehri
- Classic 350 at ₹1,300 — best for the photographs