Kumaon Honeymoon, 6 Nights: Nainital, Mukteshwar & Binsar

North-east across the plain and up into the Kumaon hills, or an hour up from Kathgodam if you take the overnight train. Nainital fills a bowl around its lake at about 2,084 m and has done since the British built it in the 1840s. The first evening is the Mall along the water and a rowing boat out onto the lake as the lights come on around the shore, which is the thing everyone remembers about the town. · Delhi or Kathgodam to Nainital · overnight Nainital · Private vehicle, about 7 hours from Delhi or 1 hour from Kathgodam

The ropeway up to Snow View at 2,270 m early, when the Himalaya to the north is most likely to be clear, and the Naina Devi temple on the lake shore afterwards — one of the Shakti Peethas, and the reason the town has the name it has. The afternoon drops to the smaller lakes below the ridge: Bhimtal with its island, Sattal where seven lakes sit in the forest, and Naukuchiatal, the nine-cornered one, which is the quietest of the three. Back up for a last evening on the Mall. · Nainital and around · overnight Nainital · Ropeway and private vehicle, half a day

Fifty kilometres north-east along the ridge road through Bhowali and the fruit country, climbing gently to Mukteshwar at 2,286 m. There is no town here in the Nainital sense — an orchard ridge, the 1893 veterinary research campus that the British built for its air, a temple at the top of the hill, and a line of small properties looking north at the range. The afternoon walks out to Chauli ki Jali, the cliff at the end of the ridge where the rock drops sheer and the valley opens two thousand metres below. The candlelit dinner is laid out here tonight. · Nainital to Mukteshwar · overnight Mukteshwar · Private vehicle, about 1½–2 hours

The slow day of the trip. A late breakfast with the range in front of you, a walk down through the orchards to one of the villages below the ridge, and an afternoon that can be as empty as you want it. For couples who would rather be moving, the day can take in the Bhalu Gaad waterfall an hour away, a rock-climbing session on the Chauli ki Jali face with a local guide, or the drive out to Sitla and Satoli, which are quieter still. Dinner is where you left off. · Mukteshwar · On foot and short drives

North through Almora, the old Chand capital on its saddle of a ridge, where the paved bazaar runs the length of the town and the Nanda Devi temple sits in the middle of it. Lunch there, and then the last thirty kilometres to Binsar. The sanctuary gate is where the noise stops — it opens at seven in summer and eight in winter and closes before dark — and the road climbs through oak and rhododendron to a handful of properties inside the forest, with no market, no traffic and no town. Deer, langur and a great deal of birdlife live in the forest around the rooms. · Mukteshwar to Binsar · overnight Binsar · Private vehicle, about 2½ hours with the Almora stop

The walk to Zero Point at 2,412 m is about two kilometres each way through the forest, and it ends on a small platform with the whole Kumaon skyline in front of it: Trishul, Nanda Devi at 7,816 m, Nanda Kot and Panchachuli at the eastern end, some three hundred kilometres of it on a clear morning. Whether the range is out is entirely the weather's business and no itinerary can promise it. The rest of the day is the forest — a slower walk, a book, tea on a terrace — and a last dinner with the lights of Almora somewhere below. Binsar is a working wildlife sanctuary: a tiger was filmed near Zero Point in August 2026 and the forest department has camera traps and advisories in place, so the walk is taken in daylight and with the property's guide. · Binsar · On foot

Down out of the sanctuary and south through Almora and Bhowali to the plains. Kathgodam, the railhead, is about three and a half hours away and has the overnight train to Delhi; by road Delhi is a long day, so most couples take the train or fly out of Pantnagar, two and a half hours away. On the way down the car can stop at the Kainchi Dham ashram near Bhowali, which sits beside the road. · Binsar to Kathgodam or Delhi · Private vehicle, about 3½ hours to Kathgodam or 9 hours to Delhi