Nainital, Corbett, Rishikesh & Mussoorie — Six Nights

North-east across the plain and into Kumaon, around seven hours with the climb in the last two. Nainital lies in a bowl around its lake at about 2,000 m and has been a hill station since a British sugar merchant came upon it in 1841. The afternoon is the lakeside Mall and a boat out on the water before dusk — the rowed ones, which are quieter and cover more of the lake than the pedalos manage. · Delhi to Nainital · overnight Nainital · Private vehicle

Snow View early for the northern wall of the Himalaya, Nanda Devi among it at 7,816 m, and Tiffin Top on the opposite rim. Naina Devi temple on the shore, one of the Shakti Peethas, is busy from first light. The afternoon drops to Bhimtal, Sattal and Naukuchiatal below the town — quieter water, more birdlife, and a reminder that Nainital is the busiest rather than the best of the Kumaon lakes. · Nainital and around · overnight Nainital · Private vehicle

Down out of the hills to the Ramganga valley, three hours. Corbett was declared in 1936, the first national park in India, and is named for the hunter who became the leading advocate for protecting the animals he had spent years shooting. The afternoon covers Corbett Falls and Garjia Devi, a temple on a rock in the middle of the river reached by steps when the water is low enough to allow it. · Nainital to Jim Corbett · overnight Jim Corbett · Private vehicle

An early jeep safari into the allotted zone, with elephant and deer near-certain and tiger an uncommon possibility. Then west along the foot of the hills to Rishikesh, around five hours, where the Ganga comes out of the mountains and the town has grown up around that fact for two thousand years. The night is at a riverside camp, as the source itinerary specifies. The evening aarti at Parmarth Niketan or Triveni Ghat is performed daily at dusk and is the thing to be there for. · Jim Corbett to Rishikesh · overnight Rishikesh · Private vehicle

The morning by the river — Lakshman Jhula and Ram Jhula, the suspension bridges the town is strung between, the Beatles ashram at Chaurasi Kutia now open and covered in murals, and the ghats. Rafting runs from roughly September to June and is arranged separately if you want it. Then north-west and up into Garhwal, around three hours, climbing to Mussoorie at about 2,000 m on its seven-kilometre ridge. · Rishikesh to Mussoorie · overnight Mussoorie · Private vehicle

Gun Hill by ropeway for the Garhwal peaks on one side and the Doon valley on the other, then the level walk round Camel's Back Road. The afternoon goes up to Landour, the cantonment of 1827 several hundred metres above the town — deodar, St Paul's church of 1839, decades-old bakeries and almost no traffic. Kempty Falls to the west is the alternative if you would rather have water than quiet; it is popular and correspondingly crowded. · Mussoorie · Private vehicle

The descent through Dehradun and south across the plain, around seven hours. The Forest Research Institute on the edge of Dehradun is worth the stop if the day allows — a colossal 1929 building in red brick and Greco-Roman arcades, set in its own park, and one of the more improbable pieces of architecture in northern India. An evening flight from Delhi is the sensible booking. · Mussoorie to Delhi · overnight — · Private vehicle