Rishikesh is a wonderful place in between your place of origin and a more sophisticated or famous pilgrimage place. This is a mid-place to where you’ll find all good bus, train, or flight connections. From here people start their journey to Kedarnath, Badrinath, so on and so forth. However, you can go to Rishikesh exclusively as well and have a good time in three or four days and return back home if you’d like. I went there and stayed for three days, here’s what I did and how much I spent so that it becomes easy for you. Enjoy and bless you (whoever you believe in, for some maybe themselves!)
Day 1:
- Stay in Tapovan – clean hostels, low cost hotels, minimal crowd – 40 minutes drive from Dehradun Airport
- Go to Neem beach/Little Goa beach in the afternoon – 10 minutes drive/ride from Tapovan, or, you book an entire shared tempo as sharing basis tempo doesn’t go that way
- Go visit Laxman Jhula in the early evening
- On the way back, stop at any restaurant, have dinner, come back to your hostel or hotel
Cost:
Airport to Rishikesh – Rs.1900
Hostel – Rs.700 per night
Hotel – Rs.1200 per night
Lunch – Rs. 210 per person (for eg. dal + chawal + sookhie/dry sabzi + packaged water)
Travel from Tapovan to Neem beach/Little Goa – Rs.200-300 for entire shared tempo
Walk to Laxman Jhula from beach area as there is no public transport
Dinner – Rs.200 per person (for eg. sookhie/dry sabzi + four roti)
Day 2:
- Get ready, eat breakfast, and head out to Ram Jhula – 10 minutes by car to the parking, or, take a shared tempo
- Have fun at Ram Jhula, temple of Ganga ghat, Hanuman temple – also take some Ganga water with you in unique water bottles which you’ll get to buy there
- Go to Beatles Ashram, around 15 minutes walking distance from Ram Jhula
- By the time you complete the above, it’ll be afternoon so have lunch in nearby area – many restaurants
- After this if you want to go back to your hotel and rest, you could do that by taking shared tempo at the same above cost
- In the early evening hours visit Mayakund market, 20 minutes with shared tempo from Tapovan
- Then head to Triveni ghat for Ganga Aarti – starts at around 6pm, 5 minutes walking distance from Mayakund market
Cost:
Breakfast – Rs.120 (aloo pyaaz paratha + curd + tea/coffee)
Anywhere in Rishikesh to Ram Jhula will not cost more than Rs.30 with shared auto/tempo
Lunch – Rs. 180 per person (rajma chawal + lassi)
Dinner – Rs.180 per person (for eg. chowmein + juice)
Day 3:
- If you’re religious, you can explore temples and ashrams around Rishikesh, and if you want to relax on the third day, you can wake up late, visit cafes in Tapovan
- Badrinath temple, Bhootnath temple, and many more. Open Google maps and check for yourself and you’ll be surprised!
- Cafes would be Ira’s cafe, 60’s Beatles cafe, Secret garden cafe, or, Pure soul cafe and organic garden. The names are too hi-fi but places are affordable to spend on a third day
- Spend the evening with a walk on the tiny inside streets, or, talk to the nearest tempo/auto wala you find and go anywhere as per their recommendation. Research for a minute on Google about the place anyone recommends and it’s all good to go!
Cost for food in Rishikesh
It completely depends on how much you want to spend. If you are a non-vegetarian you can devour anything and everything after completing temple and ashram visits but be aware that it is sort of a pilgrimage place so non-veg options are limited and also not so tasty if you don’t lavishly spend your money. If you’re a vegetarian, you can go to either of the cafes mentioned above and spend your money recklessly.
The best month to visit Rishikesh
April to June (three month window) and from September to November (three month window)
