Published May 1, 2016

Rishikesh is a small city in Northern India that is close to the Nepal and Tibet borders.  It’s largely a vacation destination for both Indians and Westerners and I found it to be an incredibly relaxing small city compared to many other spots in India.  I highly recommend adding Rishikesh to your list of vacation spots in India if you’re planning a trip.

The Scenery

Once you arrive in Rishikesh, you pretty quickly see why it’s a vacation destination.  The Ganges River snakes through the city splitting it in two and you have to walk across one of 2 bridges in the town to get from one side to the other.  These bridges are often crowded with people, cows and endless motorbikes honking their horns so you clear the way.

You can see the beautiful Himalayan Mountain range to the North of the city and the amazing bright greenish blue water of the Mother Ganges. The water looks so clear and inviting that it’s shocking that it’s the same river often called the dirtiest waterway in the world.

Things to Do

There are a lot of special activities in the town of Rishikesh outside of just staring at the beautiful scenery.

Walking down the main streets of Rishikesh, you will find a lot of little shops selling clothing, beads and house collectibles like copper or bronze bowls.  You’ll also find a bunch of restaurants, yoga studios and cow poop.

Rishikesh has many western visitors who are largely young yoga enthusiasts attracted to the big ashram and yoga training community that exists in and around the city.  As a result there are a lot of yoga studios with classes available throughout the day for a few dollars a class. I took two yoga classes.  My favorite was a 7am Vinyasa class that took place on top of the roof right near the Laxman Julia bridge.  It was so cool to have monkeys jumping around the roofs during the session and the view of the river bank and the other side of Rishikesh was incredible.   But my critique is solely based on the ambiance and not the class itself because I’ve never totally loved doing yoga. 

Walking around Rishikesh is also just a fun experience. There are great walking paths on the East side of the Laxman Julia bridge that extend down the riverbank.  You can walk to Beatles Ashram made famous by an extended stay by the Beatles in the 60s.

If you’re open to it, swimming in the Ganges in Rishikesh was actually quite lovely.  I had my hesitations knowing that the Ganges is an extremely dirty water way with pollution, trash and cremated remains ending up in the river. But Rishikesh is so far North up the Ganges that the water here is extremely clear and looked fine to swim in.  There were a lot of westerners and Indian people jumping into the water and so I did a quick swim as well.  The water is EXTREMELY cold especially surprising as it’s pretty warm (though not as hot as the rest of India) in Rishikesh.

While I didn’t get a chance to do it, white water rafting is a very popular activity and can easily be booked when you arrive in Rishikesh.  I know a few people though who have fallen off the raft so beware!

At sunset every night, there is a beautiful ceremony called Ganga Aarti. A few dozen local people go down to one of the many staircases that line the Ganges and release a diya usually made of flower petals and a candle into the water. It was so lovely to participate in this beautiful ceremony and see the diya disappear down the river.

I was pleasantly surprised by how great the food was in Rishikesh.  A few favorites included Seeds of Life which was a raw vegan restaurant with amazing juices and raw salads. I also really liked Bistro Nirvana Restaurant – they had a huge menu and the Paneer Masala and fresh homemade pasta was incredible. The breakfast at Little Budha was also pretty great with an awesome view of the water.

Housing

The first night in Rishikesh, we rented a room in a guesthouse right on the main road.  It was incredibly basic and bare and not to my typical comfort level.  But you can easily find and book these rooms on the spot and the guesthouse that we stayed at had a beautiful view of the river and was only $11 

If you are looking for a spot a bit away from the city, I highly recommend this Airbnb that we stayed at on night #2.

It is about 25 minute drive outside of Rishikesh in the middle of the mountains and is absolutely stunning.  The cab driver dropped us at a random road side stand where the staff of the resort met us and helped us carry our bags for the 2 KM trek to the resort. It is a somewhat intense hike down the mountain and then back up another mountain with rock quarries, bridges and donkeys in between.

Once you arrive at the resort, you see that it’s absolutely worth the hike in.  It sits on the hillside and each suite (there are only 3 available) has huge floor to ceiling windows that look out onto the Ganges.

They have two yellow lab/golden retriever mix dogs there who are both awesome.

They also provide all the meals as you are not close to any kind of village or restaurant. The food was awesome and your typical mix of soup curries and Chapati.

You can go on some pretty awesome hikes around this spot that take you to a waterfall or beautiful glittery sand beaches with a volleyball court.

Transportation

I flew to Jolly Grant airport at Dehradun – it’s the airport that is closest to Rishikesh and about a 20 minute drive from the city.  You can easily find a cab right outside the airport to Rishikesh.

After my trip to Rishikesh I was going back to Delhi and decided to get their by cab as I was with another friend who had to make a few stops on the way to Delhi for business reasons. We easily found a cab in Rishikesh that drove us the 6-7 hours back to Delhi for about 8,000 Ruppee ($125) which is a pretty fair price from what we were told.