Mussoorie to Suwakholi

The distances, in one place

Mussoorie → Suwakholi

~16 kmUp past Landour along the ridge

Suwakholi → Dhanaulti

~20 minCarry straight on along the same road

Dehradun → Suwakholi

~50 kmThe nearest railhead; then up through Mussoorie

Jolly Grant (DED) → Suwakholi

~83 kmAbout three hours, the last one all bends

Delhi → Suwakholi

~300 kmSeven to nine hours depending where you join the highway

Those are road distances, not straight lines, which is the only kind that matters here. Almost all of the last stretch is hill road.

Mussoorie to Suwakholi

About 16 km. You leave Mussoorie past Landour and follow the ridge road towards Dhanaulti. It is a short distance and a slow one — bends most of the way, and slower still on a weekend when the Mussoorie traffic is heavy.

There is no turning to get wrong until the very end. Suwakholi is on the main road; what is easy to miss is the last turning down to us, which is why we send a pin.

Suwakholi to Dhanaulti

Roughly twenty minutes further along the same road. This is the fact most people are actually looking for when they search for it: Suwakholi sits between Mussoorie and Dhanaulti, closer to Dhanaulti than to Mussoorie, on the same continuous stretch of tarmac.

You do not pass through Dhanaulti to reach Suwakholi from Mussoorie. You pass through Suwakholi to reach Dhanaulti.

Dehradun to Suwakholi

About 50 km from the railway station, all of it climbing once you leave the valley. Budget more time than the distance suggests: the climb out of Dehradun and the crawl through Mussoorie are both slower than a map will tell you.

From the airport

Jolly Grant (DED) is about 83 km and roughly three hours. The last hour is hill road. If you are flying in, do not book the last flight of the day — you do not want to be driving these bends in the dark, particularly between November and March.

From Delhi

Around 300 km and seven to nine hours, depending on where you join the highway and how the Mussoorie stretch is behaving. There are three sensible routes and they differ more in character than in time; they are set out on how to reach Dhanaulti, which follows the same road.

Getting to Surkanda Devi from here

The road to Kaddukhal, for the climb up to Surkanda Devi, branches off this stretch — which is the main practical reason people break the journey at Suwakholi rather than driving on. From here a dawn start is a short drive instead of a long one.

A note on the spelling

You will find this stretch written as both Suwakholi and Matholi, and some maps and listings still carry the older spelling. They are the same place on the same road. There is more about that, and about what is actually here, on the Suwakholi page.