Offbeat places near Mussoorie

What “offbeat” usually means on these lists

Search for offbeat places near Mussoorie and you will get the same handful of names in a different order — Jabarkhet, Sainji, George Everest, Lal Tibba, Bhadraj — written up by people who have mostly not been to them, on sites that also sell you the hotel.

Some of those places are genuinely good. The problem is that a spot stops being offbeat the moment forty listicles agree that it is, and most of these lists are years past that point.

We live on the Mussoorie–Dhanaulti road, so here is a more useful version: a short list, an honest note on which ones have stopped being quiet, and the test we would apply before believing any of it.

The test

One question, and it filters almost everything: is it quiet on a Saturday?

Anywhere near Mussoorie can feel remote on a Tuesday in February. Offbeat means it still works on the day everybody else is out. Most of the places on those lists do not pass this, which is why we have said so below rather than padding the list out.

Devalsari — the one that still passes

Old-growth deodar forest with a small temple in it, off the tourist route entirely. Some of the best birdwatching in this part of Garhwal.

There is nowhere to eat, so take a packed lunch. That is not a complaint — it is precisely why there is nobody there. If you want one genuinely quiet day near Mussoorie, make it this one.

The ridge road itself

The stretch between Mussoorie and Dhanaulti is the offbeat option everybody drives straight through on their way to somewhere busier.

We are at Suwakholi, about 16 km above Mussoorie and twenty minutes short of Dhanaulti, at around 2,250 metres on the valley side of the ridge. There is no market, no monument and nothing to put on a list — which is the entire point, and the reason we make the case for it the way we do.

After dark there is no town glow on this stretch at all. That is the thing guests mention most, and it is not available in either town at any price.

Tehri Lake

The reservoir behind the Tehri dam — enormous, startlingly blue on a clear day, and set up for boating and water sports.

Honest caveat: it is a full day rather than a half, and it is a long drive from Mussoorie. Worth it if you have three nights or more; too much of a drive if you only have two.

Surkanda Devi — offbeat by timing, not by place

Surkanda Devi is a Shaktipeeth on a bare summit at about 2,750 metres, roughly 9 km from Dhanaulti and 35 km from Mussoorie. It is well known and it is busy.

Go at first light and it is a completely different place. The climb starts at Kaddukhal, and there is a ropeway of around 500 metres if the walk is not for you. This is the clearest example of a rule worth carrying: on this ridge, the hour you arrive changes a place more than the place does.

Two that are no longer offbeat, said plainly

• Landour. The old cantonment above Mussoorie, with its steep lanes, colonial-era church, bakery and the four tea shops at Char Dukan. Still lovely, and still worth the walk — but everybody has read the same article. Go early on a weekday or not at all.
• Dhanaulti. The eco parks and the deodar walks are genuinely good and are genuinely crowded, because most people arrive at the same time on a Saturday. Eight in the morning and you will have them more or less to yourself.

We would rather take two places off this list than pretend. There are also four cafes on this road and we wrote honestly about all of them, including the ones that are not ours.

Where to stay if you actually want quiet

This is the part the lists skip, and it matters more than the day trips: staying somewhere offbeat does more for a trip than visiting somewhere offbeat. A quiet afternoon is undone by going back to a room on the Mall.

What to look for, wherever you book:

• Between the towns rather than inside one.
• On the valley side of the ridge — there is a guide to checking that claim, because a long lens hides the difference.
• Somewhere small enough that the person answering your message is the person who will be there when you arrive.

If you are weighing up the three options properly — Mussoorie, Dhanaulti, or the road between them — we wrote a deliberately even-handed comparison, including when you should book the other two: Mussoorie, Dhanaulti or the road in between?