I have been to many hill stations now, but Nainital is special, we were family of 8 went there just after Diwali as people come home in the Diwali holidays and in these time pressed world, this is one occasion where everybody comes home, thanks to the festival.
Plan was to reach there in the evening, roam on the mall road beside the beautiful huge lake and enjoy the lake and come back the next evening.
We left Modinagar around 12 Noon in a Toyota Qualis(I really love this car as all of us 8-10 people always fit in so comfortably and together), through Merrut, Garh, and then the highway where you can really clock 100 KMPH average speed, drive till gajraula and then there is huge petrol pump of BPCL where we stalled for lunch - you can choose between the outlet there in the petrol pump or the McD’s near it.
Some tea and again clocking 100 kmph till you take a turn towards the Rampur road which is really really bad.....we lost all the time gained, but reached 37kms before Nainital climb starts around 6 PM. Here our driver got the tank full again. (Travel Tip: If you are going on the mountains, just get the tank full before climbing: it prevents getting air inside the tank as the car moves zig zag on mountains).
We reached Nainital at 7.30 PM, don’t know much about the local names but we stopped near that high court thing which is famous froom the British times, enquired in some hotel, didn’t like it as it was away from the lake, then told driverji to just take us in front of the lake: Here we are at shalimar, it is a little high but give you nice view of the lake at night, with decent rooms and people....just checked in...pricing was around 600 per room after bargaining ( The rates are much higher on weekends, here we were in complete off season, on a monday so the bargained price was almost 1/3 rd of the actual).
Then we left for a walk around the lake quickly as the mall road starts closing by 9. We had dinner at a place near Machan restaurant - Machan is popular restaurant because of its name and food but there was waiting for 30 mins so we just shifted to a nearby restaurant, forgot the name but it was all veg. and food was awesome, Nainital serves you well with the views, and the awesome food. Then after a stroll on the mall road we decided to have coffee, the CCD was closed, requested the guy to just serve us the coffee, as it was past 10 PM he said we have a regulation here to close at 10 PM, I said we will sit inside, nobody can see us :P , he reluctantly after taking permission from his boss served us coffee. It felt so nice....
then photo session near the lake, the weather was chillier now and we could feel the mountain air in the atmosphere....so refreshing, so lively...
Next day, morning ordered some sumptuous paranthas and boy they were good, served hot, and we were hungry.....
Now starts the Nainital tour, we hired a guide for 200 bucks, who will come along with us....we went to a place where we had a great view of nainital, along with some shooting etc.....then another place from where you see the snow clad mountains....snow view point. Here my wifey just went crazy about that traditional dress photograph and I had to shell out 100 bucks for 10 mins of different funny looking dressing :P
After this we went for the riding part which is supposed to show the 6 points from the high, you have to hire the horses:
Bargain, bargain hard, the guy quoted 500 per horse, we got it for 200 per horse, dont know it was right or wrong but the mistake I made was gave the money upfront so we had to forgo pictures on horse at the end as these guys just ran away with the horses at the end. But it is worth it to take the horses trip, you see so much beauty from upside, the famous pictures which you see of Nainital are all from those mountains....you go by horses. (There is also ropeway there, but since we had a trip to swiss alps this year, it looked kiddilicious to board it so didnt kept that in our itinery. )
There are breathtaking views from the top, also some sort of adventure sports have started at the top, few guys were doing it but it doesnt seem very safe....
We came down by 2 PM...all in all it was a 4 hour trip to the top and back to nainital. Lunch time, after enjoying some awesome food we went in for the boat ride...you can choose both the paddle ones and the ones where there is person who takes you inside the lake by rowing and take a full round oof the huge lake. Its romantic and heavenly beautiful to be in that lake. One has to go there to feel it.....its magnificent.....it was my second trip to nainital, and I loved it all the more and wanna go again to spend some more time.
We left at 6 PM sharp as the gate closes to exit, you have to wait for 2 hours to go out from there, due to time constraints, we did some quick shopping and made sure to get out just before 6...)
There are many more places near Nainital where you can go, just need to do a little research on google, we were short on time and planning but it was all awesome.
Will visit again......