The winter round of the Uttarakhand roadtrip started from Delhi. Our friends were waiting for us at the airport with the Mahindra’s XUV 500 we hired for the trip from Zoom Car. This time round, you see, we wanted to drive. A big car, it kept us, four adults and two little girls, comfortably tucked all through the 1200+ km trip without giving any trouble along the way.
How is the drive from Delhi to Haldwani? Delhi to Haldwani is little more than a 300km drive past the mofussil town of Uttar Pradesh. Roads are good more or less, but the traffic in these little towns is unregulated what with carts, tempos, trucks, autos, animals, bazaars, people, all on the streets. Takes anywhere between seven to eight hours to reach Haldwani. We travelled on the morning of Christmas, a holiday, and yet the traffic was as bad.
Dhabas, roadside food joints, are dime a dozen along the way, but we mostly stopped by the Café Coffee Days for our type of coffee and clean washrooms.
Overnight stay in Haldwani – Review of Clarks Inn: Making a halt for the night at Haldwani was the plan and so, had made bookings at the Clarks Inn, easy to locate and right on the main road. Must be a 4-star place, with the usual set-up. But let me warn you – the management is pretty lax about cleanliness. Considering it’s a stop-sleep-and-go hotel, they take chances in not changing bed sheets and cleaning the bathroom. As luck would have it, we had been allotted one such room, and upon complaining, they apologised profusely and had it cleaned up immediately. Took about an hour, that after a whole day’s journey left us feeling terribly foul.
Food is average at the Clarks Inn – the usual North Indian fare. Breakfast, the next morning, was a decent spread of bread, paranthas, puri-sabzi, lassi, juice etc. We had sparingly since we had a drive of about 150 kms (5 hours) to Kausani ahead of us.
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For the complete Uttarakhand Winter Roadtrip itinerary, where to stay, what to see and what to buy, read — An Uttarakhand Roadtrip In Winter
(P.S: We have chronicled the summer road-trip in Uttarakhand in a separate series. Should you want to plan a similar trip, here’s help with itinerary, stay suggestions, shopping tips and food tips! Read — An Uttarakhand Road-trip This Summer)