Uttrakhand is among the most famous tourist attractions in North India. Its green lush environment, hill stations, adventure sports, etc. make it a perfect choice for a weekend trip. Just like so many others, I am also a corporate slave and have a job that doesn’t allow me to travel that much frequently. So I only travel at weekends if I get time. You may not be able to visit a lot of places in one day trip to Dehradun. But still, if you plan it well, you can make the most of the time.
So, it was Saturday post noon when this plan suddenly came to my mind while I was sitting with my roommates. I wanted to visit Agra but they refused for visiting there. I told them some options for a one day trip to Dehradun and a few other places where we could go for a day and come back. After spending an hour or something brainstorming where to go, we finally decided to go Dehradun for one day.
As far as I have traveled, I haven’t booked anything in advance for most of my trips. I have always done on the spot booking. There too, I had the same situations. Since we were going to Dehradun just for one day, we didn’t book anything. We planned to leave by Saturday night and return by Monday morning. So there was no need to booking a hotel.
One Day Trip to Dehradun – Leaving from ISBT
So we reached ISBT Kashmiri gate and enquired about buses. After spending some time, we booked a bus. I was along with my two roommates. The bus was supposed to leave by 9 PM and we had enough time for dinner. Thus we roamed around for some nice restaurant and reached this famous restaurant by the name Shri Hari Sharnam.
So, this restaurant had a brilliant ambiance from inside. I had only seen it from outside but this was the first time that I was visiting there. We sat and had some water. After that, I scanned the menu and decided to have an eco – thali dinner meal. When the dinner was served, we were shocked to see the quantity. We were not expecting this much though. But the plateful of the meal filled our bellies to the limits. The dinner was scrumptious, just mind-blowing.
Check your bus before you buy the ticket
After dinner, we headed to our bus. Since it was a night journey, thus we had got sleeper seat tickets. But we had a bad experience. We bought three sleeper tickets but the guy gave us two sleeper seats only and said those were three sleeper seats. We had a long discussion and finally, we thought to manage it anyhow since we already had got tickets. So, if you also buy tickets from such people at ISBT Kashmiri Gate, check the bus first.
Though it was a bit hard for three of us to manage in the seat of two, later on we played music and enjoyed as long as we could stay awake. We fell asleep and when I woke up, I was surrounded by a pleasant atmosphere as I could see from the window. We had entered Uttarakhand. And we reached there in the morning.
Nomads in Dehradun – One Day Trip
I was tired and I needed to get freshen up. Thus, we reached the bus stand of Dehradun and searched for the washroom. One by one, we three got freshened up and walked out. It was humid and I was feeling uncomfortable due to the weather.
We three had two bags and we were on the road searching for starting our day. I checked a lot of places to visit in Dehradun in one day. I chose a couple of places which were must visit on a one day trip to Dehradun. So, from the bus stand of Dehradun, we took an autorickshaw and he dropped us at the parade ground. From there we were to take a bus to Sahastradhara (thousand spring folds).
Sahastradhara – The Thousands Spring Folds
I did a bit of internet research on Sahastradhara Dehradun and took a bus to this amazing attraction. The bus passed through zig zap road which made me a bit uncomfortable and after a beautiful journey, passing through the terrain, we reached Sahstradhara. When I got down from the bus, I could see the nature with arms wide open, welcoming me to explore it, inviting me to embrace it.
But the first thing was to have some food since the place was at a walking distance and we hadn’t had breakfast. Thus, we stopped by a roadside dhaba. After having dahi and aloo paratha from here, we walked to the place. I came here for the first time and was all excited about this.
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So, Sahstradhara was an active running small waterfall kind of steam and it was a family picnic spot. We saw many families there in the water. After some hesitation, we too made our mind and jumped into the water. This place is famous for sulfur water which is said to have medicinal properties.
After spending some time here we made our way back to the main city. Sahstradhara was our first place to visit in the list of things to do in a one day trip to Dehradun. It was the time for lunch and we were hungry. So, we came to City Junction Mall. There we had lunch and shopped for a while. I bought myself a t-shirt and a few socks. From there we headed to our second place which was on our list of things to do on a one day trip to Dehradun. The place was Robber’s cave.
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That day, Dehradun’s weather was highly unpredictable. It was hot and soon it started to rain. And it rained heavily. I thought my day was about to get ruined due to rain. Our autorickshaw driver told us that that was natural there. It would rain unexpectedly.
Robber’s Cave – Perfect for picnic and hiking
We reached Robber’s Cave but due to heavy water flow, the entrance to the cave was closed and no one was allowed to go inside. There was a huge crowd at the ticket counter and the police informed us that the cave would not be opened since the water flow was very high and it was risky. We had a small heart. It looked like that our day was going to get ruined, that our one day trip to Dehradun was about to get spoiled.
But something good happened. We stayed there for a few moments to check if the entrance would be opened or not. But it was not and we outside and there was a dhaba where we three reached for having some light food. We ordered Maggi and it was drizzling. Next to the dhaba was the same water body, the river which was at the cave. The water flow calmed down and we took our Maggi and came to the bank of the river.
We sat by the riverside for long hours. It was such an incredible experience to sit there and enjoy Maggi. We must have spent a couple of hours. We had a good time and we enjoyed a lot there. The experience sitting by the riverside was truly away from any verbal description. I too had such an experience in Khajuraho though it wasn’t exactly the same but yeah, the vibes resonated. It started to get dark and we packed our bags, the left the place to reach the main place from where we could get a bus or auto or cab.
But unfortunately, we had to wait for a long since there was no service back to the main city. It started raining too and we were still miles away from the city. The next day I had to go to the office anyhow and I was a bit worried. Though after waiting for long, finally we got a sharing vehicle and reached the main center. From there we booked 3 sleeper seats and reached ISBT Kashmiri Gate the next day.
