By Meghna Bora, Contributor, Nainital. About the author ↓
Three months of rain and the biggest hotel discounts of the year, with the day trips that work and the ones to skip, written in Haldwani after five monsoons here.
The short answer: the monsoon in Haldwani lasts from July to mid-September and brings 760 to 1,100 mm of rain over the three months. Hotel rates fall 30 to 50 percent below the summer peak, the foothills turn green and quiet, and the city itself stays safe and easy to walk around. The catch is the day trips into the mountains. After long spells of rain there are occasional landslides on the NH109 climb to Nainital, Mukteshwar and Kainchi Dham, and between mid-July and August 20 it is not unusual for the road to close for 4 to 24 hours. Bhimtal, 22 km away, is the safest trip into the hills in the monsoon. Rooms are cheapest in the second half of July and the first three weeks of August. If you want green hills, few crowds and the best room rates of the year, this is your season; if you need mountain views and open hill roads for certain, wait for October.
By Meghna Bora, Contributor, Nainital. About the author ↓
The southwest monsoon reaches Haldwani in the last week of June and stays for about 11 weeks. Over July, August and the first half of September the city gets between 760 and 1,100 mm of rain, and the wettest spell usually runs from the last week of July into the first half of August. May, by comparison, gets about 35 mm.
The rain does not fall as an all-day drizzle. Here it usually comes as a heavy downpour of 60 to 90 minutes once or twice a day, often in the late morning and again after sunset, with long, humid gaps in between. Mornings often stay dry for two to three hours, and that is when most of the city fits in the school run, the market shopping and the morning walk on the Gaula bund.
The temperature hardly moves: 22 to 30 degrees C by day and 19 to 23 degrees C at night. That is much like a pleasant August in Mumbai, except that the air in Kumaon is a little less humid, because on most evenings a breeze comes down NH109 from the foothills. Most nights you will sleep without AC, though with the ceiling fan on. The big change from summer is the humidity, at 78 to 92 percent for most of July and August, which makes it impossible to dry laundry and a dehumidifier in the hotel bathroom very welcome.
For the whole year, and how the monsoon compares with the other three seasons, see the Haldwani travel guide. For the hot months, the opposite of this article, our Haldwani in summer guide covers April to June.
No time of year in Haldwani gives you better room rates than the monsoon. The reasons are simple. The school holidays end on June 30, the summer traffic to the hills dies away in the first week of July, weddings move out of Kumaon, and the visitors who remain are mostly weekend holidaymakers and pilgrim groups on their way to Kainchi Dham. Hotels respond by cutting their rates by 30 to 50 percent from the May peak.
Mid-range city hotels show the change most clearly: a room that costs Rs 4,500 in mid-May falls to Rs 2,400 to Rs 2,800 in the third week of July. Hotels on Rampur Road and Kaladhungi Road usually cut the most, because they depend on holidaymakers heading for the hills, and in the monsoon those visitors simply are not there.
Premium hotels cut less, by 15 to 25 percent, because their corporate bookings hold steady all year and their lowest rates hardly move. A room that costs Rs 7,000 in May goes for Rs 5,500 to Rs 6,000 in late July.
Budget hotels in the Tikonia area bring their cheapest single rooms down from the usual Rs 900 to Rs 1,200 a night to Rs 700 to Rs 900. You save less money in rupees, but the percentage is the same as in the mid-range.
Rooms are cheapest in the second half of July and the first three weeks of August. In September prices start to climb again as the post-monsoon season returns. Friday and Saturday nights still cost Rs 300 to Rs 500 more than weekdays, but on a much lower starting rate. Cancellation rules are the same as in summer, and if you book directly with the hotel it will usually let you cancel free up to 24 hours ahead if your plans fall through.
To be honest, most Indian travellers stay away from Kumaon in the monsoon not because of the rain but because of the road. NH109 climbs over 33 km from Haldwani at 424 m to Bhowali at 1,706 m, and after long spells of rain the cuttings between Kathgodam and Bhowali shed loose stone and mud, and now and then a culvert gives way. In a typical July and August, the Uttarakhand State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) records 8 to 14 landslides on the stretch from Haldwani to Almora.
Most are minor and cleared within 4 to 8 hours. Once in a while a bigger slide closes the road for 18 to 24 hours while heavy machinery is sent up from Haldwani. The risk is concentrated between mid-July and August 20, and is highest in the fortnight from late July to the first week of August. By late August slides become much rarer, and by the first week of September NH109 is open on most days.
For your plans, this means always keeping one spare day in a monsoon trip to Kumaon. Never plan to come back from a hill town on the same day you have a fixed train to catch at Kathgodam Railway Station. On the morning of any hill drive, check the SDRF Uttarakhand Twitter feed and the Nainital district administration page, and have a fallback ready if the road is shut: go to Bhimtal instead, or stay in Haldwani.
Our honest answer is yes, as long as you keep a spare day and check the road in the morning. Nainital is 40 km from Haldwani, 1 hr 30 min away in dry weather and 2 hr 30 min in steady rain. The lake looks dramatic in the mist, the crowd on Mall Road is half the size it is in May, and hotel rates in the town fall 35 to 45 percent below the peak. The catch is the stretch from Khurpa Tal to Tallital on the last 7 km of the climb, where most of the landslides happen between mid-July and August 20.
For the route in detail, and whether to take a cab or the bus, see the Nainital route guide. In the monsoon a sedan cab is better than the bus, because if the road closes you want to be able to turn round quickly rather than sit in a state transport bus for six hours.
Bhimtal is the safer choice. The 22 km drive on the same NH109 stops before the zone where most landslides happen. Even in the monsoon it takes only 50 to 65 minutes, the lake stays open, the Bhimtal boat club runs all season with half as many visitors as in May, and a half-day trip from Haldwani fits in easily. Our Haldwani to Bhimtal day trip guide has the full plan.
Kainchi Dham is 49 km from Haldwani, a 1 hr 40 min drive in dry weather and up to 2 hr 30 min in steady rain. You can reach it on most monsoon days, and it does not close on Tuesdays: Tuesday is Hanuman’s day, and the temple’s longest and busiest day of the week. The slow part is the climb past Bhowali, which has the same landslide risk at the same time of year. Our Kainchi Dham route guide has the full route. The trade-off is worth knowing: by the district’s own camera count, August and September are the two quietest months at Kainchi Dham, so the monsoon gives you the calmest darshan of the year in return for the risk on the road. Leave Haldwani by 7 AM and plan to head back by 2 PM, before the afternoon showers roll in.
Mukteshwar is 68 km away, and in the monsoon the drive becomes a long 3 hr to 3 hr 30 min, with the winding road from Bhowali turning wet and slippery under low cloud. On most monsoon days the mountain views have gone by 11 AM. Leave Mukteshwar out in the monsoon and save it for October.
A good hotel for a monsoon trip has three things: a covered porch or lobby so you can dash in from the cab out of the rain, a dehumidifier that works or an AC you can run to dry your clothes, and a kitchen that does not close early on a wet evening. Here are five, from cheaper to dearer, with their monsoon rates.
Hotel Sai Vatika (Rs 1,800 to Rs 2,400 in monsoon) is on Kaladhungi Road, 1.2 km from the Roadways stand. It is a better-than-basic budget hotel with reliable AC, hot water and its own restaurant, open till 10:30 PM. The rooms face an inner courtyard, so there is little road noise even on a clear evening. Its May rate of Rs 3,200 drops by 25 to 40 percent through July and August.
Hotel Blue Saphire Countryside (Rs 3,400 to Rs 4,200 in monsoon) is on Rampur Road, 5 km out towards Kathgodam. Its best feature is the rooftop pool, handy on a dry evening between two bouts of rain, and the covered restaurant is comfortable in a downpour. The May rate of Rs 5,800 falls to about Rs 3,800 in late July. There is more in our round-up of hotels with pools.
The Pavilion Haldwani (Rs 4,800 to Rs 5,600 in monsoon) is in the Mukhani area, at the top of the mid-range. The generator backup is reliable, the AC copes well with the humidity, and breakfast is served until 10 AM, which matters on a wet morning when nobody wants to go out before the rain stops.
Hotel Ananya Inn (Rs 1,400 to Rs 1,800 in monsoon) is in Tikonia, a 6 minute walk from the Roadways bus stand. It has the biggest discount among the budget hotels and suits a solo traveller moving about by train. The rooms are basic but dry, the hot water is reliable and the staff will help you arrange a cab.
Hotel Krish Residency (Rs 2,200 to Rs 2,800 in monsoon) is on Nainital Road. In May its rooms sit in the Rs 4,000 to Rs 4,500 band, and in the monsoon they come down by 40 percent. It is good value for a mid-range hotel, and its restaurant serves north Indian thalis till 11 PM.
For every budget hotel in the city, see our budget hotels page. For our shortlist of tourist hotels, with notes on the monsoon season, see the tourist hotels page.
Once the rain sets in, the city itself is a comfortable place to be based, and far easier than a hill town. The power supply stays steady, restaurants keep their normal hours and there are plenty of useful places to spend time indoors.
For a rainy afternoon, try Brown Sugar Cafe on Rampur Road for a long coffee and some work on the laptop, Cafe Coffee Day at Aaditya Vision Plaza for its air-conditioned comfort, or Cafe Mocha on Nainital Road for thin-crust pizza on a glassed-in terrace looking out at the wet road. Haldwani has gained many more cafes in the last three years, and these three are the most dependable if you need a working laptop and good WiFi.
The Aaditya Vision multiplex on Nainital Road is an ordinary four-screen cinema, handy for an afternoon film when the rain rules out plans outdoors. Tickets cost Rs 180 to Rs 280 and a regular bucket of popcorn Rs 250. You can check show times online on BookMyShow.
For indoor shopping, the stretch of Nainital Road from Mukhani to the City Heart mall gives you 1.8 km of covered shops: local cotton kurta brands, the Dollar showroom, the main branch of the State Bank of India, three jewellery showrooms and the Pantaloons store at City Heart. It fills 2 to 3 hours of a wet afternoon well.
The Gaula River bund walk is the city’s best chance for monsoon photographs if the rain clears for an hour. Walk along the embankment from Lalkuan Road to the Gaula barrage: the river runs full and brown, the foothills appear out of the cloud, and the late-afternoon light through the haze after rain is truly beautiful. It is five kilometres there and back, about 75 minutes.
For more local experiences, see our 12 things to do in Haldwani. Several of them work well in the monsoon, including the Heritage Walk, a visit to the Mangal Padav bazaar and the Gaula bund.
Raincoat or umbrella? A folding umbrella is fine for short walks in the city. For any day trip into the hills, a light rain jacket is better, because in the mountains the wind drives the rain sideways. Decathlon at Aaditya Vision Plaza sells the Forclaz MH100 for Rs 800 to Rs 1,200, and that is the one to buy.
Leave leather shoes behind, as the wet will ruin them. Floaters with a gripping sole or proper hiking sandals are the right choice. Do not wear rubber chappals on a hill walk: the wet stone steps at Mukteshwar or Kainchi Dham are slick, and chappals slip on them.
Travel sickness catches out people on the winding Bhowali road in the rain even if they cope with it easily in dry weather. Take a tablet 45 minutes before you leave Bhowali, sit in the front passenger seat and skip the big hotel breakfast.
Keep your phone in a dry bag. A small plastic zip bag goes a long way. You are sure to get splashed on a boat at Bhimtal, and a sudden shower can catch you on the Gaula bund. Phone insurance does not cover water damage.
Most hotels and restaurants take cards and UPI, but the dhabas on the hill route, at Bhowali and the Bhimtal turn-off, still prefer cash. Carry Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 in mixed notes for tea stops, dhaba lunches and the odd parking fee at a viewpoint.
Some things are best skipped. Trekking routes above 2,000 m, such as Pangot and Binsar, are off limits in the monsoon for most people who are not experienced trekkers, because moss makes the paths dangerous and there are a lot of leeches. An overnight stay in Mukteshwar is disappointing because the views rarely appear. And any trip beyond Almora towards Pithoragarh carries a serious risk of landslides.
Late June to mid-July, when the monsoon arrives and the first wet weeks follow, brings the freshest green of the year, the fewest visitors and the best discounts of the first half of the season. The risk is that the rain is only building up, and the first big landslides usually come between July 5 and 15. This suits travellers who are happy to skip the hill trips and treat Haldwani as a quiet city base.
Late July to August 10 is the peak of the rain and the wettest stretch of the year, with 200 to 280 mm a week. Hill roads are most likely to close, and hotel rates are at their lowest. It suits travellers who want the green and misty Kumaon above all, do not mind waiting a day for a road to reopen and have time to spare.
August 15 to the end of August is when the rain eases, with fewer and lighter showers (50 to 100 mm a week). The hills are still green and hotels still 30 to 40 percent below the peak. This is the best part of the monsoon if you want the discount without the worst of the road risk.
September 1 to 15, as the monsoon withdraws, is the best time of all. The rain comes and goes, the hill roads are open on most days, mountain views start to return on dry afternoons and the clear post-monsoon air begins to show. Hotels are still 20 to 30 percent cheaper than in May. If you can manage only one week in the monsoon, choose this one.
For the whole year, our month-by-month guide covers every month in the same detail.
After the monsoon comes the clearest stretch of the year. Nainital in November covers the driest month on the lake, and Uttarakhand in winter the snow season that follows.
Our Haldwani travel guides cover the seasons, day trips, hotels and cab fares in detail.
The city itself is safe to visit in the monsoon. Haldwani lies at 424 m on the plains below the foothills, drains reasonably well and its roads stay open all season. The real safety question is about day trips into the higher hills. The roads to Nainital (38 km), Mukteshwar (68 km) and Kainchi Dham (49 km) all climb NH109, which can close for 4 to 24 hours after long spells of rain, usually between mid-July and August 20. Bhimtal, 22 km away, is the safest trip into the hills in the monsoon. Keep one spare day in your plans.
Yes, by 30 to 50 percent compared with the May peak. A room that sells for Rs 4,500 in mid-May costs Rs 2,400 to Rs 2,800 in the third week of July. Mid-range city hotels that charge Rs 3,200 to Rs 5,500 in summer come down to Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,200 in the monsoon. Premium hotels stay closer to their summer rates, because their corporate bookings keep a floor under prices. Rooms are cheapest in the second half of July and the first three weeks of August, and by mid-September prices start to climb again as the post-monsoon season returns.
You can, but keep a spare day and check the road in the morning. The 40 km drive on NH109 takes 1 hr 30 min in clear weather and 2 hr 30 min in steady rain. Landslides between the Khurpa Tal stretch and Tallital are most likely from mid-July to August 20, and in this period it is not unusual for the road to close for 4 to 24 hours. Check the Uttarakhand SDRF Twitter feed before you leave Haldwani, and be ready to go to Bhimtal instead if the road is shut.
Late August into the first week of September is the best part of the monsoon. The rain starts to ease (50 to 70 mm a week, against 200 mm in late July), the hills stay green, hotels are still 30 to 40 percent below their peak rates and landslides become rare. July is the wettest month, with 280 to 420 mm, and its second half has the biggest discounts if you do not mind rain every day. If road closures would spoil your trip, avoid August 1 to 15.
In a normal monsoon Haldwani does not flood on any large scale. During cloudbursts, water collects for 30 to 60 minutes in Mukhani, Tikonia and on Kaladhungi Road, but the drains clear it within an hour. The Gaula riverbed, on the western edge of the city, can swell in late July and early August, and a few low-lying colonies beside the river have one or two days of disruption each season. The hotels on Rampur Road, Kaladhungi Road and in the city centre stay dry.
Kainchi Dham, 49 km from Haldwani, can be reached on most monsoon days, but expect a slower drive and the same landslide risk between mid-July and August 20. The temple stays open right through the monsoon, Tuesdays included, and Tuesday is in fact its longest and busiest day. The drive, 1 hr 40 min in the dry season, stretches to 2 hr 30 min in steady rain, and the slow part is the climb past Bhowali. Leave Haldwani by 7 AM and plan to head back by 2 PM, before the afternoon showers roll in.