Delhi is hot in summer. Actually, it’s not. It is scorching hot in summers! Well, if you live in Delhi, then you already know what I mean and if you have never experienced summers in Delhi, then no words can help you understand. While the god-gifted air conditioners help us get through it, the price we pay is the lack of sunshine and natural air. Hence, most Delhiites flock to cooler hill stations during the hot summer months.
I am an instructor at a Judo school (martial arts) and have 18 students training under me. Last summer, my students wanted me to plan a trip with the entire class to a hill station in April. With most of them being over 18 years of age, it seemed doable. So, I did some research and finalized a road trip either to Dehradun or Manali. With my students, any place can be fun. The only thing I needed to ensure is keeping them together throughout the trip. What is the fun of a road trip in a group, if people are in separate vehicles, right? After a lot of deliberation, I decided to book a Delhi to Dehradun tempo traveller service that ensured that all of us traveled together and enjoyed the journey.
Delhi to Dehradun
The distance between Delhi and Dehradun is around 250-260 km – a driving time of around 5-6 hours with small halts. But with my students, no halts were going to be small. Hence, I prepared myself for an 8-hour drive including stopovers and all the practical jokes these guys were going to pull.
I wanted to leave early (by around 6 am) to beat the morning traffic of Delhi. However, getting 18 youngsters to show up on time is no mean feat. By the time the headcount was in order, it was 8 am already!
Nevertheless, the journey started amidst a lot of singing and laughing and … basically a lot of noise.
The route
We took the Delhi-Panipat-Karnal-Dehradun route. After driving for around 85 km, we reached Panipat – our first halt. All the students were pretty excited to visit the Panipat Museum and Ibrahim Lodhi’s Tomb, so there went de-tour #1. I somehow managed to get them back in the tempo traveler and after another 40 km, we reached Karnal. Very few people know that Karnal was founded by Karna (from the epic Mahabharata). We spent around 30 minutes unwinding and enjoying the weather which had started getting cooler. Back on the road, we passed through some beautiful villages and towns with a lush green landscape and reached Dehradun.
If I start writing about all the things we did on the trip, I would end up writing a travelogue. Hence, I’ll cut it here by saying that a road trip is only as good as the route, people you are traveling with and your vehicle. So, ensure that you pay attention to these aspects while planning. Also, by the time we reached back, I had already chosen our next destination for the upcoming month – Manali and decided to book Savaari’s Delhi to Manali tempo traveller service for the same.
