Short, sweet and effective itinerary
Having given the extensive 16-day itinerary, I was going through it again and again and was getting a feeling maybe in the over-enthusiasm to cover the places which I feel are important, I am making the tour a bit more hectic, especially given that we would be in the mountains for a total of 10-11 days. So I went back to the drawing board to restart. I realized my basic assumption was I started with 16 days. The second most important assumption was Char Dham is a given and you could see that it is reflected in the title of my blog. The third realization was it was mostly first-timers in the mountains for most, and it maybe a little tough on them. I decided to get the shortest possible itinerary with the temples of highest significance covered. The first ones I removed were Gangotri and Yamunotri as they covered half of the char dham time and as I mentioned earlier, they are token temples: you will not see the origin of neither Ganga nor Yamuna. Neither are the temples rich in architecture nor they are huge. They are at the most 150 years old. The next thing I removed was nine devi darshan and Dharamshala. And now I have got a good-looking, manageable 8 day itinerary, which even if rushed for a couple of days will not take big toll on the travelers. Day 1: Fly in to Delhi. Drive to Haridwar. Go to Har ki pauri, watch Ganga Aarti, and visit Sati temple where she is considered to have immolated herself. Day 2: Visit Mansa Devi and Chandi devi temples, Ram and Laxman Jhula, Swargashram, Shivananda Ashram and Saptarshi aashram. Drive to Kedarnath helipad. Visit Dhari devi temple, Devprayag, Rudraprayag, Agastamuni enroute. Visit Triyug Narayan Mandir, Guptkashi temple. Night stay near helipad. Day 3: Visit Kedarnath by chopper first thing in the morning and head to Badrinath. Night stay at Badrinath. Day 4: Visit Badrinath temple, Mana village where Vyasa gufa and Ganesha gufa are there. Mahabharata is supposed to have been written at this place. There is also Saraswathi Nadi which runs for few meters, and the famous Swargaarohana trek starting point of the Pandavas. Visit Joshi Mutt, where Shankaracharya’s northern dham peeth is there, and VishnuPrayag Night stay at Peepal koti. Day 5: Visit KarnaPrayag, NandPrayag, DevPrayag and be back to Rishikesh in time for taking the train to Jammu. Day 6: Arrive at Jammu early in the morning. Visit Vaishno devi by helicopter and be back by afternoon. Take the night bus to Srinagar. Day 7: Drive to Sonmarg. Sight-seeing and night stay at Sonmarg. Day 8: Visit Amarnath by helicopter and drive back to Srinagar by evening. You can fly out on the same day. Srinagar, considered paradise on earth, is a place where people say no amount of time is sufficient. With the punyam part done, the purushaartham can start and the return back home can be booked based on people’s convenience. For people not interested in snow and lush green nature, Gulmarg and Pahalgam can be pardoned. That leaves for one day full sight-seeing at Srinagar including the famous Moghul gardens and maybe end with a night stay at houseboat in Dal Lake. Total driving distance: 1500 kms. Total minimum cost: 45000








