Things to do in India

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Showing 185 places for Hidden Gems.

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Experience

Sam Sand Dunes

Jaisalmer, Rajasthan

The expansive rolling sand dunes located 40 km outside the city, famous for evening camel safaris, jeep dune bashing, and cultural camps.

Experience

Samaguri Satra (Mask Making)

Majuli, Assam

The monastery famous for crafting traditional Assamese masks used in ritual theatre.

Experience

Saputara Lake

Saputara, Gujarat

The lake in the middle of town, with boats on it and a path around the edge. Half an hour, and it is what everyone does on arriving.

Viewpoint

Saputara Ropeway

Saputara, Gujarat

A cable car from the town up to the sunset point, which saves a climb and is the only reason most people get up there. Short queues on weekdays, long ones at dusk on Sundays.

Attraction

Saputara Tribal Museum

Saputara, Gujarat

A single-room state museum of Dang tribal material — instruments, masks, wedding dress, farming tools. It takes twenty minutes and is better than it has any need to be. Small enough for half an hour, and it shuts for a break in the middle of the day.

Viewpoint

Savitri Devi Temple

Pushkar, Rajasthan

A prominent hilltop temple perched on Ratnagiri Hill, accessible via a passenger ropeway and famous for panoramic sunrise views of the entire town.

Viewpoint

Sela Pass

Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh

A dramatic high mountain pass (~4,170 m) with a sacred lake.

Viewpoint

Sendra Viewpoint

Loktak Lake, Manipur

A hill island in the middle of the lake with a rest house on top, and the one place you can see the scale of the phumdi rings from above. Causeway in, then a short climb.

Experience

Serolsar Lake

Jibhi, Himachal Pradesh

About five kilometres of level forest walking from Jalori Pass, through old oak. There is a small temple to Budhi Nagin at the water and a tea stall on the way. Snow shuts the pass in winter.

Viewpoint

Shaliganga River Spot

Doodhpathri, Jammu & Kashmir

The fast-flowing rocky riverbed downstream where the water creates a distinctive white frothy layer over granite boulders.

Attraction

Shamlaji Vishnu Temple

Shamlaji, Gujarat

A Vishnu temple in Aravalli district and one of the busier pilgrimage centres in north Gujarat. The present building is fifteenth or sixteenth century, though it may have been begun in the eleventh in the Chaulukya style; the Vishnu image in the sanctuary is older still, probably seventh or eighth century, and the small temple facing it holds a sixth-century Shiva. The oldest intact structure on the site is the ninth-century Harishchandrani Chauri, with its gateway, off to one side and usually walked past. The fair at Kartik Poornima is when the town fills.

Attraction

Sindhudurg Fort

Tarkarli (Malvan), Maharashtra

A colossal 17th-century island maritime fortress featuring massive stone walls built directly on a sea reef outcrop, accessible via ferry.

Accommodation Area

Spangmik Village

Pangong Tso, Leh & Ladakh

The primary rural settlement on the lake banks hosting most of the luxury tented camps and local homestays.

Attraction

St. Thomas Hilltop Shrine

Malayattoor, Kerala

The Vatican-recognised hilltop church reached by a forest climb.

Viewpoint

Sudhanyakhali Watch Tower

Sundarbans National Park, West Bengal

A caged platform over a freshwater pond the forest department maintains to draw animals in. Deer and boar most days, a crocodile often, a tiger very rarely. It is the likeliest spot in the park, which is not the same as likely.

Viewpoint

Suicide Point Roghi

Kalpa (Kinnaur), Himachal Pradesh

A famous roadside viewpoint on the way to Roghi village, characterized by a staggering near-vertical cliff drop into the river gorge below.

Experience

Sweet Water Lake

Arambol Beach, Goa

A freshwater lagoon just behind the beach, popular for a dip after the sea.

Attraction

Takht Sri Damdama Sahib

Damdama Sahib (Talwandi Sabo), Punjab

The Takht gurdwara where the final Guru Granth Sahib was compiled.

Experience

Tangnar Valley Slope

Doodhpathri, Jammu & Kashmir

A scenic hillside corridor lined with dense deodar trees, located just 3 km before the main meadow entry checkpoint.

Attraction

Tawang Monastery

Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh

India's largest and the world's second-largest Buddhist monastery.

Attraction

Thajiwas Glacier

Sonamarg, Jammu & Kashmir

Four kilometres up from Sonamarg, on foot or by pony, with sledge operators at the snout in summer. It has been retreating for years, so the walk to the ice is longer than older guidebooks say. Pony rates are fixed and routinely ignored — settle it before you mount.

Attraction

Thousand Pillar Temple

Warangal, Telangana

A 12th-century Kakatiya temple famed for its carved pillars.

Viewpoint

Tosh Valley Viewpoint

Tosh, Himachal Pradesh

The upper edge of the village, looking up the Parvati to the glaciers at its head. Tosh is the last road head in the valley and the walk out to the view takes about fifteen minutes.

Attraction

Tsomgo (Changu) Lake

Tsomgo Lake & Nathula Pass, Sikkim

An oval lake at about 3,750 metres, held sacred locally and frozen over in winter. Yaks are brought down to the shore for photographs, at a price agreed before you sit on one. Permits are checked at the barrier below.