Things to do in India

Things to do

Showing 194 places for Weekend Getaways.

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Attraction

Statue of Unity

Kevadia (Ekta Nagar), Gujarat

At 182 metres, the tallest statue in the world — Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, independence leader and independent India's first deputy prime minister and home minister, standing above the Narmada facing the Sardar Sarovar dam, about a hundred kilometres south-east of Vadodara. Announced by Narendra Modi as Gujarat's chief minister in 2010, built by Larsen and Toubro from October 2013 at a cost of ₹27 billion, designed by the sculptor Ram V. Sutar, and inaugurated on 31 October 2018, which would have been Patel's 143rd birthday.

Viewpoint

Statue Viewing Gallery

Statue of Unity, Gujarat

A gallery at 153 m inside the statue with valley and dam views.

Viewpoint

Sukhna Lake

Chandigarh, Chandigarh

A scenic man-made lake popular for boating and sunset walks.

Viewpoint

Swarn Jayanti Amphitheatre

Wagah Border, Punjab

The grand stadium-like public gallery complex enclosing the international border gates, built to hold patriotic crowds.

Attraction

Taj Mahal

Agra, Uttar Pradesh

The white-marble mausoleum built by Shah Jahan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Wonder of the World.

Attraction

Takhteshwar Temple

Bhavnagar, Gujarat

Built in 1893 on a small hill in the middle of Bhavnagar, carried on eighteen pillars. Climb it for the view over the town to the shipping channels in the gulf rather than for the temple itself.

Market

The Mall & The Ridge

Shimla, Himachal Pradesh

Shimla's colonial-era pedestrian heart with shops, cafes and Christ Church.

Viewpoint

The Ridge

Shimla, Himachal Pradesh

The open stretch above the Mall, with Christ Church at one end. Underneath it sits a Victorian water reservoir that still supplies part of Shimla, which is why nothing has ever been built on top of it.

Experience

The Royal Garages

Gondal, Gujarat

Dozens of the Gondal family's cars, most still running: pre-war saloons, American convertibles, European racers, and the horse carriages that came before all of them. Worth an hour.

Attraction

The Shore Temple

Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu

Built rather than carved, around the year 700, and among the oldest structural stone temples in south India. The sea has been eating the carving for thirteen centuries, so the detail is soft. The 2004 tsunami drew the water back far enough to expose other structures offshore.

Attraction

Tithal Beach

Valsad, Gujarat

Four kilometres from Valsad, and the sand is the point: black-brown rather than gold, and it stains anything you sit on. This is a beach for a walk and a bhajiya stall rather than a swim — the water is shallow, silty and pulls. Three temples stand along the front, Swaminarayan, Sai Baba and Shantidham, and the Swaminarayan one is bright white against the dark sand, which is the photograph everybody takes. It is a local beach rather than a resort one, busiest at sunset and busiest of all on a Sunday.

Attraction

Tithal Sai Baba Temple

Valsad, Gujarat

A prominent spiritual temple complex resting directly on the beach rocks of Tithal. Built using high-quality stone masonry, it features a grand prayer hall housing a beautiful white marble icon of Sai Baba that overlooks the crashing ocean waves.

Experience

Titos Lane

North Goa (Baga & Calangute), Goa

The nightlife lane in Baga, clubs stacked along a couple of hundred metres. Loud and expensive, and the crowd it pulls is the crowd it pulls. Goa has a legal cut-off on amplified music outdoors at ten, which pushes everything indoors after that.

Viewpoint

Toad Rock Viewpoint

Mount Abu, Rajasthan

A boulder above Nakki Lake that does look like a toad from one angle and like a boulder from every other. Five minutes of scrambling, and the view over the lake basin is the actual reward.

Attraction

Tomb of Salim Chishti

Fatehpur Sikri, Uttar Pradesh

An exquisite white-marble Sufi shrine in the mosque courtyard.

Hidden Gem

Toorji-ka-Jhalra

Jodhpur, Rajasthan

An eighteenth-century stepwell that lay buried under rubbish for decades and was dug out in 2016. Cafes surround it now, and local boys jump in from the sides, which the signs discourage and nobody enforces.

Viewpoint

Top Station Viewpoint

Munnar, Kerala

On the state border above Munnar, looking down into Tamil Nadu, and the cloud usually arrives by mid-morning, so go early. The slopes below are Neelakurinji country, which flowers once every twelve years.

Experience

Triveni Ghat

Rishikesh, Uttarakhand

The main bathing ghat in Rishikesh town, and where the evening aarti happens. Smaller and less performed than Haridwar's, and much easier to sit through.

Attraction

Umaid Bhawan Palace

Jodhpur, Rajasthan

One of the largest private residences in the world — three hundred and forty-seven rooms in Jodhpur's yellow sandstone. Ground was broken in November 1929 and the building was finished in 1943, and it was a famine-relief scheme as much as a palace: it was commissioned to put a drought-stricken region back into paid work. It is named for Maharaja Umaid Singh and is still the principal residence of the Jodhpur royal family. Part is run as a Taj hotel and part is a museum, which is the only section open to visitors — the rest is a private home, and reads like one.

Viewpoint

Valley of Flowers

Kevadia (Ekta Nagar), Gujarat

A landscaped garden of about twenty-four hectares along the Narmada below the Statue of Unity — planted rather than wild, and not to be confused with the national park of the same name in Uttarakhand.

Attraction

Velavadar Blackbuck National Park

Bhavnagar, Gujarat

Thirty-four square kilometres of flat grassland in the Bhal, hugging the Gulf of Khambhat, protected since 1976. It was a hunting ground for blackbuck before it was a park, which is why the habitat is grass rather than forest — and why you actually see the animals: there is nothing for them to hide behind. Blackbuck, the Indian wolf and the lesser florican all have conservation programmes running here. Wastelands and crop fields press in from the north. Go at first light or in the last hour; the middle of the day is heat haze and empty grass.

Attraction

Vembanad Lake Basin

Alleppey (Backwaters), Kerala

India's longest lake. The luxury houseboats run their circuits here, and the traditional resorts stand along its shores.

Experience

Venna Lake

Mahabaleshwar, Maharashtra

Man-made, dug in 1842 to supply the town with water and now given over to pedal boats and pony rides. Crowded and commercial, and perfectly good for an hour with children.

Attraction

Victoria Memorial

Kolkata, West Bengal

A grand white-marble monument and museum set in landscaped gardens.