When to travel

Best places to visit in April

April is for hill stations and quiet valleys. The plains heat up, but Manali, Shimla, and Munnar offer cool air and blooming orchards.

Moderate crowds

Jammu & Kashmir

Srinagar (Dal Lake)

Srinagar is a lake city, and the difference between a good stay and a mediocre one is which part of the lake you sleep on. Take a houseboat, but ask where it is moored. The boats near the Boulevard are convenient and noisy with traffic; the ones further out towards Nagin lake are quieter and give you the mornings the place is famous for. Shikara rides are priced by the hour and by negotiation — agree the route and the price before you get in, or you will be taken to a floating handicraft shop instead. The Mughal gardens — Shalimar, Nishat, Chashme Shahi — are terraced up the eastern hillside and are best in the first hour after opening. The vegetable market on the water at dawn is the real thing, and it means being up before five. Papier-mâché and Kashmiri walnut wood are genuine crafts here and worth buying properly rather than roadside. Check current advisories before you book, and do that close to your travel date rather than months out. April and May for the blossom, and June to August is the season most Indians come. Winter is cold, beautiful and quiet.

Crisp spring days with blooming tulip fields nearby.

Busy

West Bengal

Darjeeling

Darjeeling is a highland town at about 2,042 metres on a steep mountain ridge of the Lesser Himalayas in northern West Bengal. Dominated visually by the snow mass of Mount Kanchenjunga, the third-highest peak on earth, the town is known for its carpeted loops of colonial-era tea estates. The commercial heart of Darjeeling centers around the pedestrian square of Chowrasta Mall, packed with vintage bookstores, old tea lounges, and handicraft stalls. The town features distinct architectural layers combining British colonial masonry with rich Tibetan Buddhist monastic heritages, synchronized with the narrow-gauge Darjeeling Himalayan Railway toy train.

Delightfully cool daytimes with clear skies and rhododendrons in full bloom.

Busy

Sikkim

Gangtok

Gangtok is where most Sikkim trips begin, and its real value is as a base rather than a destination. The town itself is a steep ridge of concrete with one pleasant pedestrian street, MG Marg, where no vehicles and no spitting are allowed and the whole town walks in the evening. Rumtek monastery, half an hour out, is the seat of the Karma Kagyu lineage and the more worthwhile hour. Enchey, closer in, is quieter still. Tsomgo lake and Nathu La are the standard day trip. Both need permits arranged through a registered operator in Gangtok, both are high — Tsomgo is at around 3,700 metres — and Nathu La is closed to foreign nationals entirely. If you have only been in the hills a day, that altitude gain in a single drive is a lot. For actual Sikkim, keep going. Pelling for the Kanchenjunga view, Yuksom for the walking, north Sikkim for Lachung and the Yumthang valley — all of which need their own permits. March to May and October to early December. The monsoon here brings serious landslides and roads close for days at a time.

Delightfully cool daytimes under open sunny skies with wild orchids in bloom.

Busy

Himachal Pradesh

McLeodganj & Dharamshala

McLeodganj, the upper town of Dharamshala, is the home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile, and one of India's most beloved workation and backpacker bases. On a ridge of the Dhauladhar range, it blends Tibetan Buddhist culture, Himalayan trekking and a deeply traveller-friendly cafe and hostel scene. The town is a hub for meditation and yoga retreats, momos and global cafes, and treks to Triund and the Indrahar Pass. With its mix of monasteries, fast Wi-Fi cafes, long-stay hostels and a permanent international community, it has become a year-round magnet for digital nomads, solo travellers and spiritual seekers alike.

Pleasant clear spring days.

Busy

Uttarakhand

Kedarnath

Kedarnath, set at 3,583 metres against a backdrop of snow peaks and the Mandakini valley, is among the holiest of the twelve Jyotirlingas and a cornerstone of the Char Dham Yatra. The ancient stone temple, reached by a demanding Himalayan trek, is one of India's most revered shrines.

Pleasant clear spring days.

Busy

Andhra Pradesh

Araku Valley

Araku Valley is a lush coffee-growing hill region in the Eastern Ghats near Visakhapatnam, reached by one of India's most scenic train journeys through tunnels and viaducts. Known for tribal culture, coffee plantations, waterfalls and the Borra Caves, it is Andhra's favourite hill escape.

Pleasant clear spring days.

Moderate crowds

Sikkim

Yuksom

Yuksom is a historical village in West Sikkim, the first capital of the old Sikkimese kingdom and the trailhead for the famed Goecha La and Dzongri treks toward Kanchenjunga. An emerging eco-conscious, slow-travel destination, it draws trekkers and offbeat travellers with its forests, monasteries and calm. Surrounded by the Kanchenjunga National Park (an UNESCO World Heritage Site), Yuksom has old monasteries, sacred lakes, homestays and forest on every side. Its blend of Buddhist heritage, Himalayan trekking and unspoiled nature makes it a favourite for conscious, adventurous young travellers.

Clear spring days, rhododendrons blooming.

Busy

Madhya Pradesh

Pachmarhi

Pachmarhi is Madhya Pradesh's only hill station, a green plateau in the Satpura range dotted with waterfalls, caves, viewpoints and ancient rock-shelter paintings, set within a UNESCO biosphere reserve.

Pleasant clear spring days.

Busy

Himachal Pradesh

Shimla

Shimla, the former summer capital of British India, is one of the country's most popular hill stations. Its colonial Mall Road, the Ridge, Christ Church and the UNESCO-listed Kalka-Shimla toy train make it a perennial favourite in the Himalayan foothills.

Pleasant clear spring days.

Busy

Uttarakhand

Nainital

Nainital is a charming Kumaon hill station built around the emerald, eye-shaped Naini Lake. With its boating, the crowded Mall Road, cable car to Snow View and surrounding viewpoints, it is one of North India's most beloved lake resorts.

Pleasant clear spring days.

Busy

Gujarat

Saputara

Saputara is Gujarat's only hill station, which makes it modest by Himalayan standards and genuinely useful if you are anywhere near Surat or Ahmedabad. It sits at about a thousand metres in the Dang forests near the Maharashtra border. The lake at the centre is the focus — boating, a promenade, and a ropeway up to the sunset point. None of it is dramatic. What is good is the drive in through the Sahyadri forest, the Gira waterfall after the monsoon, and the tribal museum, which is small and better than it needs to be. The monsoon and the weeks just after it are when this place justifies itself. The Saputara Monsoon Festival runs through those months, the forest is fully green and the waterfalls are actually falling. By March the hills have gone brown and the lake is low. Set your expectations to a cool weekend in the woods rather than a mountain trip, and it holds up. Two nights is right; a week would be too long. July to November.

Pleasant clear spring days.

Busy

Uttarakhand

Jim Corbett National Park

Jim Corbett is India's oldest national park and the birthplace of Project Tiger, set in the Himalayan foothills along the Ramganga River. Famed for its tigers, elephants and rich birdlife across the Dhikala, Bijrani and Jhirna zones, it is one of the country's safari destinations.

Pleasant clear spring days.

Busy

Arunachal Pradesh

Tawang

Tawang, at over 3,000 metres in the far Himalayas of Arunachal Pradesh, is home to India's largest Buddhist monastery and the birthplace of the 6th Dalai Lama. Snow peaks, high lakes, war memorials and the dramatic Sela Pass make the drive up as much of the point as Tawang itself.

Pleasant clear spring days.

Busy

Meghalaya

Mawsynram & Nongriat Root Bridges

Mawsynram, the wettest place on earth, and the nearby village of Nongriat anchor southern Meghalaya's wonder-region of living root bridges, deep gorges and waterfalls. The trek to the famous Double Decker Living Root Bridge is a bucket-list Northeast experience.

Pleasant clear spring days.

Busy

Nagaland

Kohima

Kohima's war cemetery is the most affecting war memorial in India, and most people who come for the Hornbill Festival never walk up to it. In 1944 the Japanese advance into India was stopped here, on a tennis court on the ridge above town. The court's markings are still laid out in stone among the graves. The inscription at the base — the one about telling those at home that we gave our today for their tomorrow — is worth the climb on its own. The Hornbill Festival runs the first ten days of December at Kisama, a purpose-built village of tribal morungs where all the Naga groups perform. It is worth seeing and it is also a festival built for visitors; if you want the everyday version of Naga life you will find more of it in the villages around Khonoma, an hour away, than at Kisama. Nagaland requires an Inner Line Permit for Indian nationals; foreign nationals need to register on arrival. Sort it in advance. October to May is dry. December means Hornbill, full hotels and prices to match — book months ahead or stay in Dimapur and travel up.

Pleasant clear spring days.

Busy

Manipur

Imphal

Imphal, the capital of Manipur, is a culturally rich valley city famed for the all-women Ima Keithel market, the WWII Imphal battle sites, classical Manipuri dance, and as the gateway to the floating Loktak Lake.

Pleasant clear spring days.

Busy

Maharashtra

Renuka Devi Temple (Mahur)

Renuka Devi Temple (Mahur) in Mahur, Nanded, Maharashtra is one of the Shakti Peethas, the sacred shrines of the Divine Mother in the Shakta tradition of Hinduism. According to tradition, this is where the **right hand** of Goddess Sati fell when Lord Vishnu's Sudarshana Chakra divided her body. Here the Goddess is worshipped as **Renuka (Mahishmardini)**. Shakti Peethas are among the holiest pilgrimage sites for devotees of the Goddess, drawing pilgrims especially during Navratri and Durga Puja. Each is tied to the legend of Sati, whose body parts fell across the Indian subcontinent and beyond, sanctifying the ground where they landed.