River Rafting & Kayaking
Adventure
Rishikesh, the Teesta, the Zanskar and the Kali — with the months each river is runnable.
7 places
Rishikesh
White-water Rafting at Shivpuri
The most popular 16 km rafting stretch with Grade II–III+ rapids.
Agatti Island
Agatti Lagoon
A shallow turquoise lagoon for snorkelling and kayaking.
Magnetic Hill
Indus-Zanskar Confluence
The Zanskar arrives grey with silt and the Indus is greener, and below the join the two run side by side for a stretch without mixing. Sharpest in summer, when the Zanskar is in melt. It is also the put-in for most Indus rafting.
Lakshadweep
Agatti Island
The gateway to Lakshadweep with its own airport, Agatti is ringed by a vivid turquoise lagoon and coral reefs, with snorkelling, diving and lagoon kayaking run from the island. The best months to visit are roughly November to February, when seas are calm and skies are clear; the monsoon (June to September) brings rough water and many beach shacks shut. Plan water sports and swimming for the dry winter window.
West Bengal
Darjeeling
Darjeeling sits at about 2,042 metres on a steep mountain ridge of the Lesser Himalayas in northern West Bengal, under the snow mass of Mount Kanchenjunga, the third-highest peak on earth. The colonial-era tea estates run in loops down the slopes below the town. Chowrasta Mall, a pedestrian square, is the commercial heart of the place — vintage bookshops, old tea lounges and handicraft stalls around it. The town is built in layers: British colonial masonry, Tibetan Buddhist monastic architecture, and the narrow-gauge Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, the toy train, threading between them.
Andaman & Nicobar Islands
Havelock Island (Swaraj Dweep)
Havelock Island, officially Swaraj Dweep, is the most popular island in the Andamans. Radhanagar Beach is the reason most people come — powdery white sand, and the sunsets it is known for — and there is serious scuba diving off the island as well. Turquoise water, coral reefs, kayaking through the mangroves and unhurried beach shacks fill out the rest of it. Elephant Beach is where the diving and snorkelling are done. Honeymooners, divers and backpackers all come for it.
Kerala
Varkala Beach
Varkala, in the Thiruvananthapuram district of southern Kerala, does not look like anywhere else on the Indian coast. Most of that coast is flat and sandy; here, near-vertical red laterite cliffs rise straight out of the breaking waves of the Arabian Sea. The paved path along the North Cliff is where everything happens — open-air cafes, seafood grills, yoga centres and handicraft shops. Below it the shore opens into wide sandy bays for swimming, surfing and lying about, and natural mineral springs run down the laterite walls.
