Starting the Char Dham from Haridwar: The First Day Nobody Plans For

Haridwar is the traditional gateway to the Char Dham, and for good practical reasons: it is on the broad-gauge line, it is a straightforward drive from Delhi, and it is where the plains end. Every itinerary you will be sold counts its days from here or from Rishikesh, twenty-odd kilometres further up the Ganga.

What those itineraries tend to gloss over is that day one out of Haridwar is the longest driving day of the entire yatra, and people routinely start it having arrived overnight on a train.

Getting to Haridwar

• By train — Haridwar Junction is well served from Delhi and beyond. Overnight trains put you in early morning, which sounds efficient and is the source of most day-one misery.
• By air — Jolly Grant, Dehradun's airport, is the nearest. It sits between Dehradun and Rishikesh, so from a flight it is often easier to start the yatra from Rishikesh or spend the night in Dehradun.
• By road from Delhi — a long but easy run on the expressway, five to six hours in reasonable conditions.

Haridwar or Rishikesh: which one to start from

Rishikesh is roughly 25 km closer to everything and takes that much off day one, which is exactly the day you want to shorten. Haridwar has the railway station, more rooms, and Har Ki Pauri. Many pilgrims do the sensible thing and split the difference: arrive at Haridwar, do the evening aarti, sleep, and let the car pick them up early.

Either way, sleep at the bottom before you start climbing. A night in Haridwar costs you one evening and buys you a functioning first day.

Day one: Haridwar to Barkot

Around 210 km from Rishikesh, more from Haridwar, and a full day whatever the map says. The road climbs out of the Doon valley, goes over or around Mussoorie, and drops into the Yamuna. It is beautiful and it is slow, and there is no version of it that takes four hours.

You finish in Barkot, which is the base for Yamunotri — the first shrine, a 6 km climb from Janki Chatti the following morning.

The rest of the shape, from Haridwar

Rough distances, all of them slower than they look:

• Haridwar to Barkot — about 210 km from Rishikesh. Day one.
• Barkot to Uttarkashi — about 100 km, across to the Bhagirathi. Uttarkashi is the last big bazaar for a while; Harsil is further on and closer to Gangotri.
• Uttarkashi to Gangotri — about 100 km, motorable to the temple.
• Uttarkashi to Guptkashi — the long crossing to the Mandakini, and the hardest drive on the circuit. Guptkashi is the Kedarnath base.
• Guptkashi to Joshimath — over to the Alaknanda. Joshimath is the Badrinath base.
• Joshimath to Badrinath — about 45 km, motorable, and the last leg.

Ten to twelve days from Haridwar and back covers all four at a pace that survives a road closure. Our ten-day itinerary lays the nights out one by one.

What to sort out in Haridwar before you leave

• Registration. Do it online before you travel. It is per pilgrim, tied to the ID you will carry, and the checkposts on every shrine road verify it. Turning up unregistered and hoping to sort it on the way costs you hours you do not have.
• Cash. ATMs thin out fast past Uttarkashi and network coverage is patchy on the pony and palki stretches, where card payment is not a thing.
• Warm layers. Haridwar in May is hot and Kedarnath at night is not. Buying at the trailhead works, but you pay trailhead prices.
• Medicines, with enough for the buffer days as well as the planned ones.

Which way round

West to east — Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, Badrinath — is the traditional order, and from Haridwar it is also the efficient one: it follows the rivers, avoids doubling back, and climbs gradually enough to help with acclimatisation before Kedarnath. Reversing it is possible and some operators do, usually to dodge crowds. You lose the gradual ramp.

When to leave Haridwar

Late April or May through mid-June, then mid-September until the shrines close in November. July and August are monsoon, and on this route monsoon means landslides that close roads with no warning and no estimate for reopening. The dates the shrines open and shut are announced each spring, so fix your Haridwar arrival only once they are out.

Coming back down, do not book a same-evening flight or train out. Give the descent its own day, and if the timing is awkward, sleep once more in Haridwar or Dehradun before you travel home.