Rishikesh

Top things to do in Rishikesh

1. 01

   Tapovan's yoga schools - drop-in classes and month-long trainings

   wellness ⭐ Highly recommended

   The lanes behind Laxman Jhula are wall to wall with shalas, and the town runs on the international teacher-training circuit: hundreds of schools sell month-long certificate courses and almost all of them also take walk-ins for a single morning class in hatha, ashtanga or iyengar. The older ashrams down at Ram Jhula and Muni Ki Reti teach in their own lineages and on their own timetables instead, with fixed meals, silence and a pre-dawn bell as part of the deal. Trying two or three drop-ins before committing to a course is the standard advice, and it is good advice.

2. 02

   Ganges whitewater - the Shivpuri run down to town

   adventure 👍 Popular

   The standard commercial trip puts in at Shivpuri, roughly 16 km upstream, and runs back down to Rishikesh through a string of named rapids - Roller Coaster, Golf Course, Double Trouble, Return to Sender - big, forgiving water at a grade most first-timers handle, with a cliff jump and a stretch of body surfing worked into the day. Longer trips start further up at Marine Drive or Kaudiyala for the harder water, including The Wall and Three Blind Mice. The season runs roughly late September to the end of June and closes through the monsoon, when the river is too high and silt-heavy to be worth anything.

3. 03

   Parmarth Niketan - the riverbank Ganga Aarti at Ram Jhula

   culture arts 👍 Popular

   The biggest ashram on the east bank runs its fire ceremony on its own bathing steps at dusk: resident students chant, tiered lamps go round, and the crowd fills the terraces while the river goes dark behind a huge Shiva figure standing in the shallows. This is the version most visitors see, gentler and more legible than the town's own ceremony, and you can turn up with no connection to the ashram at all. Get there before the light goes to find a seat on the stone.

4. 04

   Beatles Ashram (Chaurasi Kutia) - the ruined meditation domes

   history ⭐ Highly recommended

   The ashram Maharishi Mahesh Yogi built on a bluff above the river sat abandoned in the forest for decades after its lease lapsed, and is now entered on a ticket from the Rajaji Tiger Reserve gate. What survives is strange and very quiet: rows of stone meditation huts like beehives, a lecture hall with its roof caved in, and a long gallery where later visitors have covered the walls in Beatles lyrics and portraits. The band spent several weeks here in 1968 and wrote a large part of the White Album on the site.

5. 05

   Ram Jhula and Laxman Jhula - the suspension footbridges

   scenic 👍 Popular

   Two slim cable footbridges hang over the green river a couple of kilometres apart, crowded with pilgrims, porters, day trippers, cows and the occasional motorbike, with monkeys working the handrails for anything edible. Ram Jhula is the dependable crossing, linking Sivananda Nagar to Swarg Ashram. The older Laxman Jhula upstream, at the spot where Lakshman is said to have crossed on ropes, was closed to pedestrians on safety grounds with a replacement span built beside it, so check which bridge is walkable when you arrive.

6. 06

   Triveni Ghat - the town's own evening aarti

   culture arts

   Three kilometres downstream from the bridges, in the working part of Rishikesh, a wide flight of steps hosts a far less traveller-facing ceremony: brass lamps, a wall of sound, and hundreds of leaf boats of marigolds and flame going off downstream on the current. Leave your shoes with the stalls at the top and expect to be part of a crush rather than an audience. Mornings here belong to bathing and to funeral rites rather than to spectacle.

7. 07

   Neelkanth Mahadev Temple - the hill shrine above the gorge

   culture arts

   The blue-throated Shiva temple sits in deep forest high above the river, on the spot where he is said to have swallowed the poison churned from the ocean. Pilgrims climb a steep path of about 12 km up from Swarg Ashram, often barefoot and often overnight; everyone else takes the winding road round. Mondays are Shiva's day and busy, and through the monsoon pilgrimage month the queue can run for hours.

8. 08

   Garhwal trailheads - Rishikesh as the trekking road head

   hiking adventure

   Almost every Garhwal trek starts here, and Rishikesh is the pickup point written into most itineraries: the roads to Kedarkantha, Har Ki Dun, Kuari Pass, the Valley of Flowers and the Gangotri trails all run out of town. High-country trekking works in the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon windows; the flower meadows of the upper valleys are a monsoon speciality that peaks when most of the rest is shut; and the lower ridges hold snow treks through the deep winter. Operators keep offices along the Tapovan strip and vehicles leave before dawn.

9. 09

   Trayambakeshwar Temple - the thirteen-storey tower at Laxman Jhula

   culture arts

   Shrine stacked on shrine up a concrete tower at the east end of the bridge, with hundreds of deities on the way up, bells at every landing, and the best open view in Rishikesh from the top: the river, the bridge and the forested ridges behind. A bazaar of stalls clogs the bottom few floors, and nobody minds visitors climbing it.

10. 10

    Jumpin Heights - the bungee ledge over the Hyul gorge

    adventure

    India's first and highest fixed-platform bungee stands on a cantilevered ledge over a tributary gorge about 25 km out on the Neelkanth road, with a giant swing and a long flying fox on the same site. The jump is 83 m, and the operation was set up with New Zealand-trained crews, which is roughly the reassurance you want before stepping off. Slots go early in the busy months, so book ahead rather than turning up.

11. 11

    Chotiwala and the thali halls of Swarg Ashram - eating in a dry, meat-free town

    food

    Rishikesh is vegetarian and alcohol-free by law, so eating here means thalis, chaat, south Indian breakfasts and the traveller-cafe canon of porridge, wood-fired pizza and lemon-ginger-honey tea taken on rooftops over the river. The two rival Chotiwala restaurants at Swarg Ashram, each with a costumed, painted mascot planted out front, have fed pilgrims the same unlimited thali for generations and are an institution rather than a great meal. The German-bakery habit runs strong on the Tapovan side.

12. 12

    Neer Garh Waterfall - the cascade walk above Laxman Jhula

    nature wildlife

    A short, steep climb up a side stream from the road above Laxman Jhula reaches a two-stage cascade and a set of pools in the forest, the closest thing to a quiet swim near town. It is at its fullest once the rains have passed and can be a trickle by late spring. Go early: it fills with day trippers off the bridges by mid-morning.

Getting to & around Rishikesh

Know before you go