Shimla favourite weekend getaway from Delhi

I have visited Shimla 4 or 5 times with my family. I have written about so many places but never wrote about the place where I have been in my childhood, teenage and youth. Shimla is the best weekend destination from Delhi, people visit it often. I was in 12^th standard when I last visited it. Still remember those lovely valleys and hills. We had stayed in I do not remember the name of my hotel but I do remember that it was on the end of the mall. SO there was not too much of noise and crowd which can disturb us. To enter the Mall Road from the city when cannot take the car inside as there is the huge lift which finishes at the Mall starting from the Shimla Road, along with a huge parking lot where tourist can park their cars.

The famous Mall Road of Shimla comprises of so many shops which sells all types of wooden work things, I still have that bangle wooden stand with me which I purchased there. The mall road is very vast and comprises of the upper mall road and the lower mall road. The lower mall road had many shops selling cassettes, clothes and all those things which you can find in Delhi. The upper Mall consists of shops which sell wooden things, and then there is the famous Christ Church at one end and the Tudor façade of the Municipal Corporation building at the other. Scandal point on the upper mall is the place where every tourist sits on the benches made there for rest and the kids enjoy the pony rides. Me and my sister also had enjoyed the pony ride. After our pony ride we went to the scatting club which is next to the church on the first floor. I hope its still there. Our session was for 1 hour and I enjoyed it, there were all type of people with young kids, teenage, youth and the old ones. The floor was wooden so the scatting done was amazing.

After that we roam in the mall for hours. Yes I remember the rose garden on the upper mall with a restaurant where we had snacks many times, sorry people my golden days were so amazing that I hardly bother to remember the name of the restaurant. But my best restaurant there is the United Coffee House in the end of the upper mall. It offered the best coffee in the World I still can taste it. My sister and I had played many video games which were close to our hotel.

Next day again after roaming in the Mall road we went to the Jakhu Mandir whose stairs starts along with the famous ghanta ghar on the upper mall on its right side. We started for the temple and to my surprise there were langurs all around. People were offering them food and from the trees they were roaming on the stairs. My mom strongly was offering them the channa but I was scared of them. After climbing so many steps we were tired and finally reached our destination. The temple offers prayer to the Hanuman that’s why it was all filled with the monkeys and langurs. After praying and little bit of eating we came down through steps and realized that it was night. Shimla looks more beautiful in the night with lights all around.

Well I would like to go again and now would like to see it in a different way. Some memories are never to be forgotten.

Find Driving Directions from Delhi to Shimla here

Kesroli Fort, weekend destination from Delhi

While going to Alwar for visiting the Dargah we saw this Neemrana property the Kesroli fort weekend getaway from Delhi on our way and we decided that we would stay here for 1 night on our way back to home. It is a 14^th century hill fort of Kesroli and is the oldest heritage site in India. It was not too pleasingly painted fort it made us remember about the old days, and we wanted our younger sister to know about it as she is not aware of the heritage of India in this gizmo days. When we reached there it had rooms and suites available and I saw many foreigners enjoying their vacation. We booked the Neelkanth Mahal which was a suite with 1 double and 1 single room for Rs 3000 per night which was pretty affordable. We were so tired that after check in the room we directly went to have our dinner which was pretty good and we had a candle light dinner which one cannot imagine to have with a perfect silence. In short we enjoyed the ambience. After the dinner we went to the room which was huge with good interiors but without a TV, so I and my sisters decided to roam around the fort. They had a beautiful library where we could read books on different categories. Me and my younger sister choose the Mughal period, frankly we were not reading the book but we were much more interested to see the pictures in the book. After spending more than 1 hour in the library we head back to our room. We chatted and discussed various things which we haven’t done in months, which personally I liked because of lack of time in Delhi. We slept very peacefully.

Next morning my dad woke up early because of the chirping of birds which we cannot hear in Delhi. The voice of birds was amazingly cheerful. This was the time we could see the views beyond the fort clearly from the verandah. The experience was outstanding as we had our morning tea in an open air with lots of birds and the lush green field. Then we choose to have our buffet breakfast with different types of breads fruit cakes and to choose between Neemrana type of tea. After having the simple breakfast my parents held to the reception for payment and we went exploring the shop inside the fort which offered different arts and chess work famous of Mughal works but it was expensive. We left for Delhi once again keeping the lovely stay at Kesroli where our family had a sweet get together, chat and discussions which we never can have in our busy schedule in my memory.

Find Travel Directions from Delhi to Alwar here

The Chalets Naldehra, offbeat destination from Delhi

This weekend we went to an offbeat weekend destination from Delhi near to Shimla 20km, the Chalets of Naldehra with my family for a break from regular routine. The place was 343 km from Delhi so we started on Friday evening so that we can enjoy the weekend in resting and not in traveling. So we started around 7 in the evening and reached there around 2, do not worry we had hired a driver to drive the car especially in the night. We had already made are booking before reaching there so we just had to check in the cottage. In the night we were not able to view the scenic beauty of the place, we were just waiting for the reception man to give the keys and we can go to sleep. Our apartment was pretty good with all amenities and facilities. There are rooms and cottages available also but we were only four so we chose the apartment.

Next day I woke up early morning to enjoy the beauty of the place, and to my amaze it was awesome experience. I was standing in the lobby of my apartment with a cup of tea and enjoying the views of the hills and forest nearby with beautiful cottages close to my apartment. There was a chill breeze all over the place with little fog covering the terrace of the cottages, park and the forest plus the golf park. Yes it also offers the golf course however im not a golf player neither im attracted by the game. After enjoying the tea we planned to take a venture into the forest for jungle walk. We were provided with a guide who helped us out with the way in the jungle. The whole view was breath taking. The jungle was covered with many types of trees and with the clouds covering them and the chill breeze all around the place we could not have asked for anything much better than this. We were able to view many species of birds. While my dad and mom decided to go back to the apartment for rest I and my sisters planned for a trek. The trek was also good but I got little rashes. We had lots of fun with water rafting to horse ride everything was available here. Even it provided us with heated pool, spa, in house art gallery, croquet, billiards, golf, and yoga and evening bonfires. So now you can also understand that there was so much to do that we even realized that it was Sunday afternoon and we have to leave the place. But we decided to make another trip for Naldehra with the family and this time for a week.