Nainital

A closer look at Nainital

Nainital is built around a lake, and everything about the town flows from that. The Naini is a pear-shaped body of green water about a mile and a half around, sitting in a bowl of wooded ridges at 2,000 metres, and the town wraps around its two ends — Mallital at the north, Tallital at the south — with the Mall Road running along the eastern shore joining them. It was founded by a British sugar trader in 1841 who happened upon the lake, and it became the summer capital of the United Provinces; the boat club, the flats and the church all date from that era and are all still in use.

The obvious thing to do here is also the best thing: get on the water. Brightly painted rowing boats and the distinctive yellow-sailed yachts of the Nainital Boat Club work the lake all day, and an hour out on it in the late afternoon, with the hills reflected and the town lights beginning, is the memory most families take home. At the northern end sits Naina Devi Temple, one of the fifty-one Shakti Peeths, where the goddess's eyes are said to have fallen — hence the lake, and hence the name.

Above the town, the Snow View ropeway climbs to 2,270 metres for a panorama of Nanda Devi, Trishul and Nanda Kot across the intervening valleys, and Tiffin Top and Naina Peak reward a longer walk with wider views and far fewer people. Around the town, the lake district proper opens up: Bhimtal with its island café, tiny Naukuchiatal with its nine corners, and Sattal, a cluster of seven interconnected lakes in dense forest that is one of the best birdwatching spots in north India.

Nainital is seven to eight hours from Haridwar and works best as part of a wider Kumaon loop with Kausani and Ranikhet, or as a comfortable two-night stop on its own. April to June is the classic hill-station season and the town gets genuinely busy; September to November is quieter, clearer and, in our view, better. Winter is cold and beautiful with occasional snow. We book lake-facing rooms where we can and plan the ropeway and boating for early in the day, before both queues build.