13 Tourist Places to Visit in Haridwar (+Top Things to Do) (2026)

The Ganges travels roughly 250 kilometres down from its glacier source before it reaches Haridwar, and here it finally leaves the Himalaya for the plains — which is the entire reason the city exists. Hindus count it among the seven holiest places in India, and the ghat at its centre is held to be where a drop of the nectar of immortality fell during the churning of the ocean, which is why the Kumbh Mela returns here every twelve years. The best places to visit in Haridwar are consequently a run of temples, ghats, and ashrams, with two hilltop shrines above the town and a national park on its eastern edge. This guide covers 13 attractions, then 8 experiences.

13 Best Places to Visit in Haridwar

Attraction	Type	Area	Entry Fee	Duration
Har Ki Pauri	Ghat	Har Ki Pauri & the Ghats	Free	1.5 hours
Mansa Devi Temple	Temple (Siddh Peeth)	Bilwa & Neel Parvat	Free; ropeway around ₹150 (~$1.80)	2 hours
Chandi Devi Temple	Temple (Siddh Peeth)	Bilwa & Neel Parvat	Free; ropeway around ₹200 (~$2.40)	2 hours
Maya Devi Temple	Temple (Shakti Peeth)	Old Haridwar & Bara Bazaar	Free	45 minutes
Daksha Mahadev Temple	Temple	Kankhal	Free	1 hour
Bharat Mata Mandir	Temple / Monument	Bhupatwala & Rishikesh Road	Nominal	1 hour
Rajaji National Park (Chilla)	National Park	Chilla & Rajaji National Park	Safari from around ₹1,500 (~$18) per jeep	Half day
Shantikunj	Ashram	Bhupatwala & Rishikesh Road	Free	1 hour
Bara Bazaar & Moti Bazaar	Bazaars	Old Haridwar & Bara Bazaar	Free	1–2 hours
Sapt Rishi Ashram	Ashram / Ghat	Bhupatwala & Rishikesh Road	Free	45 minutes
Patanjali Yogpeeth	Yoga & Ayurveda Institute	Bhupatwala & Rishikesh Road	Free / nominal	1.5 hours
Bhimgoda Kund	Sacred Tank	Har Ki Pauri & the Ghats	Free	30 minutes
Neel Dhara Pakshi Vihar	Bird Sanctuary	Chilla & Rajaji National Park	Nominal	1.5 hours

Har Ki Pauri

A drop of amrit, the nectar of immortality, is said to have fallen at this spot during the churning of the cosmic ocean, and the section of the ghat where it landed is called Brahma Kund — the holiest point on the holiest stretch of the river. The steps take their name from a footprint in stone attributed to Vishnu, and the whole complex sits at the head of the Ganga canal, so the water runs fast, clear, and startlingly cold. Iron chains are bolted along the bathing steps for pilgrims to hold.

Those chains are not decorative. The current is powerful even where the surface looks calm, so keep hold, stay in the shallows, and do not attempt a dip during high water. Come in the early morning if you want the ghat without the evening crush.

• Area: Har Ki Pauri & the Ghats
• Entry Fee: Free
• Opening Timings: Open all day; aarti in the early morning and at dusk
• How to Get There: City centre, around 2 km from Haridwar railway station — auto or e-rickshaw
• Duration: 1.5 hours

Mansa Devi Temple

Perched on Bilwa Parvat above the town, this is the temple pilgrims climb to ask for something specific — Mansa means wish, and the goddess is held to grant them, which is why the branches of the tree in the courtyard are hung thick with threads tied by petitioners. It is one of the three Siddh Peeths of Haridwar, alongside Chandi Devi and Maya Devi, and the shrine holds two images of the goddess, one with three mouths and five arms. Devotees return to untie their thread once the wish is fulfilled.

You can either take the ropeway from the base station near Har Ki Pauri or walk up in around twenty minutes on a paved path. Navratri turns the queues into a serious wait, so go early in the day if your dates fall in that window.

• Area: Bilwa & Neel Parvat
• Entry Fee: Free; ropeway around ₹150 (~$1.80) return
• Opening Timings: Roughly 8 am–5 pm; ropeway hours vary seasonally
• How to Get There: Ropeway base near Har Ki Pauri, or a 20-minute climb — walk or auto
• Duration: 2 hours

Chandi Devi Temple

Adi Shankaracharya is credited with establishing the shrine here in the eighth century, on the summit of Neel Parvat across the river, though the present temple was built by the king of Kashmir in 1929. Chandi is the fierce form the goddess took to destroy the demon generals Chanda and Munda, and the setting matches the story — a bare hilltop, a long view down over the Ganga and the whole spread of the town, and considerably fewer visitors than Mansa Devi opposite.

The ropeway runs from Chandighat, or you can trek up in about an hour on a steady but unshaded path. Doing both hill temples in one morning is the standard plan, and the ropeways sell a combined ticket.

• Area: Bilwa & Neel Parvat
• Entry Fee: Free; ropeway around ₹200 (~$2.40) return
• Opening Timings: Roughly 6 am–8 pm; ropeway shorter hours
• How to Get There: Ropeway from Chandighat, around 4 km from Har Ki Pauri — auto
• Duration: 2 hours

Maya Devi Temple

Before it was Haridwar the town was called Mayapuri, and it was named for the goddess enshrined here — the oldest surviving temple in the city, dating in parts to the eleventh century. It is one of the Shakti Peeths, the sites where portions of Sati’s body are said to have fallen after Shiva carried her from her father’s sacrifice, and tradition assigns the heart and navel to this spot. The three-headed, four-armed image of Maya Devi sits in a dim, low-ceilinged sanctum barely changed by the centuries around it.

It stands only a short walk from Har Ki Pauri yet sees a fraction of the crowd, which makes it one of the calmer stops in the old town. Combine it with a wander through the bazaars that surround it.

• Area: Old Haridwar & Bara Bazaar
• Entry Fee: Free
• Opening Timings: Roughly 6 am–8 pm
• How to Get There: Near Har Ki Pauri in the old town — walk
• Duration: 45 minutes

Daksha Mahadev Temple

The myth that underpins half the shrines in India is anchored at this temple in Kankhal: King Daksha held a great sacrifice here and pointedly failed to invite his daughter Sati or her husband Shiva, and Sati, humiliated, threw herself into the sacrificial fire. What followed — Shiva’s grief, his destruction of the yagna, and the scattering of Sati’s body across the subcontinent — created the Shakti Peeths. The temple compound holds the Sati Kund, the fire pit itself, alongside a Shiva shrine and a quiet walled garden.

Kankhal sits about 4 km south of Har Ki Pauri and feels a world away from the ghats, and of all the places to visit in Haridwar this is the one carrying the heaviest mythological freight. Maha Shivratri is when it fills, with processions through the surrounding lanes.

• Area: Kankhal
• Entry Fee: Free
• Opening Timings: Roughly 6 am–8 pm
• How to Get There: Kankhal, around 4 km south — auto or e-rickshaw
• Duration: 1 hour

Bharat Mata Mandir

Eight floors, 180 feet, and not a single conventional deity — this temple is dedicated to India itself, and Indira Gandhi inaugurated it in 1983. Each storey takes a different theme: a relief map of the country on the ground floor beneath a figure of Bharat Mata, then floors given over to freedom fighters, to women who shaped Indian history, to saints of different faiths, and to the deities of the various religious traditions, ending with a hall dedicated to Shiva at the top.

Whatever you make of the concept, the upper floors give a wide view over the Ganga and the Shivalik foothills. It works best as a stop on the way in or out along the Rishikesh road.

• Area: Bhupatwala & Rishikesh Road
• Entry Fee: Nominal
• Opening Timings: Roughly 7:30 am–5 pm
• How to Get There: Motichur, around 5 km north on the Rishikesh road — auto or taxi
• Duration: 1 hour

Rajaji National Park (Chilla)

Wild elephants move through the sal forest on the far bank of the Ganga in numbers that surprise most visitors, and the Chilla range is the section of Rajaji closest to the city — around 10 km east across the barrage. The park covers roughly 820 square kilometres of Shivalik foothill forest and grassland, holding tigers, leopards, sloth bears, sambar, and well over 300 bird species, and it forms part of the same corridor that runs up to Corbett.

One thing to check before planning around it: the park closes for the monsoon, roughly from mid-June to mid-November, so it is shut for close to half the year. Permits and jeeps are arranged through the forest department at the Chilla gate.

• Area: Chilla & Rajaji National Park
• Entry Fee: Safari from around ₹1,500 (~$18) per jeep, plus permits
• Opening Timings: Roughly mid-November to mid-June; morning and afternoon safaris
• How to Get There: Chilla gate, around 10 km east across the barrage — taxi
• Duration: Half day

Shantikunj

Volunteers run almost everything at this ashram on the Rishikesh road, the headquarters of the All World Gayatri Pariwar, founded in 1971 by Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya. It functions less as a temple than as a working campus — a publishing house, a research institute studying Ayurveda and yagna, teaching halls, and residential blocks — organised around the Gayatri mantra and a programme of social reform. Visitors are welcomed for the day, and short stays are offered free to those who come to study or take part.

The daily rhythm of collective prayer and the sheer scale of the volunteer operation are what make a visit interesting rather than the buildings. Dress modestly and expect a structured, disciplined atmosphere.

• Area: Bhupatwala & Rishikesh Road
• Entry Fee: Free
• Opening Timings: Roughly 5 am–9 pm; programmes at set hours
• How to Get There: Rishikesh road, around 6 km north — auto or taxi
• Duration: 1 hour

Bara Bazaar & Moti Bazaar

Rudraksha beads sold by the string and graded by the number of faces are the signature purchase in these lanes running back from the ghats, along with brass and copper puja vessels, sealed pots for carrying Ganga water home, ayurvedic oils and churans, saffron, and dried fruit from the hills. Moti Bazaar and Bara Bazaar run into one another in a dense knot of shopfronts and handcarts, and the trade has been essentially the same for generations because the pilgrims keep coming.

Rudraksha quality and pricing vary enormously, so buy from an established shop if you care about authenticity. It is at its most chaotic in the hour or two before the evening aarti, when everyone is buying flowers and diyas on the way down.

• Area: Old Haridwar & Bara Bazaar
• Entry Fee: Free
• Opening Timings: Shops roughly 9 am–9 pm
• How to Get There: Lanes behind Har Ki Pauri — walk
• Duration: 1–2 hours

Sapt Rishi Ashram

Seven sages once sat in meditation on this stretch of riverbank, and the Ganga — so the story goes — divided herself into seven separate streams rather than disturb them, which is why the spot is called Sapt Sarovar. The ashram established here in 1943 sits among those channels a few kilometres north of the centre, and the setting does most of the work: shallow braided water, gravel bars, and trees, with the noise of the town gone entirely.

This is the quietest riverside spot within easy reach of the city, and it is where I would go to sit for an hour rather than to see anything in particular. Early morning is best, before the day-trippers arrive.

• Area: Bhupatwala & Rishikesh Road
• Entry Fee: Free
• Opening Timings: Roughly 6 am–8 pm
• How to Get There: Sapt Sarovar, around 5 km north on the Rishikesh road — auto
• Duration: 45 minutes

Patanjali Yogpeeth

Few institutions have done more to put yoga and Ayurveda into ordinary Indian households than this campus on the Delhi road, founded by Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna and now among the largest yoga institutes anywhere. It runs across two campuses and combines a research centre, an ayurvedic hospital offering panchakarma and consultations, herb gardens, manufacturing units, and teaching halls where mass yoga sessions are held. Guided visits take in the gardens and the production side.

It is a commercial and institutional operation rather than a traditional ashram, and worth approaching on those terms. Treatments and courses need booking well in advance; a casual visit covers the campus and the shops.

• Area: Bhupatwala & Rishikesh Road
• Entry Fee: Free or nominal; treatments charged separately
• Opening Timings: Roughly 8 am–6 pm
• How to Get There: Bahadrabad, around 15 km from the centre on the Delhi road — taxi
• Duration: 1.5 hours

Bhimgoda Kund

Bhima, the strongest of the Pandava brothers, is said to have driven his knee into the rock here to bring up water for his thirsty companions during their final journey to the Himalaya, and the spring-fed tank that resulted still holds water a few hundred metres north of Har Ki Pauri. It is a plain stone kund rather than a grand monument, ringed by steps and small shrines, and pilgrims stop to bathe or perform rites for ancestors before moving on to the main ghat.

Half an hour covers it, and it is among the quieter places to visit in Haridwar, with the appeal lying in the association rather than anything architectural. It sits directly on the walk between Har Ki Pauri and the Mansa Devi ropeway, so it costs no detour at all.

• Area: Har Ki Pauri & the Ghats
• Entry Fee: Free
• Opening Timings: Open all day
• How to Get There: A few hundred metres north of Har Ki Pauri — walk
• Duration: 30 minutes

Neel Dhara Pakshi Vihar

Where the Ganga spreads out above the Bhimgoda barrage it forms shallow braided channels and gravel islands, and that habitat has made this stretch one of the better birding sites in the Uttarakhand plains. Between November and March the shallows fill with migratory arrivals — bar-headed geese, brahminy ducks, gulls, waders, and storks — alongside resident kingfishers, cormorants, and the occasional otter. Neel Parvat rises directly behind, with the Chandi Devi temple on the summit.

Bring binoculars and come at first light, when the birds are active and the water is still. It is only worth the trip in winter; outside the migration months there is comparatively little about.

• Area: Chilla & Rajaji National Park
• Entry Fee: Nominal
• Opening Timings: Daylight hours; best at dawn
• How to Get There: Below the Bhimgoda barrage, around 3 km from Har Ki Pauri — auto
• Duration: 1.5 hours

Things to Do in Haridwar

Activity	Experiences	Area	Price Range	Duration
Ganga Aarti at Har Ki Pauri	Cultural, Iconic	Har Ki Pauri & the Ghats	Free	1 hour
Take a Holy Dip in the Ganges	Cultural	Har Ki Pauri & the Ghats	Free	30 minutes
Ropeway to the Hill Temples	Kid-Friendly, Cultural	Bilwa & Neel Parvat	$2–$5	2 hours
Rajaji Jeep Safari	Wildlife/Nature, Adventure/Outdoor	Chilla & Rajaji National Park	$20–$45	Half day
Rishikesh Day Trip	Adventure/Outdoor, Cultural	Outside Haridwar (Day Trip)	$25–$60	Full day
Vegetarian Street-Food Trail	Food, Cultural	Old Haridwar & Bara Bazaar	$5–$15	2 hours
Yoga or Ayurveda at an Ashram	Wellness/Relaxation	Bhupatwala & Rishikesh Road	Free–$40	Half day
Ganga Boat Ride	Sunrise/Sunset	Har Ki Pauri & the Ghats	$2–$6	30 minutes

Ganga Aarti at Har Ki Pauri

At dusk the priests at Brahma Kund take up tiered brass lamps stacked with burning wicks and move them in slow circles over the water while the bells start and several thousand voices join the chant. Pilgrims set leaf boats of marigolds and lit diyas onto the current, and within a minute the whole surface downstream is carrying points of light. The ceremony runs about an hour and happens twice daily, morning and evening, though the evening one is the event everybody comes for.

Timings shift with the season — roughly 5:30 pm in winter and closer to 7 pm in summer — so check locally, and arrive at least 45 minutes early for any kind of position. Photography is restricted at some points during the ritual, and this remains an act of worship rather than a show.

• Experiences: Cultural, Iconic
• Price Range: Free; donations collected on the steps
• Duration: 1 hour including waiting
• Book via: No booking — arrive early at Har Ki Pauri

Take a Holy Dip in the Ganges

Bathing at Brahma Kund is the whole reason most people come to Haridwar — the belief that a dip here washes away accumulated sin, and that the water carries a trace of the amrit that fell at this spot. Pilgrims change on the steps, hold the chain, and go under three times facing the current. Men bathe in shorts and women almost always fully clothed, often in a salwar kameez, and there are enclosures at several ghats for changing.

Take the risk seriously: the water comes almost straight off the mountains, it is cold enough to shock, and the current is strong even where the surface looks flat. Keep hold of the chain, stay in the shallows, never go in alone, and skip it entirely when the river is high. Vishnu Ghat is calmer than Har Ki Pauri if you would rather avoid the crush.

• Experiences: Cultural
• Price Range: Free; a small charge at some changing enclosures
• Duration: 30 minutes
• Book via: No booking — Har Ki Pauri or the quieter ghats

Ropeway to the Hill Temples

Two separate cable cars, known locally as the Udan Khatola, lift you from the valley floor to the Mansa Devi and Chandi Devi shrines, and the ride is a genuine part of the experience rather than just transport — a few minutes suspended over the rooftops and the river, with the whole grid of the town, the ghats, and the barrage laid out below. The Mansa Devi line is the shorter and busier of the two; the Chandi Devi crossing runs higher and further.

A combined ticket covering both is sold at the base stations and saves a little over buying separately. Queues build sharply through the morning and during Navratri, so go early, and note that services pause in high wind.

• Experiences: Kid-Friendly, Cultural
• Price Range: $2–$5 per person; combined ticket available
• Duration: 2 hours for both temples
• Book via: Ticket counters at the ropeway base stations

Rajaji Jeep Safari

Open jeeps leave the Chilla gate at first light and again in the afternoon for a three-hour run through sal forest and riverine grassland, and the elephants are the near-certainty — Rajaji holds one of the healthier populations in northern India, and herds cross the tracks regularly. Tigers are present but rarely seen; leopards, sloth bears, sambar, spotted deer, wild boar, and a long list of birds are the realistic returns on a morning out.

Book through the forest department or a registered operator, since permits and guides are compulsory. The park is closed from roughly mid-June to mid-November, so this is a winter and spring activity only.

• Experiences: Wildlife/Nature, Adventure/Outdoor
• Price Range: $20–$45 per person; jeeps often shared
• Duration: Half day
• Book via: Uttarakhand forest department at Chilla, or a registered operator

Rishikesh Day Trip

Twenty-four kilometres upstream sits a town with an entirely different temperament — where Haridwar is a pilgrimage city of ritual and ghats, Rishikesh is yoga schools, rafting outfits, and cafés full of long-stay travellers. The classic day takes in the Lakshman Jhula and Ram Jhula suspension bridges, the abandoned Beatles Ashram with its graffitied meditation huts, a stretch of white water on the Ganga, and the evening aarti at Parmarth Niketan, which is smaller and more intimate than the one at Har Ki Pauri.

Rafting runs roughly September to June and stops for the monsoon, so check the season before building a day around it. Shared taxis and buses run constantly between the two towns, making this the easiest excursion in the area.

• Experiences: Adventure/Outdoor, Cultural
• Price Range: $25–$60 per person including rafting
• Duration: Full day
• Book via: A local operator, or independently by bus or shared taxi

Vegetarian Street-Food Trail

No meat, no eggs, and no alcohol are sold anywhere in this city, and rather than limiting the food it has concentrated it — Haridwar does one style of eating extremely well. Breakfast is aloo puri with a dry potato curry and pickle, eaten standing at a counter before eight; after that come kachoris fried to order, chaat, and thick lassi. The sweets are the real strength, with rabri, malai peda, jalebi lifted straight from the pan, and kulfi in the evenings.

The lanes around Moti Bazaar and the approach to Har Ki Pauri hold the long-running places, several of them decades old. Go early for the puri stalls, since the best ones sell out well before mid-morning.

• Experiences: Food, Cultural
• Price Range: $5–$15 per person
• Duration: 2 hours
• Book via: Self-guided around Moti Bazaar and the ghat lanes

Yoga or Ayurveda at an Ashram

This is a city that has taught these disciplines for a very long time, and the options run from free to fairly serious. Shantikunj offers structured programmes and residential stays built around the Gayatri tradition at no charge for those who come to study; Patanjali Yogpeeth runs panchakarma treatments and consultations at its ayurvedic hospital; and a scattering of smaller ashrams along the Rishikesh road hold morning yoga sessions that visitors can drop into.

Residential courses and treatments both need arranging in advance, sometimes weeks ahead for the popular ones. If you want something less committed, Rishikesh up the road has far more drop-in classes aimed at short-stay visitors.

• Experiences: Wellness/Relaxation
• Price Range: Free–$40 depending on the programme
• Duration: Half day upward
• Book via: Directly with Shantikunj, Patanjali Yogpeeth, or a local ashram

Ganga Boat Ride

Small wooden boats work the calmer water below the ghats, and a short crossing gives you a view of Haridwar that the crowded steps never will — the temple facades and the tiers of bathers seen from the river itself, with the hills rising behind. Boatmen at several ghats run twenty-minute circuits, and some will take you out toward the far bank in the late afternoon so that you watch the evening aarti from the water rather than from the crush on the steps.

Agree the price and the length of the trip before you get in, and check that life jackets are aboard. This is the single best answer to the problem of the aarti crowds.

• Experiences: Sunrise/Sunset
• Price Range: $2–$6 per person
• Duration: 30 minutes
• Book via: Boatmen at the ghats; agree the fare in advance

Haridwar is not a city that sets out to charm visitors, and that is rather the point of it. Give it two or three days and you can stand on the step where a drop of immortality is said to have landed, watch several thousand people sing to a river at dusk, ride a cable car to a hilltop goddess who grants wishes, and eat aloo puri at seven in the morning from a counter that has sold nothing else for fifty years. The best places to visit in Haridwar sit close enough together that the old town works entirely on foot, with Rajaji, Kankhal, and Rishikesh all within easy reach. If you’re weighing up where to base yourself between the ghats and the quieter Bhupatwala road, our Best Hostels in Haridwar guide rounds up the budget stays worth booking.

FAQ