Treks Near Delhi for the Weekend: Ridge Trails, Triund, Nag Tibba and Kedarkantha

Treks near Delhi for the weekend: the quick answer

Delhi has two kinds of trekking. The first is on the city’s own hills: the Delhi Ridge, a northern tail of the Aravalli range that runs for about 35 km from Tughlaqabad to Wazirabad. It is low and rocky, but it has real trails, and you can be on one by metro before breakfast. The second is the Himalaya: Himachal and Uttarakhand treks that Delhiites reach with a Friday night bus from ISBT Kashmere Gate and a Sunday night bus home. The table puts both side by side, with figures from the sources listed at the end (checked October 2026).

Hiking near Delhi without leaving the city: the Ridge

The Delhi Ridge is split into four parts. The Northern Ridge near Delhi University’s North Campus is the smallest, with under 87 hectares left. The Central Ridge, from Sadar Bazaar towards Dhaula Kuan, has about 864 hectares of forest and was declared a reserved forest in 1914. The South-Central or Mehrauli Ridge, around Sanjay Van, JNU and Vasant Kunj, covers about 633 hectares. The Southern or Tughlaqabad Ridge is by far the biggest at about 6,200 hectares, and it holds Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary. In 1993, 7,777 hectares of the Ridge were declared reserve forest.

For hiking near Delhi, the Southern and Mehrauli Ridge are where the trails are. The terrain is quartzite rock, thorn scrub and dhau forest, with short steep pitches rather than long climbs. That makes it good practice for footing on uneven ground, but not for the hours of continuous uphill a Himalayan trek asks for. Use it for the first weeks of training and for keeping fit between trips.

Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary: Delhi’s longest marked trails

Asola Bhatti is the best place for a proper hike inside Delhi. The Delhi Forest Department’s sanctuary site gives its area as 32 sq km, open Tuesday to Sunday from 7 AM to 3 PM and closed on Mondays, with tickets booked online. The sanctuary runs along the Delhi–Haryana border on the Southern Ridge. The forest department lists nilgai, golden jackals and spotted deer among its mammals, and occasionally leopards, so stay on the marked trails and don’t wander off them alone.

Link the Blue Bull and Sandgrouse trails and you have 8.5 km of walking, which is a fair test before a first Himalayan weekend. The fee table is on the sanctuary’s booking page rather than its home page, so check the current entry fee there before you go. The sanctuary’s address is Shooting Range Road, Tughlakabad, and the forest department lists a helpline on +91-11-2604-4711.

Sanjay Van and the Mehrauli Ridge

Sanjay Van is the forest at the heart of Delhi’s South-Central or Mehrauli Ridge, a 633-hectare stretch centred near JNU and Vasant Kunj that also takes in the Aravalli and Neela Hauz biodiversity parks. Large parts of this Ridge have been built over, which is why the wooded core matters. There are no official trail lengths here, so you make your own loop over flat ground, rocky outcrops and the small gullies that cut across the woods.

Wear full-length trousers and proper shoes, because the scrub is thorny, and carry your own water. Sanjay Van is quieter than Asola and good for a weekday 60–90 minute walk if you live in south or south-west Delhi. Our guide to running tracks in Delhi covers the flatter parks for easy days.

Weekend Himalayan treks from ISBT Kashmere Gate

Most weekend treks near Delhi follow the same pattern: an overnight bus out on Friday, a walk on Saturday and Sunday, and an overnight bus back to arrive on Monday morning. Here are the three that suit a Delhi weekend best, from easiest to hardest.

Triund: the easiest Himalayan trek from Delhi

Triund is a meadow on the Dhauladhar range above McLeodganj, at about 2,830 m (9,278 ft). Most people walk from Dharamkot, past the Galu temple, about 10 km in all, and the trail climbs through 22 bends before the top. It is graded easy, but it is steep and stony; forest staff record your ID at the checkpoint and check bags for plastic. Delhi to Lower Dharamshala is about 475 km. HRTC’s Himsuta Volvo buses leave ISBT Kashmere Gate in the evening, cost ₹1,250–1,550 and take 10–12 hours; private buses also leave from Majnu Ka Tilla, RK Ashram Marg and Dhaula Kuan (checked October 2026). Some buses stop at Lower Dharamshala and some go up to McLeodganj, so read your ticket.

Nag Tibba: a 3,000 m summit in two days

Nag Tibba, at about 3,020 m (9,910 ft) in the Garhwal hills of Uttarakhand, is the shortest real Himalayan summit trek from Delhi. The usual start is Pantwari village, at about 4,640 ft (roughly 1,400 m), 99 km and 3–4 hours from Dehradun by road. Trekking operators plan it as 7 km up to camp on day one, then the summit and the long walk down on day two, about 20 km in all. Buses to Dehradun run from ISBT Kashmere Gate in 5–7 hours.

Kedarkantha: the winter snow trek

Kedarkantha (about 3,810 m, or 12,500 ft) in Uttarkashi district is a step up: about 23 km over four nights and five days from Sankri village, graded easy to moderate, and Sankri itself is about 205 km and 9–10 hours by road from Dehradun. That makes it a long-weekend-plus-leave trip from Delhi rather than a Saturday and Sunday. Operators list October to April as the season and December to February for deep snow.

Permits, fees and closures for Delhi trekkers

• Triund fees and caps: the Forest Department’s Eco Tourism Society in Dharamsala started collecting fees at a check post at Gallu in December 2023. In January 2024 it halved them, to ₹100 per person per day for entry and ₹550 for a two-person tent including entry. The same society capped Triund at 400 trekkers a day, 40 people overnight and 20 tents at the top. Registered local guides of recognised operators pay no fee.
• Kedarkantha and Nag Tibba permits: Kedarkantha needs a forest department and trekking permit, and operators arrange it with your ID. For Nag Tibba, operators collect ID copies for the forest authorities. We couldn’t find an official current fee list for either, so ask your operator what the permit costs and whether it is included.
• Book through a registered operator: Uttarakhand has been drafting new trekking rules for operators and guides. Before you pay for a Kedarkantha or Nag Tibba trip, ask the operator which permits are included and what the current state rules require of trekkers.
• Asola Bhatti: closed on Mondays, and the Neeli Jheel road needs a vehicle permit from the gate.

Treks near Delhi by month: December, January and the rest

Searches for treks near Delhi in December, January or October all come back to the same trade-off: Delhi’s best hiking weather is also its worst air. India Meteorological Department normals for Safdarjung (1991–2020) give January an average high of 20.1 °C and May one of 39.9 °C. But a CREA analysis of CPCB data found Delhi averaged 163 µg/m³ of PM2.5 from 1 October 2025 to 28 February 2026, with 18 ‘severe’ and 87 ‘very poor’ days and only one ‘good’ day.

So the honest answer for treks near Delhi in December and January is to go up, not out. Leave the city for Kedarkantha or Nag Tibba, where the air is clean, and keep your Delhi training indoors on bad-AQI days.

Altitude basics for a Delhi trekker

Delhi sits on the plains, so every Himalayan trek from here is a big climb in a short time. The NHS says altitude sickness usually starts above 2,500 m, with headache, nausea, tiredness, dizziness and poor sleep 6–10 hours after arrival. Triund (about 2,830 m) and Nag Tibba (about 3,020 m) are just above that line; Kedarkantha (about 3,810 m) is well above it.

• Above 3,000 m, avoid sleeping more than 500 m higher than the night before, and take a rest day every 3–4 days.
• Avoid going from under 1,200 m to over 3,500 m in a single day. A Delhi to Sankri to summit rush breaks this rule; a staged itinerary doesn’t.
• If symptoms don’t improve after a day, go down 300–1,000 m. Confusion, breathlessness at rest or blue lips mean descend at once and get help.

A six-week fitness plan for Kedarkantha, built around Delhi

This plan uses Delhi’s own hills for the outdoor work and moves indoors on smog days. It assumes you can walk 5 km comfortably now. Three strength sessions a week are the core; our national guide on how to prepare for a trek explains the exercises and progressions in full.

1. 1

   Weeks 1–2: base

   Three strength sessions (step-ups, split squats, Romanian deadlifts, calf raises, planks). One Sunday walk: the Palash and Sparrow trails at Asola, 4.5 km. If the AQI is very poor, walk the same time on a treadmill at an incline.

2. 2

   Weeks 3–4: load

   Add a 5–8 kg backpack to step-ups and to your weekend walk. Link Blue Bull and Sandgrouse at Asola for 8.5 km. One weekday, climb stairs for 30 minutes at a steady pace.

3. 3

   Week 5: rehearsal

   Do a Nag Tibba or Triund weekend with your trek pack, or a 3-hour Ridge walk carrying it. Note blisters, sore knees and how your pack sits.

4. 4

   Week 6: taper

   Two shorter strength sessions, one easy 60-minute walk, and plenty of sleep. Pack early so the Friday night bus isn’t a scramble.

If your colony or society has a gym, Personal Gym Training in Delhi adds loaded step-ups and deadlifts with a coach watching every rep. Trekking with friends? Group classes in Delhi cost ₹499 per person for a live session. If a knee has stopped you trekking before and your physio has cleared you, Rehab & Recovery in Delhi rebuilds strength slowly. For flatter training, see cycling in Delhi and running tracks in Delhi. To size your food for long trek days, use the TDEE calculator. Everything else is on online personal training in Delhi.