7 Places to Visit in Haridwar

The city's older name, Mayapuri, survives in the Maya Devi Temple near the railway station, one of the 51 Shakti Peethas and evidence that organised pilgrimage here predates the Har Ki Pauri ghat rituals that now dominate its modern identity.

The city's layout follows the river: Har Ki Pauri and its Brahmakund tank anchor the centre, with the hilltop shrines of Mansa Devi and Chandi Devi rising on opposite banks, each reached by a short cable ropeway. The Sapt Sarovar Road corridor to the north holds a cluster of 20th-century temples — Bharat Mata Mandir, Pawan Dham, and Sapt Rishi Ashram — while Kankhal, a few kilometres south, holds the older Daksha Mahadev Temple and the modern Patanjali Yogpeeth institution.

Haridwar Junction, on the Delhi–Dehradun line, is the primary transport hub, with the Shatabdi Express from Delhi taking approximately 4.5 hours. Jolly Grant Airport in Dehradun, roughly 38–42 km away, is the nearest air link. Every twelve years, Haridwar hosts one stretch of the Kumbh Mela at Har Ki Pauri (most recently 2021), when the city's population multiplies many times over for the ritual bathing dates. Outside Kumbh years, the Kanwar Yatra (mid-July to mid-August) brings the next-largest surge, as pilgrims on foot carry Ganga water from the city's ghats. The most comfortable travel window is October through March, when daytime temperatures stay moderate and the yatra crowds of the monsoon months have passed; May and June bring high heat that makes the exposed hilltop temple approaches genuinely taxing by midday.