Lakes & Dams
Weekend Getaways
Somewhere flat and blue to sit next to for two days.
17 places
Saputara
Saputara Lake
The lake in the middle of town, with boats on it and a path around the edge. Half an hour, and it is what everyone does on arriving.
Alleppey (Backwaters)
Vembanad Lake Basin
India's longest lake expanse, forming the core for luxury houseboat cruising loops and traditional resort properties.
Alleppey (Backwaters)
Punnamada Lake Track
The historic backwater stretch that hosts the annual Nehru Trophy snake boat races, popular for evening walks.
Udaipur
Lake Pichola
Artificial, dammed in 1362 and named after the village of Picholi — one of a chain of lakes built around Udaipur to hold drinking and irrigation water, not for the view they are now famous for. Four islands sit in it, among them Jag Niwas, which carries the Lake Palace, and Jag Mandir. Boats leave from inside the City Palace and the sunset run is the one people book. In bad drought years this lake has emptied completely, so check the water level before you plan a trip around it.
Mahabaleshwar
Venna Lake
Man-made, dug in 1842 to supply the town with water and now given over to pedal boats and pony rides. Crowded and commercial, and perfectly good for an hour with children.
Matheran
Charlotte Lake
The primary natural water reservoir basin on the plateau, surrounded by dense evergreen forests and hosting an ancient temple shrine.
Patnitop
Sanasar Lake
A beautiful, offbeat satellite meadow cup enclosing a small natural lake 20 km away, popular for paragliding and wilderness camping.
Cherai Beach
Backwater Edge
Where the beach borders Kerala's backwaters on Vypin Island.
Chandigarh
Sukhna Lake
A scenic man-made lake popular for boating and sunset walks.
Dakor
Gomti Lake and Ghats
The tank opposite the temple gates, with wide stone steps for ritual bathing and a shrine to Bodana, the devotee the Dakor story turns on. Boats run in the afternoons, mostly for local families.
Nainital
Naini Lake
The town's central lake, famous for boating and the lakeside Mall.
Mount Abu
Nakki Lake
The lake at the centre of Rajasthan's only hill station, up in the Aravallis, and the reason Mount Abu gets called an oasis in the desert — a plateau twenty-two kilometres long carrying rivers, waterfalls and evergreen forest, in a state that has very little of any of them. Pedal boats go out from the shore and the walk around the water is the town's evening ritual. The rock formations on the ridge above have collected names over the years; Toad Rock is the one everybody photographs. The lake is treated as sacred, so it is a place to walk around rather than swim in.
Khajjiar
Khajjiar Lake
A small lake in the middle of the meadow with a floating mat of weed drifting across it. It is silting up and smaller than it was, so temper any expectation set by older photographs.
Varkala Beach
Kappil Lake Estuary
A scenic coastal spot 6 km north where a quiet backwater lake meets the sea, split beautifully by a beach highway.
Kodaikanal
Kodaikanal Lake
Man-made, dug in the 1860s, and star-shaped only from the air. The five-kilometre perimeter road is the good part, so hire a bicycle. Boats are rowed or pedalled and the queue at the boat club is long on weekends.
Kerala
Alleppey (Backwaters)
The mistake in Alleppey is the day boat. A houseboat only becomes worth it once the day-trippers have gone home and the water goes quiet. Book an overnight, and if you can, book a smaller boat that can leave the main channel. The big two-storey ones are restricted to the wide canals where they queue up alongside each other; the small ones get into the narrow waterways between the paddy fields, which is where the backwaters stop being a boat trip and start being a place where people live. Better still, spend a morning on a public ferry. The government service from Alleppey to Kottayam costs almost nothing, takes a couple of hours, stops at village jetties, and carries schoolchildren and shopping. You will see more of the actual backwaters from its deck than from most houseboats. The paddy fields here are farmed below sea level, kept dry by dykes and pumps — Kuttanad is one of the few places in the world where that is done. October to March. The monsoon has its own case, and the snake boat races in the wet season are worth planning around, but the water is high and the light is grey.
Jammu & Kashmir
Srinagar (Dal Lake)
Srinagar is a lake city, and the difference between a good stay and a mediocre one is which part of the lake you sleep on. Take a houseboat, but ask where it is moored. The boats near the Boulevard are convenient and noisy with traffic; the ones further out towards Nagin lake are quieter and give you the mornings the place is famous for. Shikara rides are priced by the hour and by negotiation — agree the route and the price before you get in, or you will be taken to a floating handicraft shop instead. The Mughal gardens — Shalimar, Nishat, Chashme Shahi — are terraced up the eastern hillside and are best in the first hour after opening. The vegetable market on the water at dawn is the real thing, and it means being up before five. Papier-mâché and Kashmiri walnut wood are genuine crafts here and worth buying properly rather than roadside. Check current advisories before you book, and do that close to your travel date rather than months out. April and May for the blossom, and June to August is the season most Indians come. Winter is cold, beautiful and quiet.