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0x03 Visit Doon

The valley the tagline is about.

Dehradun sits at 640 m / 2,100 ft above sea level, in the valley between the Himalayan foothills and the Shivaliks. Security BSides Dehradun 0x03 is two days here, . This page is the practical half: how to get here, and what to do with a spare morning.

How to get here A spare day
Nearest airport
Jolly Grant, DED roughly 25 km from the city. Domestic flights only.
Railhead
Dehradun, DDN central, a terminus, so you cannot sleep through the stop.
Getting to the venue
Energy Acres, Bidholi University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Bidholi campus, Dehradun. The door to walk through goes out with the programme.
Early April
Warm days, cool evenings Spring, and before the monsoon. Something with sleeves for the evening.

3–4 April 2027 Dehradun, Uttarakhand 30.3165° N · 78.0322° E · 640 M ASL

The Doon valley seen from a forested ridge above it, a hairpin road climbing away on the left, roofs stacked down the slope on the right, low cloud lying across the middle distance and the plain beyond it.

01 Getting here

Three ways in, and the train is the one people forget.

Distances below are approximate and road times in the valley depend on the day. Check a live timetable before you book anything, nothing here is a schedule.

  1. By air, into Jolly Grant

    Jolly Grant is roughly 25 km from the city, and mostly served from the larger metros. Prepaid taxis outside, and allow about an hour into town, more if you land in the evening. No reason to arrive three hours early on the way home.

    Check which way you are going. The airport is south east of the city and the campus north west, so a run straight to Bidholi crosses the whole valley. The map in section 02 shows it.

  2. By train, which ends where you want to be

    Both daytime and overnight services run from Delhi, and the fast daytime ones are competitive with flying once you count the airport at each end. Book early: this is a hill-station route in the season people go up it.

  3. By road, from Delhi or from Haridwar

    Delhi is roughly 250 km away, usually five to seven hours depending on where and when you leave. Overnight coaches run from the Delhi terminals into the Dehradun ISBT, a few kilometres out of the centre. From Haridwar or Rishikesh it is a short hop, well under two hours in normal traffic.

  4. The last leg, to the campus

    Gate published with the programme
    The campus is Energy Acres, P.O. Bidholi Via Prem Nagar, Dehradun 248007, Uttarakhand, India, at 30.4176° N 77.9683° E. Search those two numbers, not the university's name: UPES has a second Dehradun campus and a name offers you either. Open the campus in a map.

    Which gate to stand at, the nearest landmark and anything we arrange to help people get there go out with the programme, to everyone holding a ticket.

Getting around once you are here

Autos and shared vikrams
The normal way to move short distances
Ride-hailing
The usual apps work With the usual caveats about surge and about being twenty minutes away.
Electric city buses
Fixed routes, not everywhere Worth a look if one is going your way, no use at all if it is not.
On foot
The centre is walkable Distances inside town are small, and most of what is worth seeing is within an hour's drive of it.

When to arrive

The conference is 3–4 April 2027. Arriving the evening before is the difference between a first session and a first session you were awake for. If you are travelling from outside the region, the day after is the cheaper one to keep free.

Nothing is arranged by us yet

To be confirmed
There is no conference shuttle, no block-booked hotel and no travel desk at this stage. If any of that is arranged, it is announced with the programme rather than hinted at here.

The terminus building at Dehradun station, faced in red and white crazy paving, its name on blue boards in Devanagari, Latin and Urdu script, with water tanks along the roofline under a clear sky.

02 The valley

What is within an hour of the conference.

Dehradun is the capital of Uttarakhand and sits in the Doon valley, with the Yamuna at one end, the Ganges at the other and a ridge above it. None of the following is organised by the conference; it is simply what is here.

A schematic plan of the Doon valley, north at the top. A broad valley floor runs west to east, closed along the north by a band of contour lines climbing into a range and along the south by a lower, shallower band. A river meanders down each end of the frame. Two dashed routes leave one point near the west of the floor, one curving south east and then east to the far river, the other running south west out of the frame.
  • Himalayan foothills
  • Mussoorie
  • Yamuna
  • Ganges
  • UPES, Bidholi
  • Dehradun
  • Rishikesh
  • Jolly Grant, DED
  • Rajaji National Park
  • Shivalik hills
  • to Delhi, 250 km
Schematic, not to scale. The valley, the ranges and the rivers are in the right places relative to each other; the distances are not, which is why the one worth knowing is written on it. The campus is placed by direction only: north north west of the city, west of the road up to Mussoorie. The coordinates and a map link are in getting here.
  • Mussoorie seen from the air, its buildings stacked in tiers along the top of a ridge above a long retaining wall, tin roofs in green and red, a square orange tower with a pale pyramid roof standing above them, a road switchbacking down through the trees below the town, and further ridges going back into haze.

    Up the ridge

    Mussoorie

    Roughly 35 km north and about 1,300 m higher, an hour and a half of switchbacks. This is the busy one: a mall road you walk end to end, the whole valley laid out below you, and a great many other people doing the same thing. A weekday is a different town from a Saturday.

  • A wide paved walkway curving away downhill through deodars in thick mist, green metal railings along the drop, a small green board fixed to one of them lettered "All those who wander are not lost" with a dark dome lamp on the post above it, a big mossy trunk to the right, and the green roofs of two low buildings just showing through the fog on the left.

    Higher, and quieter

    Landour

    The cantonment immediately above Mussoorie, and the quiet half of the same trip: deodar, colonial-era churches and a loop of road you walk rather than drive. Lal Tibba at the top of it is the viewpoint people make the climb for, and on a clear morning there is snow on the skyline from it.

  • A red steel suspension footbridge crossing a wide green river, people walking across it, rafts on the water below and a town stacked up the hillside on the far bank.

    Down to the river

    Rishikesh

    Around 45 km away, where the Ganges comes out of the hills. Footbridges across the river, ashrams on both banks, rafting through the spring season and an evening on the ghats. It is the one place on this list a lot of visitors have already heard of before they arrive.

  • The bathing ghats at Haridwar from above at dusk, the stepped banks and footbridges dense with people, a clock tower on the near bank and lit temple spires along the water.

    Where the river reaches the plain

    Haridwar

    Another 25 km on from Rishikesh, and the river is properly on the plain by the time it gets there. The aarti at Har Ki Pauri after sunset is why most people make the trip, and it is a crowd rather than a viewpoint. Check the festival calendar before you plan an evening around it.

  • A long colonial building in pink brick and cream, its white domed tower rising over a columned portico and a run of arches, seen across a wide lawn with a few people sitting along its edge.

    In the city

    The Forest Research Institute

    A national institution in a colonial-era brick building, on roughly 450 hectares you can walk through, with museums better than they need to be. The most photographed building in Dehradun, ten minutes from the centre.

  • A narrow gorge with an overhanging rock wall on one side and trees leaning in above, a shallow stream running over pale gravel along its floor and a few people wading up it.

    Ankle to knee deep

    Robber's Cave

    A stream runs out of a gorge 8 km from the centre, drops underground partway along and comes up again further on. Locally it is Guchhu Pani, and there is no dry path through: you wade it, in cold water that reaches the knee in places, so bring shoes you do not mind soaking. Busiest at the weekend.

  • A chain of low stone weirs stepping a stream down a valley floor, each spilling into a still green pool, with cut stone bathing steps along the near bank and forested hills behind.

    Rebuilt, and reopened

    Sahastradhara

    Sulphur water running over stepped limestone terraces on the Baldi river, and a name that means a thousand springs. A flash flood destroyed the market and much of the approach on the night of 15 September 2025; both were rebuilt and the site reopened to visitors in the spring of 2026. Accounts of how far out it is vary between 11 and 18 km.

  • A shallow river running between built-up banks in a wooded gorge, an ochre and red temple complex set into the rock on the right, a painted gateway and walkway on the left, and people sitting on the stone bank.

    Down at the river

    Tapkeshwar

    A Shiva temple built over a natural cave on a riverbank six kilometres from the centre, with water dripping onto the lingam inside, which is where the name comes from. The cave is called Drona, after the Mahabharata teacher Dronacharya, who local belief holds lived in it. Open from early morning to evening.

  • A wooden park gate across a road, its name-board on the crossbeam and two painted signs hanging under it, with scrub and tall grass closing in behind.

    Wild edges

    Rajaji National Park

    The park runs along the valley's southern and eastern edges, elephant country with gates within an hour of the city. Open in early April, closed for the monsoon later in the season. Check the gate before you set out: entry is regulated and not every gate takes walk-ups.

  • A narrow market street strung across with tinsel and paper streamers, green wooden balconies over the shopfronts on the left, stalls and boards on both sides, scooters parked along the edge and people walking down the middle.

    Half an hour, on foot

    Paltan Bazaar

    The oldest part of the city that is still doing its original job. Street food, fabric, hardware and a great deal of noise, the shortest route to feeling like you have actually been somewhere.

  • The upper stage of a many sided brick clock tower floodlit gold against a black sky, arched louvred openings above a band of white clock faces, with unlit foliage on the right.

    Better after dark

    The clock tower

    Paltan Bazaar runs off it, so you will pass it whether you meant to or not. It is floodlit at night, which is the version worth stopping for rather than the one you walk past at noon.

Scroll sideways, or use the arrows.

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03 A spare day

Three shapes for the day either side of the conference.

Pick one, not all three. The valley punishes optimism about driving times.

  1. Half a day, no car

    The Forest Research Institute in the morning, the clock tower and Paltan Bazaar for lunch, and an hour of doing nothing on a bench somewhere. It fits before an afternoon flight and needs no planning at all.

  2. A full day up the ridge

    Leave early for Mussoorie, walk in Landour rather than on the mall, and come down before dark: the road is slower at night and the last stretch is unlit. Allow three to four hours of driving, and a jacket.

  3. A full day at the river

    Rishikesh in the morning, Haridwar for the evening aarti, back late. Roughly two and a half hours of driving, more on a weekend or a festival day. Check the calendar before you commit: a festival changes the crowd by an order of magnitude.

If you only have the evening

Do the bazaar. It is ten minutes from most of the city, it is open late, and it is the one thing on this page that costs nothing and needs no vehicle.

Bringing someone who is not attending

Everything in section 02 works without a conference ticket, and none of it needs one. A ticket is only for the conference itself, the valley is not gated.

The three ticket types
A long symmetrical brick building with a central arched portico and a domed tower at each end, seen straight down a wide driveway lined with bougainvillea in full magenta flower under a clear blue sky.
Shape 01, the half day that needs no car.
A grey stone church with green window frames and a red roof standing above a road on a wooded hillside, deodars closing in on both sides, a flight of stone steps with green railings climbing to its door, and two dogs on the empty road.
Shape 02, the full day up the ridge.
A wide river at dusk with a many tiered temple lit gold on the far bank, a suspension footbridge crossing to a town stacked up the hillside, forested hills behind and pale boulders in the foreground under a pink and violet sky.
Shape 03, the full day at the river.

04 Eating

Six things to eat, and why the momos are good.

Dehradun has a large Tibetan settlement at Clement Town, roughly seven kilometres south of the clock tower, and that is why the momos here are not a novelty. No restaurant, cafe or bakery is named below, for the same reason no hotel is named further down: an endorsement is not ours to give, and the dishes outlast the places that serve them.

  • A bun tikki filled with a fried potato patty, chutney, raw onion and tomato, served on a green leaf with a second tikki behind it.

    Street food

    Bun tikki

    The city's own. A potato tikki in a bun with chutney and raw onion, closer to chaat than to anything you would call a burger, eaten standing up. The one thing on this list done this way here and nowhere else.

  • Five pleated steamed momos in a row on a lettuce leaf on a pale wooden platter, a small white bowl of dark red chutney with a coriander leaf on it behind them, and a pair of blue patterned chopsticks lying on the dark table alongside.

    From Clement Town

    Momos

    Steamed or fried, with a chutney hotter than it looks. This is Tibetan food cooked by the people whose food it is, which is the entire difference.

    Mindrolling Monastery is at the middle of the settlement, re-established in this valley after its community left Tibet, its Great Stupa inaugurated in 2002.

  • A dark bowl of thukpa shot from above, wheat noodles coiled in a clear broth with strips of carrot and green pepper, shredded cabbage, coriander and spring onion, and a spoonful of chilli oil on top.

    When the evening turns

    Thukpa

    A noodle soup out of the same kitchens, and the thing to order once the light has gone and the temperature has followed it down. Noodles, broth, whatever green is about, and too hot to eat for the first five minutes.

  • Cubes of potato fried yellow with cumin and mustard seed, scattered with coriander and laid with a whole dried red chilli, in a dark iron pan on a wooden table.

    From the hills

    Aloo ke gutke

    Boiled potato cut into cubes and finished in mustard oil with dried red chilli and jakhiya, a seed that grows in these hills and is barely used outside them. Garhwal and Kumaon both claim it and both are right. It arrives as a side dish and does not stay one.

  • Three pieces of bal mithai, brown fudge rolled in tiny white sugar balls, in a hammered brass dish on orange cloth with cashews and slivered almonds scattered behind.

    The sweet

    Bal mithai

    Roasted khoya under a coat of white sugar balls. It is from Almora, over in Kumaon, and not from this valley at all, which has never stopped a shop in Dehradun from selling it.

  • A glass of deep red buransh squash with ice and floating petals on a weathered wooden table, a spray of red rhododendron flowers beside it and a blurred green hillside behind.

    Cold, and only in spring

    Buransh

    The red rhododendron that flowers along these ridges between February and April, pressed into a squash and sold in bottles all over the hills. Sweet, faintly tart, the colour of the flower it came out of, and served cold, which on an afternoon in early April is the entire point.

  • Take something home

    The hill pulses, sold by weight

    Gahat, which is horsegram and the one to start with, black bhatt soybean, and rajma off the slopes higher up this district. Paltan Bazaar sells all three by weight, along the same stretch as the woollens and the hardware. Of everything on this page these are the ones that turn into cooking at home rather than into a photograph.

  • If you want the hill version

    Garhwali food, which you have to ask for

    The food of the hills is not the food of the plains. Kafuli, a green gravy thickened with rice flour, the gahat from the card beside this one cooked down thick, and thalis built on mandua and jhangora rather than wheat. The default in a city restaurant is north Indian, which is why you ask.

05 Practical notes

Eight dull things, worth knowing anyway.

Weather in early April
Warm afternoons, cool evenings Spring, and well before the monsoon. High twenties or low thirties in the afternoon, a layer after dark, and around ten degrees cooler up the ridge.
Altitude
640 m / 2,100 ft above sea level Enough to give the evenings their character, nowhere near enough to need acclimatising to. Mussoorie is the genuine jump.
Staying
Nothing block-booked The station and the clock tower are central, the campus is not, so decide which of the two mornings you would rather have. We do not recommend individual places.
Paying for things
UPI, cards, and some cash Carry a little cash anyway: autos, a temple donation box and the smallest stalls still prefer it.
Water
Bottled or filtered A refillable bottle is the sane approach, and April afternoons will empty it faster than you expect.
Language
Hindi and English Both are understood everywhere you are likely to be. Garhwali is the language of the hills.
Connectivity
Good in the city Mobile data is fine in town and patchy the moment you climb. Do not plan a call from a switchback.
Monkeys
Not a joke Around temples, the ridge and anywhere with a view, food in your hand is an invitation. Bags closed, snacks away.

Coming from outside India

Ask early
Visa requirements are between you and the Indian mission where you live, and we cannot advise on them. We can confirm the conference in writing if an application needs it. Write to support@bsidesdehradun.com early rather than the week before.

Accessibility

Being checked
We are not going to describe a venue's step-free routes before we have walked them. Tell us what you need at support@bsidesdehradun.com and you will get a straight answer, including a no.

What we can actually help with

Not hotels. Which train is worth taking, whether a plan fits between two sessions, and putting you in touch with other people travelling from your city. The answer comes from somebody who lives here.

Ask us

06 Questions

What people ask before they book.

Which UPES campus is the conference at?

Energy Acres, the Bidholi campus, at 30.4176° N 77.9683° E. Search those two numbers rather than the university's name: UPES has a second campus in Dehradun and a name will offer you either one.

Which gate you should be standing at is a different question, and we are not going to guess it. The gate, the nearest landmark and anything we arrange to help people get there go out with the programme and to everyone holding a ticket.

What is the nearest airport?

Jolly Grant, DED, roughly 25 km from the city, domestic flights only and mostly from the larger metros. Allow around an hour from the terminal into town by road, more if you land in the evening.

Note which way you are going as well. The airport is south east of the city and the campus is north west of it, so a run straight to Bidholi crosses the whole valley instead of half of it.

Is the train worth taking?

Often, and it is the option people forget. Dehradun, DDN is central and it is a terminus, so there is no stop to sleep through. There are daytime and overnight services from Delhi, and the fast daytime ones are competitive with flying once you count the airport at each end. Book early for early April, this is a hill-station route in the season people go up it.

When should I arrive?

The conference is , and arriving the evening before is the difference between a first session and a first session you were awake for. If you are travelling from outside the region, the day after is the cheaper one to keep free.

Is accommodation arranged?

No. Nothing is block-booked and we do not recommend individual places. Near the railway station and the clock tower is central and the campus is not, so decide which of the two mornings you would rather have.

What is the weather like in early April?

Warm afternoons and cool evenings. Spring, and well before the monsoon: expect the high twenties or low thirties in the afternoon and something that wants a layer after dark. Up the ridge it is around ten degrees cooler.

Can I bring someone who is not attending?

Yes. Everything in the valley works without a conference ticket and none of it needs one. A ticket is only for the conference itself. The valley is not gated.

Can you help with a visa?

Visa requirements are between you and the Indian mission where you live, and we cannot advise on them. What we can do is confirm the conference in writing if an application needs it. Write to support@bsidesdehradun.com with plenty of time rather than the week before.

Is the venue accessible?

Being checked. We are not going to describe a venue's step-free routes before we have walked them. Tell us what you need at support@bsidesdehradun.com and you will get a straight answer, including a no.

Come up

Two days of conference, and a valley that rewards the third.

3–4 April 2027 at UPES Bidholi Campus, Dehradun. Tickets are not on sale yet, the prices are set and the registration section says what happens next.

See the tickets Venue and travel