Mussoorie · Uttarakhand
Above the town, beside the ITBP gate
Close enough to Mall Road to walk down for chai, far enough above it that the town becomes a sound rather than a crowd.
Shail Shikhar Cottage
Next to ITBP Gate, Mall Road
Mussoorie, Dehradun District
Uttarakhand 248179, India
From the house
A different sky every day
These are views from Shail Shikhar itself: Himalayan ridges beyond the garden, rain moving across Mussoorie, the valley settling into dusk, the oak forest in monsoon mist, and the lights of Dehradun after dark.
The map
The pin is the house itself, beside the ITBP gate off Mall Road. Open it for directions from wherever you are starting.
Getting here
Dehradun first, then up
Everybody arrives the same way: into the valley first, then a climb of switchbacks with the deodars closing over the road.
- By air
- Dehradun airport, 54 km away, then a hired car up the hill.Route from the airport
- By train
- Mussoorie has no railway of its own. Trains stop at Dehradun, in the valley below, and the road climbs from there.Route from the station
- The last climb
- The road up from Dehradun ends on Mall Road. The house is 1.1 km from it, beside the ITBP gate.Route from Mall Road
- Parking
- There is room for up to four cars at the house, so driving up is the simplest way to arrive.
Distances as the public listing gives them
The perch
Why the house faces north
Mussoorie sits on a ridge, and what a house in Mussoorie is worth depends almost entirely on which way it looks. This one looks north, at the high Himalaya on the horizon, with the valley falling away behind it.
Nearby
What is within reach
Mall Road
1.1 km
The town's promenade, and the road the house sits off.
Camel's Back Road
1.5 km
The ridge walk, best taken at the end of the day.
Kempty Falls
14 km
The waterfall everyone drives out to, down the Yamuna road.
Landour
The cantonment above Mussoorie: quieter, steeper, and where the town keeps its bookshops and bakeries.
The Doon School, Dehradun
Down in the valley: the school where Dr. Haridutt Bhatt taught Hindi, and where Rajiv Gandhi was his student.
One more thing, because the name gets shared
Hotels called Shail Shikhar also exist in Pauri and in Rishikesh. This is the Mussoorie house, on Mall Road beside the ITBP gate, and it is not connected to either of them.