Dehradun

The Doon is a broad valley between the Shivaliks and the first wall of the Himalaya, with the Yamuna on one side and the Ganga on the other. The city's name goes back to the seventeenth century, when Guru Ram Rai, son of the seventh Sikh Guru, pitched his dera here; his darbar, with its Mughal-style domes, still stands in the old centre, and every spring the Jhanda Mela raises a great flagpole in his honour.

The British liked the climate and filled the valley with institutions — the Survey of India, the Forest Research Institute, the Indian Military Academy, a cluster of famous boarding schools. Since 2000 it has also been the capital of Uttarakhand, and it has grown faster than its roads. The old Dehradun of litchi orchards and basmati fields survives at the edges, if you go looking.

Much of Dehradun's character is institutional: the Forest Research Institute's red-brick Greco-Roman main building, finished in 1929 in grounds the size of a small forest, has museums on timber, pests and wood that are odder and better than they sound. South of the city at Clement Town, the Mindrolling Monastery and its Great Stupa — one of the tallest in India — anchor a Tibetan community resettled here after 1959.

Garhwali food is worth asking for, because restaurants rarely lead with it: kafuli of spinach and fenugreek, gahat dal of horse gram, mandua roti, and jhangora kheer made from barnyard millet. The city's other food is from its bakeries — Dehradun has been famous for its rusks, cream rolls and biscuits for as long as anyone remembers, and the old ones still bake for the morning queue.

Robber's Cave is a walk up a river inside a narrow gorge — wear sandals you can get wet and go on a weekday morning, before the families arrive. Do the Forest Research Institute early too, then lunch, then Mindrolling in the afternoon light. For Mussoorie, go up by eight; by late morning on weekends the hill road is one long queue. And try the Paltan Bazaar end of town for the old Dehradun — the clock tower, the sweet shops, the shouting.

The Doon valley's water, forests and orchards are under real pressure from building, and summer water shortages are now routine. Choose stays that recycle water, refill rather than buy bottles, and take every wrapper back out of Robber's Cave and Sahastradhara. At Mindrolling, walk clockwise round the stupa and keep voices low in the shrine halls.

Rishikesh is less than an hour from the airport and the obvious next step: the Ganga leaving the mountains, the ashrams, the suspension bridges, and a very different idea of quiet.