Things to do in Meerut
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Meerut
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Best months, cool and dry, with rewri season, peak Hastinapur birding and wedding season fullness.
Shoulder months, post monsoon green in October and Holi plus Nauchandi Mela in March.
Worst months, heat regularly above 40 degrees and sightseeing becomes a dawn only sport.
Monsoon core, with humidity, waterlogged lanes and a diminished sanctuary visit.
What's on
- Nauchandi Mela Second Sunday after Holi, runs about a month in March-April
Meerut's great shared fair at Nauchandi Ground, centred on Chandi Devi temple and Bale Miyan dargah.
- Mahashivratri at Augarnath February or March, Maha Shivratri
The Augarnath temple's biggest night, magnificent for devotees and overwhelming for sightseers.
- Garh Ganga Mela Kartik Purnima, November
Mass Ganga bathing fair at Garhmukteshwar, an hour from Meerut, best approached very early.
- Sardhana Basilica Feast November
The Basilica of Our Lady of Graces feast period, when Sardhana fills with pilgrims and a fair.
Best things to do in Meerut
Shri Baba Augharnath Shiv Mandir
Meerut's essential sight, a living Shiva temple in the Cantt where the discontent of 10 May 1857 is said to have gathered.
Shaheed Smarak
The martyrs memorial to 1857 in maintained Cantt grounds, the orienting point for Meerut's freedom struggle story.
Government Freedom Struggle Museum
A small, earnest museum of the Meerut outbreak and the wider freedom struggle, best paired with the memorial outside.
St. John's Church
North India's oldest church, built in 1819, with a cemetery holding early British casualties of the 1857 revolt.
Basilica of Our Lady of Graces
Begum Samru's great church in Sardhana, the finest building in the district, with her monumental tomb statue inside.
Jambudweep Digambar Jain Tirth
A vast Jain cosmological model in Hastinapur, with a towering Meru, meditation temples and a boat circuit.
Gandhi Bagh
The Cantt's big green living room, with lawns, a walking track and an evening fountain, best early or after 5pm.
Prachin Shri Chandi Devi Mandir
The goddess temple that gives the Nauchandi Mela its name, opposite the Bale Miyan dargah in a shared devotion precinct.
Where to stay in Meerut
Meerut Cantonment and Abu Lane
first trip, all round base
The greenest and calmest part of Meerut, walkable to dinner, rewri shops and half the Cantt sights.
Garh Road
eating, business and modern convenience
The modern spine with malls, hospitals and the road to Nauchandi Ground and Suraj Kund.
NH-58 Bypass Partapur and Subharti
resorts, weddings and highway trips
Lawns, pools and instant expressway access, at the price of total car dependence.
Delhi Road and Shopprix Mall
expressway arrivals and value
The fastest bed after a late arrival from Delhi, with a business hotel inside the mall complex.
Mangal Pandey Nagar
budget stays near Garh Road
A residential colony within easy auto distance of Garh Road, the university area and the Cantt.
Think twice about
- Old City around Ghanta Ghar and Budhana Gate
Lanes too narrow for cars, severe congestion and poor budget lodges. Visit by day, sleep in the Cantt or on Garh Road.
- Meerut City station and Bhainsali Bus Stand perimeter
Chaotic, poorly lit at night and lined with ultra budget lodges. Use it for transport, do not base there.
- Isolated NH-58 highway motels
Cheap but stranded without a car, noisy with truck traffic and with no restaurant or transport nearby.
Best restaurants in Meerut
Frigo's Gourmet
Meerut's most ambitious restaurant, the multi cuisine dining room of Bravura Gold Resort on the bypass.
Melting Pot
Central Meerut's fine dining choice, with three private dining rooms for family celebrations and business dinners.
Crystal Palace
The Cantt's old reliable hotel restaurant and bar, used by local families for decades for a central sit down meal.
Chokhi Dhani Meerut
A Rajasthani village fair format with folk performance and an unlimited thali, dinner plus entertainment in one ticket.
Empress Court
A dependable family restaurant for Indian and Asian menus, remembered locally for snacks and family dinners.
Ram Chandra Sahai Anand Swaroop Rewri & Sweets Shop
The benchmark rewri and gajak shop on Abu Lane since 1904, and the box to buy and carry home in winter.
Hariya Ji Lassi Wale
Meerut's lassi institution, thick malai topped lassi plus gulab jamun and sweets, from morning to late night.
Chunnilal Halwai
An old halwai famous for plain gajar ka halwa made with carrots, milk and sugar, best in winter afternoons.
Outdoor things to do in Meerut
Hastinapur Wildlife Sanctuary
A Ganga floodplain birding and countryside day anchored by Hastinapur's temples, not a bookable safari park.
Suraj Kund Park
Meerut's most used large park, with sports, yoga groups and play areas, and the easiest daily walk on Garh Road.
Bhole ki Jhaal
A canal waterfall and picnic spot where local families sit by the water and paddle in the shallows in summer.
Fantasy World
Meerut's established water park on NH-58, with slides and wave pools, and the most rational afternoon in May heat.
Appu Ghar
An amusement and water park at Modipuram, the convenient family option when based in the north of the city.
Brijghat
The main Ganga ghat at Garhmukteshwar, for dawn river light, temple bells and boatmen an hour from Meerut.
Jaypee Greens Golf Course
The nearest bookable championship golf to Meerut, a Greg Norman 18 hole course in Greater Noida, a full day trip.
Best hotels in Meerut
Bravura Gold Resort
Meerut's flagship resort stay, with a pool, spa, lawns and 52 rooms on the Delhi Roorkee bypass at Partapur.
Godwin Meerut
A large top tier hotel near Subharti University with pool and garden, best booked at a rate reflecting mixed reviews.
Hotel Harmony Inn
The best central mid range all rounder, on Garh Road with a rooftop terrace and the Melting Pot restaurant on site.
Hyphen Premier-Business Hotel
A business hotel inside the Shopprix Mall complex, the most frictionless stay for expressway arrivals.
Hotel Rajmahal
A long established Abu Lane hotel whose case is walkable position in the Cantt eating and shopping lane.
Itsy Hotels Royale Inn
The best supported budget bed in Meerut, a Treebo branded hotel with restaurant, air conditioning and free WiFi.
Green Serene Abode
A small garden guesthouse on Delhi Road with kitchen equipped units, suited to longer and family stays.
Is Meerut expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | ₹1,800 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | ₹3,500 a person |
| Splurge | ₹7,500 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Jaypee Greens Golf Course: weeks ahead
- Frigo's Gourmet: a few days ahead
- Melting Pot: a few days ahead
- Bravura Gold Resort: a few days ahead
- Godwin Meerut: a few days ahead
- Book top hotels well ahead for winter weekends, wedding season and Nauchandi weeks.
- Book Jaypee Greens golf in Greater Noida ahead, always.
- Phone water parks the same day to check opening and which rides are running.
Is Meerut safe?
- Keep valuables discreet in bazaars and at Ghanta Ghar, and use hotel arranged transport after dark.
- Avoid walking unlit colony and highway stretches at night.
- Winter air quality can be poor and fog delays morning travel, so carry asthma medication if needed.
- At Bhole ki Jhaal and Brijghat, watch children closely around canal and river water and leave before dark.
Meerut travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Shopprix Mall is a good mall and cinema, not a sight, so do not spend your only afternoon there.
- Hastinapur sold as a jungle safari is a trap of expectation, with no bookable safari system.
- Rewri and gajak from highway stalls are not the Abu Lane product, so buy from named shops in season.
- Abu ka Maqbara is encroached and neglected, so see Shahpeer instead.
Getting around Meerut: public transport and more
- Use a hired car with a local driver for Hastinapur, Sardhana and Garhmukteshwar day trips.
- Inside Meerut use auto rickshaws and e rickshaws, and agree fares before you ride where meters are not used.
- Meerut City Junction and Meerut Cantt are separate stations, so check which one your train uses.
- Walk only inside the Cantt, Gandhi Bagh, Suraj Kund Park and Abu Lane.
Who Meerut suits
| Solo travellers | OK |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Good |
| Couples | Good |
| Bachelor parties | Not ideal |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Not ideal |
Make Meerut your trip
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