The Best Places to Visit in Kausani: A Local Guide for Slow Travellers
From Gandhi’s hilltop ashram and a poet’s childhood home to 12th-century temples and tea gardens, here are the places in and around Kausani that are genuinely worth your time.
Kausani is not a town you “do” in a day. It is a ridge-top village at about 1,890 metres in Uttarakhand’s Bageshwar district, and its great attraction has always been the view: a long wall of snow peaks — Trishul, Nanda Devi, Panchachuli and their neighbours — that seems to float above the pine forest on a clear morning. Most visitors come for that horizon. The best ones stay long enough to discover what lies beneath it.
This guide is the list we give our own guests at the front desk: the places we would send a friend to, in the order we would send them.
1. Anashakti Ashram
In 1929, Mahatma Gandhi spent about two weeks in Kausani, staying in a simple bungalow on the ridge. It was here that he worked on Anasakti Yoga, his rendering of and commentary on the Bhagavad Gita. The bungalow is now the Anashakti Ashram, with a small museum of photographs from his stay and a prayer hall.
Local tradition holds that Gandhi was so taken with the setting that he called Kausani the “Switzerland of India”. Whether or not he used those exact words, stand on the ashram lawn at sunset and you will understand why the phrase stuck.
Tip: keep your voice low and phone on silent — it is still a place of reflection, not just a sight.
2. Sumitranandan Pant Museum
The poet Sumitranandan Pant, one of the great names of modern Hindi literature, was born in Kausani on 20 May 1900. His childhood home near the bus stand has been turned into a modest museum displaying his manuscripts, letters, awards, books and everyday belongings. It takes half an hour to see, and it changes how you look at the landscape outside: Pant spent a lifetime writing about exactly these hills. Read our profile of the poet.
3. Lakshmi Ashram
A short walk through the pines from the town centre, Lakshmi Ashram was founded in 1946 by Sarla Behn, an English-born disciple of Gandhi. It began with three students and still runs as a residential school for girls built on Gandhi’s idea of nai talim — education that combines books with practical, hands-on work. Visitors are welcome to walk the grounds respectfully; it is a quiet, moving place.
4. Kausani Tea Estate
The neat green terraces along the Bageshwar road belong to the Kausani Tea Estate, established in 2000–01. Walk down between the rows, watch the leaf being processed, and buy a packet of local tea to take home — it makes a far better souvenir than a fridge magnet. The estate is about 5 km from town on the Bageshwar road, which also happens to be our road, so it is an easy stop on the way to or from the resort.
5. Baijnath Temples
About 16 km from Kausani, in the Garur valley, a cluster of eighteen stone temples stands beside the Gomti river. Built by the Katyuri kings, whose capital Kartikeyapura stood here, the complex was completed in the 12th century — inscriptions dated 1202 CE have been found on site. The main shrine is dedicated to Shiva as Vaidyanath, “lord of physicians”, and holds a rare image of Parvati carved in grey schist. If you only visit one heritage site on your trip, make it this one. Our full guide to Baijnath.
6. Kot Bhramari Temple
A couple of kilometres from Baijnath, on a hilltop that was once a Katyuri fort, sits the temple of Kot Bhramari Devi. The goddesses Bhramari and Nanda Devi are worshipped here, and the temple is the focus of a lively fair during Chaitra Navratri. The view down over the Garur valley is reason enough to make the climb.
7. Bageshwar and the Bagnath Temple
The district town of Bageshwar, about 40 km away, sits where the Saryu and Gomti rivers meet. Its Bagnath temple to Shiva — from which the town takes its name — is festooned with bells, and every January the riverbanks fill for the Uttarayani fair on Makar Sankranti. It is a good half-day trip, best combined with Baijnath on the way.
8. Rudradhari Falls and Caves
On the Kausani–Almora road, roughly 10–12 km from town, a trail of about 2 km from Kantali village leads through pine forest and terraced fields to a waterfall and a set of natural caves. The name joins Rudra (Shiva) and Hari (Vishnu), and a small shrine near the falls honours both. The walk is easy to moderate; wear proper shoes, as the path can be slippery after rain.
9. The sunrise, from wherever you are
This one costs nothing and needs no car. Set an alarm for about twenty minutes before sunrise, step onto your balcony and watch the highest peaks catch the light first — pink, then orange, then a blinding white — while the valleys below are still in shadow. It is the reason Kausani exists as a destination, and it never gets old. Learn to name the peaks you are looking at.
How to plan your days
- Day one: Anashakti Ashram, Pant Museum and Lakshmi Ashram, all within walking distance of each other in town.
- Day two: The tea estate in the morning, then Baijnath and Kot Bhramari in the Garur valley, back for sunset.
- Day three: Bageshwar, or the Rudradhari trail if you would rather walk than drive.
Three nights is the sweet spot for Kausani — enough to see the sights and still have a lazy morning or two with the mountains. Our team is happy to arrange cabs and suggest routes for any of the above.
