Varanasi to Haridwar distance: Best Route, Train Timings & Travel Guide

Varanasi to Haridwar at a Glance

Here are the numbers, before anything else.

1. People do this route mostly for one reason: both cities run a daily Ganga aarti, and pilgrims like pairing them into one circuit.
2. Road: roughly 800 to 830 km on the shorter route. Wider figures float around online, dealt with further down.
3. Rail: approximately 775 to 795 km.
4. Aerial (straight line): around 700 km. Nobody actually plans a trip around this number; it’s just the crow-flies distance.
5. Realistic travel time: 14 to 19 hours by road or rail. 6 to 9 hours if flying, with connection and transfer both included.
6. Common road route: via Lucknow, Bareilly, Moradabad, Roorkee.
7. Must-do: the aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat in Varanasi, and the one at Har Ki Pauri in Haridwar.

That’s the Varanasi to Haridwar distance in one glance. The full distance between Varanasi and Haridwar gets messier once it’s split by mode, which is really the point of everything below.

Varanasi to Haridwar distance: The Full Picture

This is not a same-state hop, so don’t treat it like one.

Varanasi sits in eastern UP. Haridwar’s up in the Uttarakhand foothills, right where the Ganga first comes down from the hills. Different states. Different terrain. A proper day-long trip whichever way you slice it, and a lot of first-timers underestimate that until they’re eight hours in.

The distance between Varanasi to Haridwar isn’t a single fixed number, no matter how confidently some sites state it. Road and rail take completely different alignments through the plains, so the two were never going to line up. The distance from Varanasi to Haridwar by road usually comes out higher than by rail, simply because the highway loops through more towns on the way.

The Varanasi Haridwar distance stays roughly identical in either direction. What changes between the two directions is seat availability on trains, not the actual kilometres.

How Can You Reach Haridwar?

Here is everything side by side for a better grasp:

The Haridwar to Varanasi distance work out to the same figure as the outbound trip; kilometres don’t care which direction you’re headed. Ticket availability does, though, so book the return leg separately rather than assuming a seat home just because you got one going up. The distance between Varanasi to Haridwar, at the end of the day, depends on what’s doing the measuring, which is why there’s a table here instead of one tidy figure.

1. Varanasi to Haridwar distance by Road

Here’s where things actually fall apart. Quoted road Haridwar distance from Varanasi range from 750 km all the way past 1,000 km, and that’s not rounding error, not even close. It comes down to two different routes:

1. Shorter alignment (~800 to 830 km): Via Lucknow or Jaunpur, then Bareilly, Moradabad, Roorkee. Google Maps currently favours this as the fastest.
2. Longer alignment (1,000+ km): Routed via Kanpur or further out toward Delhi-Meerut. A genuine detour, not a mistake, just longer.

So the Varanasi to Haridwar distance by road using this guide is the shorter figure, 800 to 830 km. Most current taxi aggregators default to roughly the same number when quoting the Varanasi to   distance, for what it’s worth.

On the Varanasi to Haridwar distance by road time: quoted times swing from about 10 hours, which assumes zero stops and honestly zero traffic too, all the way to close to 17. Budget 14 to 17 hours for a straight-through drive. The best decision would be to split it across two days with a halt near Lucknow or Bareilly; your spine will thank you later.

For the Varanasi to Haridwar distance by car, self-drive versus an outstation taxi mostly comes down to a toll-and-fatigue calculation. A taxi one-way runs roughly ₹13,000 to ₹20,000. Self-driving saves money but adds tolls, fuel, and the small matter of staying alert for 800-plus kilometres straight. Swap drivers every four or five hours if there’s more than one of you in the car.

2. Varanasi to Haridwar by Train (Most Practical Option)

The train wins this one, and it’s not close. The Varanasi to Haridwar distance by train comes to roughly 775 to 795 km, the exact figure shifting a little depending on which train you’re on. Put another way, the Varanasi to Haridwar distance by rail doesn’t actually change- same line, same tracks, just different departure times attached to it.

Trains currently running this route, though double-check IRCTC before you book because timings on this line move more than you’d expect:

• 13037 Kumbha Express: The fastest option. Varanasi Jn (BSB) 01:55 to Haridwar Jn (HW) 15:50, about 13 hrs 55 min. Runs Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri, Sun only.
• 13009 Doon Express: BSB 11:10 to HW 05:20 next day, roughly 18 hrs 10 min. Daily.
• 15119 BNRS Dehradun Express: Leaves from Varanasi City (BNRS), a different station from Varanasi Junction, 08:20 to HW 03:25, about 19 hours. Daily.

Two departure stations in one city trips people up more than you’d think, especially at 5 AM with the platform half dark and every rickshaw driver quoting a different fare like it’s an auction. Check which one your ticket names before you rush off in the wrong direction.

Sleeper fares start around ₹435; AC classes climb from there. Book early around Kanwar Yatra, Navratri, or anything near a Kumbh year. Waitlists on this route move fast once festival season kicks in, faster than most people expect.

3. Varanasi to Haridwar by Flight

There’s no airport in Haridwar. None. Every “flight” answer on this route is really two journeys pretending to be one. The nearest usable airport is Jolly Grant in Dehradun, about 35 km out, and there’s no direct Varanasi-Dehradun flight either. Everything routes through Delhi.

• Flight time with the Delhi connection: 5 to 7 hours.
• Road transfer, Jolly Grant to Haridwar: about 35 km, 45 minutes to an hour.
• Total door-to-door: 6 to 9 hours once airport time on both ends gets added in.

So the Varanasi to Haridwar distance by flight really means fly Varanasi-Delhi-Dehradun, then taxi the last 35 km yourself. The Varanasi to Haridwar distance by air, separately, refers to the roughly 700 km straight-line figure, which barely matters in practice since nobody’s actually flying that path directly.

Is it worth it? For most pilgrims, no. A direct overnight train covers similar ground for a fraction of the fare and skips two mode changes in between. If someone else is paying and you’d rather sleep in your own bed tonight, sure, book the flight. Nobody’s judging.

How to Choose the Best Way to Travel?

Match the mode to what you actually care about.

Whichever you pick, the distance Varanasi to Haridwar is closer to a full day than a quick errand. The Varanasi to Haridwar distance doesn’t shrink just because one option looks more convenient on a booking app at 11 PM.

Twin Pilgrimage Angle: Why People Combine These Cities?

Most route-planner pages skip this bit entirely, which is odd, because it’s the whole reason this search exists.

Both cities run on the daily Ganga aarti, but they don’t feel remotely the same. Dashashwamedh Ghat is loud, smoky, priests swinging brass lamps in unison while the crowd presses right up against the water. Har Ki Pauri feels colder and cleaner. The river’s fresh out of the mountains there, and it shows. Pairing the two isn’t a travel-blog gimmick either; pilgrims have been doing this exact circuit for generations, long before anyone was searching for it on a phone.

Some travellers push further, on to Rishikesh, barely 20 km past Haridwar, for a third aarti and the whole yoga-town atmosphere thrown in.

What Should You Pack?

You won’t find anything exotic here:

Weather Guide

Fog matters more here than most people expect, and it catches a lot of travellers off guard.

Pro tip: Winter fog on the Gangetic plain can run trains hours late, sometimes badly enough to wreck a tight festival connection. Build slack into December and January travel dates instead of booking things back to back.

What are the foods you should not miss?

Don’t just eat at the hotel; that’s half the trip wasted.

1. Varanasi runs on kachori-sabzi in the morning, the kind sold from a giant kadai near Godowlia that’s been frying since before sunrise.
2. Follow it up with a glass of thandai if you’re there anytime near a festival, and don’t leave without trying the blue lassi near Manikarnika Ghat; it’s a bit of a tourist stop by now, but it earns the reputation.
3. Chaat around the ghats is everywhere and mostly fine, though go where the crowd is thickest; that’s usually the tell for freshness rather than any signage.
4. Haridwar’s food leans simpler, more sattvic, since a lot of the city runs on temple-adjacent, no onion-no garlic cooking.
5. Look for kachoris and aloo puri near Har Ki Pauri in the morning, and the bhotia market area for dry fruits if you want something to carry back.
6. Alcohol and meat are hard to find here; it’s a pilgrimage town first, so don’t plan a trip around finding either.
7. On trains, carry your own snacks and water rather than relying entirely on vendors, especially on the longer overnight options where the pantry car service can be patchy at best.

Suggested Itinerary (If Combining Both Cities)

Here is a realistic four-day version.

Travel Tips for This Journey

Here are the small things that quietly save a bad day when you’re examining Varanasi se Haridwar ki duri.

1. Book train tickets early around festival season; don’t wait and hope for the best.
2. Driving? Plan a proper halt. Don’t try to push through in one go.
3. Carry printed or downloaded tickets and ID; both stations get seriously crowded.
4. Check fog advisories before locking in winter travel dates.
5. Stay flexible around Kanwar Yatra and Kumbh-adjacent periods; roads and trains both feel it.

A Few More Things Worth Knowing

A handful of things that don’t fit neatly anywhere above but genuinely help.

1. Phone network gets patchy once the train crosses into the hills near Roorkee, so download offline maps and your ticket PDF before you lose signal, not after.
2. Cloakrooms exist at both Varanasi Junction and Haridwar Junction if you want to dump bags for a few hours and go straight to the ghats. They’re cheap. Queues can be slow though, so don’t cut it fine if you’ve got a train to catch.
3. ATMs thin out past Bareilly on the road route, so carry more cash than feels necessary rather than trusting a machine to show up when you need one.
4. Altitude does something odd here too, something people don’t expect. Haridwar itself isn’t high up, but the temperature drop from Varanasi is sharper than the map suggests. Evenings get properly chilly even outside winter. A light jacket in October feels like overpacking until it very much isn’t.
5. One more thing: The monkeys around Har Ki Pauri are bolder than most first-timers expect. Keep food and shiny bags zipped away near the ghats, and don’t wave prasad around unless you’re genuinely fine sharing it.

Conclusion

Working out trains, road routes and fog delays on your own takes time most people don’t have. Thomas Cook’s Varanasi tour packages cover the ghats, the aarti, and the stays that actually make sense for a city this busy, and our Haridwar trips do the same for Har Ki Pauri and the surrounding circuit, Rishikesh included if you want to extend it.

Decades of on-ground expertise in Indian pilgrimage travel means better deals, verified hotels, and someone to call if a train gets delayed. Check out our Varanasi and Haridwar packages and let us handle the planning while you focus on the trip itself.

FAQs

How long does it take to reach Haridwar from Varanasi?

Somewhere between 14 and 19 hours by train, 14 to 17 by road. Flying brings it down to 6 to 9 hours once the Delhi connection and the road transfer from Jolly Grant are counted in.

What is the cheapest way to reach Haridwar from Varanasi?

The train, easily. Sleeper fares start around ₹435, a fraction of what a cab or flight will cost you for the same distance.

What is the fastest way to reach Haridwar from Varanasi?

Flying, technically, though not by much once the Delhi layover and the 35 km road transfer from Jolly Grant get added on top.

Which route is best for Varanasi to Haridwar?

By road, the alignment via Lucknow, Bareilly, Moradabad and Roorkee is currently fastest. By train, the Kumbha Express if speed is the priority; the Doon Express if you’d rather have a daily option regardless of timing.

Is there a Vande Bharat from Varanasi to Haridwar?

Not directly. There’s a Varanasi-Delhi Vande Bharat, and separately, a Delhi-Dehradun Vande Bharat that stops at Haridwar. Combining them means changing trains in Delhi, two bookings, not one smooth journey.

How far is Haridwar from Varanasi by train?

It is approximately 775 to 795 km, depending on which train you’re on.