One Day Bike Trip from Delhi: 10 Best Rides and Distances

Getting out of Delhi is the hard part. Once you are past the last flyover, the city is ringed by dhaba highways, Aravalli lakes, mud forts, the Ganga and the first forts of Rajasthan, and almost all of it works as a one day bike trip from Delhi if you leave early enough.

This is a shortlist of the one day bike rides Delhi riders keep going back to, not a tourist list. Ten rides, sorted by distance, so you can pick by how much daylight you have. Each one has the road distance, an honest ride time and the highway you take out of the city.

Two things to sort out before you plan anything. First, the big new expressways are closed to bikes. The Delhi-Meerut Expressway, the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and the Dwarka Expressway all ban two-wheelers, so every ride below uses the old national highways, which are open to bikes and toll-free on them. Second, Delhi's riding year is shaped by two enemies, heat from April to June and fog in December and January, and each one changes what time you should leave.

Bike trip distances from Delhi

Rough road distances from Connaught Place, one way. Ride times assume a dawn start and include getting clear of the city.

Short trips, under 100 km

• Murthal | about 50 km | 1 hour | parathas on NH44
• Sultanpur and Farrukhnagar | about 50 km | 1.5 hours | a bird park and a forgotten Mughal town
• Damdama Lake | about 60 km | 1.5 hours | the Aravalli breakfast classic
• Kuchesar Mud Fort | about 85 km | 2 hours | an 18th century fort in the sugarcane

Full day, 100 to 170 km

• Garhmukteshwar | about 110 km | 2.5 hours | the closest Ganga ghat to Delhi
• Neemrana | about 122 km | 3 hours | a 15th century fort palace
• Dhosi Hill | about 150 km | 3.5 hours | an extinct volcano in Haryana
• Siliserh Lake | about 165 km | 3.5 hours | a lake palace outside Alwar

The long ones, 180 km and up

• Bharatpur | about 185 km | 4 hours | one of Asia's great bird parks
• Agra | about 232 km | 5 hours | the Taj, if you are up at 4

Four highways do most of the work. NH44 runs north through Sonipat. NH48, the old Delhi-Jaipur highway, runs southwest through Gurgaon, Manesar and Dharuhera, and it is still open to bikes even though the new expressway beside it is not. NH9 runs east through Ghaziabad and Hapur toward the Ganga. NH19 runs south through Faridabad and Palwal toward Mathura, Bharatpur and Agra.

Short bike trips from Delhi

1. Murthal

Distance: About 50 km one way | Ride time: 1 hour | Best for: A breakfast that justifies the alarm

Murthal is not a place you go to see anything. It is a strip of big dhabas on NH44 past Sonipat, open around the clock, and you ride there for a stuffed paratha with a slab of white butter melting on top. Most Delhi riding groups have done the Sunday morning Murthal run, and plenty have done the 2 am version too.

It is the easiest one day bike ride on this list and a good first highway run: flat, wide, with fuel every few kilometres.

Rider tip: Do the morning run, not the midnight one. NH44 at night means trucks, tired drivers and patchy lighting, and the parathas taste exactly the same at 7 am.

2. Sultanpur and Farrukhnagar

Distance: About 50 km one way | Ride time: 1.5 hours | Best for: A quiet winter morning

Sultanpur National Park is a small wetland off the Gurgaon-Farrukhnagar road, and between October and March it fills with migratory birds: bar-headed geese, pintails, painted storks and, on a lucky day, flamingos. The trail around the lake takes a couple of unhurried hours.

Ride on a few kilometres to Farrukhnagar, an old Mughal-era town with a crumbling Sheesh Mahal and the Ghaus Ali Shah baoli, an octagonal stepwell that almost nobody visits. It turns a short ride into a proper morning.

Rider tip: Check the calendar twice. The park is shut every Tuesday and closes completely from June to September for the breeding season. Gates open at 7 am, so there is no need to leave in the dark for this one.

3. Damdama Lake

Distance: About 60 km one way | Ride time: 1.5 hours | Best for: The classic Aravalli breakfast run

Damdama is where a lot of Delhi riders do their first one day bike ride. Down the Gurgaon-Sohna road, a turn into the Aravallis, and you are at a big seasonal lake ringed by rocky hills, with a Haryana Tourism complex on the bank for chai and breakfast. On winter weekends the parking lot looks like a bike show.

Loop back through Sohna for the short Aravalli climb above the town, the nearest thing to a ghat this close to the city, and stop at the old sulphur springs if you want to say you did.

Rider tip: The lake depends on the monsoon. After a weak one it shrinks badly by summer, so October to March is the time to go. The Aravalli roads also collect loose gravel after rain, so take the corners gently.

4. Kuchesar Mud Fort

Distance: About 85 km one way | Ride time: 2 hours | Best for: A fort in the fields, and lunch inside it

Head east on NH9, past Hapur, and turn off at the Kuchesar chowk into sugarcane and mango country. Seven kilometres in sits an 18th century mud fort built by a local Jat family, now a heritage hotel. It is small, quiet and nothing like the Rajasthan forts, which is exactly why it is worth a morning.

Rider tip: This is a private property, not a monument, so you cannot just walk in. The fort sells a day package with lunch, around ₹1,500 a head plus tax when we last checked, and you need to book ahead. Garhmukteshwar is on the same highway, so the two make one easy one day bike trip.

Full-day bike trips from Delhi

5. Garhmukteshwar

Distance: About 110 km one way | Ride time: 2.5 hours | Best for: The Ganga, without riding to Haridwar

Brijghat, just outside Garhmukteshwar, is the closest place to Delhi where you can sit on the steps of the Ganga. The ride is a straight run east on NH9, and once you are past Hapur the traffic thins and the road opens up. Eat at the stalls by the ghat, watch the boats, and head home before the afternoon traffic builds in Ghaziabad.

Rider tip: Out of Delhi, NH9 and the Delhi-Meerut Expressway run side by side as one very wide road until Dasna. Bikes belong in the outer highway lanes. The middle expressway lanes are banned for two-wheelers and the police do stop riders there.

6. Neemrana

Distance: About 122 km one way | Ride time: 3 hours | Best for: Your first longer highway day

Neemrana is usually the first longer one day bike trip Delhi riders do. NH48 is a wide multi-lane highway most of the way, so the riding is simple, and at the end is a 15th century fort palace stepped down the side of a hill.

The catch is that the fort is now a hotel. To go in you buy a day pass that comes with a buffet lunch, about ₹1,700 on weekdays and ₹2,000 on weekends when we last checked. If that is more than you want to spend, the ride is still worth it, and the RTDC Midway at Behror, a few kilometres on, has fed highway travellers for decades.

Rider tip: Fill up before you cross into Rajasthan. In September 2026 petrol cost about ₹102 a litre in Delhi and about ₹113 in Jaipur, and that gap shows up on every ride into the state.

Route guide: Delhi to Neemrana by bike

7. Dhosi Hill

Distance: About 150 km one way | Ride time: 3.5 hours | Best for: A ride almost nobody else does

This one surprises people. Near Narnaul in southern Haryana, Dhosi is an extinct volcano, a lone cone of a hill at the tail end of the Aravallis, and the old crater at the top holds a temple to the sage Chyavan. Yes, that Chyavan. The local story is that Chyavanprash was first made for him on this hill.

Ride down NH48 to Rewari, then take the Narnaul road. Leave the bike at Thana village and climb roughly 450 steps to the top, where the view runs across the flat border country of Haryana and Rajasthan for miles.

Rider tip: Carry water up with you, because there is little on the hill. From March to October, be climbing before 10 am. The steps are exposed and turn into an oven by noon.

8. Siliserh Lake

Distance: About 165 km one way | Ride time: 3.5 hours | Best for: A lake palace, with Alwar on the way

Siliserh is a lake in the hills about 15 km beyond Alwar, with a white palace on its bank built by a Maharaja of Alwar in 1845 and now run as a hotel by Rajasthan Tourism. Have lunch on the terrace, take a boat out, or just sit and look at the water.

The ride goes down NH48 to Dharuhera and then along the Bhiwadi-Alwar road, which gets quieter and prettier as the Aravallis close in. If you have time, Bala Quila, the fort above Alwar city, is a short detour.

Rider tip: Siliserh is on the road to Sariska, and it is tempting to keep going. Don't, unless you are staying the night. 330 km there and back is already a long one day bike ride, and the Bhiwadi stretch is slow on the way home.

The long ones

9. Bharatpur

Distance: About 185 km one way | Ride time: 4 hours | Best for: Winter birding, on a bicycle

Keoladeo National Park in Bharatpur is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the best known bird reserves in Asia. From November to February it holds pelicans, painted storks, spoonbills, ducks and raptors by the thousand. You cannot take your motorcycle inside, so park at the gate and hire a bicycle, which is a better way to see it anyway.

Ride south on NH19 through Faridabad, Palwal and Kosi, then turn west at Mathura.

Rider tip: The Siberian cranes that made this park famous have not returned since the early 2000s, so ignore old guidebooks. What you do get is plenty, and the park is at its best in the first hours after it opens.

10. Agra

Distance: About 232 km one way | Ride time: 5 hours | Best for: The Taj, if you commit to the alarm

The longest one day bike trip on this list, and only worth doing as a day if you start early. You have two roads. The Yamuna Expressway is fast, dull and open to bikes, but unlike the national highways it charges two-wheelers a toll. NH19 through Mathura is free and busier. The expressway earns its toll on the ride home, when you are tired.

Rider tip: The Taj Mahal is closed on Fridays, which ruins more Agra plans than anything else. The Yamuna Expressway also has a long record of high-speed crashes, so stay in the left lane, keep your speed sensible and stop every hour.

Route guide: Delhi to Agra by bike

Bike trips from Delhi for a weekend

Some rides are too big for a one day bike trip, and forcing them into one is how you end up riding tired on NH48 after dark. If you can stay over, these are the ones worth planning for.

• Sariska and Bhangarh | about 250 km to Bhangarh | the Siliserh road, carried on into tiger reserve country and India's best known "haunted" fort. Bhangarh is open only from sunrise to sunset, so make it the second morning.
• Rishikesh | about 233 km | 5.5 hours | the weekend ride most Delhi riders do first. Use the old highway through Modinagar and Meerut, not the expressway. Route guide
• Lansdowne | about 257 km | 7 hours | highway first, then a real climb into the Garhwal hills. Route guide
• Mussoorie | about 268 km | 6.5 hours | flat to Dehradun, then the climb that makes the ride. Route guide
• Jaipur | about 270 km | 6.5 hours | wide NH48 all the way, and a whole city at the end. Route guide

For full two-day plans, with where to stop and how to split the riding, read our guide to 2-day bike trips from Delhi.

Planning your one day bike trip from Delhi

Run through this the night before.

A few more things that decide how the day goes:

• Beat the city. For most of the year, leave by 5:30. The same exit that takes half an hour at dawn can take well over an hour by nine. A full pre-ride checklist takes five minutes the night before.
• Respect the fog. In December and January, dense fog sits on NH44 and NH48 until mid-morning and visibility can drop to a few metres. This is the one season to leave late, around 8 am, with your headlight on.
• Check the air. Late October and November bring the worst air of the year to the whole NCR. On days when the AQI is in the severe band, a 200 km ride is hard on your lungs, and plenty of groups simply skip those weekends.
• Wear the gear. A hot day is no excuse for a t-shirt on NH48. If you are still building your kit, start with the essentials for beginners.
• Know the drill if the bike quits. A puncture on NH9 is a nuisance, not a disaster, if you know what to do. Our motorcycle breakdown guide covers it.
• Be honest about the distance. Agra and back is 460 km. If that is new territory, read how to pick a ride that matches your skill level first.
• Riding out in a group? Agree the pace, the stops and the sweep rider before you leave, not at the first petrol pump. Our group riding guide covers the rest.

When to go

October to March is the season for a one day bike trip from Delhi. The heat breaks in October, and from December to February the mornings are properly cold, so wear a warm layer under your jacket even if the afternoon turns mild. April to June is dawn riding only, with afternoons in the mid-40s. July to September brings the monsoon, which makes the Aravalli lakes look their best but floods the underpasses in Delhi and Gurgaon, so check the traffic before you head out.

Two rides are worth timing on purpose. Sultanpur and Bharatpur are both at their best from November to February, and Sultanpur is closed outright from June to September.