While pursuing some marine courses, I was staying with my family in Panchkula. Then me and cousin planned a family trip to Mussoorie. We planned to explore Chandigarh “The city beautiful” for one day and then we will head to Mussoorie.

Chandigarh: The city beautiful

Chandigarh is the Union territory and capital of both Punjab and Haryana. It’s called “the city beautiful”. To know why is it called “the city beautiful”, you have to explore it at least once.

In Chandigarh, there are a lot of places to visit for. In fact this city is so beautifully planned that you will feel the beauty of the city at each and every corner of it.

Chandigarh is also famous for being the clean and green city too. This city has everything a tourist needs. Like the Night life of Chandigarh is awesome and safe to the core. While the parks and gardens are well maintained in and around the city.

Our itineraries included:

– Rock garden

– Rose garden.

– Sukhna lake

There are plenty of gardens in the tricity Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula. But due to the shortage of time, we could not cover all of them.

Rose Garden

The rose garden was created in 1967 and named after former president Zakir Hussain. The rose garden contains thousands of rose plants, which you can view when visiting rose gardens. Roses of different species, varieties and colours are planted in this garden.

The garden is situated in the middle of Chandigarh city. This is created specifically to provide relaxation from the noisy environment outside. There are more than 800 varieties of rose plants, thousands of varieties of trees and medicinal shrubs in the garden.

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So we reached there in afternoon time. We spent around 2 hrs savouring the beauty of roses. It was really an amazing experience experiencing so many varieties of roses in the garden.

Rock Garden

Rock garden situated at a walking distance from Sukhna Lake, is crafted by Nek Chand by utilising waste materials.

As you reach the main gate, you have to bow down in order to enter doorway of the rock garden. The pavement inside the rock garden is mostly made of small pebbles and boulders. While miniature statues of soldiers, village life, women and a few animals are crafted and placed at the platforms made inside the rock garden. While the platforms and other void spaces are filled with waste materials of broken tiles and boulders.

This garden is there to tell the story of all the hard work and efforts made by Sir Nek Chand. The garden is subdivided into different compartments, which can be accessed via the small doorways built between them.

While the boulders are cemented on the edges and sides of platforms and walls to provide it the required strength. Most of the walls inside the garden is made of small and medium boulders.

As we move ahead, there is an open air theatre inside the garden and a pavilion, which adds up to the royal kingdom look of garden. Then there are a number of streets and lanes of different widths and lengths which we have to pass through.

Also read: A walking tour to Ramdevra

After a little walk through different chambers, we get to the centre of attraction of the garden, the artificial waterfall and The pool. This point called heaven for photographers and selfie lovers.

Sukhna lake

The Sukhna lake situated in the foothills of Himalaya’s Shivalik Hills, is a great creation of Le Corbusier and PL Varma. This lake was created in 1958. Where water is collected in the lake from the stream coming down from the Shivalik hills.

Whether you want to have a thoughtful morning walk, or a beautiful jogging spot for the evening, or you need some place to take a power nap under lush green trees. Whether you need a place to go picnic with your kids, or a peaceful place to meditate. Sukhna lake is the first name which pops up in everyone’s mind.

The perfect place within the tri-city area of Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula for a memorable family outing.

So we reached at around 6PM, spent some time boating. Motor boats are not operated in the lake. Only manual paddled boats are available in the lake. So you just buy the ticket and enjoy the boat ride for the time period agreed.

Evening time is perfect to devour the beauty of Sukhna lake. At this time the weather is most pleasant to take a walk around Sukhna lake. While artists are sitting here near the track around Sukhna lake, who will make your live portrait within minutes.

There are plenty of options to eat or drink in the lake area. These is a cafeteria of CITCO, the food quality of which is nice. So no need to carry extra luggage of snacks or water. As you will ge everything near the lake area.

If you visit the lake during Monsoon season, don’t forget to attend the Mango festival. In which varieties of mangoes are displayed and sold near the lake. On the other hand, there are many rides and toys for kids and children to enjoy.

So after admiring the beauty of Rose garden, Rock garden and Sukhna lake, we left for home So that next day early in the morning we can head to Mussoorie.

Elante Mall

While heading back, my wife asked to stop at Elante mall. The mall is really beautifully piece of architecture with Italian marble flooring and superbly built shops inside the mall. It is seventh largest shopping mall in India and has all the international brands we would want.

And that’s why Stopping the car actually turned out to be catastrophic for our wallets. As for next 2 hrs, we couldn’t do much, except paying bills, carrying shopping bags and handling our kids.

How to reach The city beautiful

By airport: Chandigarh airport with excellent connectivity to all metro cities.

Train: Chandigarh railway station

By road: 4.5Hrs drive approx from New Delhi.