Delhi to Rishikesh in a Pet-Friendly Caravan: Two Dogs, One Nani, and the Ganga

We had been planning this one for a while. Not because Rishikesh is hard to get to — it is five hours from Gurgaon on a decent road. We had been planning it because every time we looked at pet-friendly places to stay near the Ganga, we hit the same wall: the nice properties did not want dogs, the dog-friendly properties were an hour from the river, and the ones that claimed to welcome pets had not updated their policy since 2022. We had done this search three times and given up three times.

Then someone in the Travel With Tails community mentioned Caravan On Rent. Sandeep Rayat runs a fleet of fully equipped RVs out of Govindpuri, New Delhi. Select vehicles are confirmed pet-friendly. You call in advance, confirm a pet-configured model is available, and the caravan arrives at your address on the morning of departure. Your accommodation travels with you. No hotel policy to verify. No checkout time. No asking whether dogs are allowed on the sofa.

We booked it for June 2025. The group: Ekta, Akash, Apple (five-year-old Golden Retriever, veteran of more road trips than most humans we know), Captain (Indie dog, supremely unimpressed by everything until he is suddenly very impressed by something specific), and Ekta's mother — Nani to both dogs, which tells you everything about the family structure on this trip.

Departure: Gurgaon to NH58, Evening

The caravan arrived at our Gurgaon address in the late afternoon. It was larger than we expected. A Force Traveller custom build: one full-size bed at the back, a recliner sofa that faced the large panoramic windows, two bench sofas that converted for sleeping, an onboard kitchen with fridge and microwave, a private washroom with running water, TV, music system, Wi-Fi, and windows that ran nearly the full length of both sides. The kind of windows that make India look like a film you are watching from a very comfortable seat.

Apple walked up the entry steps, assessed the full-size bed, found it acceptable, and claimed it. This took approximately 90 seconds. Captain inspected every corner of the interior with the focused energy of someone doing a property survey, then chose the window seat beside Ekta. Nani settled onto the bench sofa with the confidence of someone who has been travelling this country since before most of us were born. Sandeep's driver had the engine running. We left as the Gurgaon sky went orange.

The NH58 out of Delhi is wide and well-lit through Ghaziabad and Meerut. By 9pm we were past the city entirely. By 10pm the traffic had thinned to highway trucks and the occasional family car. The caravan moved at a steady 70 to 80 kmph, the engine a low constant hum that functions, it turns out, as a very effective dog sedative. Apple had not moved from the bed. Captain watched the highway lights for an hour and then quietly gave up and joined him.

Midnight on NH58: Maggi Somewhere Past Muzaffarnagar

By midnight we were somewhere between Muzaffarnagar and Roorkee. Ekta made Maggi and chai in the kitchen. We ate at a small folding table while moving at speed down a national highway, the lights of trucks going past the large windows, both dogs unconscious in the back. There is no hotel experience that replicates this. You cannot book a room that includes being in motion at midnight with a dog asleep at your feet while chai brews on a gas stove. It is specifically, exclusively a caravan experience.

By Roorkee the foothills appeared as dark shapes against a slightly lighter sky. By Haridwar the Ganga was visible between the buildings as we crossed the bridge. We did not stop — the dogs were asleep, we were comfortable, and Rishikesh was less than an hour away. By 4am we were parked near the riverbank below the Laxman Jhula suspension bridge, engine off, the Ganga audible through the closed windows. Everyone slept.

Day 2 Dawn: The Ganga at Laxman Jhula

Apple woke us at first light by standing on Akash's chest with the specific urgency that Golden Retrievers reserve for bodies of water they have detected and not yet entered. He had smelled the river through the ventilation. He was done waiting.

We opened the caravan door into the Rishikesh dawn. The Ganga at Laxman Jhula runs clear and cold and green in June, fed by snowmelt from the Garwhal ranges. The suspension bridge was fifty metres upstream. The riverbank below is natural stone and sand, the entry gradual, the current manageable at the edges. Apple was down the bank and into the water before we had finished parking. He did not look back.

Captain was second. He had clocked the river from the window on the final approach to the parking spot and had been composing himself since. He went in at a different angle from Apple, with the calculated efficiency of a dog who has decided something and sees no reason to make a ceremony of it.

Nani was third. She had come to Rishikesh for Ganga darshan, which she takes seriously, and she does not do things by halves. She went into the river at the same spot as the dogs, the cold water of the Ganga at dawn, while both Apple and Captain swam around her. Nobody had planned this. Nobody was surprised.

The Caravan as Basecamp

We spent Day 2 parked by the river. This is the specific advantage of a caravan that no hotel can replicate: when you find the place where your dogs want to be, you stay. There is no checkout time. No manager asking whether the dog is allowed on the grass. No planning around meal service hours. The caravan was our kitchen, our rest area, our shade from the afternoon heat, and our shelter when the river breeze picked up in the evening.

Apple and Captain moved between the riverbank and the caravan floor throughout the day in a pattern that seemed entirely self-determined. Nani sat by the large window with a cup of tea and watched the river. The Ganga at Laxman Jhula in June is busy by mid-morning — pilgrims, tourists, white-water rafting groups coming downstream — but the early morning and late afternoon are quiet. Both dogs were off-leash on the riverbank for hours without issue.

We made lunch in the caravan kitchen. We made more chai. We did not go anywhere. This was the correct decision.

Night 2: Sleeping Beside the Ganga

The second night parked at the same spot was different from the first. We were not in transit. The engine was off, the caravan still, and the only constant sound was the Ganga itself — louder at night than you expect, a continuous low roar that fills the silence left by the absence of traffic.

Apple spread across the full-size bed with the territorial confidence of a dog who has been on this mattress for two nights and considers the question of ownership resolved. He took up approximately 70 percent of the available space. Captain slept between Ekta and the window, which he had identified as his position on Night 1 and saw no reason to revise. Nani slept on the bench sofa. Nobody woke until morning.

This is the thing about travelling with dogs in a caravan that only becomes apparent on the second night: they are more settled than in any hotel we have taken them to. The enclosed space is familiar. The smells are the same as when they fell asleep the night before. There is no unfamiliar room, no hotel corridor sounds, no 3am scratch at a door that leads somewhere they do not understand. Apple and Captain sleep the way dogs sleep at home. That is the entire difference.

Day 3: Leaving Rishikesh

We left mid-morning on Day 3. The NH58 in daylight runs through a completely different India from the one you see at midnight. The Shivalik foothills are visible from Roorkee on a clear morning. The Ganga crossing at Haridwar is spectacular from inside a vehicle with large windows. The flat agricultural belt of Muzaffarnagar and Meerut looks different when you are rested and fed rather than moving through it at midnight trying not to wake the dogs.

Apple slept most of the return. Captain maintained his window position until somewhere past Meerut and then conceded the floor to Apple. We reached Gurgaon by evening, two very settled dogs, one Nani who had swum in the Ganga at dawn, and 55,000 people on Instagram who had already watched us do it before we got home.

What We Would Tell You

A pet-friendly caravan trip from Delhi to Rishikesh costs more than a hotel weekend. The total for our three-day trip with Caravan On Rent was Rs 80,000, which is the combined cost of transport and accommodation. For two adults, two dogs, and one older guest, that number looks different from a standard hotel rate for the same group over three days — especially when you factor in that there is no pet surcharge, no deposit, no separate vehicle booking, and no moment at any point in the trip where anyone asks whether the dogs are allowed to be where they are.

The Laxman Jhula riverbank below the suspension bridge is the best dog swim spot we have found in Rishikesh. The current is manageable at the edges, the entry is gradual, and in the early morning before the tourist crowds arrive, you can have the bank to yourselves. Apple and Captain were in and out of the water for two hours. Neither needed encouragement and neither needed to be pulled out.

Call Sandeep Rayat on +91 99580 29225 at least a week before your dates. Not all vehicles in the fleet are pet-configured, and popular weekends book out. Tell him exactly what you need — how many dogs, their sizes, your route. He handles the rest.

The caravan trip to Rishikesh is not the convenient option. It is the option where Apple gets the full-size bed, Captain gets the window seat, Nani swims in the Ganga at dawn, and nobody asks anyone's permission for any of it.