How to Spend a Day at Leisure in Chandigarh

Chandigarh is an urban city and union territory that lies in the northern part of India. It is one of the most beautiful cities in Northern India. It shares a boundary with the state of Punjab and Haryana. It is the capital of both states Punjab and Haryana but does not belong to any of the stares. The name Chandigarh came from an ancient Hindu Goddess Temple. People worship Goddess Chandi in the temple.

It is a lively city, and I have visited there multiple times for work. I find the place amazing. The people here are friendly and welcoming. The foods here are delicious, and there is a lot to do on holiday to relax and remove work stress.

At the time of India’s partition, they partitioned the state of Punjab into two parts, and Lahore became a part of Pakistan. So there arose a need to form a new capital for Punjab. Then the government of India planned to build Chandigarh.

Two people worked to make an initial plan for the city.

• Polish architect Maciej Nowicki
• American planner Albert Mayer

Later Albert Mayer has quit the job after the sudden death of Maciej Nowicki in a plane crash. Then Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier made the plan of it.

Breakfast

The day will be long and exciting. So let us start the day with a fine breakfast. There are several options available for breakfast, like Chole Bhature, Allo tiki, Amritsari Kulcha, and Paratha. The best choice is Aloo Parathas (Indian Stuffed Bread) with Lassi (sweet or savory Indian drink made from a yogurt or buttermilk base with water). It is my favorite breakfast when in Chandigarh. But you can choose others as you wish.

Rock Garden

After breakfast, let’s plan to see one of the best places in the city, the Rock Garden. It is a trademark place of interest in Chandigarh. It is an ultimate place of its kind; It is a symbol of creativity and imagination of one man called Nek Chand. It is the result of his vision; He created it single handily out of the urban and industrial waste. The rock garden is covering up to an area of 40 acres.

The garden is wholly built by humans. It has artificial designs all around the garden.

• Various designs made of scrap
• Artificial waterfalls
• Play areas
• Aquarium

They had made the wall and sculpture out of concrete and industrial waste like bottles, glasses, bangles, tiles, ceramic pots, sinks, electrical waste, etc.

It is a masterpiece of Nek Chand’s creativity. They split this garden into three phases for ease of access. It is placed in sector one and easily reachable from any part of the city.

Sukhna Lake

Sukhna Lake is another place of interest in Sector One next to the Rock Garden. So it’s better to take a walk to Sukhna Lake from Rock Garden. It is an artificial lake built-in 1958. Visitors can walk around the lake or rent a bicycle to ride around the lake. Visitors can sport various bird species and can further enjoy yachting in the lake. It is also a good site for boating. Locals go on jogging around the lake in the morning.

Lunch

After spending some time there, one can go to have a great Punjabi lunch. There are lots of good restaurants in the city that serves a tasty lunch. There are enough options available in sector 22 and sector 17.

Rose Garden

You can see a garden in every sector. But Rose Garden has a unique charm among visitors. It lies in sector 16 and covers an area of 30 acres. It is the largest garden of its type in Asia. It is home to 825 types of rose species and thousands of other kinds of trees and medicinal plants.

The garden is open all season of the year. But February is the best month to visit it. The rose festival held at the end of February every year. It is the peak time for visiting the rose garden. There are a few more gardens you can opt to visit.

• Hibiscus garden

• Botanical Garden

• Pinjore Garden

• Japanese Garden

• Butterfly Park

• Terraced Garden

Shopping Time

After exploring the gardens, get ready to give your taste buds a treat with the mouth-watering street food of Chandigarh. You can try some of these snacks to get a taste of real street food.

• Pani Puri
• Dahi Bhalla
• Aloo tikka
• Tandoori Paneer

You can find many shopping complexes here. But Sector 17 is popularly known as the shopping hub in Chandigarh. You can go for some quality shopping there. Post shopping you can see the dancing water fountain show there.

The Shastri market in sector 22 is another good place to go shopping for some local stuff. This is rather a crowded place, and you will find most of the locals doing shopping here.

That summarizes a typical day in leisure in Chandigarh. There is more to enjoy the nightlife, but this article is all about a day in Chandigarh!

Chandigarh is well connected to most of the cities in India. The distance from Delhi to Chandigarh is around 245 KM. One can use a bus, train, and flight to reach there easily. It too has direct international flights from Dubai and Sharjah.

Various popular places that are well linked to Chandigarh, and I argue to see these while in Chandigarh. Down is a list of these places.

• Amritsar and Attari Border
• Shimla
• Manali
• Jammu and Kashmir
• Ladakh

Thanks for reading. Do visit and share your experience with the park. Please post your comments and questions below!