Raj Bhawan Golf Course

The golf course inside the Nainital Raj Bhawan (Governor's House) estate is one of India's oddest and most charming public-access courses: developed in 1926 for the colonial governors of the United Provinces, it is a compact 18-hole, par-61 layout of about 3.2 km threading through protected mixed forest, with hard-packed "browns" instead of grass greens on 13 of the 18 holes. Per the official Raj Bhawan website, the course was opened to the public in 1994; an executive committee headed by the Governor runs it, no new memberships are granted, and outsiders instead receive "permission to play" — with published green fees running from ₹100 (ladies) up to ₹800 (foreign visitors) and annual subscriptions of ₹5,000 for the general public and ₹3,000 for defence and government officers.

Pass-B notes (2026-08-24): two corrections. First, the fee page turns out not to be undated — it carries a page-specific "Last Updated: June 23, 2021" stamp (other pages on the Governor's site show different stamps, so this is genuine, not a site-wide auto-stamp) — so every tariff figure is re-dated to June 2021 rather than the fetch month, and current prices should be confirmed at the gate. Second, the operating status no longer leans on the page merely being live: the same official site's Governor's Cup Golf Tournament page (updated 29 April 2026) publishes a report of the 2025 tournament and registration/sponsorship materials for the 2026 edition — a dated owner signal that tournament golf is actively played here.

No newer official tariff exists — the official fee page still carries its June-2021 stamp — but Amar Ujala reported on 3 June 2022 that the Governor's Executive Council cut fees to "connect more people with golf": membership for Uttarakhand residents from ₹1,00,000 to ₹51,000 (juniors ₹12,000, institutions ₹1,25,000, corporates ₹2,50,000), and day-play for women from ₹200 to ₹150 and students to ₹100. Those figures sit awkwardly against the official 2021-stamped table (which lists ladies at ₹100 and says no memberships are granted at all), so the two remain in open conflict — the practical read is that every published number is stale and the quote at the gate governs. On actually getting in: the course sits inside the guarded Raj Bhawan estate, which tourism pages (stamped April 2026, though not official) describe as open to visitors roughly 9 am–5 pm, closed Sundays, on a ₹50 gate ticket; TripAdvisor reviewers add that playing golf needs a prior appointment. There is no published phone or booking route on the official pages — arranging a round means presenting at the gate or writing to the Raj Bhawan secretariat. Wikipedia calls it one of India's vintage IGU-affiliated courses, though it dates the course to 1936 where the official page says 1926 — another disagreement. TripAdvisor rates it 4.5 from just two old reviews (2017–18).