Chakrata, located at an elevation of 5,500-6,500 feet, and approximately 90 kms (55 miles) from Dehradun, was originally a cantonment of British Indian Army. To the west lies Himachal Pradesh, and towards east is Mussoorie and Landour in Garhwal.

Chakrata an access-restricted military cantonment, and foreigners faced severe restrictions in visiting.

A key attraction near Chakrata is a waterfall, Tiger Fall. If one has a 4WD vehicle, an outing to the secluded, leafy hamlet of Deoban is highly recommended, from where one can see a majestic vista of the Great Himalaya stretching from Kinnaur to Garhwal to Kumaon. Also nearby are the temples of Lakhamandal and the alpine meadows of Mundali.

Chakrata is a small army controlled town about 350 km from Delhi. It is located at a height of 7000.

feet and is accessible by road. The route is Delhi-Meerut-Muzzaffarnagar-Saharanpur-Vikasnagar-Kalsi-Chakrata

The last 44 km climb from Kalsi to Chakrata are controlled by a gate system to ensure that vehicles travel only in one direction for a specified period. This is because the road is very narrow and cannot handle two vehicles in many places. The gate timings are in Summer starting at 7 am every 2.5 hours to allow traffic to go up and from 1st October this becomes 7:30 am. This means that unless you reach Kalsi at around the gate times of 7:30 am, 10 am, 12:30 pm, 3 pm you may have to wait 2.5 hours until the next gate.