We publish a crowd forecast for every hill town before each weekend. After a big one, we put that forecast next to what the news reported — including the places where we were wrong.
Gandhi Jayanti long weekend, 2–4 Oct 2026
Our forecast below is exactly as we published it on 25 September 2026 — a week before. Tally: 4 right · 2 under-warned · 7 not verified.
Reported: Long queues from the town entrance towards Mall Road, Solang and the Atal Tunnel; stretches that take minutes took hours. [Outlook India, 3 Oct 2026]
Reported: Hours of congestion on the Bhimtal–Kainchi Dham stretch in Nainital district; police restricted taxis into the Kainchi Dham area for 2–4 Oct. (The reports are about the district's approach roads, not the lake town itself.) [TFIPost, 3 Oct 2026]
Reported: Jams for hours across the city on Friday; one report put about 30,000 vehicles entering in a day. Vehicles held up for hours on the Kalka–Shimla highway. [TFIPost, 3 Oct 2026][Outlook India, 3 Oct 2026]
We found no report either way, so we do not count these as correct.
Where we were wrong: Shimla and Rishikesh. We rated them below "Avoid" and the reports say they jammed for hours. Telling you a place is easier than it turns out to be is the worse kind of mistake, so both are logged for the next recalibration of those scores.