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Answers to the things people actually search for
Every post here exists because somebody typed the question into Google and found nothing useful. How far Barot really is. Which trek needs a car and which does not. What the Devi circuit costs you in days. The distances are measured, the drive times are ours, and every page says when it was last checked.
Chintpurni, Jwala Ji and Naina Devi from Punjab
Almost every account of the Devi circuit is written from Dharamshala looking down. Most people arrive the other way — from Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Amritsar, or off a train at Amb Andaura — and approached from below the shrines come in a different order entirely.
Read the postIndrahar Pass, and whose road it really is
We have previously refused to print a height for Indrahar Pass, because every figure we could find was somebody's recollection. That has changed, and the number is about 4,340 m. The other thing worth saying is that this is not a trekking route shepherds happen to use. It is the reverse.
Read the postDharamshala in winter, from a driver's point of view
We have written elsewhere about when it snows here. This is the other half of the question and the half we are actually qualified on: what winter does to the roads, to the light, to getting here from the plains, and to what a car can reasonably promise you between December and February.
Read the postParagliding in Dharamshala, and the Bir question
Search for paragliding in Dharamshala and almost everything you find is about Bir Billing, which is 65 km away down the valley. Both are real sites and they are not the same trip. Here is which one you want, and what each costs.
Read the postHow to reach Dharamshala
There is an airport 12 km away that most people never find, a railhead 90 km away, a narrow-gauge line that stops 29 km short, and a road from Delhi that takes twelve hours. Which one is right depends almost entirely on how much the last leg matters to you.
Read the postNaddi, Dal Lake and the McLeod Ganj loop
People ask how far Naddi viewpoint is from Dal Lake as though it were a journey. It is one kilometre. The whole cluster above Dharamshala is smaller than it looks and slower than it measures, and both of those facts are worth knowing before you plan a day around it.
Read the postDharamshala for a honeymoon
A lot of people search for a Dharamshala honeymoon package and very few pages are willing to say the obvious thing: McLeod Ganj in season is a busy backpacker town, and that is not what most couples are picturing. The quiet is real, but it is 8 km up the hill or 36 km down the valley.
Read the postRenting a scooter or a car in Dharamshala
We hire out cars with drivers, so read the following knowing what we sell. For a couple staying three days in McLeod Ganj, a scooter is usually the right answer and we would rather say so than take the booking. Here is where each option stops working.
Read the postKareri Lake, and the way on to Lam Dal
Kareri is the walk we would pick out of everything near Dharamshala, and the lake is only the halfway point of the line it sits on. Above it the ground climbs another kilometre to a 4,060 m pass and drops into Chamba. Here are the heights, in a valley where most published ones are guesses.
Read the postKangra fort and Masroor, as one day
Almost every itinerary puts the fort and the rock temples on the same afternoon, because on a map they sit a thumb's width apart. They are 44 km apart by road and 13 in a straight line, and that gap is the whole planning problem with this day.
Read the postDharamshala to Barot Valley
It is 111 km and it takes about four hours, which is a slower average than almost any other road out of Dharamshala. The reason is the last thirty kilometres. Here is the whole drive, junction by junction, and what to do when you get there.
Read the postDharamshala to Rajgundha, where the road ends
You cannot drive to Rajgundha. The tarmac stops at Billing, 79 km from Dharamshala, and the last eleven kilometres are a rough track most people walk. Here is what the drive is, where it really ends, and what the walk in costs you.
Read the postHow to reach Baglamukhi Temple, and the Devi circuit
The Baglamukhi temple is at Bankhandi in Kangra district — 462 km from Delhi, 174 km from Ludhiana, 47 km from Dharamshala. It also sits in the middle of five other shrines, and the order you drive them in decides whether the trip takes two days or four.
Read the postTreks from Dharamshala, and which need a car
Triund, Moon Peak, Kareri, Indrahar. Four very different walks that all start within half an hour of Dharamshala, and three of them start somewhere you can be driven to. Here is how they compare, and where a car helps.
Read the postDharamshala weather, month by month
Dharamshala is not one place with one climate. Lower Dharamshala sits at about 1,300 m and Dharamkot at about 1,900 m, and that 600 m gap is why the town can be in shirtsleeves while McLeod Ganj is in cloud. Here is what each month actually does.
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