Dharamshala and Kangra

Dharamshala is two towns. The lower one is an ordinary Indian district headquarters. The upper one, McLeod Ganj, has been the seat of the Tibetan government in exile since 1960 and feels almost nothing like the rest of the state — Tibetan food, monasteries, prayer flags, and a steady population of people who came for a week and are still here.

Behind both of them the Dhauladhar goes almost straight up. That is the thing people remember.

It is the easiest place in Himachal to spend a long time. Everything else on this list is somewhere you go and come back from; this is somewhere you stay.

Which of the towns to stay in

This is the question we are asked most about the region, and the four answers are genuinely different places within twenty minutes of each other.

McLeod Ganj is the obvious one — the temple, the cafés, the shops, and the noise. Central, walkable, and in season quite full.

Dharamkot is twenty minutes above McLeod on foot, quieter, greener, and the last stretch is walk-in only, which is either the attraction or the problem depending on your luggage.

Naddi looks straight at the Dhauladhar and has the best views of the four, with the trade-off that you will drive or walk down for anything you want to do.

Lower Dharamshala is the district town. Nobody comes for it, but it is where the buses, banks and hospital are, and hotels there are cheaper and less full.

The valley is bigger than the two towns

Most itineraries treat this region as McLeod Ganj plus a day trip, which sells it short. The Kangra valley runs east for eighty kilometres with the range above it the whole way: Kangra town and its fort, the rock-cut temples at Masroor, Baijnath’s ninth-century Shiva temple, the tea gardens at Palampur, and Bir and Billing further on.

That eastern half is where the region stops being a Tibetan enclave and starts being Himachal, and it is worth two days rather than an afternoon.

Getting here

Gaggal, about forty-five minutes from McLeod Ganj, is the nearest airport and the best option when a flight actually operates — it is small, has few flights, and diverts in bad weather, usually to Amritsar or Chandigarh. Amritsar at four to five hours is the reliable alternative, Chandigarh at six to seven the one with the most flights.

There is no railway worth using for arrival; the narrow-gauge line from Pathankot is a lovely thing to ride and a slow way to travel.