Shimla and the south

Shimla is the easiest part of Himachal to get to and the least like the rest of it. The British ran the country from here every summer for the better part of a century and the town they built is still standing — churches, theatres, half- timbered houses, a mall road you can only walk down.

It is also, in season, extremely busy. The answer is either to go in the shoulder months or to use Narkanda and Chail as your base and come into Shimla for a day.

Everything south of here is gentle driving by Himachal standards. If somebody in the group is nervous about mountain roads, start them on this.

The thing to sort out before you book a hotel

Shimla’s centre is closed to traffic. The Mall and the Ridge take no private vehicles at all, so cars stop at the Lift on Cart Road or at the parking near Victory Tunnel and you go up on foot or in the lift.

That is fine once you know it and irritating when you find out with suitcases at nine at night. A hotel advertised as “on the Mall” means a porter and a walk, and how long a walk varies enormously. Ask before you book, and tell us where you are staying so the driver takes you to the right end of town.

The toy train

The narrow-gauge line from Kalka is a UNESCO-listed piece of Victorian engineering and it is a genuinely lovely five to six hours. It is also five to six hours against three and a half by road, and it books out well ahead.

The compromise most of our guests settle on is to ride it one way and be driven the other. We will meet the train at either end, and it works better up than down because it puts the slow, scenic leg at the start of the trip.

Where else in the south

Shimla itself is the least interesting part of this region and the busiest, which is an awkward combination. What redeems the area is everything within two hours of it.

Narkanda at 2,708m, an hour and a half out on the Kinnaur road, has the apple country and a ski slope in winter. Chail is quieter than Shimla, has the highest cricket ground anyone will tell you about, and is a much more pleasant base. Kasauli is a cantonment town two hours down towards Chandigarh, small, pine-scented, and with almost nothing to do in the best way.

Basing in one of those three and coming into Shimla for a day is, in our experience, a better week than basing in Shimla.