Sunny Himachal Travels

Our cars

Five vehicles, and they are ours

Not hired in for the week from whoever is free. These are the vehicles that go out on our trips, photographed on our trips — which is why the snow in these pictures is real snow and the roads are the ones you would be on. The two newest are not photographed yet, and we would rather show you a drawing of one than a car that is not ours.

Our driver on a snowbound road during a heavy fall, everything behind him white.

Which one you get

Decided by how many of you there are and where the route goes, not by what is in the yard that morning. If you are four with a lot of luggage heading for Spiti, that is the Ertiga, and we will say so — and if you are fifteen, the answer is the 17 seater rather than the 26 you asked about.

The Dzire parked on a gravel viewpoint, ridge lines fading back into haze and cloud lit orange overhead.

Maruti Dzire

Seats
4 passengers
Luggage
2 large bags, more on the carrier
Suits
Couples, solo travellers, and anyone doing the Kangra and Dalhousie side
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The car that goes out on most of our trips. A sedan is the right tool for the roads it runs — Dharamshala, Dalhousie, Amritsar, the Shimla side — where the surface is made up and the corners are tight enough that something larger spends the day doing three-point turns.

The roof carrier is on it permanently, which is the part that matters for a two-week trip: the boot is not the limit. Bags go up top, legroom stays where it is.

The Dzire on a rough stone track cut along a wooded gorge, sun coming over the ridge above it.
The Dzire on packed snow at the roadside, bare trees and a pine slope rising behind.
The Dzire at a viewpoint beside a tiled gazebo, a snow-covered range on the skyline behind the pines.
The Dzire pulled in at a row of roadside food stalls below a steep scree face.
The Ertiga on a snow-cleared road through tall deodar, banked snow at the verge and a motorcycle passing behind.

Maruti Ertiga

Seats
6 passengers
Luggage
4 large bags, more on the carrier
Suits
Families, four to six travelling together, and anything going high
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The one to ask for if there are more than three of you, or if the route goes up — Spiti, the Leh road, anywhere the surface stops being tarmac for stretches. More ground clearance than the sedan and enough room that nobody spends eight hours with a bag on their knees.

Third row folds flat when you are five rather than six, which turns it into a lot of luggage space. In winter it is the car we put on the snow routes.

The Ertiga at a riverside pull-in, a long snow-topped range filling the skyline beyond the valley.
The Ertiga on a wet road through snow-dusted pine forest after a fall.
The Ertiga loaded for a trip, bags strapped under a yellow tarpaulin on the roof carrier.
The Ertiga on a snow-covered forest road, deodar branches heavy with snow above it.

Toyota Innova Crysta

Toyota Innova Crysta

Seats
6 passengers
Luggage
4 large bags, more on the carrier
Suits
Six who want the long transfer to be comfortable, and high routes with weight aboard
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The Ertiga’s seat count with a great deal more car around it. Where it earns the difference is the ten- and twelve-hour days — Delhi to Dharamshala, Chandigarh to Manali — because a heavier vehicle on a broken surface is the difference between arriving tired and arriving wrecked.

Captain seats in the middle row rather than a bench, so the third row is reached without anyone climbing. It is the one we suggest when the group is six and the route is long or high, and the one people ask for by name.

Tempo Traveller 17+1

Tempo Traveller 17+1

Seats
17 passengers
Luggage
Everyone’s, in the boot and on the carrier
Suits
Extended families and small office groups on the main hill roads
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The smaller of the two Travellers, seating seventeen in a 2+1 layout — one seat one side of the aisle, two the other. Everybody travels without the luggage moving onto laps, which is the failure mode when a group of fifteen books something smaller to save money. The shorter body is the other half of it: it gets up the approaches into Dalhousie and Dharamkot that the big one is turned away from.

It runs the roads the 26-seater runs, and a few it does not. Where the route is Shimla, Manali, Dharamshala or the temple circuit, this and the 26 are the two we choose between, and the deciding number is how many of you there are.

The white Force Tempo Traveller parked outside, our name across the top of the windscreen.

Force Tempo Traveller 26 Seater

Seats
26 passengers
Luggage
Everyone’s, in the boot and on the carrier
Suits
Groups, extended families, offices, and pilgrimage parties
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The biggest thing we run, for when the group is too big to split across three cars — which is the point, because splitting a group means half of it arrives somewhere twenty minutes after the other half and nobody eats together.

Pushback seats in a two-by-two layout, curtains, and enough headroom to stand up in the aisle. It is the vehicle that does the Shaktipeeth temple circuit and the big family trips, and it is ours rather than something hired in for the week.

Inside the Traveller looking forward down the aisle, brown pushback seats either side and polished wood lockers overhead.
Cabin seating in the Traveller, two seats each side of a carpeted aisle with a grab rail down the length.
The Traveller from the back row, seat backs receding down the cabin towards the windscreen.
The Traveller from behind and to one side, showing the length of the cabin and the roof carrier.

On the road

What the driving actually looks like

Mountain roads average 25 to 35 km an hour and the map will not tell you that. These are ordinary days out — the snow, the rubble, the bridge queue — rather than the two minutes of it that make a brochure.

Traffic queuing on a river bridge under low monsoon cloud, green ridges either side.
A car on the shoulder of a valley road, a steep snowfield running down almost to the tarmac beside it.
A car on an unmade section of hill road, loose rubble underfoot and a bare ridge above.
Looking out past a parked car to a snow-covered range across a forested valley.
A car on a snow-patched track below a pine slope, someone walking the road ahead.
A car on a road under fresh snow, the verge and the slope above it all white.
A dog standing on a snow-covered ledge at a roadside rest stop, shuttered stalls and washroom doors behind it under deep snow.

Tell us how many of you there are

That one number decides the car, and the car moves the price. Send it over with your dates and we will tell you which of the six you would be in.

Ask about a car and driverCall +91 88941 60344