Guides
The things worth knowing before you book anything
We drive these roads most weeks of the year, so we know which month is worth taking off work and which one is not, how long a drive really takes against what the map claims, and where a car and driver is honestly not worth paying for. That is what is written down here. None of it is a sales pitch.
The best time to visit Himachal Pradesh
Himachal is not one climate, it is about five stacked on top of each other. The month that gives you snow in Manali is the month Spiti is shut, and the month Spiti is at its best is the month the Kangra valley is washing out. Here is what each part of the year actually gives you.
Read the guideHow many days you need in Himachal
Almost everybody arrives at this backwards — a list of places first, and then a search for the number of days that will fit them. It works better the other way round. Here is what three, five, seven, ten and fourteen days genuinely buy you, counted honestly.
Read the guideHow long Himachal drives actually take
Every distance in this state is a lie about time. Two hundred kilometres on the plains is three hours; two hundred kilometres from Dharamshala to Manali is most of a day. Here are the real numbers for the roads we drive, and the arithmetic that explains them.
Read the guideAltitude in Himachal, and how not to lose a week to it
Spiti, Kinnaur and the Leh road put you above 3,500 metres for days at a time, and a lot of people spend that time in a hotel room feeling terrible. Almost all of it is avoidable, and the thing that avoids it is the order you do the route in rather than anything you take.
Read the guideHimachal in winter, and what stays open
Snow is the easy part of a winter trip here. The hard part is that half the state becomes unreachable between December and March, and the half that does not is rarely the half people have written into their itinerary. This is which is which.
Read the guideHimachal with children and older parents
The thing that spoils a family trip here is almost never the weather or the altitude. It is a driving day somebody built at six hours because the map said four. Everything else follows from getting that number right.
Read the guideHimachal for a honeymoon, and how to choose
Nearly every honeymoon enquiry we get names a place before it names a preference, and the two most common places are the two that suit the fewest couples. The useful question comes first, and it is not where — it is whether you want to move at all.
Read the guide
Looking for one particular road or valley rather than the whole picture? That is what the blog is for — measured distances, honest drive times, and what the last thirty kilometres actually does to a car.
Send us your dates
Tell us roughly when you are coming and how many of you there are. We will write the days out properly and give you one price, usually the same day.