Taxi
Taxi in Dharamkot
The village above McLeod, where the road runs out before the guesthouses do. Cars come up, but not to every door — and the last stretch is often walked with your bags.
- A car reaches you
- 1–1.25 hrs
- Pickup points
- 3 in Dharamkot
- Cars
- Maruti Dzire, Maruti Ertiga
Call +91 88941 60344Answered at any hour, in English or Hindi.
In short
We drive to Dharamkot every day, and the honest version of the answer is that a car gets you close rather than all the way. The motorable road climbs from McLeod Ganj through upper Dharamkot and then stops, and a good share of the accommodation is above where it stops. The car comes up from our base in Kangra and is with you in an hour to an hour and a quarter. Tell us the guesthouse name when you book and we will say plainly how far you will be walking, which is not something you will find out from a booking app.
- A car reaches the top of the Dharamkot road from our base in Kangra in an hour to an hour and a quarter.
- McLeod Ganj is twelve to twenty minutes below and lower Dharamshala twenty to thirty.
- Naddi is fifteen to twenty-five minutes away, the nearest viewpoint worth an evening.
- Bir, over on the far side of the valley, is two to two and a half hours.
- The road stops before the upper guesthouses; the last stretch is on foot.
Where we meet you
The spots a car can actually wait
- Point 11–1.25 hrs from KangraUpper Dharamkot road end
Where the motorable road gives up, and the single most useful pickup in the village because everybody staying higher has to pass it anyway. There is enough room for one car to turn and not much more, so this is a booked pickup at an agreed minute rather than somewhere to find a taxi waiting. Going down with luggage it is a relief; coming up it is a climb.
- Point 255–70 min from KangraThe Dharamkot turning above McLeod
The junction where the Dharamkot road leaves the Bhagsu road, a few minutes up from McLeod square. It is the fallback when the village road is blocked by works or by a delivery truck, which happens, and it is a genuinely easier meeting point for a car with four people and bags in it. Ten minutes' walk down from the middle of the village.
- Point 31–1.25 hrs from KangraGallu Devi road
The track running on towards the Triund path, which some of the quieter guesthouses sit along. A small car manages the first part of it in dry weather and nothing manages it after heavy rain. We will say which on the day rather than promise in advance, and the alternative is always the road end below.
From here
What people ask us to drive
Local detail
What it is like driving here
Getting a car in and out
Dharamkot is built on a forested slope with a single road threaded through it, and the defining fact for anybody in a car is that the road ends partway up. It is surfaced and perfectly drivable to that point, narrow the whole way, and it has almost nowhere to pass — meeting a vehicle coming the other way means one of you reversing to a gap, which is the normal cost of doing business here rather than a bad day. Above the road end everything is footpaths through the deodars, and a fair proportion of the guesthouses are up them. In the monsoon the surface gets slick under the tree cover and stays wet for days after the rain stops, because the sun never properly reaches it. We send small cars only. Nothing larger than an Ertiga comes up, and on a wet morning in August we would rather meet you at the McLeod turning and have you walk ten minutes than have a car sliding on a slope with no barrier.
Who rings us from Dharamkot
Dharamkot has a population that is temporary but not brief, and that is what makes the taxi work here unlike anywhere else in the valley. People come for ten days and stay three months — the meditation courses, the yoga schools, the long slow winters in a rented room — and they do not have a vehicle. So the bookings are sparse, individual and almost always awkwardly timed: a four in the morning run to Gaggal for a cheap flight, a visa trip, a friend to be fetched off the night bus at Dharamshala, a suitcase that has to get down the hill when its owner cannot carry it. Very little of it is sightseeing and almost none of it is a group. What these customers want is somebody who answers at an odd hour, remembers which guesthouse they meant last time, and does not quote one price on the phone and a different one at the door. That is the whole of the job here.
The car
What we would send
Read more about this placeClose
Dharamkot is fifteen minutes above McLeod Ganj and feels considerably further, which is most of why people come and all of why getting a car here takes a conversation.
The village sits in deodar forest on a steep slope. One road climbs into it, narrows, and then stops — and the guesthouses carry on up the hill past where it stopped. Nobody tells you this when you book a room, and it is the single most useful thing to know before you arrive with luggage.
We will tell you how far you are walking
Every booking from here starts with the guesthouse name, because that decides whether this is a door pickup or a ten-minute climb. We would rather say so on the phone than have you find out in the rain at six in the morning.
Small cars, and a driver who knows the passing places
Nothing bigger than an Ertiga comes up. The road has almost no width to spare and meeting something coming down means reversing to a gap — which is fine when the driver already knows where the gaps are, and slow when he does not.
Questions
What people ask before they book here
How far will the car actually take us?
To the top of the motorable road, which is partway up the village. From there it is a walk, anywhere from two minutes to twenty depending where you are staying. Give us the guesthouse name and we will tell you which before you book, not after you arrive with a suitcase.
Can you come at four in the morning for a flight?
Yes, and it is one of the more common bookings from Dharamkot. Book it the night before. The driver will be at the road end at the agreed time and it is worth being there rather than starting to pack — there is nowhere for him to wait without blocking the road.
Is the road open in the monsoon?
Almost always, but the surface under the trees stays wet long after the rain stops and there are stretches with nothing on the downhill side. If it has been raining hard we may ask to meet you lower down. That is a judgement the driver makes on the morning and we would rather make it than not.
What about a car late at night?
We will come, but tell us in advance. There is no rank in Dharamkot and nothing waiting after dark — a car has to be sent up from our base in Kangra, which is an hour or a little over, so a message at eleven at night is a much better outcome than a phone call at midnight.
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