Taxi
Taxi in Dharamshala
One of the three towns our trips start from. Kotwali Bazaar, the stadium, the bus stand and everything up the hill — plus the airport run, the Pathankot train and the long drives out to Manali and the plains.
- A car reaches you
- 40–50 min
- Pickup points
- 4 in Dharamshala
- Cars
- Maruti Dzire, Maruti Ertiga, Toyota Innova Crysta, Tempo Traveller 17+1, Force Tempo Traveller 26 Seater
Call +91 88941 60344Answered at any hour, in English or Hindi.
In short
Yes — a car comes up from our base in Kangra and reaches anywhere in Dharamshala in forty to fifty minutes, and there is somebody on the phone at any time of night because that is when flights and trains arrive. Tell us where you are and where you are going and you get one fixed price before the car moves — no meter, no surcharge at the end, and a driver on our own payroll rather than whoever was nearest.
- A car reaches anywhere in Dharamshala in forty to fifty minutes, coming up from our base in Kangra.
- McLeod Ganj is fifteen to twenty-five minutes above the town up a road of hairpins.
- Gaggal airport is twenty-five to thirty-five minutes down the hill.
- Kangra town is forty to fifty minutes away and Palampur an hour to an hour and a quarter.
- Manali is eight to nine hours, which is a full day and has to start early.
Where we meet you
The spots a car can actually wait
- Point 140–50 min from KangraKotwali Bazaar
The centre of lower Dharamshala and the default meeting point for anything in the town itself. The bazaar road is narrow and busy through the middle of the day, so the driver will usually suggest one end of it rather than the middle — say which hotel or which bank you are near and he will pick the end that does not involve a three-point turn in front of a bus.
- Point 240–50 min from KangraThe bus stand
Every Volvo from Delhi and Chandigarh terminates here, most of them between five and seven in the morning. It is a straightforward pickup and the one we do most often at an unsociable hour. If you are arriving overnight, book it the day before rather than hoping — there are cars around at six but there are also four coaches emptying at once.
- Point 340–50 min from KangraHPCA cricket stadium
Useful on a match day and useful the rest of the year as a landmark, because it is one of the few places in Dharamshala that everybody can find and there is room to park. On match days the roads around it close and pickups move to the far side, which we will tell you when you book rather than when you ring from the gate.
- Point 435–45 min from KangraThe helipad and the Gaggal road
The lower approach, and where we meet people who are already in a vehicle coming up from the valley and want to change to ours. It is also the sensible handover point for a large group arriving in something that should not go further up the hill, which happens more often than you would think with a twenty-six seater.
From here
What people ask us to drive
- McLeod Ganj
- Dharamkot
- Naddi viewpoint
- Gaggal (Kangra) airport
- Kangra town
- Palampur
- Baglamukhi temple
- Dalhousie
- Manali
Fares are for a Maruti Ertiga (6 passengers); ask for the price in any other car. One way, for the whole car and its driver — not per person. It is the fare we quote before the car leaves and the fare you pay; nothing is added afterwards. A return the same day, a night on the road or a detour is priced when you ask.
Local detail
What it is like driving here
Getting a car in and out
Dharamshala is two towns stacked on top of each other and people book the wrong one constantly. Lower Dharamshala — Kotwali Bazaar, the bus stand, the offices — is an ordinary Himachali hill town. McLeod Ganj is fifteen to twenty-five minutes above it up a road of tight hairpins, and it is a different climate, a different crowd and a much harder place to park. "A taxi in Dharamshala" means one of those two and the price and the vehicle both depend on which. Inside the lower town the driving is easy enough: the roads are two-lane, there is somewhere to stop, and any of our cars goes anywhere. The climb to McLeod is where size starts to matter, and the road up is the one that gets genuinely difficult in a heavy monsoon, when the cut sections shed material and a lane can be down to one-way working for a day. We drive it in all weathers and we will say so if a departure needs moving.
Who rings us from Dharamshala
More or less everybody, which is what you would expect of the town most of our customers are standing in when they ring, and the reason this page is shorter on any single type of customer than the others. The steadiest business is arrivals: the overnight coaches at six in the morning, the Gaggal flights, and the Pathankot trains that people then have to be driven three or four hours from. After that it is the onward leg — somebody who has had three days in McLeod Ganj and now wants Manali, Amritsar or the airport, which is a long drive booked a day or two ahead rather than an emergency. The local half is different again and quieter: residents going down to Tanda or to Gaggal, schools and offices needing a Traveller for a day, monastery guests being moved between buildings. Those last ones are repeat customers who never look at the website, and they are the reason there is a person answering the phone at two in the morning rather than a form.
The car
What we would send
- Maruti DzireCouples, solo travellers, and anyone doing the Kangra and Dalhousie side
- Maruti ErtigaFamilies, four to six travelling together, and anything going high
- Toyota Innova CrystaSix who want the long transfer to be comfortable, and high routes with weight aboard
- Tempo Traveller 17+1Extended families and small office groups on the main hill roads
- Force Tempo Traveller 26 SeaterGroups, extended families, offices, and pilgrimage parties
Read more about this placeClose
Dharamshala is one of the three towns our trips start from, and the one most people are standing in when they ring. The cars themselves are kept down the hill at Kangra, forty to fifty minutes away, and that distance is the one thing on this page worth planning around.
What it means in practice is booking ahead. A car can be on its way at any hour, so a pickup at four in the morning is ordinary rather than a favour — but it is a pickup that was booked the evening before, not one rung in at quarter to four and expected at the door by four.
The name covers two different places
Lower Dharamshala and McLeod Ganj are twenty minutes and four hundred metres of climb apart, and almost every booking confusion we have starts with the two being called by the same name. If your hotel is in McLeod Ganj, say McLeod Ganj. It changes which road the car takes and how long it needs.
Arriving from a long way away
Most people reading this arrived, or are about to, by one of four routes: a flight into Gaggal, an overnight coach into the bus stand, a train to Pathankot, or a car from Chandigarh or Delhi. All four have their own page on this site with an honest driving time on it, and all four are things we meet at whatever hour they actually turn up rather than the hour they were supposed to.
Questions
What people ask before they book here
How much is a taxi from Dharamshala?
In a Maruti Ertiga (6 passengers). One way: Gaggal (Kangra) airport, ₹1,500; Dalhousie, ₹5,500. Every fare is for the whole car with its driver, not per person, and nothing is added afterwards. Anywhere else is quoted when you ask.
Which railway station should we book to for Dharamshala?
Pathankot, for anything on the broad gauge — the drive up is three to four hours. Kangra Mandir is much closer, about forty minutes, but it is on the narrow gauge from Pathankot, which is a beautiful ride and a slow one. Tell us the train number and we will work out where it actually stops.
How far in advance should I book an airport pickup?
The day before is plenty for Gaggal, and we would rather have the flight number than the time — flights into Gaggal are weather-dependent and we track the actual arrival rather than the schedule. There is no waiting charge if you land late.
Can a large vehicle get up to McLeod Ganj?
A seventeen-seater, yes, with a driver who knows the hairpins. A twenty-six-seater is a different matter and we will usually suggest two smaller vehicles instead — the road is tight, the parking at the top is worse, and a big coach spends the last twenty minutes reversing for oncoming traffic.
Do you charge extra at night?
No. The price we quote is the price, whatever hour the car runs, and a large share of our airport and coach work happens between four and seven in the morning anyway. What we do ask is that overnight pickups are booked ahead rather than rung in at the time.
Keep reading