Sunny Himachal Travels

Trips we run

Every route, written out properly

These are the ones people ask for most. Most start in Dharamshala, a few from Chandigarh or Shimla because that is where the road begins, and any of them can be made shorter, longer or joined together. Each one has the days laid out and the driving times we actually expect, rather than the ones that look best on paper.

A day out

Leave after breakfast, back the same evening. No packing.

1 day

McLeod Ganj and Bhagsu

The Dalai Lama's temple, the waterfall at Bhagsu, the Tibetan market, and tea at Naddi while the light goes. A full day out without changing hotels.

  • McLeod Ganj
  • Bhagsunag
  • Naddi
  • Dal Lake

Two or three days

A weekend, and still time to sit somewhere rather than only drive.

A gilded temple spire with red pennants flying from its mast against a blue sky.

2 nights · 3 days · Year-round

Shaktipeeth Devi Darshan

The five temples of the Himachal Devi Darshan, driven in the order that actually works — starting at Naina Devi on the way up from Chandigarh and finishing at Chamunda Devi, twenty minutes from our own door. One car, one driver, all three days.

  • Naina Devi
  • Chintpurni
  • Jwalamukhi
  • Kangra Devi
  • Chamunda Devi
The Golden Temple across the water at close range, its gilt upper storeys bright against the white marble beside it.

2 nights · 3 days

Amritsar and the Golden Temple

Down out of the hills into Punjab. The Golden Temple first thing in the morning, Jallianwala Bagh, and the border ceremony at Wagah. Most people tack this onto either end of a Himachal trip.

  • Golden Temple
  • Jallianwala Bagh
  • Wagah
A slate path curving between tile-roofed cottages and marigold beds, with wooded ridges standing behind the village.

1 night · 2 days

Palampur, Andretta and the tea gardens

An hour from Dharamshala and ten degrees warmer. Kangra tea planted to the foot of the Dhauladhar, a working pottery in a village of artists, and a thirteenth-century temple on the way home.

  • Palampur
  • Andretta
  • Tashi Jong
  • Baijnath
A small round lake with a green floating island on it, held in a bowl of meadow, with a tiered wooden temple on the slope beside the water.

2 nights · 3 days · Apr–Jun, Sep–Nov

Mandi, Rewalsar and Prashar lake

The town everyone drives past on the way to Manali, the lake three faiths share, and a thirteenth-century pagoda beside a small deep water at 2,730m. Three days, and a dawn start for the one that matters.

  • Mandi
  • Rewalsar
  • Prashar Lake
  • Panchvaktra
The last sun on a high ridge, the grass and rock along the top of it lit orange while the wooded valley below has gone into shadow, with boulders in the foreground.

1 night · 2 days · Mar–Jun, Sep–Nov

Triund, and a night on the ridge

Nine kilometres up from Gallu Devi to a grass shoulder at 2,828m with the Dhauladhar wall directly behind it, a night under canvas, and down the next morning. The one walk we would put almost anybody on.

  • Gallu Devi
  • Triund
  • Laka Got
  • Dharamkot
A still lake reflecting the conifers standing around it, with a small green-roofed pavilion on the far bank and deodars closing the view behind.

2 nights · 3 days · Apr–Jun, Sep–Nov

Narkanda, Kotgarh and the apple belt

Sixty-five kilometres past Shimla the hill stations stop and the orchards start. Three days in the country an American called Satyanand Stokes planted with apples in 1916, and a road to a temple at 3,400m.

  • Narkanda
  • Hatu Peak
  • Kotgarh
  • Thanedar
  • Tani Jubbar
A monastery front painted red, gold and yellow with a broad flight of red steps climbing to the doors, and two figures in maroon robes on the stairs.

2 nights · 3 days

Norbulingka and the Tibetan Kangra

Seven exile institutions strung along forty kilometres of the Kangra valley — a craft school where thangka painters train for six years, two monastic colleges, a Khampa village. Three days of the thing Dharamshala is actually known for.

  • Norbulingka
  • Gyuto
  • Tashi Jong
  • Sherabling
  • Bir
A narrow-gauge train in red livery curving across a multi-arched stone viaduct on a wooded hillside, photographed from a carriage window further back along the same curve.

2 nights · 3 days

Shimla by the Kalka railway

Ninety-six kilometres of two-foot-six-inch track, 102 tunnels and most of a morning to climb 1,419m. You take the train up and we drive the luggage, then two days in the town it was built to reach.

  • Kalka
  • Barog
  • Shimla
  • Kufri
A shallow river running fast over a wide bed of pale boulders, with a concrete road bridge crossing it and the town stacked up the bank beyond.

2 nights · 3 days · Mar–Jun, Sep–Oct

Kullu, the Beas and the rafting stretch

The town everyone drives past on the way to Manali, given two nights. A fourteen-kilometre run down the Beas in a raft, a ridge temple at 2,460m, and the looms the shawls on the Mall Road are actually made on.

  • Kullu
  • Pirdi
  • Bijli Mahadev
  • Bhuntar
The sun coming up behind a low ridge with cloud lying in the valley below it, the sky orange above and power lines crossing one corner of the frame.

1 night · 2 days · Nov–Mar

Pong Dam and the Kangra wetlands

Two hours below Dharamshala the Beas is dammed into a lake the size of a small district, and every winter a couple of hundred thousand birds arrive on it from central Asia. Two days, two dawns, and a pair of binoculars.

  • Pong Dam
  • Nagrota Surian
  • Dhameta
  • Ransar

Four or five days

Far enough for a second valley without hurrying the first.

The saucer of flat grass at Khajjiar with its pond in the middle and deodar forest closing the ring all the way round.

3 nights · 4 days

Dalhousie and Khajjiar

Quiet cedar ridges, the green bowl at Khajjiar and the old temples in Chamba. The easiest trip we do, which is why couples and families with small children usually end up here.

  • Dalhousie
  • Khajjiar
  • Chamba
The river running fast past village houses with forested slopes closing in on both banks.

4 nights · 5 days

Kasol and Parvati valley

Days by the river, the hot springs at Manikaran and the walk up to Kheerganga. This is the one long-stay travellers and backpackers ask for by name.

  • Kasol
  • Manikaran
  • Tosh
  • Kheerganga
Half a dozen paragliders spread across the sky above a wooded ridge, with cloud breaking up around them.

3 nights · 4 days · Mar–Jun, Sep–Nov

Bir, Billing and Barot valley

Two nights at Bir so the weather gets a second chance at your flight, then over to Barot — a hydro valley from the 1930s with a trout river in it and almost no traffic.

  • Bir
  • Billing
  • Jogindernagar
  • Barot
A broad mown ground seen between deodar trunks, with a low pavilion at the far edge and storm cloud over the ridge behind.

3 nights · 4 days

Shimla, Kasauli and Chail

The three hill stations above Chandigarh, taken in the order that keeps the crowds behind you: a cantonment with two roads, a maharaja's forest, and Shimla last rather than first.

  • Kasauli
  • Chail
  • Shimla
  • Kufri
A small dark lake sitting in a bowl of cropped grass, ringed by boulders and old forest, with a low building among the trees on the far bank.

3 nights · 4 days · Mar–Jun, Sep–Nov

Tirthan, Jibhi and the Jalori pass

A trout river, a 3,120m pass with a lake an hour's walk from the top, and a valley that decided against becoming Manali. Four days of small roads and wooden villages with nothing much to tick off.

  • Jibhi
  • Jalori Pass
  • Serolsar
  • Shoja
A wide braided river running over pale boulders in bright sun, with a long snow-covered ridge standing directly behind it under a clear sky.

4 nights · 5 days · Jun–Oct

Lahaul, beyond the tunnel

Nine kilometres of tunnel and the trees stop. Five days on the far side of the Pir Panjal — the Chandra and the Bhaga, a temple that both Hindus and Buddhists use, and villages that were cut off for six months a year until 2020.

  • Sissu
  • Keylong
  • Jispa
  • Trilokinath
  • Udaipur
A broad grass meadow with small figures spread across it, a timber building and parked vehicles along its edge, conifers on the slope beyond and a wall of snow closing the head of the valley.

3 nights · 4 days

Manali, Solang and Naggar

Manali given four days instead of the day and a half a circuit tour can spare it. Old Manali and the hot springs, the meadow at Solang, and the left bank down to Naggar, which was the capital of this valley for fourteen centuries.

  • Manali
  • Vashisht
  • Solang
  • Naggar
A dark snow-streaked peak standing above a still lake, with lines of tarpaulin shelters along the far shore and the whole scene reflected in the water.

4 nights · 5 days · Aug–Sep

Chamba and the Manimahesh yatra

The old Chamba town first, then up the Ravi to Bharmour and the walk from Hadsar to a lake at 4,080m under a peak nobody has climbed. A pilgrimage that is still mostly pilgrims.

  • Chamba
  • Bharmour
  • Hadsar
  • Dhancho
  • Manimahesh
A campfire burning on open ground with a small lit tent beside it and bare branches around, under a night sky full of stars.

4 nights · 5 days · Apr–Jun, Sep–Nov

The Great Himalayan National Park

A UNESCO site with no road in it. Three days on foot from the roadhead at Gushaini into a park that has been closed to grazing and collection since it was notified, with a registered guide because you cannot go without one.

  • Gushaini
  • Sai Ropa
  • Rolla
  • Shilt

A week or more

The long roads — Kinnaur, Spiti, Leh, and the full loop of the state.

A stream coming down a wooded valley with village buildings along the bank and cloud sitting on the ridge above.

8 nights · 9 days

The big Himachal loop

Dharamshala across to Shimla, then up to Manali and back. Old hill stations, deodar forest, the Beas running alongside you and the Dhauladhar at both ends of the trip.

  • Dharamshala
  • Shimla
  • Manali
  • Kullu
A suspension bridge carrying a single lane across a deep gorge cut in bare rock, the canyon dropping away under the deck.

8 nights · 9 days · Jun–Oct

Spiti Valley

Cold desert, monasteries older than most countries, villages sitting above 4,000m. We drive it slowly and in the right order so the altitude creeps up on you instead of hitting you.

  • Kalpa
  • Tabo
  • Kaza
  • Key
  • Chandratal
A braided river spread across a wide grey valley floor, the road running along one side of it below the snow.

5 nights · 6 days · Jun–Sep

Manali to Leh

Five passes, a couple of nights under canvas and one of the best drives anywhere. We build in a day to acclimatise and carry oxygen, because at that height it matters.

  • Jispa
  • Sarchu
  • Leh
A tarred road curving down a broad green valley between grassy slopes, a cluster of blue and red roofed buildings on the floor of it and snow peaks standing at the head of the valley.

6 nights · 7 days · May–Oct

Kinnaur: Sangla, Chitkul and Kalpa

The Sutlej gorge as far as the Baspa, then a week in two valleys that most people only see through a car window on the way to Spiti. Apple country, Chitkul at the end of the road, and Kinner Kailash out of the bedroom window.

  • Sarahan
  • Sangla
  • Chitkul
  • Kalpa
  • Reckong Peo
A village of slate-roofed houses stacked on a green spur above a wooded valley, with a long wall of snow peaks catching the light directly behind it.

13 nights · 14 days · Jun, Sep–Oct

Himachal in a fortnight

The one trip that joins the two halves of the state — Kangra and Shimla, then up the Sutlej into Kinnaur, across Spiti and out over Kunzum into Lahaul. Fourteen days, one car, and the only sane way to acclimatise for it.

  • Dharamshala
  • Shimla
  • Kinnaur
  • Spiti
  • Manali

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