Advice about Hotels in Dharamshala

Alohaguy

Found this site last week. It is indeed a Godsend! Full of helpful people. I feel lucky to belong to such a group.

About 12 to 15 of us will be travelling to Dharamshala in March 2008. Plan is to go by Bus /Van from Delhi.
1. Is it a good idea to travel by road?
2. Could you recommend decent hotels in or around Dharamsala?

Another question I have asked in a separate thread is:
1. any information about moderate priced decent hotels in Gaya for an older couple.
Thanks!

ranjan154

There are so many good options available, please clarify the budget first. In Gaya too some good options are available.

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Rakesh Ranjan
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Alohaguy

Our budget is around $50 per day.
BTW looked at your pictures. Beautifull!! Specially Haridwar and Rishikesh. We lived in Dehradun for a while in early seventies and took some weekend trips in that area.

vpsingh

Will suggest looking into the hotel listing in IM forum. They have reviews from patrons. Also visit this- http://hptdc.nic.in

It lists hotels owned by state government. May not be best but you will escape touts and their locations are always best.

For travel, bus is best bet for group of people. Trains do not go up to Dharamshala and there are no flights as far as I know.

Happy visiting.

sirensongs

Indeed, you have no choice but to go by road. unless you count the recent addition of a flight from Delhi to Kangra Valley airport by Jagsom Air, but you must still drive almost 2 hours from that airport to "Dhasa."

-Do you mean $50 a day total or per person per day? For the hotel alone or for everything?

-March 2008 the town will be absolutely packed for the Dalai Lama's spring annual teachings, which may be why you are going. Be prepared. If you want to attend teachings see advice at
www.dalailama.com

-Last (2007) March it was freaking cold, with freezing rain and hail storms a whole lot of the time. Again, be prepared. The buildings have no heat there, unless you have a posh room that gives a space heater.

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"Why do people go to India to find themselves? India is where you go to lose yourself."
Feringhee: The India Diaries

Alohaguy

Sirensongs, Your info was of much use. We found someone in Delhi to do the travel plans for us. It will be by road and will be something like this:
Leave Delhi on 19th March 2008,
Sleep overnight at Nalagarh and then on to a place called Taragarh. We were told that we can make day trips to Dharamsala and Mcleodganj etc from Taragarh.
Leave Taragarh on 23rd for Amritsar.
Overnight at Amritsar.
Back to Delhi on 24th.
Then we plan to go to Bodh Gaya leaving Delhi on 27th.
We have one week after 27th. in India.
1. Please write your comments on if this is a good plan or not as far as Dharamsala is concerned.
2. Can we do Varanasi and Bodh Gaya in one week?
Thanks for your help!
Aloha

rishabh6296

Hotel Tibet is a good budget option in mcleodganj with an excellent resturaunt.

pantelis

well, you could also book a room paying with Western Union , they are very friendly but the groundfloor and underground rooms are full of humidity and neglected, the TV sets are out of order.At least they were like that 2 years ago , also it is quite noisy, prefer the rooms on the upper floors.They have nice cuisine.

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Petrilla

Hi,

i am also going to Dharamsala and then my plans are to visit the following:

Delhi - Allahabad
Allahabad - Varanasi
Varanasi - Sarnath
Sarnath - Varanasi
Varanasi - Bodgaya
Bodgaya - Rajgir
Rajgir - Nalanda
Nalanda - Patna
Patna - Vaishali, Kesariya
Patna - Hajipur
Hajipur - Gorakpur - how to get there?
Gorakpur - Kushinagar
Kushinagar - Gorakpur
Gorakpur - Delhi

Anyone has an idea how much time do I need for such trip? Can you recommend an itinerary? I will do that trip from October the 6th and I am planning to leave Delhi on October the 20th, so that I have almost 2 weeks, is it enough?

First time to India at all, so I dont have an idea, just what I read in LP.

Thank you.

Petra

Marek

Petra, maybe you could do that all in 2 weeks but that would be a world-record and only if you would stay at every place 1 day and travel by night to another. but that's no fun in India.

look at it this way-from Delhi to Varanasi you need one night by train. for Varanasi you need at least 3 days, to get to know what is happening around you, to get a small glimpse of Varanasi. 1-2 weeks for Varanasi are recomended. but if you want to take just a quick picture of Varanasi, then you of course don't need 3 days or 1 week, and you will not get anyhow to know it. nor any other place.
in India things function differently then in the West. slowly, slowly. if you run around you want get it, but stay only confused. many of the places on your list are worth of staying at least 3 days or more. i see you want to travel a lot in Bihar, i hope you are not alone, because Bihar(Patna, Bodhgaya) can be hard for a woman traveling alone.
i suggest you look at the Lonely Planet where it describes the places and cities and how long you need to get to the other place. remember that traveling in India could be much tougher because of climate and so on, and that you could need more time to rest than usually.

i will go from Dharamsala to Bihar too, but i will take for that travel including only 3 stops (Delhi-just a short stop to get on train, Munger, Varanasi) 2 weeks, and even that will be too short, because the travel there and back to Delhi takes a couple of days.

Bodhgaya_mike

welcoem in india..

better you saty in Bodhgaya not in gaya....and price is about 400 rupees very good clean rooms ,attach wath...with room services.....good view (lord buddha temple)

thanks

Dilliwala

Deccan has a daily flight Delhi-Dhasa-Pathankot-Delhi.

KarmaPhuntsok

Dharamsala itself is pretty shit, usefull only for banks, Kotwali bazaar, buses and people trying to rip you off. In Mcleod Ganj stay in a Tibetan run hostel/hotel. Asoka Guest House was good. I'm staying with friends now so not sure about current situation.

abkchennai

Hi,
we were a group of 10 people 6 adults and 4 children we hired a toyota qualis from chandigarh. to manali then to dharamsala and mcleod ganj on to amritsar and back to chandigarh.from 22nd dec to 30th dec.the road travel was excellent and exhilarating a photographers dream,and good food all the way.discount all the caution about hotels being fullduring new year and christmas.there are umpteen no. of hotels at all places in all budgets, i mean good clean rooms and baths. we paid rs 600/per nigth for rooms right from manali to amritsar. dont miss the retreat parade at the WAGAH border near amritsar it starts at 4:00 p.m and culminates at 5:30.mcleodgang other than the dalai lama and the buddhist temple there is not much in mcleod gang we were offered good rooms from $15 to $40.dont hesitate to bargain.tell them u require 8 rooms and they will do everything from accomadating you maybe in two hotels.all in all dont worry just go there and bargain and you will get it.if you havent booked vehicle let me know ,i will be glad to help you,with expierienced drivers who know the place like the back of their hand.good luck,ahoy!