Chandigarh-Shimla-Manali-Dharamshala(and/or)Dalhousie-Amritsar

senyah

Folks,

We, a group of 6 guys, are planning to tour Himachal in the first week of Nov-2009.

We haven't actually booked any package or have a concise road map, rather just a rough iterinary. I'm putting down what we have roughly planned out - can some of you well informed please suggest the places to visit or any siggestions on where more time could be spent.

Rough Draft Iterinary -

31-Oct-09
Mumbai - Chandigarh (AIR) (reach at ~1220 hours)
Chandigarh - Shimla (BUS) (reach at ~1900 hours)

01-Nov-09
Tour around Shimla. We have the previous evening & the rest of today. Is this enough? We plan to catch a bus to Manali(via Mandi) this evening itself considering it's an overnight journey to manali from shimla.

02-Nov-09
We should probably reach Manali early morning and we have thought of spending 2 days here. Can anyone please let us know the places we should visit - (solang valley, rohtang pass, the temple etc.) We spend teh night in Manali.

03-Nov-09
Again, the whole day belongs to manali, ideas for places to visit please.
We plan to catch the overnight bus to Dharamshala.

04-Nov-09
I'm looking at the HPDTC bus routes (are these accurate enough) that we would reach Dharamshala early morning if we leave from manali the previous evening.
Again we need information on the places to visit here - entire day available.

05-Nov-09.
SPARE Day. No plans yet.

06-Nov-09
Depending on how we spend the SPARE day, this day is to be planned. however, we have booked rail tickets from pathankot to amritsar by the Muri Epxress at 1645 hours today. We reach amritsar on 06-Nov evening.

07-Nov-09
(A)GOlden Temple, (B)Jalianwala Bagh, (C)Wagah Bordre, that's all we have drafted roughly. And we catch the 2100 hours Golden Temple express to Mumbai tonight. Are all these 3 locations feasibale in one day, any other place we should visit.

Our Main Concerns are -
1) Are the state buses reliable enough for the trips mentioned. Since we are 6, is it good enough to get a cab for the Shimla-Manali and Manali-Dharamshala/Dalhousie trips. How much more expensive would this be than the buses. (

2) Is Dalhousie a better option than Dharamshala/McLeodGanj. We have a spare day - what's the best way to utilize this day, do we directly go to Dalhousie rather than Dharamshala? I've read about Khajjiar, opinions on that please

Inputs are very much appreciated!!! Any suggestions on where should spend a day more or places that we should be reaching to. Only the Mumbai-Chandigarh air tickets and Amritsar-Mumbai Rail tickets are confirmed as of yet, so that's unstrechable. anythign other than the above in the 8 days we are there in HP, please share your ideas.

senyah

Anyone with suggestions please?