dalhousie, dharamsala,kullu, manali in 6 days

majumdar

Hi,

I am a new member of this forum and have been reading through lot of informative posts on Himachal Pradesh. I have never been to HP and wish to spend 6 days with my wife there. After reading many posts, I am confused as to which places I should choose from dalhousie, dharamsala,kullu, manali , Kaza and Keylong since I believe all can't be covered in these few days.

I will be travelling to and from Delhi. I am travelling in late June.

Regards,
majumdar

SHIMLA

Visit Chamba, Khajjiar and Dalhousie - can be covered in 6/7 days. If possible, prepone your visit to early or mid-June.

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Alan D

To cover the places you have listed would ideally take 2-3 weeks.

I agree with Shimla that Dalhousie, Khajiar, Chamba with possibly a side trip to Brahmaur would make a good 6-7 day break.

Late June, if the monsoon arrives on time, you could encounter landslips in the hills, although last year the monsoon was very late and most damage ocurred in late August.

Suggest you leave the Shimla - Kaza - Keylong - Manali - Kullu trip for another time when you have a couple of weeks free. With only 6 days to cover this route you would spend all your time travelling and with no time to see the sights.

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majumdar

thanks simla bhai for the info. However, I am looking forward to visiting manali after hearing so much about it. How about manali + dharamsala ? Will it be too packed a schedule in 6 days? I would have liked to prepone my trip to may be early June but doesn't seem to be possible at this moment.

SHIMLA

I don't blame you for wanting to visit Manali ! Guide books and travel agents have always sold Manali as the ultimate destination in Himachal - this is far from the truth.

Alan D has rightly pointed out the perils of landslides in late June - the Kullu Manali area is especially vulnerable. Chamba-Khajjiar-Dalhousie will be easier and in my personal view this part of H.P. is more beautiful than Kullu-Manali.

The final decision will be yours, of course !

Dr Funkenstein

It's do-able. Still a bit rushed, imo, but if 6 days is all you have, I'm sure it'd be alright.

Are you driving up from Delhi? Only the overnight buses to Manali from Delhi and from Manali to D'sala are both pretty knackering and take a day or so to get over (unless you're good at sleeping on buses that shake your fillings out. I know I'm not. ) If you're driving up yourself it's not such a big problem.

An alternative would be to get a shared jeep from Manali to D'sala - much more expensive obviously but at least you travel in the day, see the beautiful Kullu Valley countryside and don't need another day to recover from the trip.

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majumdar

Shimla bhai, Alan D and Dr Funkenstein, you guys provided with lot of insight which was not available to me. Now, I am really thinking of changing the place of my vacation. I think neither the duration nor the time is suiting HP. The main reason I had chosen HP as my destination was with the assumption that monsoon is a bit delayed in the North.

Dr Funkenstein, to answer your question- I was planning to travel to and from Delhi by flight and travel to dharamsala through Pathankot by train. I had planned my return from manali to Delhi via Chandigarh by train.

Funken bhai, even I am not adept at sleeping in rollercoasters and neither do I have the time buffer in this vacation to ease me out of it.

I had calculated that I would have 1 and 1/2 days for Dharamsala and 3 and 1/2 days for Manali. I know the hastles involved in the 16 hr manali-delhi bus journey and hence decided to return via Chandigarh.

Do you suggest any other destination considering the 6/7 days and the June end factor(monsoon) ? I had read in other threads that Uttaranchal is also a good option ? Do you think it will be a good destination given the constaints ?

Dr Funkenstein

If you could afford to fly up to Bhuntur in Kullu then that would cut your journey time down a lot. The problem is the weather - a little bit of cloud and flights get cancelled. Apparently, because the approach to Bhuntur airport is surrounded by mountains, the pilot needs zero cloud cover to land safely. I know this as my flight to Delhi was cancelled on what looked (to me, at least) like a perfectly good day. And in June, there's likely to be some cloud cover.

Can't help you with Uttaranchal, I'm afraid, mate. Never been there.

Good luck, though, and enjoy your trip.

Alan D

I didn't mean to put you off your proposed route but I think it's worth looking at this map from the IMD on the onset of the SW monsoon.

You will see that the average date of onset in Uttaranchal would be about mid June, and in J and K a week or two later. Of course this map is only based on averages and you may escape it completely. I was just thinking that your plans should be a bit flexible.

People's opinions on Manali vary a lot - I quite like the place and if you're set on it you can go and see for yourself, and come to your own conclusions afterwards.

majumdar

Dr Funkenstein and Alan D, thanks for the info u provided. Will keep you posted in case I end up going there.

Cheers.

Dr Funkenstein

AlanD's right about Manali - for some it's been over-developed and become too much of a 'scene', others couldn't care less. I love it myself, just as long as you're not in a hotel that's ruined by other guests who have no respect for the locals and play appalling trance at all hours.

If you do go, majumdar, let me know as I can recommend a nice place to stay. And can tell you a few places to avoid.

majumdar

Dr Funkenstein, is it Hotel Beas in your mind ? Shimla bhai keeps recommending others about this so much that I was almost visualising myself staying there and enjoying the river sight . If there are some other hotels, do recommend them as I would definitely make manali some time in the future if not this time.

Dr Funkenstein

majumdar

Can any one suggest me some good hotel/lodge in Dalhousie and their rates and also whether they need to be booked in advance? I am planning to take a HP trip in June last week and cover Dalhousie-Chamba-Khajjiar. I will travel keeping Dalhousie as my base.

SHIMLA

Stay at HPTDC's Hotel Manimahesh at Dalhousie. Don't bother booking in advance for June last week; just turn up there and you'll get the room you want at a discount !

You say you want to use Dalhousie as a base, but I suggest you spend at least one night at Khajjiar and a couple of nights at Chamba.