Himachal Pradesh Itinerary Help

Hi,

My Family and I are planning a one week trip to Himachal from August 15th-22nd. We are set on visiting Dalhousie, Khajjiar & Manali. We are traveling from Hyderabad and are very short on time, hence I wanted a little advice on the following

The route taking the shortest amnt of time works out to be this:

Hyderabad to Amritsar flight
Amritsar to Pathankot Train
Pathankot to Dalhousie Bus/Cab?
Dalhousie to Khajjiar

Now from here we need to raech Manali. I was wondering what is the best and least time consuming way to get there. Can we catch a train from Dalhousie to Jogindernagar and go to manali? or is there a better, more direct way by bus/cab?

Then Manali-Chandigarh

Again what is the best way to go to Chandigarh? Bus or Train? How much time does it take?

Hi,
In my humble opinion Dalhousie, Khajjiar & Manali are probably one the worst places in Himachal. Use Manali only as a gateway to get in and out of HP. If I were you I'd get to Delhi from Hyderabad and the use the VOLVO bus services to get to HP (Shimla or Manali).

Vashishth and Old Manali are nice places to sack out - not particularly a family destination in my opinion.

Some places I'd suggest :
* From Shimla, you can go up to Sangla and see places on the way.
* Tirthan Valley
* Parvati Valley
* Spiti

Hope this helps.

Cheers!

thanks for your advice...we were thinking amritsar and chandigarh because they are the closest airports to dalhousie and manali, getting to shimla from hyd costs triple the amnt compared to hyd-chandigarh.

Im a bit confused now with you saying these locations are the worst to go...i have read many good review here on india mike, as well as from friends about these places. We were planning on stayig in Span Resort in Manali to unwind for a 4 days, and we would definitely like to visit some unique and beautiful places for the remaining three days.

What about Dharamshala? The Dalai Lama would not be there during our travel dates....we would like to keep traveling minimal...

If you have time, pick the Outlook Traveller book on Himachal Pradesh and go through it.

Definitely avoid Dalhousie (Dull and Lousy) and Khajiar.
In fact there was a thread on this forum a month ago - you can dig it up and go through it.

Manali is good if you want to go to Leh/Lahaul/Spiti or try some of the adventure sports/trekking.
If not, Manali is also not worth your time esp since you are coming from Hyderabad.

HP has a lot of wonderful places which you must visit before visiting these places.
Check my blog www.10yearitch.com and search for 'Himachal Pradesh'.

Dharamshala/Mc Leod should be nice (stay at Bagsu).

If you are coming for first time to Himachal then, there are much better places than Dalhousie. You need not take a flight to Shimla. Take upto Delhi and try night bus to Shimla or Manali, you can come upto Kalka and take toy train for Shimla.

I am also from your state. I start in morning and by noon reaches Delhi, next day by 11 am I am at Shimla or Manali. Now start from any of these two places to different locations of Himachal based on your plan.

It seems you are not sure about your tour plan.Simla, manali or Simla- sangla,kalpa are better options. You better talk to the person whose name & contact number is given below.
Mr. Saveen Kumar-- +919816311768.
Very nice man, I have visited twice with his car. You can take my reference ( I did the last tour in Jan this year-Dshala,Jawalaji,Dalhousie,Amri tsar). He will chalk out a plan as per your date. You will have to remember the time you have chosen is Rainy season,so a local guy will be able to suggest you where not to go at that time.