Kinnaur-Spiti tour

arya

Hi all,
Last year I had visited spiti region-Manali to Manali-it was a family tour. This year too plan to go to Spiti via Shimla-Kinnaur-Spiti Manali route with family(4 yr included).Plan to start on 3rd week of September from Kolkata for about 15 days.Could you pl give details about hotels,tarriffs,jeep rate,day long treks in Kinnaur & Spiti region. It's a long ask. Thanks in advance to all.

dhananjay

Hi,

Third week September, 15 days , with a four year old sounds a lil too taxing for that time ... It would be cold ... anyways a week earlier would be good .. however looking at the weather from the past three-four years it is doable ... Some recommended Acco for the way Shimla - Holiday Home, Sarahan - Temple Guest House, Sangla - Kinner Camps, Kalpa - Aucktong Guest House, Nako - Reo Purgyal Guset House, Tabo - Monastery Guest house, Kaza - Sakya or the best option is to book the home stays in one of the villages .... On an average keep the basic tarrif @ 600/- per night. In manali Kalpana Guest House is good. From Shimla A jeep hire would be around 1700 - 1900/- per day. Day trek in Sangla - the walk to Sangla Kanda is great ... So is the river side walk to Chitkul , In Kalpa walk to Kalpa Kanda or walk along the road to Roghi village. If more initiated the walk to Kashang Kanda is great . Also recommended is a side trip to Ribba. Nako the walk to Tashigang monastery. Enroute visit the Kanum and Pooh monasteries. Dhankar Lake 9kms from Dhankar Monastery is great walk for the views. Pin Valley visit the Kungri Monastery. Worth it. For more info on Spiti watch the first thred in This forum ... In Sarahan the walk to the bird park and above is great again ...

Cheers,
Dhananjay

Tapestry

I visited Spiti in mid-September last year and it was indeed very cold. Days were nice but nights were quite cold and in a hotel without heat or hot water and often without electricity it was a very chilly experience. Snow was already falling on the mountaintops by the time I left. I hope your little one is very hardy.

arya

Hi Dhananjay,
Thanks for the info. Last year we had covered Chandratal, Key,Kibber,Kaza,Dhanker,Tabo,k ungri Monastery and gone up to Mud village between and 2nd and10th October.The 1st night stay at Losar(straight drive from Manali)was very uncomfortable with altitude sickness striking all of us,including my 3 yr boy. But from Kaza it was fine.The road from Gramphu to Kunzam Is terrible.No option for night halt between Manali & Losar.Will read forum & get back to u.
Arya

ahamed

Dear Traveler,

I am thinking of traveling Simla for the first time. I will be going with my wife. We are love nature, we chose Simla hoping that it will be a place of serenity and nature. I am from Tamil Nadu, there is no snow capped mountains at home. Thus this could be a time to remember in our life.

We are intending to visit late October 2006.

Definitely if you would have visited Simla, your advice would become our first tour guide book. Please comment with respect to the following concern.

Is it safe?
Are people friendly?
Can they understand English in common, at least to get food and directions?
Do they after knowing you are a tourist cheat your money by overpricing all things?
Please recommend some good places (scenic), places of interest.
Affordable hotel or guesthouse (safty is a concern); I noted hotel charging US250/night this is too expensive.
We thought of going there by train from Delhi and after flying back to Tamil Nadu from Simla. Is it possible?

We intend to spend 2 days in Simla, exclude travel, is it enough?

TimMakins

Shimla is fine - you will have no problems there. A good guidebook will answer your other questions.

Tim in England

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khaadu75

Hi there , As its yuor first visit to Simla I will answer all ur questions and if you have any farther questions pls feel free to PM me ..

1. It is very safe .. so nothing to worry about .
2. You will find the people very friendly in most places in Himachal . Though exceptions are always there ...
3. Himachal has the highest literacy rate in the country .. though books say Kerala . English is very easily understood ... you will not have any problems on this front either.
4. Overpricing happens in most tourist spots but again here its not that they will charge you extra just coz u r a tourist , rates will be similar for all tourists .
5. As you only have 2 days there .. I wud recomend a walk upto Jakhu temple , which is the highest point in Simla. Evenings can be strolling on the Mall road ... You can also get a cab and go to Kufri, Chail & Naldhera.
6. There are plenty of guest houses so it all depends in your budget and levels of service that you would like while on vacation.
7. There is no direct train to Simla from delhi . You can eaither take a train to Kalka and then change over to a toy train or else take a cab from Kalka to Simla . As for your return journey .. there is no direct flights from Simla for you .
8. 2 days aint enough to soak in the culture of Simla and its surrounding areas but it definitely will be a change from the landscape that you used to down south.

Any farther questions pls feel free to ask ....

Cheers

dream_traveller

hi ahmed,
shimla is beautiful place by every means, people, landscape, culture, society, foods everything. u will get hotels/budgets as low as 200/300 rs pernight charge. i have been to shimla many times. so if u let me know ur budget then i can suggest some of the hotels name. but two things i would like to comment
1.) for a first timer and specially when ur coming from tamilnadu after a long train journey, only 2 days at shimla may be quite hectic a tour. try to add another atleast 1or 2 days.
2.) i guess there will be no snow in shimla in the month of october/november. but weather will be cold.

ahamed

Dear Khaadu & Dream & Tim,

Thanks for your warm advice.

I am touched when I noted the lengthy post and an offer to guide, this is priceless for a new traveler, you will definitely agree.

Let me share what we have in mind.

We only have 5 days to spend excluding travel to and from (Home – Delhi).
Thus we thought of going to (1) Taj Mahal (Delhi), (2) Red Fort (Jaipur). Each will take 1 day inclusive of its own travel (intend to stay in Delhi 2days). Take a train to (3) Simla (2days) to complete our tour, we thought there will not be many places here except for the good weather and “capped” mountains.

After reading your post, I am prepared to shift or compromise on Jaipur and/or Taj Mahal.

In view of accommodation at SIMLA, (Rs 200-250) / night is good, hope we can get HOT water and clean & nice room, with laundry, guest house is fine too. Any recommendations?

In view of accommodation at DELHI, (Rs 200-250) / night is good, hope we can get HOT water and clean & nice room, with laundry, guest house is fine too. Any recommendations?

Please recommend any more places “romantic” in and around Simla, we are prepared to go higher grounds but certainly we will have no time to get to the summit like “Leh”. By the way do we need permits if we need to go higher gorunds, I read some where that you need to apply for permit and it takes a day to process.

TimMakins

200-250 might not be so easy to find in Shimla. It is a popular place, and the prices are a little higher than that, but if you look around you will still find something reasonable. The further down from the Mall you go, the cheaper will be the hotel prices.

Tim in England

dream_traveller

between agra and jaipur u shd go to agra, if u havent seen tajmahal before. around shimla u can go to narkanda(u can stay there overnight or ucan come back same day) as it is only 2and halhour distance from shimla. also u can try for the day tours conduct by himachal tourism by bus. they have many tour one day tour, u can select according to ur wish.
now for the accomodation in shimla i guess there will be hard to get anything in 200/250. u can get some of the average hotel rooms in 300/350. in 450/500 u will get plenty of good choices.
here are some name of the 300-350rs range
Apsara Guest House (ph-211652), Easy Guest House (ph-ph-213126), Kohinoor (ph-202008), Classic (ph-253078), Flora (ph-258027), Puneet (ph-257035), Rajdhani (ph-213228), Sun View (ph-212548), hotel ranjan(ph-2652818), hotel vikrant(ph-2653602)
as these are the most cheapest hotels so u cannt expect much cleanness, well atleast u can stay and sleep for somehow. wish u a happy journey

ahamed

Dear Dream,

We have decided, we are going. Please give us the telephone number in full, that is +91..... I have to call from Singapore to book. Thanks.