Manali/Ghusaini in late October

Hi All,

My wife and I are planning to spend 6 days in Himachal. The idea being to split time between Ghushaini ( Raju's Cottage) and Manali. The whole idea is to see the mountains ( as oppossed to the hills coz my home town is on the Western ghats ). My reseacrh indicates that this might be a good bet given our constraints with time, budget , safety ..not to mention the kind of shape we are in :-)

We seem to be getting mixed reviews about Manali with some people recommending it and some warning us that its a waste of time. Could the experts here give me some advice on

Manali:
1. What to expect ( the tourist pictures seem very attractive, but should I trust them ? Common sense dictates that I shouldnt , but I'm guessing there are nice places if I know how to find them)

2. We are looking for a modestly priced place ( hotel/homestay ) away from the crowd with nice views ( I guess I'm being greedy, but stil...)

3. Vashist seems to be higky recommended over Manali as a place to stay ? Is this right ?

4. Are there any easy hiking routes available around Manali/Solang Valley etc ? We'd like to get away from it all but to be frank we are rather ship shaped than ship shape to be able to risk a regular 2-3 day trek.

Ghushaini:

1. Whats Ghushaini like ? Apart from the info available in Outlook, information about Ghushaini is rather sketchy. Could someone provide me with info/links ?
Thanks

Hi,

Actually Manali can be the best or the worst place to have a holiday, according to what you do. If you just spend time on the Mall road in Manali and take a 9.00 am taxi to Rohtang one day, it will become the worst holiday. Being on the Mall road is like being in Karol Bagh in Delhi.
But on the Other hand if you just go to places around manali and take the small walks , with just nature and you, it could be the best place to be.

Now for answers to Specific questions you asked.
1. Ive already answered it above
2. For Places to stay....you can see this thread. You could stay at the Hotel Bhrigu Vashist or one of the mony other hotels there. They have the best view in all of Manali for around Rs 500 a night. The best part is that Vashist has some of the best Continental Reestaurants ive been to in all of India. I did post some pictures taken from the balcony of Hotel Bhrigu in this thread
3. Answered above
4. There are lots of place to hike around. If you want an easy walk to a spectacular place where you and your wife will be the only 2 people. Take a bus/cab to Whispering Rocks just before Palchan and there is a walk trail which starts from the parking of Whispering rocks and leads you to the middle of a gorge to a spectacular waterfall. The walk one way to the water fall would be an easy 30 mins.
You could take a bus /Cab to Kothi and walk on any of the walk trails that lead up from there.
If you are adventurous and can walk a full day you could walk to Lake Bhrigu from Vashist, and next day walk down from Bhrigu lake to Gulaba on the the road to Rohtang. You will have to Camp overnight so you will need a tent, food etc for this...


Styler

I think u should stay lil away from the town incase u want to enjoy the nature properly. Though Hotel bias is in a nice location on the bank of the river but it is situated at a very busy section of the manali town.Rather I recommend u the Hotel whispering rock resort situated at Palchan (10 km towards the rhotang pass), the location is wonderful surrounded by a small river, apple trees and high mountains. There is a small waterfall inside the hotel compound only and u have nice choice of rooms and food too.

U should also seriously think of driving down to a small habitation called Jispa(provided rhotang pass is still open) which is around 140 Km from Manali on the manali-leh road. It has a luxury hotel Hotel Ibdex with wonderful surrounding and rooms. It u want to enjoy the real taste of mountain u should spend a day or two in the Ibex hotel. Rooms are very good and are offered at half the price compared to manali. There is a river in front of the hotel, which is slow flowing and has trout fishes in abundance and u can spent ur day angling!!! If u love mountain u will feel u r at heaven. Adding few pics of places around Jispa

U can also think of suspending few days at the hotel kinnur Kailash at kalpa, which happens to be the capital of Kinnur district of himachal pradesh.
In case u need any more information u are welcome.