Driving to Leh Aug 31 from Delhi/Chandigarh - anyone want to join?

Hi, my boyfriend and I are planning to drive to Leh from either Delhi or Chandigarh via the Lahaul - Spiti route (if roads permit else the Manali route) over 3 days. We were wondering if anyone would be interested in joining us? We will rent a car and driver one way to Leh. The cost is currently Rs. 30,000 total with a driver - does that sound right or is that too expensive? Once there we plan to do some hard trekking and then fly back after 12 days or so. We're looking for companions on the road trip....

I feel 30k is expensive.. suggest you taking a Volvo bus either from Delhi / Chandigarh to Manali and hiring a cab from there to Leh. The cab will cost you approx 10-12k.

If you try to visit Spiti via Shimla and onwards to Leh guess in 3 days you could do it with 1st Day to Kaza and onwards to Keylong and then to Leh but its way to much of travel and guess its not worth it, rather go slow the area is wonderful.

Thanks Amar. If we do the trip via Lahaul and Spiti, can we similarly take a bus to a place mid way from Delhi and then hire a taxi/car from there at a lower cost? I would rather do this route as we've been told by many that it is spectacular so we would even spend 4-5 days exploring it and taking it slowly, as you suggest.

how easy is it to arrange a taxi in Manali if we do the manali route? Would we have to pre-arrange it?

You should be able to arrange it with a Govt tour office, i'm not sure if they operate in Manali. We took a sumo for 7 days from Near Solan to manali and all around. We paid for petrol extra, which wasn't much, and it cost us 10,000 all up.
We toured a lot, and saw all there was, day trips to all the temples etc, all the sights.
So 30,000 is a little steep, imho.
Like has been said, from Manali would be a bit cheaper.

Sure, for covering Spiti go to Shimla either via bus or pvt taxi. From Shimla you can arrange a cab for the onward journey. Not sure about costs but a one way will still be less than 30k.

Do spend more days... check the forum on posts on Spiti.. guess 4-5 days should be just okay to cover important places... as always more the merrier !

Arranging a taxi from Manali or Shimla is not a problem no need to prebook, just go to the taxi stand a day in advance and talk to a few taxi drivers about your trip plan, do negotiate. Also there are chances you might find some others doing the same, thereby you'll can team up and save on the cost per person.

Have a good trip...

30K from delhi is ok as they also charge you guys for return as well. we are doing it on 1st and we hired a scorpio for 25k for this round trip as follows: Chandigarh - manali - keylong - jispa - sarchu - leh (pangong tso, Nubra valley and couple of more place) - kargil - srinagar - jammu and back to chandigarh. Its a 10 day trip and will be fun. Few important things:

1. ask the driver or taxi owner to carry jerrycan of 25 liters filled with fuel (patrol/disel)as last stretch of almost a bit above 300 kms don't have any patrol pump.

2. carry all necessary medicines with you as you will be going over 5000 mtrs. possibly carry some liquor like brandy for immediate heat for bodies in case of cold. but do not over drink and don't smoke too much.

3. try to cross border before 4 pm as they close it at 4. if possible start your journey early morning from sarchu so that you can reach leh on time. its a 9-10 hrs drive from sarchu.

4. If its a taxi number then you have to leave you taxi in leh and hire a local taxi otherwise taxi union in leh will create problem. I suggest you to get a private number vehicle for this trip in order to go places in leh as well. Or else you will be charged a very high amount if you hire a local taxi.

5. make sure that who so ever is you driver is, have visited atleast rohtang (i would suggest spiti) so that you can rely on him.

6. carry heavy woolens if you are not known to mountain weather. carry gloves and goggles as well in order to protect your eyes. If going out in sun for too long then make sure you cover your face with some kind of cloth or monkey cap or else be ready for sun burn and red face. use goggles when you are out as sun is too bright. Most of the time people visiting for first time or after too long might face harsh sun glare and damage eyesight temporarily ( say for 24 hrs if medicated properly)

do google what ever you need to know and plan this trip accordingly.

Hope you guys will have fun. all the best to you both n enjoy you trip n play safe.

ciao,
V

Do not forget to drive on the worlds highest motor able roab..


ciao,
V

could you guys share some itinerary for the trip (day by day preferred).. Do you guys have any volunteers yet and how many spots you got for fellow travelers to join in?

Well we just came back. Unfortunately out of 8 people only 4 were there for final day so we decided not to hire a cab rather drive on our own. So, we drove our M-800 from Chandigarh - Leh - Chandigarh in 10 days and covered 2700 KM. The day by day Itinerary goes as below.

Day 1: Chandigarh to Manali (305 KM) 9 Hours including 1 hour break and a tyre puncture. Overnight stay at Manali in some hotel. You will get hotel in Manali for 700 - 2500 (Off season).

Day 2: Left Manali at 6 AM and started our journey for Sarchu (250 Km) via - Rohtang ( 13000 + feet), Koksar, Tandi (Last Patrol Pump before Leh), Keylong, Jispa (Last station where you can find hotel for overnight stay), Darcha and Sarchu. Its a 15 Hours tedious drive through hills on M-800, though SUV's like Scorpio will take less time say 12 hours. Make sure that you get your vehicle checked at keylong coz after that you will not find any mechanic till Leh. Stay at some tented accommodation at Sarchu ranging from 500 - 2500. Do not drink or smoke as you might feel sick coz of high altitude (14000 ft) and cold weather which might drop to below zero as well in the night and early morning. Make sure that you take one jerry can of patrol with you to cover the distance of 365 km without any patrol pump.

Day 3: Left Sarchu @ 6:45 AM. The distance from Sarchu to Leh is 260 Km (12 hrs). On the way through Gata loops which leads to two passes – Nakeela and Lachungla respectively. After Lachungla descended to our way to Pang. Make sure if you have any foreign personnel with you then make entries @ J& K check post just 4-5 Km before Pang. Pang will be the last point where you can get something to eat and also can get your punctured tires repaired. Taglangla is 70 Km from Pang through Moore plains (which is a 50 KM straight stretch with monotonous scenic view. After that it changes a bit when we go up to reach Taglang la @ 17582 ft. Descend towards Rumtse the next village after Taglangla. After a few Km you will find a nice metal road till Leh. If you can carry some extra water with you do that as workers on the road some times do not have water to drink so if some one asks you for that help them out.

Day 4: Got our defected chamber repaired and left for Diskit (Nubra Valley) at 2 in afternoon. Diskit is 128 Km away from Leh and on the way you will drive on worlds highest motorable road khardungla @ 18000+ ft. The drive time from Leh to Diskit is 4.5 Hrs. We made it to Diskit by 6:30 in the evening then arranged for our stay at a local guest house and then went out to have a look at Sand Dunes @ Hunder (7 Km from Diskit). You will also find double hump camel over there but for that we need to be there before 6 PM. Stayed overnight at Diskit.

Day 5: Left Diskit @ 6 in the morning and reached Leh by 11 with 1 stopover for tea and and spent sometime on snow covered mountain at Khardungla. Spent rest of the day in Leh, bought souvenirs and gifts for friends and family.

Day 6: Leh – Pangong Tso – Leh (300 Km Round Trip, 13 Hrs including time spent @ lake) Left @ 7 AM as we faced a tyre puncture and have to correct it in order to move further Karu is the last place where you can find puncture wala before pangong. On the way to Pangong you will cross Worlds Third highest pass Changla. The road to changla is quite steep and it takes time to reach there. After Changla you will go down and will find a good road. Before Pangong there is a small flowing water hurdle (4 km from pangong) which one needs to cross in order to make it to Pangong. But if you a driving a small vehicle like we did, I would suggest that do not attempt to cross it. Leave your vehicle there on a side and ask someone to drop you till Pangong. Make sure that even if you are coming by a SUV you cross that creepy little thing between 11 AM to 2 PM as after that due to sun heat the glacier starts melting and the water level increases horribly. The water pressure can be so high that it can take a Sumo away with it. We took a lift from a Bolero camper and reached Pangong. Had our lunch there and then took some photographs of the lake. And then came back by same bolero camper. We saw the difference in water level as well as the flow. And It was a wise decision not to take our car till Pangong. Do not miss Pangong its like heaven.
If you are not staying overnight at Pangong then please make sure that you cross that Water hurdle (Paagal nala) before 2 PM and reach back Leh safely. Else if you get late them stay @ Pangong for that day. And leave early next morning.

Day 7: Leh to Kargil 248 KM started at 7 AM. The actual plan was to move till Drass 52 km ahead of kargil. But due to busted chamber just 42 km away from kargil we were not able to make it to Drass. Make sure that you carry all the necessary things with you. Like a swiss knife an extra tube, an m-seal wet (which van fix on a wet surface as well) a toe chain and engine oil as well. Coz seeking help out there is difficult, time consuming as well as costly. When we were in problem and tried to seek help of a local to get us to Kargil he asked for 2000 Rs. Then we repaired our chamber using m-seal and soap, arranged some oil in black and then prayed to god and started for Kargil. After wasting our 4 hrs at that place we reached Kargil around 7:30 in the evening. We straight away went to Maruti authorized station and fixed time for next day repair.

Day 8: Kargil – Srinagar 204 KM Started @ 1:30 PM after all the repair work is done. The road till 15 KM from Zoji la paas is good and then you will see a bad patch for next 10 KM. On the way to Drass you will see couple of message boards which says “you are under enemy observation”. 5 Km before Drass you will reach War Memorial. Do visit the place its there in remembrance of 1100 martyrs who lost their lives during operation Vijay in 1999 on Tololing. You will also be able to see Tiger Hill from there. It took us near about two hrs to reach Drass. From Kargil to Zojila paas you have to stop at three check posts and do entries. Few people say that one cannot cross zojila after 8 AM but that is not true, we crossed zojila in the evening and it was all fine. After crossing zojila you will see two different road one going up and other one going down. Both the roads meet at one point but I would suggest taking the one which is going down. We were misdirected by few people and were sent on to the road which was going up. That road is not good at all so avoid that. If you are on time like if you leave from Drass early morning then you can enjoy few near by place in Sonmarg as well. We were not able to stop at any place coz we lost substantial 6 hrs in our chamber repair. We reached suburbs of Srinagar by 8:30 and landed in our House Boat at 10 PM. Do not miss Kashmiri Biryani and Goshtaba in Dinner.
Day 9: Srinagar - Palampur (Hometown) 530 Km 12.5 hrs. We woke up at 4:30 early morning and got ready to pay a visit to sabzi mandi on dal lake on our hired shikara. The shikara wala took 300 rs. For a ride of almost 2 hrs. After that we packed our luggage and checked out from our house boat and visited local sites like Pari mahal and Mughal garden. We started for Palampur @ 10:30 Am and reached Palampur by 11 PM via – Patni top – Udhampur –Pathankot.

Day 10: Palampur to Chandigarh 270 KM 5.5 hrs non-stop.

We did this adventurous, tiring but memorable trip in 10 day . But I suggest to take out minimum 15 days for this trip if you want to be comfotable. Also to visit any plave in Leh you need to have permit ehich, you can obtain from local authorities. Also decide whether you want to come back via batalik or by Kargil coz you need to mention that also in permit.

Take all necessary medicines including inhaler in case of any problem.

All the best and have fun guys. We enjoyed a lot during our trip.

hi how are you i am mooving to leh on 25th aug by s.u.v we are only 2 people i have 4 seats left with me if you people wish you can join us and dates are flexible if its possible for you you can join us because if you will go with us. in 30,000rs easyly you can manage your tour with transport+food+ staying facility if you r willing to go then mail .e at vikramkyy@yahoo.com

becuse in 30,000 only for transport is expencive.

SUV will always be expensive... When we were 8 we planned to hire a Scorpio.. and it was goin to cost us 25k for 10 dayz.. though with M800 we managed our whole trip for 32k all inclusive (with repairs as well).