Traveling to LEH around 20th JULY, 2012 with friends.

Hello All,
First let me thank all IMers for guiding the needy travelers to the best their ability.

We are a group of 4 people male friend planning to visit around 20th July.We are planning to take a route from Srinagar to Leh and return via Manali. We would want to travel hire a car for our journey and have created following itinerary.

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DAY1 : Travel from Srinagar Airport to Sonamarg via Taxi
Night halt at Sonamarg
DAY 2 :Travel from Sonamarg to Kargil and reach at 1:00 pm & do sight seeing in Kargil (2-3 hours)
Travel from Kargil to Lamayuru and reach at 7:00 pm
Night Stay at Lamayuru
DAY 3 : Travel from Lamayuru to Leh and reach at 1:00 pm
Local Market Sight Seeing + Tourist Permit
Night Stay at Leh – Hotel Charges
DAY 4 : Local sight seeing in Leh
Night Stay at Leh – Hotel Charges
DAY 5 : Travel from Leh to Nubra Valley and reach at 2:00 pm
Sight Seeing in Nubra valley & visit Hunder village
Night Stay at Nubra Valley/Deskit – Hotel Charges
DAY 6 :Local Sight Seeing at Deskit Gompa
Travel from Nubra to Leh and reach at 7:00 pm
Night Stay at Leh – Hotel Charges
DAY 7 : Hemis National Park - Hemis monastry - Possibly we can take a bicycle on hire.
Spituk Gompa & local sight seeing
Night Stay at Leh – Hotel Charges
DAY 8: Travel from Leh to Pangong Tso and reach at 1:00 pm Saturday afternoon
Night Stay at Pangong Tso – Hotel Charges
DAY 9: Travel from Pangong Tso to Gya and reach at 7:00 pm Sunday night
Night Stay at Gya – Hotel Charges
DAY 10: Travel from Gya to Keylong and reach at 7:00 pm
Travel from Keylong to Manali and reach at 2:00 pm Tuesday afternoon.

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1) Does this itinerary covers all the important places in Ladakh?
2) Is it worth staying at Lamayuru, instead of Kargil ?
3) Are there are any accomodations at Gya or Lato?
4) What is the bus fare for buses running from Leh to Manali and when and where can we book the tickets?
5) One of the tour operator has estimated the cost to around 1.15 lacs for 4 pax, is it fair estimation?

~Om.

2)

Nothing wrong with the itinerary AMSwise but it is a lot of time driving, Check the size of the car before you hire some of the cabs are low on leg room if you are tall and squashed if any of you are chubby. 4 Guys can fit in the average cab but add luggage and it can get a bit cramped, a Land Cruiser/Qualis would be best

I do not know any site seeing places in Kargil. Maybe I missed them. If you referring to the Kargil war memorial then that is in Drass.


Charges could vary from 500 to 2000 INR a room (might vary at the extreme ends as per your choice)


Do not try to have a time bound activity. You might not reach diskit by 2 PM


You serious? Are you a serious cyclist? I am not saying its impossible but then it is tough. Not as much as Khardungla coz people do that too. But with breathlessness and the weather it is not that easy.


Kind of - Depends what is important for you. For a usual tourist you covering most of the places to be.

Try Mulbek

Dont know


Not sure if its justifiable but it is HUGE. Why not try to compare with someone else.

I am not sure on the correctness or fairness but it sounds HUGE.

Thanks for your advise Captain Bruce. We will be looking for Qualis/Scorpio or some similar car only.

Thanks for getting back on my query new_traveller!
Yes, it is Kargil war memorial, Drass.

Can we get accomodation in Leh, on arrival or it would be good to book it in advance?

Agreed, we shouldn't be time binding anything in the journey, but that was meant just for our reference. Should we visit Turtuk as well? Is there any kind of stay (camp) provided in the sand @ Hundar?

No, I am not a serious cyclist. Just thought, Hemis being a National park, would be good to roam by cycle, instead of a car.

Will check this MULBEK.


Not an issue. We just thought of these places, as we didnt want to go back to Leh and start back our journey to Manali, so thought of moving closer to the destination. Would you recommend is TSO Moriri as well?

Just check with one of the tour operator and he quoted as follows :

Srinagar to Leh -->15K
4 days sight seeing around Leh-->13K
Leh to Manali--> 17K

So our travelling cost comes to around 45 to 50K.
Food and living cost for 4 pax for 10 nights was estimated to 60K

SO total came to around 1.15 lacs.

Gurus, Can someone help me know, How long will it take to reach Manali from Pangong Tso?if we can travel from Pangong Tso to Sarchu in a single day and then Sarchu to manali, next day? Google map shows distance around 360 KM between Pangong to Sarchu.
If not, is there any place in between for taking a night halt?

We dont want to go back to Leh from Pangaon Tso and then start our journey to Manali?

South of the same range it takes about 5-6 hours to go from Leh to Mahe, which is the same sort of distance as from Pangong to Chushul so I suppose its theoretically possible, but the driver will be so tired at the end of it he's likely to crash before Sarchu.......
I would advise stopping, dont know Chushul but there is nothing except a dhaba at Mahe

We did pangong tso -hemis - pang and took a night halt at pang. Pang has some dormitory tents and some amazing people.

Having done this I can now say DO NOT do what I did as this was the worst drive in my entire tour. We had not anticipated tanglang la pass to be so huge and time consuming. The drive in the sands after tanglang la upto pang after the sunset was cold, miserable, hungry and pain in the bumm.
I did not find any place to spend the night before pang, so it was no turning back.


But this might be a doable yet long option if you not doing hemis. Just do anticipate the mighty tanglang la.

We did pang to Keylong (I think, but mostly yes) the next day.

Since we did not plan to halt in manali and it was raining we started off towards chandigarh route after the kullu valley. I do not recollect a small town after kullu valley where we had to find shelter in the rains and land slides.

In the above message, please read Taglang-La Pass instead of "tangling last." Then it will make sense.

Ahh the touch screen and the auto words. I will correct the post.
Thanks NIR.

@Captain bruce, we would have a night stay somewhere in between, may be at Pang.
Thanks for your suggestion New_Traveller, is it worth visiting Hemis? if not we may well skip it and go ahead.

I fell in love with hemis. But that is also because we just landed there unplanned and did a night halt at a homestay. So it was the experience along with the beauty of the small village.

But do not add destinations if you do not have time. You will rush through them and would not enjoy them.

Hi All

I'm planning a trip to Ladakh (solo as of now) during the above dates and my itineary is below:

If anyone/small group are planning similar dates we can share transport costs -

Day 1 Saturday 14th (Srinagar): Srinagar)Arrival Srinagar by flight

Day 2 Sunday 15th (Srinagar - Kargil): Overnight at Uley Topko

Day 3 Monday 16th (Kargil - Lamayuru - Uley Topko Overnight at Uley Topko.

Day 4 Tuesday 17th (Uley Topkyo - Leh via Aryan valley) Overnight in Leh

Day 5 Wednesday 18th (Leh): Overnight in Leh

Day 6 Thursday 19th (Leh - Nubra): Khardung La, Nubra Valley is Overnight at the Camp

Day 7 Friday 20th (Nubra - Leh): Sumur & Panamik & Leh

Day 8 Saturday 21st (Leh - Pangong) - Overnight at Pangong

Day 9 Sunday 22nd (Pangong - Leh): Overnight at Leh

Day 10 Monday 23rd (Leh - Tso Moriri): Overnight in Karzok

Day 11 Tuesday 24th (Tso Moriri - Tso Kar - Leh) Drive back to Leh in afternoon.

Day 12 Wednesday 25th (Leh): Free day in Leh.

Day 2 Thursday 26th (Leh - Sarchu): Overnight at camp in Sarchu.

Day 3 Friday 27th (Sarchu - Manali) Overnight at Manali.

Day 4 Saturday 28th (Depart Manali) Board the Volvo in the evening to Delhi.

Ya I'm looking to be in Ladakh for most of July actually. Not sure what the exact plan is right now, bit flexible. I'm solo and would also like to share transport costs.

hey ssp, cool let me know when you plan to be that side...btw if you from Bhutan, love your place, cheers