short trip in the Himalayas (weekend of Sep 18)

snain

Hi,

I have some favors to return to a client visiting from US to our office in Chandigarh. He helped me in arranging some treks in New England, like a winter trek to Mount Washington Summit.

Usually our company organizes some sight seeing in the near by areas, but he wants to make a short trip into the Himalayas with me on the weekend of Sep 18.

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This is what he suggests:

Finish up work on Friday afternoon. We could travel Friday night or leave early Saturday morning. Needs to be back at Delhi airport on Monday evening. How about the following as something to start working some ideas around:

* Get up VERY early Saturday am and drive to mountains. Take a short
hike or sight seeing trip Saturday afternoon.

* Sunday make a decent 6 or 8 hour hike. How high do you think we can
get?

* Monday am either hike or sight see.

* Monday pm return to Delhi.

If necessary and airport/flights were available then fly out of the
mountains back to Delhi.

Saturday and Sunday night we should stay in a good hotel.
.............................. .............................. ............

I can think of the following three options which may fit in his
description:

1. Shimla: Are there any decent treks around Shimla?
2. Rishikesh: I am not sure if there is any good hotel to stay in
Rishikesh.
3. Fly to Leh.

This will be his first trip to Indian mountains and it will be great if I can get some other good suggestions to make the best out of these 3 days.

I am also not sure about the rain conditions in mountains during the period of his plan (September 17 to Sept 20). It might not be good idea to trek if its raining.

Any suggestions on this are most welcome.

Thanks in advance
-Sandeep Nain

AvidTrekker

Start delhi Friday evening... reach manali saturday early morning. Many good hotels in Manali. You can do general walks thru the woods around Manali. More than a hundred routes.

A particular one which I recall is Manikaran-Pulga-Khirganga-Tunda Bhuj Thach. Friday evening start Delhi by private taxi to reach Manikaran by Saturday morning. (Public bus won't make it by morning and the journey is not so comfy for a first time Westerner). Take local jeep to Barsheni. Walk to Khirganga in 3 to 4 hours. Stay Saturday at Khirganga. Bathe at the hot sulphur springs in Khirganga. If you have the energy left. walk for 3 hours towards Tunda Bhuj and return to spend the night at Khirganga.

Sunday meander towards Barsheni.... Manikaran.... Delhi

There are no hotels in this route.... only local log huts, dhaabaas, etc.

You have not provided for enuff time. If you can copter down to the Himalayas, (three hours one way ) you can do a decent two day trek. In India only corporate captains do chopper trips to the mountains.

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ddutta

If money is no problem then try any of these [ 1)Great Himalayan HeliSafari-Solan,Manali , RohtangPass ,Parvati Valley-Dudhganga Sulpher Spring 2) Heli Escapade To Gangotri - Rishikesh , Gongotri ] trip organised by the Deccan Aviation (Deccan Air) by Helicopter. Both the trip are for 3 days. Dep. after breakfast & return at around noon on 3rd day. The package includes stay at 5*resorts . For more details log on to

http://www.deccanair.com/tourpack.html

snain

AvidTrekker,
I know 2-3 days are not enough. I have been to Kheerganga and I think its a lovely place, but this guy specifically asked for a good hotel.

Do you know of any decent treks around Shimla?

ddutta,
these helicoptor trips are outrageously costly

AvidTrekker

The ONLY "good" hotels in the Himalayas are in Manali, Darjeeling, Gangtok, Kathmandu and Pokhara. You have no real choice.... Manali happens to be nearest to Chandigarh.

SHIMLA

1.Shimla to Tutikandi, Bihargaon, Kanlong and back. Total 7 kms.

2. Shimla to Longwood , Police Lines, Bharari Bazaar. From Bharari Bazaar you can either return to Shimla(round trip 4-5 kms.) or continue to the village of Pabo.

Shimla itself offers many decent walks.

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1sg3

Go to chnadrashila, I have done a return trip in 2 days. Its a great time to go also.

rickshawwallah

I must take issue with your claim to give a comprehensive list of the good hotels in the Himalaya. Besides the glaringly obvious omission of Shimla, you neglect Mashobra, Naggar, Nalagarh, Dharamsala, Mussoorie, Taragarh, Pragpur, Jispa, and Leh. I'm sure there are plenty more, as well.

This list of course assumes that "good" means "western standard, deluxe". If good meant comfortable, friendly and welcoming, the list would grow exponentially.

From the list above, Shimla, Mashobra, Naggar, and Nalagarh are definitely closer to Chandigarh than Manali, and Mussoorie, Taragarh and Pragpur may be more convenient as well.

ddutta

How about NARKANDA (60 Km from Shimla) On the Hindustan Tibet road, Narkanda offers spectacular views of snow ranges. An uphill trek through Deodar woods leads to Hatu Peak (8 Km) HPTDC runs Hotel Hatu . For more

http://hptdc.nic.in/cir0105.htm

AvidTrekker

rickshawallah, missing out Shimla was a "slip of my typing finger"..... somehow I missed it. Hotels meant "four star" and above. Maybe the places you mentioned have such hotels .... which I really don't know. My reccom. of Manali was done so that they could hire a guide, tent etc. for a night in Manali which has many trekking agencies. (Someone staying at a 4/5 ***** would definitely want the luxury of a "guided-tented" tour...)

For example, today you can jeep-drive upto Solang glacier moraine and make it upto Beas Kund and be back on Monday... this requires some guide &/or tent. The entire Kullu Valley has many hikes on both sides of the vale.... but all of them require a days "tenting" and a guide. This can be hired at Manali without much ado. The other places require you to walk on your own. (no agencies there)

My personal favorite is Sarahan and the stay inside the Bhimakali Temple guesthouse. (not even one star so i cannot reccom. it) There are treks towards the South of Sarahan on the Srikand Dhar mountain range which are absolutely bereft of trekkers and full of leopards, brown bear etc. But even this requires "organizing" from delhi or Chandigarh. The views North of Sarahan are lovely... the mountains rising upto 6500m plus.

My apologies for missing out all the beautiful places you mentioned. Even today organizing a "tented" trek from Mashobra (for example) requires you to carry everything from Delhi if you have only one weekend's time frame to operate in.