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Shimla's hill-station skyline of stacked buildings sits below a mountain under a blue sky.

Himachal Pradesh · 7 Days

Himachal — Hills & Heritage

Three nights in Shimla with a day trip to sleepy Kasauli, then three in Manali — the colonial hill-station week with room to slow down.

Day by Day

7 Days, In Full

Himachal for travellers who like the colonial hill-station feel and want to linger in it. Three nights in Shimla: the heritage walk and the Lower Bazaar, the Viceregal Lodge, Jakhu and Kufri, and a full day out to Kasauli, the small quiet cantonment town with its church and its brewery. Then the scenic drive to Manali for three nights: Hadimba and Old Manali, Solang and the Atal Tunnel, and Naggar for the castle and the art. The pace is unhurried, with a toy-train leg at each end if you want it.

The town of Shimla spread in tiers across a forested Himalayan ridge with a mountain range behind.
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Shimla

Arrive in Shimla

The usual way in is a drive from Chandigarh airport, about four hours, climbing through pine forest past Kasauli and Solan. The last stretch can be swapped for the narrow-gauge toy train from Kalka, which takes longer but is the better story. You reach Shimla in the afternoon. The evening is for the Ridge and the Mall, the traffic-free promenade where the town comes out to walk, with Christ Church lit at one end.

A dense hillside of Shimla's colonial-era buildings seen from above during the day.
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Shimla

Shimla — the Colonial Town and Kufri

A full day around the old summer capital. A morning heritage walk covers the Mall, the Ridge, the Gaiety Theatre and the Lower Bazaar. Then the Viceregal Lodge on Observatory Hill, the heavy stone mansion where the British ran India in the summer, with its gardens and its independence-era history. The afternoon is Jakhu Temple, on the highest hill, with its giant Hanuman and its monkeys, and a run out to Kufri for the meadow walks and the Himalayan Nature Park.

White cloud sits below a pine-covered Kasauli ridgeline in the western Himalayan foothills.
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Shimla

A Day in Kasauli

A quiet day trip, about an hour and a half each way, to the small cantonment town of Kasauli. The pleasures are simple: the short colonial Mall, the 1853 Christ Church, and the Upper and Lower Mall walking loops under Himalayan oak. Monkey Point, the highest spot, looks out over the Punjab plains, and Sunset Point catches the evening. Asia's oldest brewery, from the 1820s, still runs in the town. It is a half-day of walking and quiet, with lunch at an old bakery.

A river runs through a steep pine-forested gorge in Himachal Pradesh.
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Shimla → Manali

Shimla to Manali — Down the Sutlej, Up the Beas

A long driving day, about eight hours over two hundred and fifty kilometres, and one of the more scenic in the state. The road drops to the Sutlej at Bilaspur, past the Gobind Sagar reservoir, then climbs the Beas gorge through Mandi and into the Kullu valley, which turns to apple orchards as you go. There are stops for lunch at Mandi and for the Kullu shawl workshops. You reach Manali by evening. An early start makes the difference on this leg.

The tiered wooden Hadimba temple stands among tall deodar cedars in a Manali forest.
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Manali

Manali — Hadimba, the Old Town and the Hot Springs

A gentle day in and around the town. The Hadimba temple first, a carved wooden tower of 1553 in a grove of huge deodar cedars, cool and quiet above the town. Then Old Manali across the river, with its slate-roofed houses, the Manu temple, and the cafes along the lane. Vashisht, up the hill, has hot sulphur springs and an old stone temple. The afternoon is loose: the Mall, the Tibetan monasteries, or the club-house gardens by the river.

Several paragliders drift above a house in the Solang Valley near Manali with mountains around.
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Manali

Manali — Solang Valley and the Atal Tunnel

A day toward the high country. Solang Valley, about thirteen kilometres up, is the adventure ground: a tandem paraglide off the slopes, the ropeway to a viewpoint, and, in winter, snow. Beyond it the Atal Tunnel, opened in 2020, runs nine kilometres through the mountain to Sissu in the Lahaul valley, a bare, dramatic landscape that used to be cut off for months. In summer, before the tunnel, the Rohtang Pass itself can be added with a permit. It is a day of snow and big views.

A wooded hillside above the Kullu valley with layered ridges and mountains behind.
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Manali

Manali — Naggar Castle and the Roerich Estate

A half-day south down the valley to Naggar, the old capital of the Kullu kingdom. The castle, from about 1460, is built of stone and deodar beams on a shelf above the Beas, with the whole valley laid out below. Up the hill is the estate of Nicholas Roerich, the Russian painter who settled here, kept as a gallery of his Himalayan canvases. The drive back can take in a roadside trout farm and the Jana waterfall. It is a quiet, art-and-history counterpoint to the Solang day.

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