Where we go, and when it is worth going

Kasol & Parvati Valley

About three hours from Manali, and the lowest place we regularly take people — which is exactly why it works in winter when everything higher is shut. Kasol itself is a strip of riverside cafés along the Parvati, busier than it used to be. The valley behind it is the real draw: the flat walk to Chalal, the village of Tosh clinging to the slope above Barshaini, and the four-hour climb to the hot springs at Kheerganga.

Go for: slow days, river sound, cheap food, the Kheerganga trek. Best time: all year, though December to February is cold and quiet. Time needed: three days minimum if you want Kheerganga.

Atal Tunnel & Sissu

The nine-kilometre tunnel under the Pir Panjal changed this region completely. Lahaul used to be cut off for six months a year; now it is forty minutes from Manali. You emerge at the north portal into a valley that looks nothing like the one you left — bare, wide, brown, with the Chandra river running through the middle of it.

Sissu is the first village, with a waterfall coming off the cliff behind it and a lake that was built recently but photographs beautifully. For most travellers this is the easiest way to reach real high-mountain landscape, with no permit and no altitude drama.

Go for: Lahaul scenery without effort, snow late into the season, a soft introduction to altitude. Best time: March to October. Time needed: a full day, or overnight to do it properly.

Rohtang Pass

The old way into Lahaul before the tunnel, and still the more dramatic one. The pass is permit-controlled — a fixed number of vehicles are allowed up each day and the permit must be applied for in advance with vehicle and driver details. We handle that as part of any package that includes it.

Rohtang closes with the first heavy snow, usually in November, and reopens somewhere between April and June depending on how long the Border Roads Organisation takes to cut through. Be honest with yourself about the weather: it can be clear in Manali and a whiteout at the top.

Go for: the classic pass crossing, snow at the top through most of summer. Best time: May to October. Time needed: a full day, leaving Manali before 6am.

Ladakh & the Manali–Leh road

Four hundred and seventy kilometres, five passes and two days of driving through country with almost nobody living in it. Baralacha La, the twenty-one hairpins of the Gata Loops, the flat emptiness of More Plains, then Tanglang La before the drop into the Indus valley. It is the most demanding thing we run and the one people talk about for years afterwards.

Do it by Royal Enfield or by tempo traveller with a support vehicle. Either way, the altitude between Sarchu and Leh is serious and we build in rest nights rather than pushing it into a two-day sprint.

Go for: the road itself, Pangong, Nubra and Khardung La at the far end. Best time: June to September, when the road is open. Time needed: eight days from Manali.