[Abhiknov]

Planning a trip to Sangla valley in second week of August. We would be travelling in my Safari ofcourse, me wifey our 8 month daughter my friend and his wife. So its a packed Safari. Since we're travelling with my baby i had the following doubts and would need suggestions.
The plan:
Early morning start from delhi to reach Narkanda by late afternoon. Night halt at Narkanda. Early morning trip to hatu peak and then head onwards on Hindustan Tibet road stopping at sarhan and then continuing on to reach sangla by evening. next day first half sangla valley exploration. Lunch time start to reach narkanda by evening. Early morning start from narkanda to be back home by late afternoon.
The apprehensions:
1. Is the above doable in the given time.
2. Road conditions.
3. Hotel hatu at narkanda is a safe bet. But in Sangla i have my doubts. Need to know a decent place to stay (non-tented pref.) budget not exceeding 3K. for a room. Looking for a comfortable stay.
4.Other detours suggested in the given timeframe.
5. Looking for a bye-pass to shimla. What route should i take?
6. I understand Himachal tourism promote home-stays and there are some 5-6 places listed in sangla. How good are these. What can one expect? any experiences?
7. Any other suggestions.
Not looking for too much adventure. My baby's comfort and enjoyment is top priority.

[hvkumar]

It is a doable plan. However, try to leave as early as possible from Delhi since NH1 is nowadays quite a cluttered mess thanks to the road widening that is going on.

Road is very bad after Rampur, especially from the Wangtoo bridge onwards. No problems for a Safari though.

Sangla is not a great place to stay. You must ideally stay at Chitkul or any of the other villages en route like Rakcham and Batseri which have lovely river camps (like Banjara).

Shimla has a good bypass which starts at Taradevi (look out for the road to the left) and ends at Dhali, which will help you avoid the city entirely. It is 24 kms long. Taradevi comes 28 ksm after Kyari Ghat.

[Scorpiolover]

Abhiknov,

As Kumar has mentioned below, it is a dobale plan, however you might want to keep the waether conditions in mind. Especially with the monsoon, Sangal road can get closed sometimes because of land slides

You have some decent places in Sangla to stay. I stayed in Prakash Guest House last time and it had decent rooms. However, As Kumar suggested, I would prefer to stay in Chitkul. I have heard that Panchali resorts in Chitkul is also good. But again, you have to keep in mind the weather and the resulting road condiitons.

[Gurpartap Singh]

I came back form the same trip a week back, up to chitkul on one side and up to dhankar on the other side.

Here are the bits I remember:

- Shimla by-pass was closed and we had to route from within the city.
- We reached from Chandigarh to Shimla to Jakhri to Karchham in a single day's travel by the evening.
- Road is fine everywhere by "Safari standards". No worries in this department. Some places don't have tarmac, but it's fine.
- You can probably hit PWD in every city wherever they are, to ask for accommodation.
- Are you planning to go beyond Sangla?
- In Chitkul, you have the Thakur Hotel (cheap and ok) or the Shehanshah (they have good cooks ).
- On the other route parallel to Sangla-to-Chitkul, there's Sumdo. I'm not sure where you would stay in there. We stayed in Army's guest accommodations everywhere except Chitkul.
- Beyond Sumdo, there's Tabo. The Tabo Monastry (estd. 996) is surely worth a visit for this journey. There's "Sunita Dhaba" next to monastry guest house. It's a humble and tiny dhaba by a local family. We liked aloo paronthe. Then there's Dhankar, which has another monastry of the same age and beautiful view of mountains.
- If you want more, you can go to Kaza.
- The random choes will amaze you. One of them is very challenging for a small car. Another one (beyond Sangla) is the best to spend half an hour at. Water in this one tastes like Bisleri. lol. But you probably don't want kids to drink it. We did though. :P You'll remember me when you hit these.
- Our breath increased even with little trekking or walking efforts. I mean, you will want to make sure kids can breath easily on high altitudes. Medicines? Not sure how it's best done.
- The Hatu was a fine hotel. Rather finest you'll find in whole journey.

Here's some of the list of things we missed (and we noted):
- Make sure to take extra [anti freeze?] coolant for Safari with you.
- Take Binoculars.
- Car charger for mobile phone.
- BSNL Sim. It works in almost every place/town there.
- If you're fond of capturing stars in camera, Sumdo's the best place. You'll never see as many stars in a single view. I was stunned looking at sky.
- There's a BSNL internet cafe in Tabo.

Here's link to our trip pics: Trip to Sangla Valley, 2010 - a set on Flickr

Let me know if you have any queries about route or such.

Here's the pic of map we found in Chitkul:

[drvikasagrawal]

I have done this till chitkul.
Delhi to Narkanda, stay at PWD GH,its fab
Narkanda to Raksham ,it is 10 kms before chitkul ,stay at PWD GH(it is at the brink of baspa river surrounded by the hills from all sides,nice 2 rooms cottage.Wife of caretaker makes very good food).I can post photos of Raksham if you want.Go to Chitkul in the morning than leave for Sarahan ,stay at Sarahan,than return to delhi next day after lunch.You can reach Delhi same day although bit late.why stay at Narkanda twice.This way you can enjoy Sarahan ,its a very good place,I think you will enjoy it most.If you go to to Sarahan on your way to Sangla valley from Narkanda than you will be left with 1 or 2 hrs only.it is not worth detouring 20 kms from NH 22 for that short time,and it is not advisable to travel on karcham -sangla road late at night.

[Gurpartap Singh]

Originally Posted by drvikasagrawal

I have done this till chitkul.
Delhi to Narkanda, stay at PWD GH,its fab
Narkanda to Raksham ,it is 10 kms before chitkul ,stay at PWD GH(it is at the brink of baspa river surrounded by the hills from all sides,nice 2 rooms cottage.Wife of caretaker makes very good food).I can post photos of Raksham if you want.Go to Chitkul in the morning than leave for Sarahan ,stay at Sarahan,than return to delhi next day after lunch.You can reach Delhi same day although bit late.why stay at Narkanda twice.This way you can enjoy Sarahan ,its a very good place,I think you will enjoy it most.If you go to to Sarahan on your way to Sangla valley from Narkanda than you will be left with 1 or 2 hrs only.it is not worth detouring 20 kms from NH 22 for that short time,and it is not advisable to travel on karcham -sangla road late at night.

Oh yeah, I forgot to emphasize, traveling during night is a big no. You'll be stranded alone for the night if something goes wrong.

Would also deeply recommend to visit Tabo [monastry] and Dhankar. These two alone saturated my journey.

It's ~35KMs from Sumdo to Tabo, then further 35KMs it's Dhankar (up hill).
Kaza is another ~30KMs after you're down from the Dhankar's mountain.

I'm really going to follow this thread. Satisfying to compare other's thoughts to what I experienced there.

[Abhiknov]

Originally Posted by Scorpiolover

Abhiknov,

You have some decent places in Sangla to stay. I stayed in Prakash Guest House last time and it had decent rooms. However, As Kumar suggested, I would prefer to stay in Chitkul. I have heard that Panchali resorts in Chitkul is also good. But again, you have to keep in mind the weather and the resulting road condiitons.

i"d love to stay at chitkul only, provided the resort/hotel there is decent enough. Thanks for the names of the hotels, i'll look them up and take a call. Any contact numbers? So that i can call and ask about the local weather and road conditions before we set off.

[Abhiknov]

I came back form the same trip a week back, up to chitkul on one side and up to dhankar on the other side.

Here are the bits I remember:

- Shimla by-pass was closed and we had to route from within the city.

Thats a worry, though the city means atleast 1 hour wasted and lots of diesel fumes in the lungs.

- We reached from Chandigarh to Shimla to Jakhri to Karchham in a single day's travel by the evening.
Wow, but i have to keep in mind that my 8 month old daughter is along, so we'd have frequent stops to keep her comfortable.

- Are you planning to go beyond Sangla?
We have max 5 days in all. Beyond sangla would be a streach. I'd rather avoid. I've done nako tabo dhankar kaza some 7-8 yrs back in my indica. it was wonderful. But i'd rather do a relaxed thing this time and enjoy in sangla.
- In Chitkul, you have the Thakur Hotel (cheap and ok) or the Shehanshah (they have good cooks ). Any contact details?

- The Hatu was a fine hotel. Rather finest you'll find in whole journey.
Its the best. Been there like a 20 times. the food is heavenly aswell.

[ravichopra]

Dear Mr Kumar, Mr. Vikas, and Mr. Abhik,

I have plans to visit Sarahan. Will leave from delhi in eve (17.00 hrs) and than stay at Chandigarh. Early morning at around 6.00 am i will leave for Sarahan.

Before reading your comments, i had plans only till Sarahan. But now i am not sure. Pls advice.

My objective of travel are:
1. Enjoy the driving
2. Enjoy the stay

Pls suggest which all the places i can visit in 4 days duration, if start from Chadigarh on Day 1 and will have be back in Delhi on Day 4 by 18.00 hrs.

i would be thankful if you can share your mobile no, so that i can speak to you.

regards
Ravi

[hvkumar]

Sarahan is a good idea, maybe you may want to add either Sangla-Chitkul or Kalpa too.

If you leave from Chandigarh in the morning, it should take you almost all day to have a relaxed drive to Sarahan. Make sure you leave Chnadigarh early to avoid the traffic bottlenecks and also cross Shimla by the bye-pass. Kufri is always a headache to cross at times of the day, but after that, it is an easy drive.

[wanderernomad]

There is another road that can be taken from Shogi to join Shimla bye pass around Kusumpti (it goes via Pantha Ghati). The road is relatively new and has less vehicular density. Any one knows why the bye pass is closed? maybe due to the new bus stand construction?
@Ravi: sarahan is an ideal destination for your needs, look no further and enjoy your trip.

[Chico]

I'm planning to go to Delhi - Narkanda - Sangla - Kalpa - Chitkul - Sarahan - Delhi on either 3 to 10 Sep or 10 to 17 Sep. This is my 3rd attempt to go there as each time I've had to return from Narkanda either due to bad weather, fog or poor road conditions. I'll be driving in a Baleno with my wife. I just called a few hotels in Narkanda and they said it's still raining there and will continue until 1st Sep at least. Has anyone visited Sangla recently and can help answer following questions:

1. How are the road conditions from Shimla - Sangla - Kalpa - Sarahan? Any bad patches?
2. Shortest and best route to go to Sangla? I've heard there's a route from Naldhera to Rampur which is shorter and better. Has anyone tried it recently?
3. How is the weather? Is it still raining and any chances of lanslides? I had driven all the way on 25 June 2011 and then had to return due to heavy fogging
4. Is this doable by Baleno?
5. Any recommended hotels to stay and places to visit and dine? We're booked in Kinner Camps in sangla, rest is still to be closed.

Any help will be highly appreciated. Please respond ASAP. Thanks!

-Nilesh