[Ashish_Sharma]

Planning a drive late May on this route in an diesel Innova. Need help planning this trip.....where to stay and how long... Would seven days be enough?

[cnaganathan]

I have planned a trip to Kullu / Manali in the second week of May. The plan is like this.

- Arrive at Kullu / Manali - 10 May
- Stay at Kullu / Manali till 13 May
- Check-out on 14 May and travel to Shimla. Overnight stay at Shimla
- Travel back from Shimla to Delhi on 15 May

Can any of you guide me on the following:

1. Good Hotels / Resorts in and around Kullu, Manali and Shimla.
2. What is the best mode to travel from Gurgaon to the above destinations - a combo of trains between Delhi and Kalka and the rest by Road or the entire trip by Road?
3. If the entire trip is by road, can someone from GGN area sggest a good operator as well as some indicative costs.

Thanks in advance

[Fauji]

Originally Posted by cnaganathan

I have planned a trip to Kullu / Manali in the second week of May. The plan is like this.

- Arrive at Kullu / Manali - 10 May
- Stay at Kullu / Manali till 13 May
- Check-out on 14 May and travel to Shimla. Overnight stay at Shimla
- Travel back from Shimla to Delhi on 15 May

Can any of you guide me on the following:

1. Good Hotels / Resorts in and around Kullu, Manali and Shimla.
2. What is the best mode to travel from Gurgaon to the above destinations - a combo of trains between Delhi and Kalka and the rest by Road or the entire trip by Road?
3. If the entire trip is by road, can someone from GGN area sggest a good operator as well as some indicative costs.

Thanks in advance

We stayed in Johnson hotel in Manali on our way to Ladakh last year and is excellent. Spacious rooms. Old world charm and in city. The only negative is very limited Indian cuisine on Menu. This should not deter you as it has excellent continental and Italian cuisine. If you need Indian, you can just walk across to many hotels on the Mall.

I recommend that you fly to Kullu and then do road trip by hiring a taxi. Any good tour operator in Manali would arrange for you.

[fine69]

1. HPTDC hotels in Manali are decent. You have the option of choosing between budget and deluxe hotels, choices are aplenty.
2. If you are ok with travelling in Volvo buses then HPTDC volvo buses from Delhi to Manali and back can be booked through their website. Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation

[cnaganathan]

Originally Posted by fine69

1. HPTDC hotels in Manali are decent. You have the option of choosing between budget and deluxe hotels, choices are aplenty.
2. If you are ok with travelling in Volvo buses then HPTDC volvo buses from Delhi to Manali and back can be booked through their website. Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation

Thanks. The HPTDC hotels did seem to be a good bet. I did check out the HPTDC Volvo website. But how good are the buses? do they drive safe?

[cnaganathan]

Originally Posted by Fauji

We stayed in Johnson hotel in Manali on our way to Ladakh last year and is excellent. Spacious rooms. Old world charm and in city. The only negative is very limited Indian cuisine on Menu. This should not deter you as it has excellent continental and Italian cuisine. If you need Indian, you can just walk across to many hotels on the Mall.

I recommend that you fly to Kullu and then do road trip by hiring a taxi. Any good tour operator in Manali would arrange for you.

Thanks. I will check that place out. BTW, flying is not an option - I checked the sites out - the tkts are too expensive. Round trip for 3 costs a whopping 52k!!

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by cnaganathan

Thanks. I will check that place out. BTW, flying is not an option - I checked the sites out - the tkts are too expensive. Round trip for 3 costs a whopping 52k!!

Not sure about your road travel.

Here are the details of the place where i stayed. Fantastic and Cozy, There is lot of snow at Solang Valley.

I stayed at Manali for 2 days 27.03.2011 & 28.03.2011.

The Log Huts, Manali:
Log Huts Deluxe @ Rs.2000/- each per day i/c taxes on EP
ssistant General Manager,
HPTDC Ltd., Marketing Office,
The Mall, Manali, Distt.-Kullu (H.P),
Pin Code : 175131,
Tel. Phone: 01902-253531.

The log huts consists of 2 Spacious Bedrooms with Heater in each room, One living cum dining room with LCD TV, Room Service with Yummy food on the menu, and a fully equiped kitchen.

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by Ashish_Sharma

Planning a drive late May on this route in an diesel Innova. Need help planning this trip.....where to stay and how long... Would seven days be enough?

I am seeing everyone on T-BHP doing this sector in the recent days

MANALI -

Nothing to beat HPTDC Log Huts

Log Huts.
Assistant General Manager,
HPTDC Ltd., Marketing Office,
The Mall, Manali, Distt.-Kullu (H.P),
Pin Code : 175131,
Tel. Phone: 01902-253531.

Each log-huts costed me Rs 2K/- (i got a discount too) 2 rooms, 1 Kitchen, 1 living cum dining room .

DHARMSALA -

Very very scenic HPTDC Dauladhar.

Very very spacious and clean rooms. It costed me Rs.1760/- per room.

Call the same above numbers to do the Booking, Suggest you to do an advance booking since these places are always in Demand. You need to pay in Full to Book the accomodation.

AMRITSAR

I would suggest HOTEL SAPPHIRE

They have big compound for parking cars, very clean rooms, good room service, Tasty food, Complimentary Breakfast. More over 2 mins (1/2 km walk to the Golden Temple and 5 min walk to Jallianwala Bagh.

Costed me Rs 1500/- per room with complimentary breakfast.


Contact
Rahul Mehra | General Manager
Hotel Sapphire
Opp. Shri Guru Gobind Singh N.R.I Yatri Niwas
Amritsar - 143001 ( PUNJAB )
M : +91-95924-50270
Hotels in Amritsar, Amritsar Hotels, Golden Temple, Hotels near Golden Temple

About your stay, you can plan it like this

Day 1= Delhi - Manali - Overnite stay at Manali.

Day 2 = Manali - Solang Valley and Manikkaran, Overnite stay at Manali

Day 3 = Manali to Dharmsala, overnite stay at Dharmsala

Day 4 = Dharmsala , Mcleod Gunj, Monastry- nice cafe's there, chill out, come back and rest at Dharmsala.

Day 5 = Dharmsala to Amritsar, Night darshan and langar food at the Golden Temple, overnite stay at Amritsar.

Day 6 = Amritsar - Once again Golden temple if you like, Jallian wala bagh, come back to hotel, finish your food, leave to Wagah Border by 2:30 -3:00 pm. Wagah border ceremony untill 6: 30 pm - 7:00 pm, reach back Hotel by 8:00 pm. Eat food and chill out.

Day 7 = Amritsar to Delhi.

I think 7 days are just fine. All the best.

[fine69]

Originally Posted by cnaganathan

Thanks. The HPTDC hotels did seem to be a good bet. I did check out the HPTDC Volvo website. But how good are the buses? do they drive safe?

HPTDC hotels are also famous for being in best locations. Not sure how good the buses are but they adhere to the departure time unlike other volvo services where in they'd start at least 1 hour late and it can even go up to 3 hours at times.

[ranjitp1]

We did Delhi-Shimla-Manali-Dharamsala-Amritsar-Delhi by road and it was very convenient.Delhi-Manali as per your plans can be a real long drive.Try including a detour so as to break journey at some place else the drive could get really long and tiring.

At Manali,Quality Inn is a very good place and overlooking the Beas river,lovely location and rooms

At Shimla,we stayed at Radisson and it costed us 10k for 2nights.

I wouldnt reccomend a direct Manali-Delhi by road.Also the train journey from Kalka to Shimla can get very boring after a while and you would begin to think if only the train could move a bit faster!Instead you could take a short train ride between two nearby stations to get the flavour.

More details on my travelogue at

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...delhi-hyd.html

[ranjitp1]

Delhi-Manali is going to be a real long and tiring drive,I'd suggest you do Delhi-Shimla on day 1 and then Shimla-Manali,then Manali-Dalhousie,Dalhouse-Amritsar,Amritsar-Delhi.

We did the same circuit as yours by road,details are at this link http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...delhi-hyd.html

[deepfusion]

@Pawan,
Day 2 = Manali - Solang Valley and Manikkaran, Overnite stay at Manali

When you've visited Manikaran Gurudwara, overnight stay should be at Kullu.

It could be Manikaran/Malana also, which is pretty good.

Solang valley will be a very good experience.

28th/29th March, it was very beautiful, with about 5-6 feet of snow.

Just wonderful.

And the locals were saying the snow would be available till end April.

Make hay while the snow melts.

[cnaganathan]

Here is the revised plan

10 May - New Delhi - Chandigarh by morning Shatabdi and then on to Shimla by road. Overnight stay in Shimla (hotel to be booked). No plan to spend too much time on sight seeing around Shimla.
11 May - Shimla - Manali by road (How long does it take?) Overnight at Manali (HPTDC Hamta Hut)
12 May - Manali - Manikaran / Kullu. Return to Manali for night stay
13 May - Manali - Solang Valley (and Vashisht if time permits). Return to Manali for night stay.
14 May - Manali to Chandigarh by road - Overnight at Chandigarh (How long will it take?)
15 May - Return to Delhi my morning Shatabdi

Can someone help me with approx times for Shimla - Manali and Manali - Chandigarh please?

[ranjitp1]

Shimla Manali would take you around 7hours,and 8 hours if its a slow drive.Around the same time for Manali-Chandigarh 6-7hrs.

[dadu]

Originally Posted by fine69

HPTDC hotels are also famous for being in best locations. Not sure how good the buses are but they adhere to the departure time unlike other volvo services where in they'd start at least 1 hour late and it can even go up to 3 hours at times.

Thats very right but some might not be that maintained and with limited food options, apart from it, they are good.

Volvo's for Himachal can be booked under the State transport (leased) and Himachal Tourism (Own) banner. They are used to driving on those roads and havent heard of any issues with them. They are anytime better than private operators.