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Himachal Pradesh

With spectacular snowy peaks and plunging river valleys, beautiful Himachal is India’s outdoor adventure playground. From trekking and climbing to rafting, paragliding and skiing, if it can be done in the mountains, it can be done here. A convoluted topography of interlocking mountain chains also makes Himachal a spectacular place simply to explore, by bus, car, motorbike, jeep or foot. Every pass crossing into a new valley brings you into a different culture, with its own deities and language. Villages perched on staggering slopes enchant with fairy-tale architecture and residents' easygoing warmth. Hill stations appeal with a holiday atmosphere, while backpacker magnets lure with chilled-out vibes and mountain beauty. In the Dalai Lama's home-away-from-home, McLeod Ganj, or in remote Lahaul and Spiti with their centuries-old Buddhist cultures, you might wonder whether you've inadvertently stumbled into Tibet.

Top attractions

These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Himachal Pradesh.

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Tabo Gompa
Founded in AD 996, and retaining five sub-temples dating back over 900 years, Tabo Gompa is reckoned to be the oldest continuously functioning Buddhist monastery in India. Don't expect the towering, colourful structures of Ladakh: the temples here are low-rise structures whose uncoloured mud exteriors are faintly reminiscent of ancient Malian mosques. Without artificial light, the half-dark intensifies the mystique of the interiors, albeit making it hard to see the detail of many masterpieces of mural and sculpture. No photography inside. The old gompa's undoubted highlight is the Tsuglkang (main assembly hall) dating back to the monastery's first foundation, possibly by Ringchen Zangpo, the Great Translator. It is entered through the muralled 16th-century Zal-ma antechamber where bags, phones, cameras and torches must be left behind. Two blue protector deities in wonderfully naïve style guard the next doorway, behind which the hall's walls are lined with a remarkable array of near life-size clay sculptures: 28 bodhisattvas plus two more protectors. Murals below depict 10th-century life. The hall's focus is a statue of a four-bodied Vairochana Buddha turning the wheel of law, the whole room being a 3D representation of the Vajradhatu mandala with Vairochana at its centre. Behind, venturing into the unlit inner sanctuary is an eerie experience, with silhouettes of unseen figures suddenly appearing from the gloom as you try to make out the features of a stucco Amitabha Buddha. To see inside the other smaller sub-temples you might need to ask an attendant to unlock them. Most dramatic of these is the Byams-Pa Chen-po Lha-Khang containing a 3m-high statue of the Maitreya (future Buddha) draped in golden cloth and holding up a reddened palm in a sign of meditation. Just outside the ancient compound is a sparkling gilded chorten with bulbous midriff, and a brand new monastery, which is where most of the 50 or so monks spend their time. However, despite its partial museumisation, the old gompa still has chanting ceremonies at 6am (one hour) and 4.40pm (20 minutes). You're not allowed in at these times but can enjoy the sounds from outside the building.
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Chandratal
This gloriously calm glacial lake presents mirror-perfect reflections of the surrounding white-top peaks and geological colour-swirls. At 4270m, the 20-minute walk from the car park gets most visitors breathless enough that they stop at the nearest (southern) end. But it's well worth the 90-minute stroll to go right around the lake's edge, escaping the crowds and appreciating the reflections from ever new angles. Be aware that sudden snow falls can catch out visitors, so watch weather forecasts carefully before going, especially at the end of the season. When the Manali–Kaza road is open, daily buses pass the start of the access track (1km north of Batal) at around 9am/12.30pm east-/west-bound, but that leaves over 12km to walk or hitchhike. Note that Batal is a dhaba tent-camp, not a town, so don't expect to find taxis for rent there. Most visitors come in chartered long-distance taxis, paying an extra ₹1500 to a Kaza–Manali fare to make the Chandratal side trip, so don't be surprised if drivers ask a steep ₹500 per person to take hitchhikers to the lake from the turn-off. From early June to early October you can stay in bedded tent camps around 3km before the end of the approach track. The idea's nice in principle but the tents have no lake views and most of them are marshalled together into a single meadow, giving something of a military camp feel. By late September it's often so cold at night that you can find ice on the tent when you wake up.
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Tsuglagkhang Complex
McLeod's main focus for visiting pilgrims, monks and most tourists is the Tsuglagkhang complex, a custard-coloured concrete monastic village that's home to the Dalai Lama (behind a guarded gateway) along with two colourful temple rooms and the excellent Tibet Museum, whose entrance you'll pass en route. Don't expect the visual drama of a Ladakhi gompa. The architecture is outwardly functional but there's much inside to intrigue. At 1.30pm (except Sundays) you can watch monks in lively debate in the central courtyard beneath high, expo-style canvas shades. Processing clockwise you'll pass a pilgrims' prostrating area then the door to the right in the westernmost building leads into the Kalachakra 'Wheel of Life' Temple (no photography) with its mesmerising mandalas and statues. Coming back around past the monastery kitchens, the last stop is the main temple room featuring fine statuary and the throne on which the Dalai Lama sits when delivering teachings.
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Dhankar Gompa
Like a series of whitewashed limpets, the 1200-year-old Dhankar Gompa clings precariously to an eroded cliff-edge rock pinnacle, high above the beautiful Spiti Valley. The result is one of Himachal's most spectacular sights, especially seen from a distance. Climbing within the main building, stairs emerge beneath a stuffed goat as you reach the top-floor courtyard, off which lie a meditation cave, a room containing ceremonial masks, and the colourful quarters in which the Dalai Lama sleeps when visiting. Accessed by a separate set of concrete steps, another prayer hall stands higher up the crag towards the fort. It has murals of the Buddha of healing, but far more memorable are the phenomenal views encompassing the twin peaks of Manirang (6593m) on the horizon.
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Kunzum La
Forming the watershed between Lahaul and Spiti, this 4551m pass, accessed by multiple switchbacks, is topped by a grassy area where stupas are strewn with fluttering prayer flags. Local drivers (and even the buses) briefly divert from the road to perform a respectful circuit around them. The scenery is marginally better coming from Kaza as you approach the pass climbing through a yak meadow with white-top peaks behind.
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Bhimakali Temple
What makes Sarahan so instantly distinctive are the 'twin towers' of its fabulous Bhimakali Temple, best photographed from behind with a backdrop of distant soaring peaks. Like the three surrounding courtyard buildings, the constructions are of layered stone and timber (to absorb the force of earthquakes), topped with a storey or two of intricately carved wood panelling and heavy slate roofing. One originally 12th-century tower collapsed fairly recently but has been beautifully restored. The other (left) dates from the 1920s, and both contain highly revered shrines to Bhimakali (the local version of Kali) on canopied silver thrones. Armed with a bayonetted old rifle, a jovial guard at the inner courtyard ensures that cameras, mobile phones and leather goods are deposited in little lockers (free) and that male visitors don a requisite cap (provided).
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Norbulingka Institute
Soothingly set amid bamboo, trees and flowing water, the delightful Norbulingka Institute, 6km southeast of Dharamsala, was established in 1988 to teach and preserve traditional Tibetan art forms. It's a beautiful and fascinating place to visit, and (except Sundays) you can watch artisans at work on woodcarving, metal statue–making, thangka painting and embroidery. On request one of the staff will show you around. At the heart of the complex is a very colorful temple around which side buildings contain an upmarket shop of the institute's products and a small doll museum illustrating traditional culture. The on-site hotel and restaurant-cafe are both excellent options.
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Jawal-Ji Temple Complex
Meaning 'honoured flame', Jawal-Ji is Jawalmukhi's main temple and raison d'être, enshrining natural eternal flames that are said to mark the legendary site at which Sati's tongue fell to earth. Mentioned in the Mahabharata, the site is particularly ancient and, though from outside the current series of temples is a fairly forgettable mish mash, the experience of a visit is highly memorable. Join the throng climbing 600m of colourful covered bazaar from the bus station, then jostle through a partly caged queuing system for a glimpse of the golden-enshrined flame and, beside it, two more flames emanating from a small central pit from which temple guardians distribute blessings.
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Viceregal Lodge
A cross between Harry Potter's Hogwarts and a Scottish baronial castle, this 1888 pile was the official summer residence of the British viceroys until WWII and the scene of two crucial conferences (1945 and 1946) that essentially sealed the partition of India. To look inside join a group (departing every 45 minutes from the cafe/ticket booth) for 20 minutes perusing three rooms of historic photos. Then exit through the superb three-storey entrance hall that looks like an MC Escher design built in Burmese teak. The rest of the huge, grey sandstone building houses a postdoctoral humanities research centre, whose 180,000-volume library occupies the old ballroom and more. The well-manicured gardens make a nice stroll even if you don't take the house tour. The lodge is 3.5km west of Scandal Point: from the Oberoi Cecil hotel you can cross the grounds of the building's predecessor Peterhof (rebuilt after a 1981 fire as a not-quite-grand hotel), descend past a small aviary to the lodge gate (around 800m), then climb 500m more through mature woodland to the lodge itself.