Manali
This mood-lit bar-restaurant with a willow-shaded riverside terrace is popular for smoking shisha pipes (₹460) to an insistently upbeat soundtrack. It also serves good lasagne, thin-crust pizza and superb fresh-trout platters: perfectly grilled fish with garlic-coriander sauce, orange and lemon garnish, and a whole array of crunchy fresh veggies. Hard to beat.
Drinkswise, a beer/mojito costs ₹350/400 and single/double espressos ₹70/95. Acoustic music on Saturday nights, even off-season.
29.82 MILES
This gloriously calm glacial lake presents mirror-perfect reflections of the surrounding white-top peaks and geological colour-swirls. At 4270m, the 20…
28.27 MILES
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…
International Roerich Memorial Trust
9.4 MILES
This fascinating complex, set in lovely hillside gardens 1km above the castle, is centred on the former home of Russian painter, writer and Inner Asian…
22.75 MILES
A popular day trip from Kullu starts with a 20km uphill drive southeast to Chansari followed by a 2.5km uphill hike to the Bijli Mahadev. The temple…
0.32 MILES
This much-revered wood-and-stone temple, constructed in 1553, has a three-tier pagoda-style roof plus conical top. The wooden doorway is richly carved…
9.73 MILES
Built by the rajas of Kullu around 1500, this fort-cum-mansion is a splendid example of the earthquake-resistant, Kathkuni (alternating stone-and-timber)…
24.48 MILES
High above Gemur but accessed on the side lane that winds up via Kolong, Khamsar Khar is an intriguing, unrestored Lahauli palace: 104 dusty, barely lit…
27.93 MILES
Sitting amid young orchards beside a holy peepul tree, this 9th-century stone sikhara is a small but ornately carved national monument. Niches on the…
0.19 MILES
Himachal Tourism's amusingly low-tech leisure and games centre beside the Manalsu Nala stream includes swan-shaped pedal-boats, a little haunted house and…
0.3 MILES
This squat, striped tower house with wraparound carved balcony is one of the most appealingly antiquated buildings in Old Manali, but hurry to see it as…
0.32 MILES
This much-revered wood-and-stone temple, constructed in 1553, has a three-tier pagoda-style roof plus conical top. The wooden doorway is richly carved…
0.4 MILES
Rebuilt in 1991, this towered temple sits near the top of Old Manali on a site where, legend says, the Noah-like figure of Manu landed his ark after the…
0.45 MILES
Gatothkach, the warrior son of the Pandava Bhima and his demon wife Hadimba, is worshipped in the form of a sacred tree 200m southwest of the Hadimba…
8. Museum of Himachal Culture & Folk Art
0.46 MILES
This dusty little museum is worth the nominal entry fee if you're visiting the nearby Hadimba temple. Its most interesting feature is the case of models…