My Himachal Dairy – Trippy Kasol and Magical Manali

Tripoto
5th Jan 2016
Photo of My Himachal Dairy – Trippy Kasol and Magical Manali 1/29 by Rohan Ganesh
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For someone who has lived in south India their entire life, snow and Himalayas would always be an exciting prospect. So when a friend Chinmoy(chinks) came up with he idea of Kasol and Manali i jumped in without thought. So it was me, vigi,avi and chinks in for the trip. We got flights booked to Delhi from Bangalore a little prior and leaves approved.So i hope to share my experience which would maybe help fellow travelers.

So from my experience there i kinda understood that both places are very different from each other and depending on what you are looking for you can choose to go to either of the places or both. So here's a brief of my experiences

Kasol :

If your looking to peace out, enjoy nature at its best away from the crowd,less touristy this maybe a good place to start. The whole place is maybe less than a km.It is about 2 hours drive from manali. You have a few cafes in town, few hotels and few shops here and there.This place is on the banks of Parvati river.The temperature is cold but there isn't snowfall here though even during peak winters.

  • Places of interest : Manikaran, Tosh, Kheerganga,Parvati river
  • Restaurants : Little Italy, Evergreen cafe,German Bakery
  • Stay : Stay is easily available.Prior booking would not be required. I would recommend taking a stay inside town unless you have your own transport.
  • Reaching here : Delhi to Kasol (cab would be the most convenient option if travelling in a group.Cost around 7200),Bus(Delhi-Bhunter-Kasol)
  • Transport : There are local buses as well as cabs to various places of interest.
Photo of My Himachal Dairy – Trippy Kasol and Magical Manali 28/29 by Rohan Ganesh

Manikaran

Important Note:

Its better to start travel/trek during day rather than night here as this place is kinda deserted after 7 (at least during winters). Cabs, buses may become difficult after this time.

Manali :

This place is more touristy and has crowd. If your looking to stay away from the crowd stay in prini,its about 5 km from manali in manali-Naggar highway. Manali i would say is beautiful in its own way. Its much colder than kasol and is more commercial. If your looking for complete solitude and untouched natural beauty,this may not be the place for you.

  • Places of interest : Solang Valley, Beas river, Gulaba, Hadimba Devi temple,Vashist hot springs(Trip advisor can help you with this)
  • Restaurants : Johnson's cafe,The buzz(google would help you with this).
  • Stay : Stay is easily available during off season i heard from the locals.During season July-september booking may be required
  • Reaching here : Delhi/Chandigarh to Manali has a direct volvo bus (1200 ish, from Kasol you have option of either taking local buses or cab).
  • Transport : Hiring bikes in old Manali maybe a good option or you could also hire cabs if in a group.
Photo of My Himachal Dairy – Trippy Kasol and Magical Manali 29/29 by Rohan Ganesh

View from our Hotel

Important Note:

  • The authentic shawls are found in Kullu and not in Manali. Manali as we heard from locals is over priced and not all products are authentic.

Blogs i found helpful to plan my trip:

  • http://www.tripoto.com/trip/kasol-tosh-manikaran-kheer-ganga-boom-trip-825441
  • http://www.tripoto.com/trip/manali-2163

Note:

  • So from our experiences here we kinda got to know that during winters many places are closed in Himachal(atleast around kasol and manali) . To get to know the actual situation about a trek or a place,best thing to do would be to call a hotel in the locality and find out yourself and then plan your travel.
  • Travel around during daylight. Its beautiful.
  • Don't litter the place.
  • Carry lot of cash with you if in kasol and around.
  • And yes the cost can be saved a lot if u take public transport than cabs.

So last but not least as a friend of mine rightly put it, the experience a place gives you varies from person to person and it is upto you to go out and seek it. I have started seeking out the experiences in my own small way. So hoping to be back on the road soon. Adios!!

We departed from bangalore to delhi by flight on our way to kasol.

So we arrived at Indira Gandhi airport and stayed over near gurgaon.We had cab booked to kasol the next day.(Delhi to kasol cab is the most convenient option)

This is a small village in himachal more famous for the hippie scenes,the whole place is maybe less than a kilometers walk with shops and nice cafes and bakeries to hang out and chill out. If you are looking for a place to get away from all the crowd, chill out in midst of nature this is definitely a good place to be.

The walk from kasol to manikaran is 5-6 km. I would definitely recommend taking this hike to manikaran rather than the bus or any transport. The way is beautiful,untouched and you would be literally walking through the parvati river. There are a lot of bridges here and there on the which makes it a great hike.

Its right in the midst of manikaran. The nutella bread,chocolate bread and almost everything is awesome, tastes too good.Definitely a must try.

This is another cafe that we found in kasol. This is one the places where you get cool stuff and food in kasol. The place has good food as well.

Heard about this cafe through a few blogs so though should pay a visit,it was fairly deserted and i felt it over all an ok-ok cafe even considering the food.

From kasol our next stop was manali. So we had booked our hotel here(6 seasons).The perks of going off season is you get awesome hotels for lesser price.The place is a little away from manali on the manali-naggar road .So if you prefer a little solitude with a nice view of the mountains this side is definitely good for you. Adding to it there is a nice trek up the mountians from here through villages. That's worth your time again. But the bad side is you don't have have a lot of hotels or activity in this side of the town.All the pubs,restaurants in the manali main town.

This place was probably the best in the whole trip.For someone whose not seen snow,me this place was heaven. The place is easily accessible and the only activities here are skiing and cable car. Either of em are over rated. What we did is we trekked towards the snow here towards the tree cover. There is a small stream passing through the valley and it makes for a good 3-4 trek.

This happened to be a suggestion from our driver Mr Jijunram Singh. The water is really hot in the spring. It contains sulphur as well and is supposed to be good for the body.It is a nice to visit place i feel.

This street has nice hotels and restaurants. Its nice for an evening walk and most of the products here are over rated as the place is touristy.

Well the temple is within manali .The temple is very well maintained and is worth a visit if in manali.

Most of the purchases for shalls and wollen stuff was done here. The actual show factories are here. For those looking for pashminas and other shawls,this would be the place to go.

We landed in delhi after manali with a day to spare. So dilli haat was one of the places suggested to us.The place has food and crafts from many states of India. Though the food is good,id say it is over priced

After dilli haat we decided to visit the sarojini market to buy some leather coats.Most of the leather here are foam leather,but ya are quite cheap comparatively.A stop here would be nice if u have time to spare.

With some time still left in hands we decided to visit the historic qutab minar. The place is kinda nice.Rich in history and a good visit i felt when in delhi

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