Lahaul & Spiti Drive (Fixed Departure)

Eight nights through Lahaul and Spiti, self-driven in convoy with crew support, across the high desert of Himachal Pradesh.

Spiti is a cold desert at around four thousand metres in the rain shadow of the Himalaya, with Buddhist monasteries on the ridges and a road that was until recently open only a few months a year.

Chitkul comes first, generally described as the last village in India before the Tibetan frontier, with the roadside eatery that trades under the name of the last dhaba in Hindustan and has become a landmark in its own right. Kalpa follows, with Kinner Kailash across the valley, then Tabo along the Spiti River, whose monastery was founded in 996 and holds murals that have given it a reputation to match the caves at Ajanta. Kaza comes next at the heart of the valley, with the demanding climb to Dhankar, a monastery built on a spur above the confluence of two rivers. The full day-by-day itinerary was not available on the operator’s page.

The format is a self-drive convoy with crew support around the clock; the detailed inclusions were not itemised on the page and are worth confirming at booking, and 5 per cent GST is added to the trip cost. The price shown is per person. June to September is the season, since the passes are snowbound outside it. Altitude is a genuine consideration here, and the schedule’s acclimatisation is worth asking about before booking. Nine days is enough to do the valley at the pace the roads demand, which is slower than the distances suggest: much of the surface is loose, broken or washed out by meltwater.