10 day itinerary for Himachal in October

Chandigarh – Tosh – Kasol – Manali – Sissu – Manali – Delhi

Himachal has so much to offer but we were set with a task to fit as much as possible in 10 days. In those 10 days, we went on a 2 day trek, played in snow, went paragliding and chilled hard. Here, I will be giving a detailed itinerary for visiting Parvati valley for 10 days in mid October.

I will mention that my travel style for this trip was to pack light and stay in Hostels / Airbnbs because I’m a sucker for a good view and a good deal. So if you are looking for fancy hotel options, these recommendations may not suit you. 

One challenge we faced while booking hostels was that we were a group of 3 girls and 2 boys, and there’s no option of a girls dorm in most of these places so sometimes we ended up booking extra beds to have a room to ourselves, for our comfort, which is really not a problem since per person cost for a dorm bed does not usually exceed Rs. 700.

A lot of stays with killer views are quite difficult to reach, but since these areas are quite touristy, you will manage to get porters if you are traveling with luggage. I would, however, recommend carrying your luggage in a backpack or duffel bag that is easy to carry. We were able to find porters in Tosh and Kasol where our stays required a 20 min trek to reach. If you contact your host, they will be able to provide you with a contact for the same.

Transport : 

Since we traveled in a group of 5, taking cabs between towns made sense economically, but I did meet people that traveled by bus so if you are up for it, you will be able to catch buses in the bigger towns. For example, we met someone going from Kasol to Manali by bus for Rs 100. You will need to ask around in the main market area and the locals will guide you.

Tosh

We started our journey from Chandigarh and took an overnight bus to Kasol. The bus itself was quite late but we ended up reaching Kasol by 8 am which gave us plenty of time to get a cab to Tosh. A one-way cab cost us about Rs. 4,000 and it took us an hour to reach.
Tosh itself does not have any proper roads or vehicles. It’s a mountain and you need to get to places by foot only. Our stay – Whoopers hostel was literally one of the furthest but I like to think that gave us the best view as well. So, from the starting of Tosh, we trekked about 20 mins to reach the hostel. You can get porters over here, just ask a cab driver for a contact before they drop you off. Without a contact, however, it can get difficult since the place is quite remote.
In Tosh after settling down, we just explored a bit and found out about a nearby waterfall which took us around 25 mins to reach from our hostel. Again, any hotel manager would know about this. There are a lot of cafes to hang out in and most hostels have decent food as well.

Kheerganga Trek

The plan for the next 2 days was to find out if we were physically fit enough to survive an overnight trek. Before you judge me, I have an old knee injury (or just arthritis at 24) and have never done such a long trek so I probably struggled more than most people. We made the mistake of booking a room in Tosh for our luggage, but since it was way too difficult to reach, we ditched that plan. The camps that we booked for the trek had a room in Barshini where we could keep our bags, so we went with that. We started our trek from a village called Kalga, and through a friend’s recommendation, we first ate at a restaurant / stay called Lost & Found Galactic Friends House. We kept asking people how to find it and climbed 3 tiny ladders in the middle of nowhere to get there. We did not stay in Kalga but I would highly recommend it. The vibe there was so relaxed with apple trees in the backyards of these cute houses and everyone was extremely friendly. The village looked like it was from a fairytale. We left from here around 1 and actually started our trek, although I would suggest leaving earlier.

First we crossed this part with MASSIVE pine trees that I did not expect to grow so big. Along the way we kept seeing people that were returning from the trek so we knew we were on the right track. A guide is not required as many people will be doing this trek. The trek is not just upward climbing, so as soon as you get tired enough to want a proper break, there will be a flat stretch that you can walk on, which makes the journey easier. There were a couple of beautiful waterfalls also on this side of the trek, but trust me, nothing compared to the waterfalls that are there in the Barshini side of the trek. It did drizzle a couple of times during the climb, but there are small stalls throughout the trek which sell disposable ponchos, so the drizzle was not a problem at all. The climb towards the end did get tiring but it is doable for a beginner. Try to reach before it gets dark because it gets very mushy towards the end. We had booked a camp for about Rs 800 per person (2 people per tent) through Rock View camping because they gave us the best deal. Honestly, it was clean and they had everything we needed. We had some solid home food for dinner which just felt amazing after the long trek. Also just FYI, don’t expect to reach a peak where you can see everything at the end of the trek, I have no idea where the peak was. It got pretty cold at night and apparently it snowed for the first time that year on a nearby peak.

The next morning we started our descent though the Barshini side around 10:30 am and the views were something else. We got some apples on the way (please don’t miss out on this!), and saw some CRAZY waterfalls with a majestic canyon. We also ended up stopping and setting up our hammock inside a pine forest and spent a good hour or so relaxing there. The trek also was much easier than the Kalga side, and definitely more beautiful. We walked peacefully and finished by 5 pm. We then went on to reach our stay in Kasol.

Kasol

Technically, we did not stay in Kasol, but in a village called Challal,which is a 15 min walk from Kasol market. Again, you will be able to find porters to the village from the main general store of the market, just ask around and the locals will guide you. Our stay was called Wabi Sabi. The plan for the next day was to rest and recover our legs from the past 2 days, and that’s exactly what we did. This hostel was located right by the curve of the river with a wonderful view from the outdoor area. We got a room with a deck, but sadly it was raining the whole day so we used the balconies on other floors to just sit, relax, listen to music and vibe. Some of us even used this day to catch up with real life things like study a little and a bit of work here and there. We got really lucky that we were on recovery day during the rain and not at the trek. Once the rain cleared, we went to see the river, and it was absolutely magical. 10/10 location. 

Old Manali

So for this day, we had not booked anything in advance because I wanted some spontaneity in our trip in case we found something else to do. Finally, we picked a hotel in Old Manali called Keekoo and set off from Kasol to Manali. There are way too many options in this area for hotels so you can go for any, but I did think we got a really good deal with this place. The prices were reasonable and the hotel was really clean and comfy and had all the amenities (Hair Dryer!!!) The cab was around 3500 but we saw some people taking the bus for apparently Rs 100. On reaching, we dropped our bags and went to the other side of the river. Our stay was a small walk from the market and we spent the whole evening there. We ate some food, drank some alcohol, and bought a bunch of stuff.  

Rohtang pass + Sissu

The next part of our trip was to progress to the north of Himachal. We rented a cab for a day and visited Rohtang Pass before heading towards Sissu. The day we reached Rohtang was when the snow just started so it was the perfect time to go. We were able to rent snow suits on the way there, which the driver took care of. We heard that the roads had shut soon after and for the same reason, we did not plan to go to Spiti valley. After 14th Oct they shut all the camps at Spiti and make it unavailable for the public to visit. As we got closer to Rohtang, the mountains just got more and more majestic and the drive back had some insane landscape.

Since Rohtang was on our list before going to Sissu, we did not take the Atal tunnel to reach Sissu, instead took the longer route to see Rohtang. While returning, however, we took the Atal tunnel since its faster. Upon reaching Sissu, we checked into Zostel Sissu and hung out nearby. There isn’t much in that town, it’s literally just a Zostel and a few homestays, and in October, the trees all become completely yellow which is crazy beautiful. I haven’t witnessed anything like that in India, so it’s a must see if you plan your trip in October. The sky was also clear so at night we headed out for an astrophotography adventure at 2°C. It was quite scary honestly, since the place is so remote.

The next morning, we took our handy hammock and headed to a forest near Sissu lake and set up a small picnic type of situation before it was time to leave from Sissu. There is a waterfall nearby but we didn’t have enough time to explore it.

Manali/Kullu

For our last night of the trip, we headed to a homestay by the Beas river between Kullu and Manali called Ménage-By The Beas. We booked this for 2 nights although we were leaving the second day. There was a whole bonfire and bbq set up and the river was literally in the backyard, making it the ideal spot for sunset. This day was just for relaxing and spending time with the gang, and again we headed out for some stargazing and astrophotography by the river. In the morning, we went to Manali market, stopped by a monastery just outside the market and then rushed to go paragliding near Kullu in a place called Dhobi for around Rs 2500, making it a perfect end to our Himachal trip.
For our return journey, we took a bus to Delhi from Manali and then flew out from there.