Manali

Manali, in the upper Kullu Valley of Himachal Pradesh at 2,050 m elevation, is one of India's most popular hill stations and the gateway to high-altitude road trips into Lahaul and Spiti. The town divides into Old Manali (the original village with stone-and-slate houses, the 16th-century wooden Manu Mandir, and the riverside café strip overlooking the Manalsu) and New Manali (the bazaar-and-hotel zone along the Mall Road). The Hadimba Devi Temple (1553 CE), a beautiful four-tiered wooden pagoda-style mandir set in deodar forest, and the Vashisht hot springs (free public bathing tanks fed by sulfurous natural springs and the adjacent Vashisht Rama Mandir) are the in-town highlights. The valley around Manali offers day trips to the Solang Valley (paragliding, zorbing, summer skiing in May), the apple orchards of Naggar (with the historic Roerich estate-museum), and the Atal Tunnel (opened 2020) which now connects Manali to Lahaul year-round and has dramatically simplified the trans-Himalayan road circuit. For vegetarian travellers, Manali is welcoming: Pahari classics (siddu steamed wheat bread, madra chickpea-yogurt curry, kaale chane ka khatta) are widely available; the Old Manali café strip serves international vegetarian, Israeli, and Tibetan menus; and Tibetan momos and thukpa from the refugee-community kitchens (Mall Road and Vashisht) are excellent. March-June (clear summers) and September-November (autumn) are the comfortable windows; avoid July-August monsoon landslides and December-February heavy snow unless you specifically want winter skiing.