[Shreyans_Jain]

You can go anywhere in Himachal in a German sedan, as long as it is not Manali or Spiti. Roads are good all through, though traffic does get crazy in Haryana. If anything, it is the Delhi - Jaipur stretch where you’ll find the worst roads of the trip

As you are keen on the Shimla-Kufri-Narkanda region, my suggestion will be to not think and just book any of the Oberoi/Taj properties. They are well worth it. Especially if you are travelling with family. Wildflower Hall has to be experienced.

[ShivWason17]

Hi Animesh, if you wish ro travel to Uttarakhand then you can take the Dehradun- Mussoorie- Dhanolti- Tehri Lake- Rishikesh route. The route is full of picturesque locations and Tehri lake is a marvel in itself.

I usually drive in these parts in my Octavia and there have been no issues with the ground clearance. As far as Himachal is concerned, as recommended by many others, visit Dharamsala or Shimla. The roads are good there. Manali is definitely not recommended for a low GC car. Cheers

[roby_dk]

Live Update:
Situation is pretty bad in Narkanda, even locals are struggling to drive in snow in 4x2 cars. Rescued few cars stuck in snow while going Kalpa. We did a non stop night drive from Delhi to Kalpa took approx 14 hours to reach Kalpa. Till kufri everything is fine but we didn't expected Narkanda to be that bad. Encountered black ice at multiple places, Trucks slided and blocked the road, in fact the traffic from Shimla towards kufri was stopped for a day. Try to avoid Narkanda this week I think by next week everything will be fine else you can drive down to Shimla and Kufri without any issues.

Attaching Narkanda pics.

[RijuC]

I have uploaded few dashcam videos in YouTube. OP can check and understand the road conditions upto Fagu at least.

Providing the

link

here.

[speedracer]

Originally Posted by animeshc

Hey,
Wanted to take my new ride for a trip to the hills, preferably somewhere in Himachal (will drive from Jaipur). With the ground clearance on the lower side, wanted to check if it would be a crazy idea to take it to the hills or would some of the places allow for such an adventure. Some of the options I had in mind:
- Shimla, from what I know the road till Shimla is pretty good so that should be doable. However, I ideally wanted to go beyond Shimla to Kufri/Narkanda. How are the roads there?
- What about Manali? I had gone there about a decade back in an Innova so don't know the latest road conditions. Once in Manali, we could take some local cab to travel to nearby places.

Any other suggestions.

Shimla won't be an issue at all as recently there was the Lamborghini drive with 100 of them in Shimla, and a lambo is definitely lower than your audi so if they could have done it you definitely can. I had also visited shimla last November and had a blast with the excellent weather,you must go .

[animeshc]

Thanks a lot everyone for the recommendations. We covered Dharamshala,Mcleodganj,Dharamkot last week and didn't face any issues at all. In-fact the car surprised us and a few others with what it managed . Sharing a few pics of the car from the trip, will share a more detailed travelogue later.

[RijuC]

Uttarakhand Garhwal Himalayan road condition for low ground clearance cars (sedan and hatchback):

During this Holi long weekend (17 to 20th March, 2022) we went to Ukhimath in Garhwal Himalayas. The road condition of the all weather highways upto Agastya Muni was almost (90%) excellent except few small sections under construction after Srinagar and after Rudraprayag.

The purpose of this trip was to experience the view of Rhododendron bloom in the mountains. Sari village, Deoriatal, Baniyakund, Chopta are very famous for the Rhododendron flowers during the spring time. Rhododendron bloom of Sikkim is most famous. Garhwal Himalaya is nearest from Gurgaon. Hence we settled for revisiting Ukhimath/ Chopta again.

We visited Chopta on both 18th and 19th March.
I have uploaded few dashcam videos. Members can understand the road conditions from these videos. I have a petrol Swift 2016 with 165 mm GC. Didn't have any single problem due to low ground clearance. Also, I could see a number of Honda City sedans both on the Rishikesh-Badrinath all weather highway and the Ukhimath -Gopeshwar road. Ukhimath -Gopeshwar road is single lane and have steep inclines and continuous winding. Road looks scary in few places.

A word of caution: Ukhimath - Gopeshwar road sometimes have wild animals like Bear, Leopard, Jackals etc. It would be better to remain in groups when one get off the car/ with kids/ trekking etc.

Providing two YouTube videos (captured in dashcam)
links here to understand the road conditions. You can see other dashcam clips in my channel. Some videos are silenced due to personal conversation.

These are for reference purpose. It is not monetized neither I have video editing knowledge.

1. All weather road condition after Rudraprayag:

https://youtu.be/JzPSmc_Cqeg

2. Ukhimath -Gopeshwar road to Tala village- Sari village section (for Deoriatal trekking):

https://youtu.be/feLGQoG5kqk

3. Adding one more to showcase Swift petrol performance at 2888 meters elevation above MSL, while starting return journey from Chopta:

https://youtu.be/dWVCrdp5CQc

Travel statistics:
Total KM travelled= 22731−21676= 1055 km
Fuel tank top-up= 26 Litre (after Agastya Muni)+ 27 Litre (near Devrana food plaza, this was XP95@99+, they didn't have normal petrol)= 53 litres
Average FE approx 19.5~19.9 kmpl.
AC Running upto Rudraprayag (onward) and from Rudraprayag (return).

We faced massive Traffic Jam from Haridwar to Meerut Expressway joining (Kaudiyala GMVN to Devrana, Khatauli took 7 hours) on 20th Mar, 2022.

I wish to write a detailed report sometime with photographs of Rhododendron.

[RijuC]

Sorry I missed to attach photographs of the main attraction and my Swift.

Photographs were captured at various locations of the Ukhimath-Chopta road.