[Shreyans_Jain]

Originally Posted by kdp

While this post is a bit dated but does this still hold true? If so are there good hotels in Phagwara or Hoshiarpur to break journey or is Ludhiana the correct option?

My brother returned from Kasol a few days back. It is worse than ever before. The traffic jams are never ending. Chandigarh to Manali takes anything between 12-15 hours. His overall return journey, Kasol to Delhi, took 20 hours. It is that bad.

Phagwara and Hoshiarpur are small towns. If you want to break for the night, you’ll find more options in Ludhiana or Jalandhar. However, considering the traffic situation, I will strongly suggest that you cover the hill stretch in the dead of the night.

[kdp]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

My brother returned from Kasol a few days back. It is worse than ever before. The traffic jams are never ending. Chandigarh to Manali takes anything between 12-15 hours. His overall return journey, Kasol to Delhi, took 20 hours. It is that bad.

Phagwara and Hoshiarpur are small towns. If you want to break for the night, you’ll find more options in Ludhiana or Jalandhar. However, considering the traffic situation, I will strongly suggest that you cover the hill stretch in the dead of the night.

thanks for the feedback,. Unfortunately I was not able to absorb the essence of your post. Are you saying that no matter which route, its going to take time, or where you referring the traditional route? which route did your brother take?

while I can start early from a staging point (say daybreak or a bit before); i am not excessively keen on doing a night drive. recommendations are welcome :-)

thanks

[Shreyans_Jain]

Originally Posted by kdp

thanks for the feedback,. Unfortunately I was not able to absorb the essence of your post. Are you saying that no matter which route, its going to take time, or where you referring the traditional route? which route did your brother take?

while I can start early from a staging point (say daybreak or a bit before); i am not excessively keen on doing a night drive. recommendations are welcome :-)

thanks

My brother took the traditional route. It is 200km of heavy traffic from Swarghat all the way till Manali. Slow moving, pretty much a continuous jam. The Hoshiarpur route will only avoid a small section of it. Which is why my recommendation is to drive the night. Roads are full of people making early starts, it is ubiquitous. If you want to have a pleasant drive, you have to play it smart and avoid peak hours. The destination itself is packed with a capital P. Full to bursting. All hill stations are, right now.

[saurabhj]

Originally Posted by kdp

just for reference; could anyone compare how would the road width of this route compare with Ajara-Amboli or Mollem-Anmod in Goa? also by NH3 you mean to road to Aut tunnel and beyond?

Yes. NH3 means via the Aut Tunnel.

Comparing to Ajara-Amboli route which we take every time we go to Goa, I’d say the state highway is slightly harder to navigate especially because 50% of the route (towards Bhuntar) is only a single lane stretch.

The roads are well paved and if you leave early and don’t catch a lot of traffic, it should be a breeze and quite enjoyable too.

We will definitely take this route the next time until the NH3 is all completed.

The trick with either route I feel is to be very patient and know that it will take a while.

Here is an image for reference:

[warrioraks]

Planning for a Manali-Chandratal trip but only have 5 days in total. Hence thinking of taking the bus to Manali (rather than self-drive) and then a taxi from Manali to Chandratal.
Can anyone recommend which bus to take? I always thought HP state run Volvos were great but the reviews on Redbus are poor which has really confused me. Reviews of private companies like Zingbus and Laxmi Holidays are good but can these be trusted? Any pointers on the buses and planning this trip in general would be a great help. Thank you.

[kdp]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

My brother took the traditional route. It is 200km of heavy traffic from Swarghat all the way till Manali. Slow moving, pretty much a continuous jam. The Hoshiarpur route will only avoid a small section of it. Which is why my recommendation is to drive the night. Roads are full of people making early starts, it is ubiquitous. If you want to have a pleasant drive, you have to play it smart and avoid peak hours. The destination itself is packed with a capital P. Full to bursting. All hill stations are, right now.

Originally Posted by saurabhj

Yes. NH3 means via the Aut Tunnel.

The roads are well paved and if you leave early and don’t catch a lot of traffic, it should be a breeze and quite enjoyable too.

We will definitely take this route the next time until the NH3 is all completed.

The trick with either route I feel is to be very patient and know that it will take a while.

taking both your advice, I will be breaking journey at bilaspur (fingers crossed that the HPTC Hotel is okay). this gives adequate buffer for the next day early start onwards. Will ask the hotel staff as to the best time to depart for Manali

[warrioraks]

Originally Posted by warrioraks

Can anyone recommend which bus to take? I always thought HP state run Volvos were great but the reviews on Redbus are poor which has really confused me. Reviews of private companies like Zingbus and Laxmi Holidays are good but can these be trusted? Any pointers on the buses and planning this trip in general would be a great help. Thank you.

Bumping this once in the hope of getting some inputs.

[kvamshi04]

Originally Posted by warrioraks

Planning for a Manali-Chandratal trip but only have 5 days in total. Hence thinking of taking the bus to Manali (rather than self-drive) and then a taxi from Manali to Chandratal.
Can anyone recommend which bus to take? I always thought HP state run Volvos were great but the reviews on Redbus are poor which has really confused me. Reviews of private companies like Zingbus and Laxmi Holidays are good but can these be trusted? Any pointers on the buses and planning this trip, in general, would be a great help. Thank you.

Hello. you can try Wanderon, they have a summer Spiti tour, which covers Kaza and Chandertal. It starts on a Friday evening from Delhi and you will be dropped back to Delhi on next friday morning. I recently undertook this trip with them and it was worth it.

Or else, board the Zingbus from Majnu ta Tila.

[sunsivj]

Planning for a trip to Shimla and Manali from Chennai between 25th Sep to 2nd Oct -2022. I can manage to speak Hindi, however the locations are totally new to me and any information you would like to provide would be useful to me. I have booked the flights between Chennai - Chandigarh - Chennai.

Initially I thought about booking some self drive car for my entire stay and based the suggestion from my Father, I plan to hire a taxi.

Can someone please let me know some good reference for a Taxi, Preferably from Shimla. As I plan to also take my family on Kalka - Shimla train (I do see a few trains and need suggestions which could be a better one)

So I look forward for help on Taxi Contact from Shimla.
And the better train option from Kalka - Shimla.

Any other information around places to visit, what to be careful about all would be much appreciated. We are a family of 5 (Myself, Wife, 3 daughters of age 13, 11 and 8).

[attrip2008]

For the toy train, I have travelled in the Himalayan queen in the first class coach and it was a great journey and experience. Although I did not have much choice because I was reaching Kalka station at 12pm from Delhi. However, what worked was good views throughout during the day.

There is another good option- Shivalik express at 7 am I guess but am not sure of the views so early in the morning. Should be fine but others should comment.

One tip- the right side ( relative on train moving direction from Kalka to Shimla) has all the scenery. While you cannot choose during booking , try to see if you can get right right window seats still.

[Sounak04]

Originally Posted by saurabhj

We drove down from Chandigarh to Kullu on the 15th of Apr 2022 and the NH3 road which is under construction is horrible.

There were times when I felt the bottom of the car will give way.

We had rented a Revv car (Creta, manual) from Chandigarh. Left at 7 AM from a hotel in Mohali - 2 adults, 2 kids.

Reached Kullu by 5 PM.

We only stopped an hour for breakfast - at Sarai Bharatgarh (quite good, recommended).

We were stopped 30m during some construction activity and we also got caught in a traffic jam (due to an accident) for 30m. So didn't stop for lunch.

We are returning on the 29th of Apr 2022 - and are strongly considering coming back via the IIT Mandi route - which is a state highway.

Taking a right from Bajaura (instead of going straight down for NH3).
And then coming via Bajaura -> Kamand -> IIT Mandi -> Mandi -> Sunder nagar -> Bilaspur -> Kiratpur Sahib -> Chandigarh.

Some folks have already taken this route in Feb here -- and even at night and have been fine.

I just wanted to check if someone has been recently on this route and would advise against it.

We are starting at 5:30 AM from here in Kullu and I have decent experience driving in mountainous terrains.

Thanks!

Hello

I saw from your post that u hired a Self Drive Rental Car from Revv. We are also travelling from Chandigarh to Manali in December and are planning to take a self drive car from Revv.

Just wanted to know whether you faced any issues with driving a Self Drive Rental car anywhere on the way. Since it’s a Commercial car, I think you must have paid an entry tax to Himachal Pradesh.

Overall how was you entire experience with Revv and any issues faced by you?

Thank you

[saurabhj]

Originally Posted by Sounak04

Hello

I saw from your post that u hired a Self Drive Rental Car from Revv. We are also travelling from Chandigarh to Manali in December and are planning to take a self drive car from Revv.

Just wanted to know whether you faced any issues with driving a Self Drive Rental car anywhere on the way. Since it’s a Commercial car, I think you must have paid an entry tax to Himachal Pradesh.

Overall how was you entire experience with Revv and any issues faced by you?

Thank you

Hi Sounak,

Yes. You will have to pay the state tax for every day you have the car.
I remember there was a weird rule because Chandigarh is part of both Punjab and Haryana; we had to pay road tax for Punjab as well as our hotel (we stayed overnight) was in Mohali.

The person delivering the Revv car will explain the process. If I remember correctly, it comes to about Rs. 300 per day.

Regarding issues with the car. Yes. Revv is supposed to be better (more reliable vehicles) than Zoomcar (as per my BIL, who rents from both).

On the way back, one of our tyres got a puncture. Unfortunately, the spare wheel was also out of air. (We had checked that the car had a spare - but hadn't bothered checking the air in it). So make sure you do that.

It was only due to the good samaritans passing by - who took us to a nearby tyre guy in their vehicle- that we could get the tyre fixed and on our way. (Make sure you have enough time on your way back to take care of such eventualities).

The car we were given was quite old (like a 2016 model in 2022) even though we were renting for 2 weeks, and our bill was close to 50K - 65K, which was disappointing. (for example, we could only play music by purchasing a lightning-to-aux cable as the BT was not functional, and there wasn't even a screen in the vehicle).

Since then, we have taken 2 other trips to places where we could have rented a self-drive car - but because of these hassles (poor quality vehicle, commercial tax, etc.), we just booked Innovas with drivers even though they were slightly more expensive.

TL: DR;
While it isn't the worst thing, our experience was far from being OK.
If you HAVE to rent, please check the car thoroughly for stuff like air in the spare and other safety features.

Unfortunately, at the time, the Creta was the best car we could rent (Cretas are 2 star rated vehicles when it comes to safety - I learnt later).

Hope this helps. Thanks!

[ChiefAmay]

I am planning to visit Manali and subsequently sissu in December 2022 last week on my Duke 200.
I have no experience on riding in snow before, and given that it's currently snowing in Manali is it feasible to reach Manali by bike?
Also can we cross Atal tunnel to reach Sissu during this time or will it be closed?
Thanks in advance for all your inputs.

[hs_maverick]

Originally Posted by ChiefAmay

I am planning to visit Manali and subsequently sissu in December 2022 last week on my Duke 200.
I have no experience on riding in snow before, and given that it's currently snowing in Manali is it feasible to reach Manali by bike?
Also can we cross Atal tunnel to reach Sissu during this time or will it be closed?
Thanks in advance for all your inputs.

You can easily reach Manali even in snow. It is beyond Nehrukund and towards Solang , road becomes tricky during heavy snowfall. Only locals and 4x4 vehicles are allowed beyond Solang during snow. Atal tunnel gets closed as well for non 4x4 vehicles

[mkbksc]

filling up with details of trip to Manali this May, in my XUV 500 self driving - with 2 co travelers

13th may

1425- departure from noida sec 61
1621-crossed panipat , via Eastern peripheral , 15 min traffic jam where EP meets original highway from Delhi
1646-karnal - 145 kms
1739- ambala 245 kms

pp break of 30 minutes on highway
1810-restart, following google maps, 15 minutes halt at railway crossing banur, then village narrow road for 15 kms up to kharar highway
1925-kharar,304 kms
2010- kurali bypass,ropar
2030-punjab border ends 360 kms - diesel in HP ~10 inr less than noida
2110-swarghat hptdc checkin -380 kms from home

roads good except in kharar stretch, traffic normal, hill drive after anandpur sahib till swarghat

may14th

0800-start from swarghat
1025-sundernagar, 80 kms - roads good for 15kms before sundernagar
1100- start after chai break after sundernagar, 468 kms from home, 20 minutes traffic jam at chakkar
1145-mandi, 482kms from home, 30 minutes delay for road repair,manali 100 kms away
1250-20 minutes traffic jam,500 kms from home, very poor road conditions, no traffic police presence, road widening in progress, too much dust, tunnel construction in full swing, beas river alongside
1340-32 kms from kullu, another tunnel construction in sight
1410- kullu on left, passing on bypass, roads nice 4 lanes,49 kms to manali 1515- lunch break for 50 minutes on highway-ok meal, 17 kms from manali hotel where staying
1650-reached ashapuri manali - 594 kms from home
manali to swarghat-215kms,9 hours drive on road, including 75 minutes of meal break and 75 minutes of traffic jam.