Manali – Leh travel guide
After my trip last year, a lot of people have been asking me time and again about the trip and for some tips on this route.
The Manali to Leh road route is considered by many to be the greatest and arguably the toughest motorcycling road in the world. Every year, dozens of bikers from all over the world ride over this road, which crosses over some of the highest mountain passes of the world. The road is open from the end of May to about October, give or take a few weeks. The exact timings are dictated by the amount of snowfall that the passes recieve each year. This road is maintained by the Indian Army and is of strategic importance and so the Army takes all pains to ensure that for the few summer months, the road is never closed for more than a day or two, even if the weather is particularly bad.
The Route: Manali – Rohtang Pass – Tandi – Keylong – Jispa – ZingZing Bar – Baralacha La (Pass) – Bharatpur – Sarchu – Ghata loops – Nakee La – LachLung La – Pang – More Plains – Tanglang La – Upshi – Karu – Leh
Planning
You can never plan enough to ride on this highway. There are just too many unknowns. Even if everything else is all hunky dory, the weather can play spoilsport anytime. The only way to ride on this route is to keep an open mind and be open to exploring new options.
The Manali-Leh highway is full of bad roads, water crossings, glaciers (if you’re lucky) and crosses over some of the world’s highest passes and such the journey is highly unpredictable. Be prepared for uncertainties like inclemental weather, tyre punctures and any other mechanical problems with your vehicle. Carry any spares you think your vehicle might need and prepare for the worst.
Plan to take atleast three days to complete the journey although some people do the entire stretch in two days, it doesn’t make sense to rush up. The real fun is in the journey and not the destination.
Manali
Manali is the biggest town that you’ll hit on this highway and as such this should be your base if you’re coming from Delhi or any other part of the country. It is a very popular hill station and you can get fuel, food, accessories for your bike, clothes and just about anything imaginable in Manali. Also, it’d be advisable to stop for a night at Manali to acclimatize to the altitude.
Top up the fuel tank of your vehicle the night before you have to leave as you’ll be able to make an early start from Manali the next day, leaving the hordes of summer tourists behind. Rohtan Jot (Rohtang La) pass is a big attraction and practically all tourists who come to Manali visit it and leaving late will invariably mean ending up in a big traffic Jam (probably the world’s highest traffic jam) going up towards Rohtang.
Once you’ve crossed Rohtang, the road winds its way down to Tandi, which is the last village with a petrol pump before Leh. You should tank up here and also carry atleast 5 litres of extra fuel with you.
About 7 kms from Tandi is Keylong which is the only major town on the Manali-Leh highway. There are proper hotels, including an HPTDC hotel at Keylong and the town is at a lower height than Manali. If you want to break your journey further, you can stop here for the night, although there is not much to see in this sleepy town so I’d advise to carry on and probably stop here on your way back, if you’re using the same road.
Day one
For the first day you can break your journey at either Jispa or Darcha. Jispa has atleast one luxury hotel. Darcha is a temporary tented accomodation run by some enterprising locals. Of the two, Darcha is definitely the more enticing with the Bhaga river for company.
Day 2
This is the most amazing day of the ride. And as such it’d be advisable to stop at Sarchu, just about 120 kms from Darcha, instead of hurrying down the road to Pang.
You will be crossing the Baralacha La pass at 16,500 ft to reach Sarchu. At the foot of the pass is a collection of tents/dhabas at a place called Bharatpur, which is another place you can think of for stopping, but it’d be advisable to cover some more distance since Sarchu is just another 40kms from Bharatpur.
Each turn and each hairpin bend will offer new vistas. Make sure you take enough time admiring the rugged terrain. This road is as much a test of the man as the machine, so don’t even try and push the bike. Ride slow and steady and take as many photo stops as you can.
Sarchu is another temporary collection of tents, slightly more luxurious than the ones at Darcha.
The campsite is situated on the side of the Sarchu plains and because of the location, high winds are the norm. Be prepared for the cold and doing your morning duties out in the open, unless you stay at one of the costlier camps, which usually have a Loo tent.
A lot of travellers cross Sarchu and head over to Pang to stay for the night but that is not recommended. Pang is at a much higher altitude than Sarchu and to reach there you have to cross two more high altitude passes, Nakee La and Lachlung La. Even if you haven’t had a single attach of AMS till now, staying at Pang is a sure way of inducing mountain sickness.
Day 3
Right after Sarchu, you’ll be riding over the Gatta (ghatta/ghata/Gatha) loops, a series of 21 hairpin bends that’ll take you 1500 ft higher to the first pass of the day, Lachung La. Cross over the Lachung La and Nakee La passes and reach Pang for an early lunch.
Pang is at the base of a huge plateue and as soon as you get out of Pang, a short climb of about a kilometer or two will get you to More plains. Almost 40 kms of plain and barren land at over 16000 ft. The more plains are a sight to behold.
Right after the more plains, the climb for Tanglang La begins. Tanglang La is the second highest motorable pass in the world at 17, 582 ft.
Tanglang La is the last pass on the Manali Leh highway and after this the road is relatively straight and well tarred all the way to Leh. Picturesque villages, beautiful gompas and the constant company of a stream or two are the memorable parts of the last few miles of this trip.
The Manali – Leh trip can be easily done in three days and infact, take more time if you have the luxury. The friendly nature of the locals, the rugged beauty of the terrain are just some of the memories to take back from this trip and make sure you have enough time on hand to really have fun.
AMS – Acute mountain sickness
Wikipedia explains it much better than I ever can. I just have one thing to add: AMS can be extremely dangerous and do not ignore it. The only way to overcome AMS is to acclimatize well. And for that the rule of thumb is to ride high and sleep low. That is why Sarchu is recommended over Pang as a stop for the night, even though the distance from Darcha to Pang is easily doable in a day. Drinks lots of water and eat food on time even if you’re not hungry. Also keep a stock of chocolates, glucose or other high energy food with you.
Stuff to carry
This depends on person to person, but apart from the usual, make sure you have all necessary spares for your vehicle with you. If you’re travelling in a group, it makes sense to carry just one foot/electrical pump, but atleast make sure you have one spare tube each as well as cables for the accelerator and clutch. For people travelling by cars/SUVs, apart from carrying fuel, carry lots of water and any other necessary spares with you.
Also, keep some vaseline and sun screen handy since at that altitude you will most likely need oodles of both.
(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)
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Good travelogue , I enjoyed reviving last years memories from the same route via Spiti. Going that way gives a lot more acclimatization time than the straight Manali-Leh run. Personally I would never go for a night at 4000+ within a day from Manali, partly because I´ve sen a fellow traveller going unconscious on a previous trip.
A note on altitudes : Keylong is one thousand meters higher than Manali(3100), not lower. Sarchu is at 4253(i.e. same as Chandra Tal) and Pang at 4500.
@ Vistet: Thanks for visiting and glad you liked the travelogue. You’re correct about Keylong being higher than Manali. Don’t know what was I thinking when I wrote that :-)
Interesting!
Would like to read more.
@Katya: Thanks. I’d be writing some more mini guides like this one soon. Please be sure to keep checking back :-)
Hello,I feel must share my experience of the Manlali Leh trip we four made in a car ( Maruti Esteem< Yes that is right) last June. I am now 69 yrs old( sixtynine) and my friend also same age and my friends daughter andher driver much younger than the three of us (from Uttaranchal) undertook this trip from Delhi. Our first stop was Mandi in himachal Pradesh. Then we went over Rohtang to Keylong straight and stayed there for 2 beautiful days and nights. This is where we experienced a suddden TOOFAN as the locals called it, which actually is a sfast, unexpected Mountain storm very charecteristic of this region. The mountains sent an alarm bell to tell us not to stay overnight anywhere in between Keylong Na Leh.
We took much longer( Four hours?) than the jeeps for abvious reasons in the Esteem. many truck drivers were amused to see us rolling by in the esteem, but they were helpful when we needed. No tyre problems or anything like that but we got stuck in a summer stream once and had to be pulled out.A Bolero and truck also got stuck in the same place. Thanks to our skilful drivers, even my friendds daughter drove quite a bit on this raod -we made it in one piece and more than anything we were worried if our Esteem could make the journey. Yes it did and beautifully so. For us two senior citizens the ride was so luxurious our backs did not realise that we had made this trip after reaching Leh.
Ony if we were less concerned about the car, we would have enjoyed it so much better. At Tanglang La we took a picture, and hurried down as we felt dizzy. ( I am talking for the two older members)
We stayed inside the hotel room for 24 hours in Leh and went by car to the museum next day. having a car at our disposal made all the difference. We walked very less unless we had to. We came back through Alchi and Lamayuru (very beutiful indeed), Dras ( Tiger hill fame, where we stayed for a night ) to Srinagar and back. The Vishnu Dhbha Parothas outside pathankote is still fresh in my mind.
I have seen small children too on this trip. We were not unduly wooried about Altitude sickness as we had gone to Char dham trip earlier and no problem at all at that time.
Many elderly people are put off by such road trips. But it is worth going to the heart of Himalays once at least in our life time. Only we have the Himalayas at our doorstep!!
have a nice journey, Indira Murthy from bangalore
what are the expenses like?
@Anuz: Anywhere from INR 15k to INR 50k or more.
Hey thank you all,
Well reading this.. I feel like going to this place.But I am confused about 1 thing
Would it be better if we travel by bus or car or train or should we hire a car .We would be around 6 people. all age between 20-22. Aling from mumbai.
Resopnse would be helpful.
Thanks
@Dhruv: I’d suggest that you reach Delhi from Mumbai by car or by air. From Delhi you can take a bus to Manali and then hire a cab going to Leh. It isn’t as much fun as driving down yourself but that’s upto you.
can anyone tell how much the cab rentals would cost , from Manali to Leh. ???
sharminder,
thanks for the informative post man. My friends and I are planning a trip to Leh, two weeks from now. We are taking the delhi-manali bus, manali-leh cab route.
While we have answers to some questions, there are still a lot of unanswered questions .. do you think I could email you or perhaps, call you, to discuss a few?
thanks much in advance,
Rajeev
hi.. is with pillion can v make trip. or need any clearence for this. bcoz mostly people do solo.
Hardeep: There is no restriction on making the trip with a pillion.
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gGood Info. !!
What will be the total cost for bike ride..
are the bikes available in manali of good quality .!!
We had our own bikes when we went and including acco/food/fuel everything was under 20k as far as I remember. As far as the quality of bikes is concerned, you’ll have to check that on your own. These bikes are usually old and not very well maintained but if you can search a bit you might be able to get something decent. But, as for everything else, you get what you pay for !
hii, What would u suggest a bike ride or a car drive from manali to leh . Do you need any kind of permissions by the govt to ride the bikes out there.
awaiting
I’m a biker so bike is what I’d suggest. You don’t need any permissions to go from Manali to Leh.
I am planning to go Leh on 7 days trip.
We are 5 guys…can anyone tell how much the cab and bike rentals would cost , from Manali to Leh. ???
I’m not sure about the rental rates ashish since we had our own bikes. But, should be something around 2-2.5k / day for a cab. I’d suggest you ask this same question at the bcmtouring.com forums. There are some guys there who’ve done the trip using both rental vehicles and personal vehicles so they should be able to give you a better idea.
So glad I found this site! This is the most info I have been able to get my hands on so far! Do we need any kind of passes for Indians and/or foreigners in this trip? That’s the other thing I am lost on! Please help.
Cheers
Prathima, I don’t think foreigners need a permit specifically to go to Leh using this road. But, a permit is needed to visit some places around Leh and you’ll get those in Leh.
Hi,
This is such an amazing travelogue that one can really live his experience while reading it……
But yes, me any my two frnds are planning for Del – Leh. (in alto)
Would really appreciate if somebody guides whether it is a good option to drive all the way on Alto. Though we are doing many preparations for the trip….But my main concern is that whether this car will be able to do it to Leh or not…..We are increasing the ground clearance by inserting the “1″ inch rubber bars(gutka) under the shockers…. dont really know if it is a wise move….but ya…will really make a slight difference…
Also, If somebody can advise for good stoppage points after manali.
Thanks,
Rohit
Rohit,
I know people who’ve done this route in a zen so the Alto can definitely do it. Though, I just came back from Leh about 15 days back and this year the roads are really bad, so you might want to think twice about taking your Alto over there.
Carry appropriate spare parts. The gear box, clutch, brakes and the suspension are going to be abused a LOT.
All the best
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