Manali Honeymoon — Four Nights at the Head of the Kullu Valley

North from Chandigarh into the hills and up the Beas through Mandi and the Kullu valley — a long day, about eight hours from Chandigarh and considerably more from Delhi, with the last three hours the good part, the river alongside and apple orchards on the slopes. Bhuntar airport, an hour below Manali, takes a few weather-dependent flights and is the shortcut when it works. Into the stay above the town by evening. Nothing is scheduled; the first dinner is candlelit and the balcony faces the forest.

A slow morning. The Hadimba Devi temple first, in a stand of old deodar above the town — built in 1553 with a four-tiered pagoda roof over a rock shrine — and then up the hill into Old Manali, where the stone-and-timber houses sit among orchards and the cafés look down the valley. Across the river to Vashisht in the afternoon, where hot sulphur springs feed stone baths beside the temple and the walk up through the village is short. The evening is yours: the Mall if you want it, the balcony if you do not.

The road north: Solang first, the broad meadow under the Rohtang road where paragliders launch in the warm months and the snow sits from December, then on to the south portal of the Atal Tunnel about 25 km from Manali. Nine kilometres under the mountain and the valley on the far side is a different country — Lahaul, drier and higher, with the Chandra river below and snow on the ridges in most months. Sissu is the first village, with its waterfall and lake, and lunch is taken there. The tunnel is open all year and needs no permit; Rohtang Pass, the old road over the top, is a separate excursion in its season, on request and subject to the quota.

Down the sunny side of the valley to Naggar, the old seat of the Kullu rajas: the castle is built in the alternating timber-and-stone technique the region developed against earthquakes, and the Nicholas Roerich house below it holds the painter's Himalayan canvases and the view he painted them from. Back along the Beas — a rafting run from Pirdi is available in season for those who want it — and the afternoon is deliberately empty: the orchards, a walk by the river, a late tea. The second candlelit dinner is tonight.

The long descent of the Beas, out through Mandi to the plains — a full day's driving to Chandigarh and more to Delhi, and the itinerary asks nothing else of it. Your Live Traveller journey ends at the airport or the station. If you would rather fly from Bhuntar, we book it on the understanding that cancellations are common in this valley and the road stays the reliable option.