Shimla & Manali by Car — Five Nights in Himachal

North out of Chandigarh and into the hills, about 115 km and three and a half hours on a road that climbs steadily through pine to around 2,200 m. Shimla was the summer capital of British India from 1864 — the entire government moved here from Calcutta and later Delhi every year — and the town is still shaped by that: a ridge lined with Victorian public buildings, and the Mall running along it. The evening is for walking the Ridge, which is closed to vehicles.

The Viceregal Lodge in the morning — a Scottish baronial pile finished in 1888, now the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, where the discussions that produced the partition plan of 1947 were held and where the table they were held at still stands. Christ Church on the Ridge dates from 1857 and holds some of the oldest stained glass in northern India. The afternoon goes out to Kufri, about 16 km east, for the Himalayan Nature Park, and Jakhoo temple on the town's highest hill is the walk to finish — steep, and the macaques there will take sunglasses.

The long transfer north — around 250 km and seven hours, dropping to the Sutlej at Bilaspur and then climbing the Beas through Mandi and the Kullu valley. It is a driving day and one of the finest in the western Himalaya, with the river alongside for the last three hours and apple orchards on the slopes. Into Manali at about 2,050 m in the evening, with nothing else asked of the day.

Hadimba Devi in the deodar above the town, built in 1553 with a four-tiered pagoda roof over a rock shrine and dedicated to a figure from the Mahabharata rather than a conventional deity. Vashisht across the river next, where sulphur springs feed stone baths. The afternoon runs up to Solang, the broad meadow under the Rohtang road, which carries paragliding in summer and snow from December. Rohtang itself is permit-controlled and quota-capped and is arranged separately when open.

East into the Parvati valley to Manikaran, where water comes out of the ground near boiling within metres of a snow-fed river, and the gurdwara uses the springs to cook for everyone who arrives. The valley beyond it is narrow and dramatic. The return takes Naggar, the former Kullu capital, whose castle is built in the alternating stone-and-timber technique the region uses against earthquakes, with the Roerich house and gallery on the slope below.

The full descent of the Beas and out through Mandi to the plains — a long day, and the itinerary schedules nothing against it. Chandigarh is around eight hours and Delhi considerably more, so the onward booking should reflect which of the two you are heading for. Bhuntar airport below Manali takes a few flights daily but they are weather-dependent in this valley and cancellations are common enough that the road remains the plan.