Spiti Valley Circuit

Overview

Runs in: June, July, August, September, October. Outside that window we do not sell the trip rather than run it badly.

Day by day

7 days, in the order you will walk or drive them.

1. 1Shimla to Kalpa (2,960 m)Day 1

   Leave Shimla early and follow the Sutlej east through Rampur and Jeori into Kinnaur, where the gorge narrows and the road is cut into the rock face. Roughly eight hours with a lunch stop at Rampur. Evening at Kalpa, looking straight across at the Kinner Kailash range.
2. 2Kalpa to Nako (3,660 m)Day 2

   A short driving day on purpose, to let the altitude settle. Past Reckong Peo and the Khab bridge, where the Spiti river joins the Sutlej, then up the Ka loops onto the Hangrang plateau. Afternoon walk around the Nako lake and the eleventh-century monastery beside it.
3. 3Nako to Kaza via Tabo and DhankarDay 3

   Into Spiti proper past Sumdo and Gue. An hour at Tabo, whose 996 CE assembly hall is unlit by design — take a torch and let your eyes adjust. Dhankar after lunch, a short steep walk to the old fort-monastery on its spur. Reach Kaza in the late afternoon.
4. 4Kaza — Key, Kibber and the high villagesDay 4

   Key monastery in the morning, the largest in Spiti and the training centre for the valley's monks. Kibber and Chicham after it, crossing the deepest bridge in the region. Afternoon on the shelf above Kaza — Langza with its fossil beds, Komic, and the post office at Hikkim. Back in Kaza for dinner.
5. 5Pin Valley and MudhDay 5

   South-west into the Pin Valley National Park, greener and narrower than the main valley, with barley terraces at Sagnam and Kungri monastery of the Nyingma school. Drive to the road end at Mudh and walk an hour up the valley floor. Return to Kaza in the evening.
6. 6Kaza to Chandratal (4,250 m) via Kunzum LaDay 6

   West up the Spiti river to Losar, then the climb to Kunzum La at 4,551 m, where the road crosses into Lahaul between the Spiti and Chandra drainages. Down to the Chandratal turnoff and the fixed camps below the lake. Walk the last stretch to the water in the late afternoon.
7. 7Chandratal to ManaliDay 7

   Early start for Batal and the Chandra river crossings, which run lower before the day warms. Gramphu, then the Atal Tunnel and down into the Kullu valley. Arrive Manali by mid-afternoon; trip ends there.

Dates and prices

Seat counts are live. A date leaves sale the moment it fills — we do not overbook and sort it out later.

What is included

Questions about this trip

Answered from this departure's own numbers. Anything not here, the desk will tell you straight.

3 reviews

Each one is linked to a booking on one of the departures above.

• No complaints about the running of it — good hotels for what's available, excellent driver, sensible altitude plan. But be clear-eyed that this is a road trip: days one and three are eight and nine hours in a seat, and the stretch past Batal on the last day is not really a road. Chandratal at dusk made up for all of it.

• The day on the shelf above Kaza was the best of the week. Fossils at Langza with a grandmother explaining which ones were real, then the post office at Hikkim where I sent four postcards that all arrived. Our lead knew every family in the villages we stopped at, which is not something you can fake.

• I had been talked into the two-day Manali dash version of Spiti by another operator years ago and spent three days in Kaza with a headache. Coming up the Sutlej instead — Kalpa, then Nako, then Kaza — meant I actually enjoyed the place. Tabo with a torch and no lights on is something I still think about.