Dharamshala & McLeodganj
The Dalai Lama's town and the Dhauladhar foothills — for travellers who want a Tibetan Buddhist circuit without the Ladakh winter. What makes Dharamshala & McLeodganjworth a long conversation isn’t in any guidebook. It’s in the rhythm of who runs the lodges, which naturalist is in the field that month, and which lanes the festival actually unfolds in. We plan trips here the way locals plan a weekend — knowing what’s open, what’s in season, what’s worth skipping.
Things worth doing
- Tsuglagkhang complex, early morning before tour groups
- Triund day walk — 9km up, Dhauladhar at the top
- Norbulingka institute — thangka painters and metal workers
- Kangra valley as a two-day extension below
Who plans this · Himalayas
Shailesh on Dharamshala & McLeodganj.
The Himalayas are not one place. Spiti in October is not Spiti in June. We plan around weather windows, monastery festivals, and the families who'll have you for tea at 4,200m.
“Bandhavgarh is not a park. It's a place I keep going back to because the forest keeps changing the question.”
When to go
- Oct–Feb
- Cool air, prime sightings, parks at full life.
- Mar–Apr
- Leaner forest, easier sightings if you can take the heat.
- Jun–Sep
- Many parks closed for monsoon; cultural and Himalayan trips shine.
Pairs well with
Three places we often plan in the same trip.
Uttarakhand
Auli & Garhwal
The Garhwal high country — Auli, Joshimath, the Valley of Flowers — for travellers who want meadows and serious mountains in one trip.
West Bengal
Bishnupur
The terracotta temple town of the Malla kings. Brick the colour of dried blood, panels that read like a Mahabharata graphic novel.
Rajasthan
Bundi
A blue-painted hill town with a 14th-century palace nobody renovated, stepwells in residential lanes, and Kipling's old guesthouse still standing.