Leh-Manali Highway - Accommodation Along The Highway

Accommodation Along The Highway

In India, a dhaba is a road-side eatery with low prices and no frills. It is not a motel. Such dhabas or eateries are found at some otherwise uninhabited places along the highway. Dhabas generally allow drivers to lie down and rest for a while. An occasional dhaba may provide a dormitory bed (without any associated facility) to a tourist at a low price.

• Manali city has many hotels to suit all budgets.
• Kokhsar village has only one guesthouse.
• Sissu has a hotel and PWD rest house. Sissu has a beautiful waterfall on the other side of river Chandra. Sissu has a helipad for helicopter service from Manali during winter.
• Tandi village is situated at the confluence of the Chandra river (flowing down from north) and Bhaga river (flowing from south and east), which merge to form the Chandra-Bhaga river that is known as Chenab River downstream.
• Keylong town is district headquarters and has proper hotels including an HPTDC hotel and PWD rest house.
• Jispa village at the junction of two nullahs with Bhaga river has one luxury hotel, a guest house and tented accommodation (Swiss cottage tents and standard tents).
• Darcha has temporary tented accommodation run by some local residents.
• The steep ascent to Baralacha La (elevation 5,030 m (16,500 ft)) starts at Zingzingbar (elevation 4,270 m (14,010 ft)). There is a stream (from a glacial melt) flowing across the highway just after Zingzingbar. It is advisable to cross the stream before noon because the flow of ice-cold water increases as the day temperature rises. If the flow of water in the stream is too powerful for a vehicle to cross it or if the weather turns ugly en route to Baralacha La, turn back to Zingzingbar where dhaba tent basic accommodation is available quite cheaply. Or one can go back to Darcha.
• There are a few tents at Bharatpur which offer only basic accommodation. Bharatpur is not a village; it is set up only for tourists during tourist season and is a collection of tents after descending from Baralacha La pass.
• Sarchu has only tents but with quite a few choices from cheap accommodation in Dhaba tents which cost Rs.50 (US$ 1) per person to luxury tents (Swiss cottage tents) costing thousands of rupees a night.
• Pang has tented accommodation available, although choices at Pang are less than the choices in Sarchu.
• Upshi has a few guest houses along the Leh-Manali highway. Upshi is reached after crossing Indus river. It has a Customs and Excise taxation check post before crossing the river and a helipad after crossing the river. An ancient trading road heads to the east from Upshi towards Tibet.
• Karu has guest houses.
• Leh is the capital and tourist hub of Ladakh and many accommodation options to suit all budgets.