Nested in the Dhauladhar range, Dharamshala is an absolute treat for travel maniacs. This quaint little town embellished with sweet notes of nature and cosy cafes is best for a weekend hideout. We did a combined tour of Manali-Dharamshala-Amritsar and on our way to Dharamshala from Manali, something surreal happened. So, after that magical night, we reached Dharamshala hotel at 7 am. If you haven’t read about the night, please do because you simply can’t miss it. Click here!
Accommodation
We checked in to this beautiful hotel – Nibaana Resort booked by The Trawingers. It’s around 16 km away from the proper city of Dharamshala. It’s a luxurious property in between mountains and a huge landscape. The best part of this property is its peaceful environment. Fresh air, mesmerising views of mountains & serene landscapes, and birds chirping around make you disconnected from the hustling world. We absolutely loved our stay. The interiors are so aesthetic and cohesive with the beauty of the place. No place does good without warm, polite & helpful staff. We check into our room. And to our surprise, the rooms were really warm & cosy. It was 4 degrees outside, but the room was comfortable. The best part of the room was the bed. The bed had a heated mattress, which keeps you warm. Also, it made us reluctant to leave the bed. 😀 Huge room with big balconies made us feel at home.
Itinerary
Day 1: Since we couldn’t sleep at night, we checked in and slept for some time. We had the whole day to ourselves. Since we wanted to make the most of it, we slept the whole morning. Woke up around noon, all fresh & warmed up. We had our lunch & left our hotel to take a stroll around the city. The main market or city centre of Dharamshala is too small & you will just get some fruits, veggies, local supplies, etc. There are a few shops for winter wear, some local & some branded stores. However, we didn’t step into any as we didn’t want to buy anything. We googled the location for the most talked-about cafe in Dharamshala. And thought of spending our evening there. We reached this place called Illiterati Books & Cafe in Mcleod Ganj. We just wanted to feel the hype that is created on social media. But, it truly is a beautiful cafe. If you reach on time before sunset, you can witness a beautiful sunset from here. The food we ate was superb, the service was awesome, books & ambience were beautiful. If you are there in winters then please note – This place is not centrally heated, so to keep yourself warm, you will need to drink something warm. We sipped on Kahwa (a must-have – after Kashmir, if we enjoyed Kahwa here) & hot chocolate. If you are a chai person just like Ritesh, don’t miss their masala chai. We spent around a good hour & a half here and left for our hotel. It was getting very windy and cold. We reached our hotel at 10 pm and had a good rest.
Day 2 – Today we had a packed day, we planned to visit a monastery, a temple, a waterfall & a lake. After a scrumptious breakfast, we left our hotel. We headed towards the Dalai Lama’s temple. We reached there after a half an hour drive. Unfortunately, the temple was closed due to Covid. Also, they weren’t allowing anyone to even enter the place. So, we started to walk back to our car. While walking back to the car, we stopped at the local stores just outside the parking area and bought a few souvenirs. There are many stalls for picking some warm shrugs, caps, shawls, gloves, etc. We left from there and started for our second stop, which was a waterfall in Mcleod Ganj.
Here you have to park the car far away and walk a little to reach the start point of the waterfall. You will cross the mall road of this place. The mall road has some amazing shops for the winter collection. Rinnku even picked a few beautiful cotton pants from those stores. We realized that to see the waterfall and to go to the Shiva’s cafe which is on the top of this hill, we will have to climb around 300 steps and a few steep slopes. We skipped it because we both didn’t want to climb so much and the waterfall didn’t look that attractive. Instead, we grabbed some momos from a small shop at the start point of the waterfall and left.
We visited a beautiful and most-recommended restaurant – MCLLO. It’s a rooftop restaurant for some food and momos. We tried some local teas there and apple cider beer, pizza & momos. We liked the place, however, we feel there are many more places which serve better food. The ambience is very OK, the view is beautiful from here. Food was average as compared to the way it was recommended. You can skip this place. However, just below this restaurant, there is a nice bakery called The Pastry Den. We tried their 3-4 different varieties of pastries and we loved them all. Very affordable & hygienic place. Highly recommended. From there we left for another place called Naddi.
Naddi is a village of Himachal Pradesh. It is located at an altitude of 2000 meters above sea level. The Naddi viewpoint is a beautiful & very peaceful place. You can walk here and also, take small treks. The view from this place is mind-blowing. One can also slurp on Maggi & chai. We were done with all the places we wanted to see. And since we still had the time and it wasn’t too dark, we thought of again going to Illiterati Books & Cafe to spend some time talking & sipping on their masala chai & Kahwa. We ended our day with some soup & salads at our hotel and slipped in our warm & cozy bed.
Day 3 – After breakfast, we left for Amritsar by road. It takes around 5 hours to reach Amritsar by road. See you all in Amritsar now 😀
Things to Remember
1. Don’t forget to nom loads of momos. Dharamshala serves the best momos.
2. Shopping for woolens at the mall road of Mcleod Ganj is exciting.
3. If you are there in winter, do layer up yourself well, because it tends to get windy.
4. Lanes of Dharamshala & McleodGanj are narrow, self driving is not easy. Please hire a car & driver for easy access and a fun trip. You can connect with Kalakrruti Enterventure Holidays for booking the the reliable services.
5. We did all our bookings through @kalakrruti & @thetrawingers, they had booked a car with a driver who stayed with us throughout.
6. There is not much to explore in Dharamshala. 2 nights 3 days are good to explore and spend some best time in this place.
7. Please Click here for things to carry if you are traveling in winter.
8. Please Click here for things to carry if you are traveling in Covid times.
9. Click here to get our discount to book Nibaana Luxury Resort at a discounted price.
That’s all about Dharamshala. If you can sneak in two-three days for a quick getaway from life, visit Dharamshala and you won’t regret it. Let us know in the comments if you have any query related to travelling in Dharamshala, we would love to answer them all! 🙂
