Think of a beautiful road journey to the hills, breath taking landscape, cold breeze, amazing view, a river flowing by the road, lush greenery around to give you the feeling of freshness with every breath to take in, sounds good, doesn’t it? Feels even more amazing, mark the words.
Manali is the perfect tourist place for all kinds of tourists any time of the year. Why is it so? Well, if you’re a nature lover, Manali has so much to make you happy. If you love adventure sports, the Solang valley in Manali is entirely dedicated to people with your kind of interests. If you just came over with an intention to spend over a weekend all by yourself to regain your mental equilibrium, Manali won’t disappoint you. If you’re looking for a honeymoon destination then it would be interesting for you to know that for all these years Manali has been one of the most preferred honeymoon destination in India.
Located at a distance of 40kms from Kullu to the north, Manali is a small city and a major tourist location in Himachal Pradesh.
How to reach- By Air: the nearest airport when boarding a flight to Manali is Bhuntar. It is at a distance of 10kms from Kullu and 50kms from Manali. Many taxies and busses travel through this distance to pick and drop passengers to and fro their location.
By train: you could travel via train till Pathankot or Chandigarh and from there take up some taxi or may be the roadways bus. Since in any case, you will have to take a car till Manali, it is preferred to undertake a road journey to Manali. The journey would be usually longer than usual but totally worth the time and efforts.
Places to visit- Rajgarh Valley:- 40Kms away from Solan, this is a lush green valley, popularly referred to as the Peach Valley. You can go there for a trek and do bit of camping. The local Shaya Temple of Large Shirgul has people coming in for offering their prayers from all over India. Baru Sahib Gurudwara is worth visiting too. More than the picturesque characteristics, this place gives you peace. You can proceed to Habban Valley from here; this valley has a dense forest cover of trees ranging from pine, fir to deodar and hence, is generally cold. It often snows here. Two hour journey from Rajpur would lead you to Haripurdhar which is famous for the temple of Bhagyani devi, the god sister of lord Shrigul.
Hadimba Temple- Located in the middle of a dense forest called Dhungir Van Vihar, this wooden temple was built back in 1553, it is modified out of a cave and is devoted to goddess Hadimba the wife of Bhima from Mahabharata. The Temple is one of the most important of the region and enshrines the footprints of the goddess.
Solang Valley- 14kms away from the main city, Solang is a lush green valley with a lot of options to spend an entire day here. You’d have options for adventure sports like Para gliding, horse back riding, riding. Or just simply choose a spot here, sit and relax and appreciate nature.
Rohtang pass- 51kms from Manali, at a height of 3980m the mountains here are forever covered with snow. Tourists have to gear up in proper snow suits available on rent to enjoy their time here. It is closed during the winter months since it snows heavily here. Just beside the pass is the twin peak of Gaypan and the Sonapani Glacier. The view from here is magnificent. The maggi and boiled eggs which are sold in small stalls at the top are popular among the visitors as they taste amazingly well in the chilling weather here.
Bhuntar- On the way back from Manali is Bhuntar which is known as the gateway to Kullu. You can see the Sangam of the two holy rivers Beas and Parvati. The Sangam is so prevalent with the two rivers having water of different shade combing that you could stand at the walkover bridge and make out their point of meeting.
Manikaran- Located at a distance of 32kms from Bhuntar in the Parbati valley, Manikaran is blessed to have a hot water spring which is known to have a very effective medicinal value an has cured different kinds of ailments of the people. Lord Shiva is said to have sat here in Samadhi for eleven thousand years. Naina Mata and the Gurudwara are also here and people from varied places specially come to offer their prayer here.
Go visit Manali during summers to escape the extreme heat in the plains and you can also go there to enjoy the lovely snow during winters.
