How I Explored Spiti Valley in 5 Days from Delhi?

It’s a long distance journey I have covered from Delhi to Delhi including more than 15 beautiful destinations and collected some priceless memories. This article is especially for those persons who don’t have enough time and money to travel but want to explore some beautiful places. I think you all know about Spiti Valley, those people who don’t know about this heaven let’s read this short info-

Lahual and Spiti Valley-







Lahual and Spiti Valley are one of the cold deserts of India. It’s also known as the twin of Leh- Ladhak because it’s too similar with Leh. The roads of Spiti Valley are not so good but the destination is much better. The trip cost of Lahaul and Spiti is not so much expensive. This place is very safe and all people of Spiti Valley are helpful. This is a heaven without our latest technology and mobile networks. You can feel real nature over there. The Spiti is situated in the middle of Himachal and Jammu and Kashmir. The name "Spiti" means "The Middle Land", i.e. the land between Tibet and India. The Capital of Spiti Valley is Kaza. This is approx. 200-220 km away from Manali, Himachal Pradesh. You can do many types of adventure activities there like trekking, camping, bonfire, riding, river crossing and much more. There is a lake also there named Chandrataal Lake which is as same as Pangong TSO in Leh Ladhak. I can simply say some word if you ask me about Spiti and Lahaul Valley-

Also, Check - Best Places to Explore in Spiti Valley

“Spiti Valley is For Traveler not for Tourist”

Destination I Covered-





Manali

Rohtang Pass

Kunzum Pass

Kaza

Hikkim

Komic

Langza

Key Monastery

Kibber

Chicham Bridge

Chandrataal Lake (The Moon Lake)

Old Manali

Budget for This Trip-





It’s a budget trip and I was also traveling with budget traveling people. Let’s see it in last of this article.

Day 1st – Delhi to Old Manali-





I started my journey of Spiti Valley from Delhi. There are two ways to go Spiti Valley. First one is via Manali and Second one by Shimla- Kinnaur. I went Spiti via Manali. I went Manali from Chandigarh by a Volvo Bus. I started my journey at 8 ‘O’ clock in the night and reached Manali at 12 ‘o’ clock in the noon. Firstly I booked a room in a budget-friendly Hotel – Hotel Apple Valley. Then I started exploring Old Manali. I personally like Old Manali compared than Manali. There are many things to do there. I explore the streets of Old Manali, Temples of Manali and much more. I did many activities there like river- crossing, River Rafting, F1 Race, Horse riding and much more. I ate dinner at the cafe in mall road of Manali. Then I went to my room back and took rest. Because next day, I have to go Rohtang Pass early morning. There are so much traffic jams you will find at Rohtang Pass if you go there at daytime.

Day 2 – Rohtang Pass, Kunzum Pass, and Kaza-







On the second day, I woke up at early in the morning. I started my journey in a traveler bus. I am going there with a group of 18 people, so we booked 2 traveler buses for our Spiti Trip. First, we went to Rohtang Pass which is situated in the way to Spiti Valley or Leh- Ladhak. We start our journey at 6 o’clock in the morning and reach Rohtang pass at 9:00 AM. The Distance between Manali and Rohtang is approx 50-55 Km. There are not many places to explore in Rohtang. It just a valley where you can capture some beautiful photos of yours with nature. It’s the month October, so I find little snow on the top of mountains. It’s really a precious experience we get to watch the sun rise at the Manali – Leh Road. You can do paragliding also there. There are many paragliding spots in between Manali and Rohtang.

After clicking some awesome photos at Rohtang Pass, we start our journey towards Spiti Valley. After Crossing Some Kilometers, we are in a place with two ways. First one of Keylong (Leh- Ladhak) and second one are for Kaza (Spiti Valley). We went to second way of Kaza. It’s really a bad road between Manali to Kaza. It will take approx 10-12 hours to complete the journey of 200 kilometers of Manali to District Kaza. Kaza is the main district of Spiti Valley. The valleys around the Kaza district called Spiti valley, where’s The Spiti River come from. Our next destination is Kunzum Pass. The roads are not well as I said already. It takes so much time to reach there. We did our lunch in a small restaurant (Dhaba) located on the way between Rohtang pass to Kunzum Pass. Finally, we reached Kunzum pass at 3 o’clock in the noon. There is snow on every mountain’s top. It’s a daytime, so the temperature is not so low. We clicked some photos and make videos there. After a break of 30 minutes at Kunzum Pass, now we are ready to go Kaza. We find many beautiful views in between Kunzum and Kaza. It’s really a heaven on Earth. We find the new culture, new people, and new food there.

After the journey of 12 hours, finally, we reached Kaza. It’s really a very beautiful destination. It's like a big village of Spiti. Yes, it is a district where you can get a petrol pump, An ATM machine, A bank, a market, hotels, hospital and bus stand. As Manali after reaching Kaza, firstly we book and check in to a room. We stayed at Himalayan Café Hotel in Kaza. It’s a newly made hotel and provides a better accommodation in Kaza. After Check-in, we went to explore the streets of Kaza. We go to ATM for withdrawal cash. Because there are no other ATM machines in Spiti Valley. After a city tour, we came back to our room and finished our dinner. That’s how I spent my second day in Spiti Trip.

Day 3 – Hikkim, Komic, Langza, Key Monastery, Kibber and Chicham Bridge (The Main Day)-







It’s another day in Spiti. The weather is awesome. I woke up at 8 o’clock. It’s really late as per my schedule. I took my breakfast as fast as possible. I leave my room at 10 o’clock. My first destination is Hikkim. After the journey of 90 minutes, I reached there. In Hikkim, there is only one place to see. World’s Highest Post Office at the height of 14517 meters. It’s 2nd October a national holiday (Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti), but luckily I found the post office open. I purchase some postcards from there. They cost approx Rs 20 per postcard and Rs 5 for sending it anywhere in India. Unfortunately, they don’t have ticket that time to send our postcards. So we stamp them with their post office stamp and bring them with us. I make 6 postcards for my friends and Family.

After Hikkim, now it’s time to Komic. Komic is the highest village in the world connected with the motorable road. It takes approx 20-25 minutes to reach Komic from Hikkim. After reaching Komic, firstly I click photos with the board by Himachal Pradesh Tourism of “World Highest Village Connected with Motorable Road”. I found a very beautiful behind this board. In front of this board, there is a Monastery called “Komic Monastery”. I went and sit there. There is the very silent moment there. I took a proper rest at this Monastery. After Exploring Monastery, I took my lunch in a little restaurant (Dhaba). I spent half of my day there.



Now I move to Village Langza. Langza is a very small village with the population of 100-125 people. There is a big statue of God Buddha is situated at the top of the village. From the top of the village, I saw a beautiful view of whole village Langza. There are not so many houses in this village. If you visit there, you can easily stay there. There are not so many options of accommodation here. But you can stay in guest houses or home stays. You can spend your best night of Spiti Valley here. I have only 5 days to cover/explore Spiti Valley, so I spent 1 hour here and move on.



After Hikkim, Langza, and Komic, the journey starts towards Key Monastery. Key Monastery is the biggest and most popular monastery in Spiti and Lahaul. It takes approx 80-90 minutes to reach there from Komic. I spent 2 hours there. I visit the monastery and enjoy the view from there. I can say after The Moon Lake Chandrataal, you can find the best view of Spiti Valley From here. I Enjoyed the view and click more than hundreds of pictures there. I also made some time lapse there. This monastery is really a little heaven on earth. It’s situated in a village called key. Key is also known as Ki, Kiy, kee.



After spending hours in Key Monastery, I went to Kibber. Kibber is a small village of district Kaza. We don’t spend much time at Kibber, just stop there for some photos and start my journey to next destination. My next destination is a bridge, yes it’s a bridge but different than others bridges of our cites. It’s Chicham Bridge, a newly made bridge. This bridge was completed in 2017. This bridge connects Valley of village Chicham to the valley of village Kibber. This bridge is not so long, but it’s very high. I pass this bridge and click some photos and make videos there. I found a very amazing view from there.









I visited Hikkim, Komic, Langza, Key Monastery, Kibber and Chicham on that day, now I move back to my room which is as same of day 2 (Himalayan Café at Kaza). So we reached Kaza and took some evening snacks there. Its 5 PM in Evening and the weather is not so cold. So we went towards Spiti river from our hotel by did trekking. Now I am going with 3 members because rest of 18 was feeling tired and go to bed. We 4 are active for trekking. So we trek towards Spiti River from there. It’s our best sunset I see ever in the bank of river Spiti. We do trekking and wandering approx 3 hours. After sunset, we move towards our hotel because we don’t bring any torch with us and the temperature also going low as the night starts. So we reach back to our hotel and took dinner will all and slept. The weather temperature in the night is approx 2-3 degree. There are too many stars in the sky and too much cold there. This is how I spent my 3rd Day in Lahaul and Spiti Valley.

Day 4 – Trek to The Moon Lake Chandrataal (Best Part of Spiti Trip)-





It’s my day 4 in Spiti Valley. I have to check out from my room today. Today’s destination is the most beautiful location in Spiti Valley. Yes, it’s the Moon lake Chandrataal. This lake is approx 100 km away from District Kaza. After a healthy and heavy breakfast, I said bye to Kaza at 10 AM and start the journey of Chandrataal Lake. The Chandrataal Lake is situated near Kunzum Pass (in Between Manali and Kaza).







It’s a long journey of more than 7 hours to Chandrataal from Kaza. The weather is good but not awesome, I can say. The journey or trekking of Chandrataal Lake is really giving me a precious experience of life. I learned many things while trekking there. It’s my first official trekking which is too hard because of high altitude. There is very low temperature there. I reached there at 4:30 PM. We already book Swiss tents there for our camping. These tents are really good. They provide us 2 bed in one tent with attach toilet/washroom. Daily bathing is really helpful for our body to maintain. But it seems impossible to bath in -7-degree temperature.

After reach to our tents, firstly I ate Maggie and drink hot tea for refreshment or instant energy for trekking. After that, I was ready to do a trek. I wear approx 6-7 layers of clothes because of cold there. I wear hat and gloves also. I also cover my face by sunglasses and bandana. I mount my GoPro Hero 5 in my chest with chest mount for recording the trekking videos. The temperature is going down as time passes. The vehicles can’t go there. So we have to do trekking of 800-900 m to reach there. But it’s really a hard trek because of high altitude. I feel many problems when I am doing this short distance trek. I felt breathing problem, walking problem there. But after 40-45 minutes of trekking, I reach to Chandrataal Lake.

This is the best viewing I see ever in my life. It’s really a little heaven on Earth. This lake is the wonder for me. The water of the lake is pure blue as the color of the sky. It's 6:15 PM when I reach there and it is sunset time. Yes, I saw a beautiful sunset with this beautiful. I saw how sun set behind the mountains which are covered by snow. After sunset, the temperature is falling low. So everyone was going back to their tents from there. It’s time to leave this amazing view. It’s time to leave this lake and move back to our tents.



After reached back to our tents, I spent my most of time in kitchen tent of our group. Because this is the one, which is hotter than others. After some time, the dinner is ready and it’s time to eat dinner with the view of thousands of stars and Milky Way in the sky. It’s -3-degree temperature now. Bonfire is not allowed there because of banned by forest department of Lahaul and Spiti Valley. So we on our torch and Bluetooth speaker and make an artificial bonfire. We do dancing and singing for more than 3 hours. We felt cold from outside but hot from inside because of dance and other activities. Now it’s time to sleep, so I go to my tent and slept. This is how I spent my 4th day in Lahaul and Spiti Valley.

Day 5- Return to Manali and Delhi -





Its day 5th in Lahaul and Spiti valley and I was in tents near Chandrataal Lake. I woke up at 8:00 Am and go to some other mountains for some time lapse of Sunrise. I came back to the tent at 9:00 Am and took breakfast. I took heavy breakfast today because there are no any restaurants between Chandrataal to Rohtang pass. After the journey of 16 km, I reach Kunzum Pass again. This time also I stop there for some photos and enjoy the weather. This is the month of October. So now I found more snow than last time I visited here. After a break of 20-25 minutes, I start the journey towards Manali.

Again I passed through Rohtang pass. I reached Manali at the time of 3:00 PM and it’s the time to lunch. I took my lunch at riverside café at Old Manali. I eat Chinese fast food because it’s time to go back to home. Then I go to Volvo Bus Stand of Manali. It’s near from Mall Road of Manali. I purchase some apples from there. When will you come to Manali, always try all types of apple there. These apples are fresh and tasty.

The departure time of my bus to New Delhi is 5:30 PM and I board there at 5:00 PM. It’s time to say bye to Manali and Spiti Valley. Really it’s hard, but as another traveler, I say bye them and Move on.

I learned many things from this trip. I get a new motivation from this trip. A new motivation to work harder and will come back here in future.

This is how I explore Spiti Valley from Delhi in 5 days….





What about Budget of this trip?







Yes, in these details of this trip. I forgot about to tell you the budget of this trip. I am backpack and budget traveler. So in this trip, I spent only Rs 12500 for the complete trip from Delhi to Delhi. It’s not mean I skip any places, skip any breakfast, lunch or dinner, live very poor live there.

No, I explore all the places I which I can, eat all foods, live a very cool life there. I live in share basis room, but it’s not mean that I live a poor living there. Overall, in this budget, it’s the best lifestyle I live there. It’s all possible because of – Kanjoos Traveler. Kanjoos Traveler is a budget traveler company which provides many trek trip packages at very relevant prices.

Are 5 days enough to visit Spiti valley?







Yes, Of course, dude!! You already read it how I explore Spiti Valley on 5 Days from Delhi to Delhi. You can also cover Spiti valley in 5 days from Chandigarh to Chandigarh, From Manali to Manali, From Ahmadabad to Ahmadabad, From Mumbai to Mumbai or from any other parts of India (if you come to Kullu or Chandigarh by Flight). You can explore more than 15 destinations in those 5 days and collect so many priceless memories of your life in less than a week.

Which is best to Go by travel Package or Separate (Own Vehicle or public transport)?







You can go by own vehicle also but there are some problems you may face while driving car or riding bike in the road of Spiti Valleys. Because the condition of roads is very bad. You can also go there by public transport, but there are many problems you face while traveling. Because there are few buses or taxi services go Spiti valley from Manali or Shimla. If you missed a Bus, you may have to wait 24 hours for next bus. So if you want to go Spiti Valley in 5 days or if you are a solo traveler, there I strongly prefer to go there by travel package.