When to travel

Best places to visit in May

May means escape the heat. Ladakh roads open mid-month, the Northeast is lush, and the Western Ghats hill towns are at their best.

Busy

Himachal Pradesh

Manali

Manali is really two places, and knowing which one you booked matters more than anything else about the trip.

Warm comfortable days with bright clear sunny skies.

Busy

Himachal Pradesh

Khajjiar

Khajjiar is a high plateau meadow at an elevation of 1,920 metres inside the Kalatop Khajjiar Sanctuary perimeter.

Cool refreshing daytimes with bright emerald green landscapes.

Busy

Himachal Pradesh

Dalhousie

Dalhousie is a peaceful colonial-era hill station built across five distinct hills of the Dhauladhar mountain range, sitting at an altitude of 1,970 metres.

Pleasantly cool daytimes with refreshing pine forest breezes.

Moderate crowds

Himachal Pradesh

Great Himalayan National Park

The Great Himalayan National Park was listed by UNESCO in 2014, and what makes it worth the effort is what it does not have: no road crosses it, nothing is…

Pleasant daytimes with lush green forests and clear rivers.

Busy

Jammu & Kashmir

Pahalgam

Pahalgam is a valley settlement at 2,130 metres in the Anantnag district of Kashmir, where the fast Lidder River meets the Sheshnag stream.

Refreshing crisp days with clear blue riverside horizons.

Moderate crowds

Jammu & Kashmir

Sonamarg

Sonamarg is eighty kilometres up from Srinagar and the last town before Zoji La and Ladakh.

Cool pleasant daytimes with new snow fields melting along ridges.

Busy

Jammu & Kashmir

Patnitop

Patnitop is a plateau at 2,024 metres above the Chenab on the Jammu–Srinagar highway, and almost everyone who stops there was on the way somewhere else.

Pleasantly cool daytimes with refreshing pine-scented breezes.

Low crowds

Jammu & Kashmir

Doodhpathri

Doodhpathri is a meadow about forty kilometres out of Srinagar in Budgam district, with almost nothing built on it — no hotels, a handful of stalls.

Delightfully refreshing daytimes with deep green turf.

Busy

Tamil Nadu

Ooty (Udhagamandalam)

Ooty sits at 2,240 metres and was built by the British as a hot-weather escape, which is still exactly what it is used for — and why April and May are the…

Cool refreshing daytimes with bright clear sunny skies.

Busy

Himachal Pradesh

Kasol

Kasol is a small riverside village in the Parvati Valley of Himachal Pradesh that has become the unofficial backpacking capital of North India.

Pleasant cool days, good for valley treks.

Moderate crowds

Himachal Pradesh

Tosh

Tosh is a tiny, car-free hamlet at the far end of the Parvati Valley, a steep climb above Barshaini.

Clear warm days with snow on the peaks.

Busy

Himachal Pradesh

Old Manali

Old Manali is the laid-back, bohemian counterpart to Manali town — a riverside cluster of guesthouses, cafes and orchards above the Manalsu stream.

Warm pleasant days, lush orchards.

Moderate crowds

Leh & Ladakh

Magnetic Hill

Magnetic Hill is a famous gravity-defying road stretch on the Srinagar-Leh National Highway, roughly 30 kilometres outside the capital town of Leh.

Crisp clear weather with cool mountain breezes.

Moderate crowds

Himachal Pradesh

Kalpa (Kinnaur)

Kalpa is an offbeat mountain village on a high ridge at an elevation of 2,960 metres in the Kinnaur Valley.

Cool pleasant days under open sun rays.

Busy

Jammu & Kashmir

Srinagar (Dal Lake)

Srinagar is a lake city, and the difference between a good stay and a mediocre one is which part of the lake you sleep on.

Pleasantly warm daytimes with cool mountain breezes.

Moderate crowds

Jammu & Kashmir

Gulmarg

Gulmarg is a bowl of meadow at 2,650 metres in the Pir Panjal, and it does two completely different jobs depending on the month.

Pleasant cool days with a colorful carpet of wild flowers.

Busy

Rajasthan

Mount Abu

Rajasthan's only hill station, at 1,220 metres on a granite plateau in the Aravallis, and it exists largely because Gujarati and Rajasthani families need…

Pleasantly cool daytimes with refreshing mountain breezes.

Moderate crowds

Himachal Pradesh

Tirthan Valley

Tirthan Valley is a quiet, offbeat river valley on the edge of the Great Himalayan National Park (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) in Himachal Pradesh.

Pleasant warm days by the river.

Moderate crowds

Himachal Pradesh

Jibhi

Jibhi is a quiet wooden-cottage village in the Banjar (Tirthan) region of Himachal, increasingly loved by young travellers for its forested calm, waterfalls…

Pleasant warm forest days.

Busy

Jammu & Kashmir

Hazratbal Shrine (Srinagar)

The Hazratbal Shrine, set on the western shore of Srinagar's Dal Lake, is Kashmir's holiest Muslim shrine, revered for housing a relic believed to be a hair…

Open mountain pilgrimage season.

Busy

Uttarakhand

Devprayag (Panch Prayag)

Devprayag is the most sacred of the Panch Prayag — the five holy confluences of Uttarakhand — where the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi rivers merge to form the…

Open mountain pilgrimage season.

Busy

Himachal Pradesh

Kullu

Kullu is the valley Manali sits at the top of, and the town itself is an administrative centre with a bus stand rather than a resort.

Warm sun-drenched afternoons good for river activities.

Moderate crowds

Rajasthan

Ranthambore National Park

Ranthambore is one of the largest and best-known wildlife sanctuaries in northern India, with a thriving population of the endangered Royal Bengal tiger.

Intensely hot and dry desert waves with minimal foliage cover.

Busy

Sikkim

Tsomgo Lake & Nathula Pass

Tsomgo Lake, also written Changu Lake, is a high-altitude glacial lake at 3,753 metres in the rugged East Sikkim district, held in a steep oval valley just…

Cool refreshing daytimes with snow walls melting along the highway tracks.