Key Monastery

Spiti Valley (Kaza)

Spiti is the emptiest place in India that you can still drive to, and the reason to come is the scale of the nothing. This is high-altitude cold desert at 3,800 metres and above — bare rock, no trees, the river a thin green line at the bottom of it. Key monastery above Kaza is the one everyone photographs and deserves to be. Dhankar, built onto a spur of crumbling cliff, is the one that stays with you. Tabo has thousand-year-old wall paintings in a mud-brick complex that looks like nothing from outside. Kibber and Langza are the villages people go to for the fossils and the height; Komic claims to be among the highest with a motorable road. Go for the walking between them rather than to tick them off. Access decides your trip. The Manali side over Kunzum La is open roughly June to October. The Shimla side through Kinnaur is open most of the year and is the safer bet, but it is a long two-day drive. Doing it Shimla-in, Manali-out gives you gradual altitude gain, which is the right way round. Nights are cold in every month. There is no reliable mobile signal and cash machines are unreliable — bring notes.