Manali–Leh Highway

One of the world's great high-altitude drives, the Manali–Leh Highway climbs from the green Kullu valley over a series of 4,000–5,300 m passes to the desert mountains of Ladakh. Across roughly 475 km it crosses Baralacha La, Nakee La, Lachulung La and Tanglang La, past the vast More Plains and the twisting Gata Loops. The road is open only for a few summer months and demands time to acclimatise — but the scenery of glaciers, high pastures and moonscape ridges is unmatched.

This is a supply line first. The road exists to move the army into Ladakh, and the Border Roads Organisation opens it each spring and abandons it each autumn as a military necessity rather than a tourism service. That is why the halt at Sarchu is a transit camp instead of a village, why the food along it is canteen-plain, and why the convoy you are stuck behind near Pang has a better claim to the road than your holiday does. For most of the road's life the first obstacle was Rohtang La, a pass notorious for closures, mud and hours of standing traffic. The Atal Tunnel changed the shape of the whole journey — 9.02 km long, opened in October 2020, with its portals at just over 3,000 m. It cuts about 46 km off the Manali–Leh run and puts the Lahaul valley within a morning of Manali all year round. The old Rohtang road is still there and still worth driving in clear weather, but the tunnel is what makes a comfortable three-day schedule possible. The other landmark on the route is a sign. The fuel pump at Tandi carries a board announcing that the next filling station is 365 km away, and it is not a joke — the run from Tandi to Karu, near Leh, is the longest stretch of Indian highway without a pump.

Atal Tunnel, Baralacha La and Suraj Tal, the Gata Loops, the More Plains, Tanglang La, and the first view of the Indus valley.

A mix of smooth tarmac and rough, broken patches, with occasional water crossings and landslide-prone sections. Long stretches have no fuel, phone signal or habitation, and the high passes can hold snow into June.

Break the climb with a night at Jispa or Sarchu to acclimatise, and start early each day to cross the passes before the afternoon winds. Fill up at Tandi — the last fuel for about 365 km until Leh — and carry cash, warm layers and water. Watch everyone for signs of altitude sickness (AMS).

Three days, halting at Jispa and then somewhere beyond Sarchu. The Manali–Jispa leg is deliberately short: you are buying altitude slowly. Jispa sits around 3,200 m against Sarchu's 4,290 m, and sleeping that thousand metres lower is the difference between a good second day and a headache that will not lift. Day two crosses Baralacha La at 4,890 m past Suraj Tal, then the twenty-one hairpins of the Gata Loops and up over Nakee La and Lachulung La. Day three is the More Plains — flat and high and hypnotic enough that people genuinely fall asleep at the wheel — then Tanglang La at about 5,330 m and the long drop to the Indus. Fill at Tandi without exception. Carry twenty litres in a can if you are on a bike with a small tank, and carry cash, because there is nowhere to use a card. On the road surface: about half is reasonable tarmac and the rest is broken, gravelled or under water. The nallahs — glacier-fed streams that run straight across the road, mostly between Zing Zing Bar and Pang — are low in the morning and high after about two in the afternoon. Cross them early, start each day at first light, and be off the passes before the wind gets up. Do not attempt this in a low-clearance hatchback.