Shimla to Manali via Kinnaur and Spiti

The long way from Shimla to Manali climbs the Sutlej gorge through Kinnaur, crosses into Spiti and comes out over Kunzum La at 4,551 m. Shimla to Kaza is about 420 km and Kaza to Manali about 200 km, so the spine of the drive runs near 620 km, closer to 720 once you have added the Sangla and Chandratal detours. Give it eight to eleven days, because covering ground is not the point. Drive it in this direction rather than the reverse. You gain height over four or five days, from Shimla's deodar to the bare brown ridges above Kaza, and your lungs will notice the difference. Kaza gets over-booked by people who have read about Spiti and not about Kaza. It is a working little town — one fuel pump and a row of guesthouses — and what you came for is on the roads out of it. Two nights covers Key, Kibber, Langza and Komic without hurrying, three if you also want a day at Chandratal; on a fourth you will be sitting in a cafe. Nor does anyone warn you that the drop from Batal towards Chhatru is less a road than a riverbed with tyre tracks across it, and it will eat most of a morning. Kinnaur closes for landslides and Kunzum closes for snow, and neither will consult your itinerary. Come with a spare day in hand and nothing booked at the far end.

Kinnaur and Spiti were never remote to the people who lived there. They sat in the middle of a trade route, where wool, salt and pashmina moved between western Tibet and the Indian plains, which is why you find a thousand-year-old Buddhist monastery in a mud-brick village of a few hundred people. Tabo was founded in 996 CE by the translator Rinchen Zangpo on behalf of Yeshe-O of Guge, and it has been in use ever since — though not untouched. The 1975 Kinnaur earthquake damaged the original complex severely, and what you walk through today is a repaired building rather than an undisturbed one. The road is younger and more political. Lord Dalhousie ordered the Hindustan-Tibet Road in June 1850, with Charles Napier's people mapping the line, pushing a cart track up the Sutlej towards the frontier to get at the Tibetan wool and salt trade rather than to give anyone a scenic drive. The 1962 war closed that frontier. Kinnaur and Spiti stayed shut to foreign visitors until 1992, recent enough that tourism here is barely one generation old — and it shows both ways, in villages not yet rebuilt for visitors, and in a road that was never laid for the traffic July now brings.

Kinner Kailash from Kalpa at first light, the mud-walled 996 CE monastery at Tabo, Key gompa stacked up its ridge, and Chandratal, reached on foot from the roadhead at roughly 4,270 m.

Tarmac as far as Kalpa, then a mix of good surface and shelf road cut into loose rock through Kinnaur, where landslides and falling stone shut the highway after heavy rain. Beyond Kaza the surface disappears altogether in places, and the Kunzum-Batal-Chhatru section has unbridged nallah crossings that rise through the afternoon as the snow melts.

Take the water crossings between Batal and Chhatru in the morning, before the meltwater peaks. Fill up at Reckong Peo and again at Kaza, where IndianOil bills its pump as the world's highest at 3,740 m; after that there is no fuel until you are down at Manali. Give way to uphill traffic on single-lane shelf sections, and never overtake into a blind corner cut through rock. Sleep two nights below 3,500 m before you sleep at Kaza.

Sequence it Shimla to Sarahan or Sangla, then Kalpa, Nako, Tabo, Kaza, Chandratal and out to Manali, with two nights around Kalpa and two at Kaza. That gives you the altitude curve you want and a spare day for weather. Mid-June to early October is the realistic window for the whole circuit, and the two halves open at different times. The Shimla side is generally passable from May. Kunzum La is normally cleared from both sides in the second half of May — in 2026 it was open to 4x4 vehicles by mid-May — and the Batal diversion up to Chandratal follows one to two weeks behind the pass, so an early-June attempt can reach Kaza and get no further west than Losar. September is the pick, with the monsoon off the Kinnaur side and none of the July traffic. Indian nationals need no permit anywhere on this route. You will still be stopped at the police checkposts at Jangi and Sumdo, where your ID and the vehicle's registration certificate are logged, so keep both within reach. Foreign passport holders need a Protected Area Permit: that is the name the Kinnaur district administration's own tourist guidance uses, while blogs and some counters say 'inner line permit', so it is worth carrying both words into the office. On paper it is issued to a group of two or more sponsored by a recognised agency and runs 30 days; in practice the offices at Reckong Peo, Pooh and Kaza have issued to solo travellers, while Shimla holds to the group rule. Roads towards Shipki La and Kaurik are closed to foreigners outright. There is a separate vehicle e-pass for Lahaul and Spiti district, applied for online at eaagman.hp.gov.in, covering the Atal Tunnel–Koksar–Chandratal circuit. Generate it while you still have a signal. At Gramphu, coming off the Chhatru road, turn for the Atal Tunnel rather than climbing over Rohtang — the tunnel route needs no Rohtang permit and treats a low car better. Carry cash. Kaza has ATMs, but they run out, particularly over a weekend. And none of the above is stable: this route's permit and pass rules have changed repeatedly, so check them yourself before you leave rather than trusting a page, including this one.