How to make a trip to Spiti Valley in 6 days?

Ever since Spiti Valley has emerged as a popular place, the need for making a trip to this middle land in a short number of days has become apparent. Almost every day I am asked for some plans about making a trip to Spiti Valley in 6 days or even 5 days in hand. It is not a mistake of someone who does not know anything about high altitude travel or how far this beautiful cold desert resides in Himachal.

All thanks to the 1000s of beautiful, barren, and breathtaking landscape pictures spread over Social media that lures them in making such optimistic plans. However, it does not work like that when it comes to travel to high altitude places like Spiti Valley or Ladakh.

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Common Itinerary – Spiti Valley in 6 Days

When you travel to places like Spiti Valley or Ladakh in the Himalayas, you have to consider many other aspects. It includes considering acclimatization, present road conditions, how are you traveling, who are you traveling with, any present medical conditions, what are your expectations of stays, etc. and the list goes on. One must consider that in remote places of Himalayas, things aren’t as readily available how they are in our cities.

Keeping some of these things in mind, I will try to share an itinerary or a travel plan for making a trip to Spiti Valley in 6 days in this article. It will help those tourists who are in a hurry and interested in either ticking off Spiti Valley from their travel bucket list or interested in witnessing a glimpse of its majestic landscapes.

Why travel to Spiti from Manali?

You must note one thing that it takes at least three days to reach Spiti Valley from Kinnaur side and at least two days from Manali side. Hence, if you have 5-6 days in hand, then traveling from Kinnaur side is out of the question. Hence, the only option is to travel to Spiti Valley in 6 days from Manali side only.

It also means that you can only travel when Manali to Kaza road is open, which usually opens up by mid of June and remains open up to October. You can travel on Manali – Kaza road up to mid of October, after which it becomes quite cold, windy, and risky to drive or ride on it.

Please also note that while traveling from Manali side, you have to take risk of AMS issues as altitude increases abruptly and also have to take permit to cross Rohtang Pass 😉 …

I have covered these topics in detail in the articles 5 Reasons to Travel Spiti Valley from Manali Route and 5 Reasons to Travel Spiti Valley from Shimla – Kinnaur Route.

Day by Day Plan – Spiti Trip in 6 Days

The below-mentioned plan does not cover everything in Spiti Valley but touches important places so that you can make the best use of limited time. In case you only have five days in hand, you should better off restrict your trip to Chandratal only (refer Chandratal Lake – Most Common Itinerary).

Here goes the plan for a trip to Spiti Valley in 6 days:

Day 1 | Delhi – Manali/Solang Valley

• Better stay at Solang Valley and avoid Manali as sleeping at Solang Valley does help in acclimatization
• If going by own car, get the permit made in advance to drive on Manali – Rohtang Pass road through by checking: How to get Rohtang Pass Permits Online
• Overnight at Manali/Solang Valley
• About 13-14 Hrs drive, depending upon the breaks you take in between

Day 2 | Manali / Solang Valley – Rohtang Pass – Kunzum Pass – Kaza

• Head early morning to Kaza via Rohtang Pass, headquarters of Spiti Valley
• Visit Kunzum Pass and enjoy the moment there
• Drive through Batal – Chattru – Gramphu is out of the world
• There may be some headache or AMS this night, but enjoy this magical drive over Kunzum Pass to enter the middle land called Spiti Valley. You will enjoy the drive to Kaza greatly.
• About 10 – 11 Hrs drive easily if you do not get messed up Rohtang Pass or stuck in water crossing
• Overnight at Kaza

Day 3 | Kaza – Dhankar – Tabo – Kaza

• Explore Tabo an around, check out monastery and old caves of monks
• Travel back the 47 KMs to Kaza from Tabo via Dhangkar villages
• Visit Dhangkar Monastery and leave after early lunch
• Enjoy the magnificent vistas all day and come back to Kaza for night sleep
• About 4 – 5 Hrs of drive in the day
• Overnight at Kaza

OR

Day 3 | Kaza – Langza – Komik – Hikkim – Kaza

• Today visit the road less traveled or offbeat places near Kaza
• Great view of Chau Chau Kang Nelda peak from Langza
• Statue of the Buddha near Langza looking down the valley
• The Tanggyud monastery at Komik is one of the most important and the highest monastery in the Spiti Valley
• Overnight at Kaza

Day 4 | Kaza – Ki – Kibber – Rangrik – Kunzum Pass – Chandratal Lake

• Visit Ki – Kibber villages in the first half and for more details, you can read: Key – Kibber – Gette – Tashigang – Local Sightseeing in Kaza.
• Ki is a famous monastery, and others are places to explore as a lovely drive.
• Enjoy the most scenic drive of the entire Spiti Valley between Losar and Kaza at an easy pace.
• Visit Chandratal via Kunzum Pass and enjoy the evening there.
• Camps are about 2 KMs from the lake, either stay there or back to Batal where there is a PWD rest house now though without electricity. But, no point going back a painful ride to Losar over Kunzum Pass unless you want to stay in the guest house with electricity. Better stay at Batal and save time as well as energy for the next day.
• About 5 – 5.5 Hrs of drive in the day
• Overnight at Chandratal

Day 5 | Chandratal – Batal – Gramphu – Rohtang Pass – Manali

• Drive through Batal – Chattru – Gramphu towards Rohtang Pass is out of the world
• Head back to Manali via Rohtang Pass
• About 6 – 7 Hrs drive easily if you do not get messed up Rohtang Pass
• If there is time explore Manali, that is if going by overnight Volvo which starts around 5.30 PM
• Manali Local sightseeing which includes Hadimba Temple, Manu Temple, Mall Road, Local Monastery, Old Manali, Vashisth Hot Water Springs (never found it interesting), etc.
• Overnight at Manali

Day 6 | Manali – Mandi – Jahu – Bhota – Una – Delhi

• If not taking Volvo and driving self to Delhi, you can try a different route
• Take a longer but different route to Delhi from Jahu – Bhota – Una side
• The route is pretty scenic, much better roads and offers good views
• About 14 Hrs, as it is about 55 KMs longer route but devoid of bad roads and truck traffic
• Sweet home

Day 7-8 | Buffer days to be kept in case of road closure due to landslides or snowfall or perhaps you want to enjoy more 🙂

Can I make a trip to Spiti Valley in 6 days?

As you can see in this article, if you travel to Spiti from Manali side in 6 days, you will be able to make a successful trip to Spiti Valley in 6 days. Anything less than 6 days for a trip to this remote part of Himachal Pradesh is not ideal in my honest opinion.

Can I make a trip to Spiti Valley in 5 days?

The short answer is, “Yes, but it will be a hectic trip.” If you have five days in hand and want to plan a trip to Spiti Valley in 5 days, I will recommend that you think twice before planning such a hectic trip and rather focus on the Chandratal trip rather than Spiti trip in 5 days. Still, you want to travel and undertake this road trip then you can follow the below plan:

• Day 1: Reach Manali and stay overnight at Solang Valley as preferred for acclimatization
• Day 2: Manali / Solang – Kaza
• Day 3: Kaza – Hikkim – Komik – Langza – Ki – Kibber / Kaza
• Day 4: Kibber / Kaza – Chandratal – Manali
• Day 5: Manali – Delhi

Hence, you can see that you can make a trip to Spiti Valley in 5 days. It is just that it will be a bit hectic. Or you can follow the itinerary for Spiti Valley n 6 days mentioned in this article and on Day 5 start early from Chandratal to reach Manali and get an overnight HPTDC Volvo back to Delhi on Day 6 early morning.

Conclusion

I hope this plan or itinerary for a trip to Spiti Valley in 6 days will be useful for travelers planning their short journey to this place. Feel free to share it with your family & friends who are looking out for a short trip to Spiti Valley in this coming season.

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If you know your friends or family are planning a trip to Spiti in 6 days, do share this article with them to help them make a memorable Spiti Valley trip.