Auli & Garhwal
The Garhwal high country — Auli, Joshimath, the Valley of Flowers — for travellers who want meadows and serious mountains in one trip. What makes Auli & Garhwalworth a long conversation isn’t in any guidebook. It’s in the rhythm of who runs the lodges, which naturalist is in the field that month, and which lanes the festival actually unfolds in. We plan trips here the way locals plan a weekend — knowing what’s open, what’s in season, what’s worth skipping.
Things worth doing
- Nanda Devi from the Auli meadow at first light
- Kuari Pass walk in late September, three days, no crowds
- Valley of Flowers in early August (monsoon caveats apply)
- Badrinath route open mid-May to mid-October only
Who plans this · Himalayas
Shailesh on Auli & Garhwal.
The Himalayas are not one place. Spiti in October is not Spiti in June. We plan around weather windows, monastery festivals, and the families who'll have you for tea at 4,200m.
“Bandhavgarh is not a park. It's a place I keep going back to because the forest keeps changing the question.”
When to go
- Oct–Feb
- Cool air, prime sightings, parks at full life.
- Mar–Apr
- Leaner forest, easier sightings if you can take the heat.
- Jun–Sep
- Many parks closed for monsoon; cultural and Himalayan trips shine.
Pairs well with
Three places we often plan in the same trip.
West Bengal
Bishnupur
The terracotta temple town of the Malla kings. Brick the colour of dried blood, panels that read like a Mahabharata graphic novel.
Rajasthan
Bundi
A blue-painted hill town with a 14th-century palace nobody renovated, stepwells in residential lanes, and Kipling's old guesthouse still standing.
Gujarat
Champaner-Pavagadh
India's only pre-Mughal Islamic city left intact — UNESCO-listed, almost empty of tourists, with a living Kalika temple still drawing pilgrims to the hilltop above.