Shimla
The Raj's summer capital, reached on a UNESCO-listed narrow-gauge line through 102 tunnels, with deodar ridge walks starting behind the Mall. What makes Shimlaworth 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
- The Kalka-Shimla toy train — 102 tunnels, five hours, UNESCO-listed
- The Viceregal Lodge, where Partition-era talks were held
- Mashobra, Naldehra and Chail for forest without the Mall crowd
- Jakhoo hill at dawn — watch your glasses around the macaques
- March to June and September to November; snow in January
Who plans this · Himalayas
Shailesh on Shimla.
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.
Uttarakhand
Auli & Garhwal
The Garhwal high country — Auli, Joshimath, the Valley of Flowers — for travellers who want meadows and serious mountains in one 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.