Recommended places - Old Manali / Manali (HP)

Old Manali is packed with hotels and guesthouses of all price ranges from 30 - 500Rs, the decision is more about the location. If you want to stay in the party zone, it is to be found in the 3 and 4 storey hotels up from the Shiva Garden Cafe and centred around the nice looking Dragon guest house "complex". One or two of the older and quieter places such as Himalaya cottage are out next to the Manalsu river on the path past Rock Top Villas, and there are one or two more older places past the right turn to the Manu Temple at the end of the main road up the hill. Inside the village, below the temple a few smaller places are spread out among the houses away from the road.

The quieter end of town is found by turning right after crossing Old Manali Bridge, and following the path round the side of the Clubhouse. Above the clubhouse and ideal for a small group planning a stay of a month or more would be the spectacular Cairn Lodge, an unusual 'flat' with 3 wood panelled bedrooms, a kitchen and a living room with open fireplace. The owner, Mohan, can be contacted through the HPMC wine shop next to the bridge.

Continuing further along the cliff top path (in the direction of the main river) you come to Manali's finest budget accommodation; Apple View guest house; a small, friendly place set at the edge of the apple orchards and run by the helpful (and occasionally idiosyncratic!) Rabet-Ram and his family. Shared bathrooms only (very clean) and a bargain at 125Rs for a double.

In general theft in Manali is not too much problem, but there are places to avoid; the infamous Shiva Ashram (a guesthouse not an ashram), found by following the path next to the clubhouse and the cheapest place in town - with the worst reputation for theft from rooms in Manali, and is a constant target of the police. Rising Moon Guest house next to the clubhouse gate has also had its share of "unexplained" thefts the extremely oily owner was mysteriously unwilling to report to the police.

In the main town the prices begin to drop immediately after the Indian tourist season ends in late June, and many trekkers prefer the central location, TVs and attached bathrooms often not offered in Old Manali, although rooms can be a bit souless and often noisy. Some of the hotels "behind" the town towards the Hadimba Temple road also offer big off season discounts and better facilities, are quieter and only a short walk from the market.

Vashist, on the other side of the Beas and a 50 Rs rickshaw ride from the bus stand, is also a popular area with backpackers, although the narrow main street is walled in with tall hotels and restaurants and tends to feel a little claustrophobic, especially at the height of the season.

If you are sick of dal/subzi/rice, an advantage of Manali's haphazard development is that there is a large choice of food from the numerous restaurants, many owned and run by Tibetans or Nepalis who learned their skills in Goa, Pokhara or Dharamsala. Due to the many Israeli travellers, there are plenty of places selling mediterranean food alongside Tibetan specialties, Italian dishes of varying interpretation, the ubiquitous "continental". Ironically, Indian food is now something of a rarity in Old Manali, and there is certainly no restaurant selling exclusively Indian food. The meat in Manali market, mostly chicken or Mutton, tends to be good as local people are big meat eaters and the animals are less scrawny and better kept than in much of India. Most restaurants have a good turnover and buy meat daily in the season.

Old Manali is chock full of restaurants of wildly varying quality, but here is a pick of our favourites :

At the top of the road to the village, just past the Manu temple turning is the Manu Cafe, probably Old Manali's oldest cafe. They have a nice patio as well as a small indoor area and sell good basic food at cheap prices. Further down, Little Tibet is on the steep part of the hill up to Old Manali does fine pasta and italian dishes including an excellent Carbonara, although they are little pricey. Next door is the Shiva Garden cafe, which sells good - and cheaper - food, and has the advantage of an excellent view from the balcony of the traditional wood and stone building. Down the hill 20 metres or so is Yangkhor who sell good quality specialty Tibetan food such as momo and thupka. Breakfast is good too, but most of their "continental" leaves something to be desired. Opposite is Cafe Manalsu, a spacious and very atmospheric place with stripped pine tables and a view onto the Manalsu river. Its run by Rajiv, who makes the place worth visiting as much as the food, and plans to have a full scale pizza oven for 2004. At the bottom of the hill next to the barbers is a small wooden chai shop; the Gaddi tea stall, who does the best tea by far in the village, and sells simple food such as momos. Its a good place to sit and chill with a river view out back and a steady influx of locals. On the left side of the road down to the clubhouse (turn right from the bridge) is the family run Tibetan Kitchen, one of Old Manali's few truly indoor restaurants, wood panelled and with an excellent menu of Tibetan food - try the Crispy chicken honey sauce. They probably also do Old Manali's best Chicken schnitzel. Il Forno, on the Hadimba Temple road past the Shingar Regency Hotel, is run by an Italian woman and does the best Pizza east of Beirut, top notch pasta dishes and wonderful Italian coffee, plus excellent italian desserts such as Tiramisu during the season. Prices are expensive at around 130 Rs for a pizza, 140 Rs for a pasta dish, but on a par with Old Manali, and the food is of far better quality.

New Manali's more upscale restaurants are primarily aimed at Indian tourists, and signboards proclaim cuisine from every corner of India including Punjabi, Gujarati and South Indian. There are also a huge number of simple Dhabas and sweetshops offering thalis and specialty sweets.

Our picks are; Mayur restaurant, in a small turning to the right opposite Manu Market, is one of Manali's oldest restaurants, and has a decor that resembles a provincial UK Indian restaurant circa 1980, and serves some of Manali's best Indian food at prices that are very reasonable when compared to Old Manali, as well as good western style dishes - their apple pie is especially recommended. Khyber is a beautifully decorated, wood panelled place next to the roundabout near Ram Bagh, is one of the most expensive places in town, but the Indian food is superb and the huge windows are a good spot to do a couple of hours India watching over a beer or six. Opposite and a little down from the bus stand is Chopsticks, whose menu of chinese dishes is usually good quality and comes in extremely big portions. Pork is very unusual in North India, and Chopsticks is usually very tender and extremely tasty, especially recommended being the Roast Pork Chilli. The numerous German Bakeries in Manali seem to specialise in rather stale bread, so if you want good fresh bread or cakes try Superbake in Manu Market or "Shop 10" (ask for shop 10 and ANYONE will point you in the right direction) down the first narrow lane after the HP tourism office. Manali Sweets, down the small lane opposite the bus stand, is locally acknowledged as the best Indian sweet shop in town, we especially like it for their addictive Gulab Jamun and Rasmalai, although their chai is crap. The best Chai in town is to be found in a small chai shop at the heart of Manu market, on a narrow 'crossroads' found by following the street straight up from Superbake, past the row of barbers shops into the smaller alley. Manali's finest tandoori chicken is to be found in Manu Market (left side of the main street in town), where the almost legendary Mr Singh, a huge Sikh, has a near constant queue of people during May and June outside his tiny and rather grubby shop. The profits of the shop have put his 4 daughters through a good education including university.

traveller scene, village life, Hadimba temple, Club House, picnics in orchards, starting point for treks, local festivals, day hikes, excursions to neighbouring villages

Bus - There is a massive array of private bus operators running "Luxury" buses to Manali from various places, but HP tourism offers a more reliable and comfortable service with only one pick up point in Delhi (as opposed to spending 2 hours collecting passengers with the privates) if you are prepared to spend 100 Rs or so more (for Delhi). Delhi appr. 14 - 16 hours; 524 Rs with the HP Tourism bus; Dharamsala (approx 12 hours), Chandigarh (approx 10-12 hours), Shimla (approx 12 hours), Kasol (approx 4 hours), Leh (approx 36 hours). For those who like their comforts, HRTC (Himachal Pradesh Road Transport Corporation) have now introduced Super Deluxe aircon buses with onboard toilets and refreshments (and hopefully more legroom) to Manali from Delhi. The cost is around 850 Rs (May 04). There are also plenty of normal "local" Indian buses covering the same routes, usually taking longer but costing far less. There are no private buses to Kaza (approx 12 hours) from Manali, but HRTC runs 2 daily services.

Taxi - A taxi from Delhi will cost you around 4,500 - 7,000 Rs depending on your bargaining skills and the size of the vehicle. It has very little advantage unless you have a mass of luggage, except that you can obviously stop as you like to admire the scenery. Most drivers want to do the trip at night, and you'll probably have to argue a bit to get them to leave early morning so you can watch India go by.

Plane - Jagson airlines fly Delhi to Kullu (Bhuntar airport). The flight is expensive but offers spectacular views. It does have the disadvantage of very restricted luggage allowances.