Kasauli to Chandigarh 57 km by Road · 1.5-2 hours · Cab from ₹2,387

Leaving Chandigarh you go out through Zirakpur and pick up NH-5, a proper four-lane road past Panchkula and Pinjore to Kalka and then Parwanoo, where the plains stop and Himachal begins. The Timber Trail at Parwanoo, with its cable car, is the halt most people take before the climb, and it is the right place for it because there is nothing much after. From Parwanoo the highway twists up to Dharampur, where the Kalka-Shimla railway runs close to the road, and there you leave NH-5 for the short Kasauli branch through Garkhal. Those last twelve kilometres are narrow and bend after bend, pine on both sides and the ridge in view, so a driver who knows them takes the hairpins slowly. In the monsoon the Garkhal stretch sheds small stones onto the tarmac and mist sits on the ridge until late morning. In January a light snowfall can settle on the upper bends, and the shaded corners stay icy long after sunrise, which is why we never hurry a winter morning up here.