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Kullu Dussehra 2026 begins on Vijayadashami, Tuesday 20 October, the day Dussehra ends everywhere else, and runs for seven days to Monday 26 October on the Dhalpur ground in Kullu. On the first afternoon the chariot of Raghunath ji is pulled across the ground by hand, escorted by the palanquins of more than two hundred village deities who have walked in from every valley of the district; on the last day the procession goes to the bank of the Beas for the Lanka Dahan. Chandigarh to Kullu is about 270 km and six to seven hours via Bilaspur, Mandi and the Aut tunnel; Delhi is 500 km and eleven hours. A sedan from Chandigarh is ₹3,300 one-way, from Delhi ₹5,500.
Updated · Fares from the published rate card, Sedan ₹11/km to Tempo ₹23/km
Kullu’s Dussehra is unlike the festival anywhere else in the country: there is no Ravana effigy on the first day, the celebration begins when the others end, and the centre of it is not a stage but a field full of the gods of the valley, each carried in on a palanquin by its own village. It has been held on the Dhalpur maidan since the seventeenth century and is now an international folk festival in the evenings as well. It is also, for a car, one of the best-timed trips in the north: the monsoon is over, the apple harvest is in, and the Beas valley in late October is as clear as it gets.
The dates are verified against the 2026 calendar: Vijayadashami on 20 October, and the fair’s traditional seven days from it. Fares are from the published rate card, ₹11/km for a sedan, ₹15 for an Ertiga or SUV, ₹18 for an Innova Crysta and ₹23 for a 12-seater Tempo Traveller, tolls and Himachal entry extra, no festival surge.
20–26 October 2026
The first and last days are the processions. The five between are the fair: the deities in their tents, the market, and the folk programme on the stadium stage every evening.
20 Oct · afternoonRaghunath ji is brought from his temple at Sultanpur to the Dhalpur ground and installed on the wooden chariot, which the crowd pulls by rope across the maidan to its camp. The village deities arrive through the day and line the route; this is the hour to be there, and the ground is at its fullest.
21–25 OctThe deities stay in their camps on the ground, visited by their villages; the market fills the lower maidan; the international folk festival runs on the stadium stage each evening with troupes from across the state and abroad. Day trips to Manikaran, Kasol and Naggar fit these days; the valley roads are quiet by comparison.
26 Oct · afternoonOn the last day the chariot is pulled to the bank of the Beas, a pile of brushwood standing for Lanka is burned, and Raghunath ji returns to Sultanpur. The deities leave for their villages that evening and over the following days, on foot, up every side valley. The ground empties overnight.
27 Oct onwardsManali is an hour up the valley. Late October is the last clear window before the snow: Solang, the Atal Tunnel to Sissu and Old Manali, with the apple orchards at Naggar on the way. Most Dussehra trips end with two nights in Manali.
The road
NH-205 to Kiratpur, then the Kiratpur–Manali four-lane through Bilaspur and Sundernagar to Mandi, the Beas gorge and the Aut tunnel. Kilometre marks from Chandigarh.
From the city or the airport at Mohali. Leaving by six clears the Kharar stretch before it slows. Delhi travellers reach this point after four hours on NH-44.
The gurdwara town where the four-lane Kiratpur–Manali highway begins and the plains end. Breakfast at the highway plazas past the junction.
Halt: Breakfast
The new highway runs above the Gobind Sagar reservoir with long bridges and tunnels; the old road went through the town. The views over the lake are the first reward of the day.
Mandi is the halfway town, with its riverside temples and the last big market before Kullu. Fuel here; the road beyond is the gorge.
Halt: Fuel, tea
The road follows the Beas through the gorge past the Pandoh dam, with the tunnels of the new alignment cutting the worst of the old cliff road. Slow but spectacular; expect convoy halts if there is work.
The three-kilometre tunnel brings you out into the Kullu valley proper; Bhuntar and the airport are ten minutes on. The Parvati valley road to Kasol and Manikaran leaves at Bhuntar.
ArriveThe maidan is in the middle of the town on the left bank. During Dussehra the police keep cars to the bypass and the parking areas along the river road; the ground itself is on foot. The driver parks and waits.
Rate-card sedan fares at ₹11/km on a 300 km minimum, one-way. Manali and Bhuntar, under 100 km, are quoted on the 4 hr / 40 km local package. Tolls and Himachal entry at actual. Bhuntar, the valley’s airport, is ten kilometres from Kullu; Chandigarh is the airport with regular flights.
| From | Distance | Drive time | Road | Sedan, one-way |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chandigarh | 270 km | 6–7 hrs | NH-205, Kiratpur–Manali highway, Aut tunnel | ₹3,300 |
| Chandigarh airport (Mohali) | 275 km | 6–7 hrs | Same, from the airport | ₹3,300 |
| Delhi | 500 km | 11 hrs | NH-44 to Chandigarh, then as above | ₹5,500 |
| Shimla | 200 km | 6 hrs | via Mandi | ₹3,300 |
| Manali | 40 km | 1 hr | NH-3 down the valley | ₹2,200 local |
| Bhuntar airport | 10 km | 20 min | NH-3 | ₹2,200 local |
| Amritsar | 360 km | 8 hrs | via Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Mandi | ₹3,960 |
Ertiga ₹15/km, Innova Crysta ₹18/km, 12-seater Tempo Traveller ₹23/km. A three-day Chandigarh–Kullu–Chandigarh sedan round trip bills ₹9,900 (three days at the minimum); from Delhi, ₹11,000.
What it is
The story the valley tells is that in the seventeenth century Raja Jagat Singh, atoning for a wrong done to a Brahmin, had an image of Raghunath, Rama, brought from Ayodhya and installed as the true ruler of Kullu, with himself as regent. Dussehra in Kullu is Raghunath ji’s durbar: the gods of every village in the district are summoned to pay their respects, and they come, carried on palanquins by their villagers, some walking for days. The festival begins on Vijayadashami because that is the day Raghunath ji sets out from his temple to hold court on the maidan, and it lasts the seven days the court is in session.
There is no burning of Ravana. The Lanka Dahan on the last day is a small pile of brushwood by the river, and the point of the week is not the epic but the assembly: two hundred deities in their tents on one field, each with its drums and its priests, and the villages that brought them camping beside them.
Dhalpur · the maidanThe cab in Kullu
Kullu is a small town and the fair fills its centre, so from the 20th the police keep private vehicles to the bypass and the parking areas along the river road; the maidan is ten to fifteen minutes on foot from any of them. The driver parks and waits, and is available for the valley day trips on the middle days. Kullu’s own hotels are full for the week by early October; Bhuntar, ten kilometres down, and the Naggar and Manali side, forty kilometres up, have the rooms, and both are half an hour from the ground.
Many families stay in Manali for the week and drive down to Kullu for the first day, a middle evening and the last day, which is the version we suggest for families.
From Chandigarh
October is the best month of the year for it. The monsoon landslides are cleared, the Kiratpur–Manali four-lane is open through Bilaspur and Sundernagar, and the only slow section is the Beas gorge between Pandoh and Aut, where tunnelling on the new alignment still means convoy halts on some days. Six to seven hours is honest for a six o’clock start; leave at nine and it is eight.
It does not need breaking. From Delhi it does: eleven hours through Chandigarh in one push is possible with a four o’clock start, but a night at Chandigarh or Bilaspur and a fresh morning for the gorge is what we suggest for families, and it puts you on the Dhalpur ground for the rath yatra on the afternoon of the 20th if you leave Delhi on the 19th.
Pandoh · the gorgeThe middle days
The deities stay in their camps and the ground is busy but not pressed, so the middle days are for the valley. Manikaran and Kasol up the Parvati valley from Bhuntar make a day: the hot springs and the gurdwara at Manikaran, the river at Kasol. Naggar, halfway to Manali, has the castle and the Roerich gallery and the apple orchards in their last week. Bijli Mahadev, on the ridge above Kullu, is a short drive and a three-kilometre climb with the whole valley below. Each is a half day on the local package from Kullu.
Groups
A sedan is fine on the Chandigarh–Kullu road in October; for a family with luggage or anyone prone to car sickness in the gorge an Innova Crysta is more comfortable, at ₹18/km. Groups travel best in a Tempo Traveller, which at ₹23/km for twelve seats is cheaper per head than two cars and keeps everyone together for the valley day trips; the Delhi to Kullu tempo page quotes the group fares.
Fare box
Rate-card fares for the 270 km drive. The three-day figure is the trip built around the rath yatra: up on the 20th morning, the fair, and home on the 22nd, or the equivalent around the Lanka Dahan.
| Vehicle | Seats | Rate | One-way fare | Three-day trip |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sedan (Swift Dzire, Etios) | 4 | ₹11/km | ₹3,300 | ₹9,900 |
| Ertiga / SUV | 6 | ₹15/km | ₹4,500 | ₹13,500 |
| Innova Crysta | 6–7 | ₹18/km | ₹5,400 | ₹16,200 |
| Tempo Traveller (12-seater) | 12 | ₹23/km | ₹6,900 | ₹20,700 |
Tolls on the Kiratpur–Manali highway, Himachal entry and Kullu parking at actual. No festival surcharge. A week-long stay with valley day trips bills 300 km a day at the vehicle rate.
In pictures
Late OctoberApple harvest in, monsoon out.
Parvati valleyThe hot springs, a middle-day trip.
Parvati valleyUp the same road from Bhuntar.
Manali · 40 kmAfter the fair, from Manali.
StartThe start line, six hours away.
The rath yatra is the hour the whole week is built around. The deities arrive through the day and the chariot moves in the afternoon; the ground is full by then.
Kullu’s hotels go first. Bhuntar is ten minutes down; Naggar and Manali are forty minutes up and give you the after-fair days without moving.
The Kharar stretch and the Beas gorge both reward an early start. From Delhi, sleep at Chandigarh on the 19th.
Questions people ask
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