Delhi to Chitkul
by Car

600 km by road, and 16-17 hours behind the wheel. The drive time is longer than the distance suggests because the climb does not average what the highway averages.

NH-5 via Chandigarh, Shimla, Karcham & Sangla, end to end. 600 km and 16-17 hours. 4 towns of any size on the way. That is the route our drivers run rather than whatever a navigation app suggests on the day — the difference usually shows up at the city ends, where a shorter line on a map is not the faster road.

Chandigarh, Shimla, Karcham and Sangla — in that order from Delhi. The useful halfway mark is around 300 km. We have deliberately not put a kilometre figure against each of these: the records behind this page name the towns on the route but not their distance from the start, and a figure invented to fill the gap is worse than no figure. The driver will tell you where the stop falls.

May to October, when the high Baspa valley road is open; the village is often cut off by snow in the deep winter. That is about the destination and the season rather than the road being shut — where a route genuinely closes we say so on the page for that route. For the drive itself, a 6 AM departure is worth more than any choice of month: it clears Delhi before the build-up and gets you in before dark whatever the time of year.

Delhi to Chitkul drive of about 600 km to the last inhabited village of the Baspa valley near the Indo-Tibet border. Route on NH-5 via Chandigarh, Shimla and Narkanda, then up the Baspa valley through Sangla to Chitkul. Chitkul is known for its wooden houses, the Baspa river, potato fields and dramatic Himalayan setting. 600 km, 16-17 hours, and door to door at both ends. The case for the road over a train or a flight on a corridor like this is not speed — it is that you keep the car at the other end and stop where you like on the way.

The mountain work on this route is a different job from the highway part of it, and we treat it that way: a driver who knows this climb goes on this run. Lower gears on the descent rather than the brakes, a wider following distance than feels necessary, and a start early enough to finish the climb in daylight.

We would rather you did not, and we will say so. The hill section of this route is the part where visibility, unlit edges and oncoming traffic combine badly, and arriving three hours later in daylight is the better trade. If the journey has to run into the night, it runs with the night allowance for the driver and a start time chosen so the climb is behind you before dark. A driver asked to do 600 km on no sleep is the single worst risk on any booking, and we do not take it.

A flight is faster and we will not pretend otherwise over 600 km. What it does not give you is the car at the other end, the luggage you did not have to weigh, or any of what is on the way. It also does not solve the last part of the journey: the airport is not the destination here, and the road from it is the same road. Where the schedule is tight, people often fly one way and drive the other.