Spiti valley is a place that will transform you. With unmatched terrain, landscape, and crystal blue skies, it’s a place you should visit once in your lifetime.
The whole spiti valley experience truly leaves an impact on you. I’m already dreaming about visiting the Spiti Valley in winter.
This post will be your spiti valley travel guide.
The best time to visit Spiti Valley is March-July beginning in summers.
In this post, I will be sharing with you my own 7-Day itinerary for Spiti Valley from Delhi.
Table Of Contents
Your Spiti Valley Travel Guide : a 7-Day Itinerary
Day 1: Delhi – Shimla – Chitkul (last village of Spiti Valley)
The Day 1 of the spiti valley travel guide is going to be a jam-packed traveling day. Leave from Delhi and reach Shimla early in the morning via overnight journey.
Have a pitstop in Shimla, Kufri, or any nearby place for breakfast and lunch around noon.
I had lunch in Hotel Nau Nabh Heritage in Rampur, near Padam Palace.
The food was delicious and tasted even better because I was starving from the long hours of traveling. It was decently priced according to its beautiful location.
As you step outside the Hotel Nau Nabh Heritage, you will see the Padam Palace which looks like it’s straight out of a Harry Potter movie!
I would strongly recommend stopping by Hotel Nau Nabh Heritage, freshening up, having a satiating meal, clicking a few pictures, and then setting on to Chitkul.
Oh and don’t forget to charge your smartphones at the restaurant while you are enjoying your meal.
If you have lunch on time and leave for Chitkul around 2-3 PM, you should reach Chitkul around 8 PM.
Have dinner and relax at your Chitkul homestay.
Also Read: Spiti Valley: 15 IMPORTANT Things You Should Carry With You
Day 2: Chitkul – Tabo
Enjoy the clean air at Chitkul in the morning and explore the local area.
Chitkul is India’s last village and is at an altitude of 11,320 feet.
You can visit the Baspa river camp, a small trek down to the riverside.
You will pass through Sangla on your journey to Tabo. Have a small lunch on the way.
On the way, you will see the NH 22, popular for its dangerous structure. It’s right at the beginning of Kinnaur.
Nothing too heavy because it will take at least 4-5 hours to reach Tabo in the evening or by night around 8-9 PM.
This was the first night I spent in the homestay with a bit of leisure time on hand. After a warm dinner, everyone went up to the terrace.
You wouldn’t believe what I saw! Hell, even I can’t believe what I was seeing right in front of my eyes.
The entire milky way galaxy waws visible with my naked eyes. The longer the you looked at the sky, the more number of skies you’d see.
It was as if someone had sprinkled fairy dust all over the pitch dark sky.
Here are a few shots that I took on my smartphone using the pro mode- (follow me on @garimatravels to not miss the stars I captured through my camera Sony A7III)
Day 3: Tabo – Kaza
After having breakfast at your homestay in Tabo, you can visit the Tabo caves and Tabo monastery. They’re close by.
To visit the Tabo caves, you’ll have to do a small hike. Take baby steps so as to not tire yourself too quickly or be out of breath because of the altitude.
I went in July 2022 and the weather was pleasant. It was a little hot during the day and cold at night.
Didn’t need any jacket or warm clothing during the daytime.
There are many cafes and restaurants around the Tabo monastery where you can grab a quick bite or have lunch.
I went to a place called Tabo Coffee House and had peri-peri fries and peach iced tea. The owner was quite chill and you can rest, and read books while you munch at the Tabo Coffee House.
It will be a tad more expensive when compared to the usual rates of things. But that is understandable given the fact that they don’t have a huge staff working or a regular inflow of customers.
We (the group I was traveling with) were going to visit the Dhankar Monastery too on this day but unfortunately, there was a cloud burst near that area due to which we had to skip it.
We left for Kaza after lunch and faced some traffic jams due to the cloud burst near Dhankar Monastery.
Lucky for us, this jam was just beside the Spiti river. Everyone got off the traveler and went beside the Spiti river to enjoy the sunset, and take photos and videos. It was so beautiful! Here are a few pictures from the place-
We reached our Kaza homestay at night.
Day 4: Kaza – Chicham Bridge, Kee Monastery
The next 2.5 days were spent in Kaza.
In the morning, we left our homestay around 10-11 AM for visiting Asia’s highest bridge – Chicham bridge, and the famous Kee Monastery.
Chicham bridge gets crowded so I would suggest you that reach there a bit early.
The view and around the Chicham bridge are incredible! Make sure that all of your phones, cameras, and power banks are fully charged before you step out.
The bridge is at a height of 13596 ft and connects the two villages named Chicham and Kibber.
The 1000ft gorge below is known by the name of Samba Lamba Nallah. Thanks to the Chicham bridge, the distance from Kibber to Losar got reduced by 40 km.
Here’s a reel from Chicham bridge-
There was a super cute blue food truck at the bridge which served one of the best cheese sandwiches I had on my entire trip!
After this, we went ahead to Kee Monastery in a hurry because we had to have lunch there and hike to the top of the mountain just in time for sunset.
When we started the trek to the mountain top, the mountain that’s on the opposite side to the entry of Kee Monastery, it got quite windy.
Most photographers go on this trek to get the best view possible of the monastery.
I hiked about 50% of the way and decided to stop mid-way because the wind was too strong for me to keep walking on.
But nevertheless, I watched one of the best sunsets of my life from the spot where I sat down on the hike. The sun’s rays fell right in front of my face as it was setting.
The view was something I can’t put into words.
Kee Monastery trek is something you should definitely do in Spiti valley.
Day 5: Kaza – Kibber, Hikkim, Komic, Langza
The next morning our plan was to visit the Kibber village> Hikkim (For world’s highest post office and world’s highest restaurant)> Komic (World’s highest village sitauted at an altitude of 15500 ft.) and Langza for the majestic Buddha statue.
The post office at Hikkim was pretty crowded so I just bought the postcards, got them stamped and took them with me instead of posting them.
It saved a lot time!
Since everything was closeby, we were done with all these places by 4-5 PM.
This gave us time to visit another place – the Kaza Monastery. It is close to the Kaza market. So you can plan to visit the market if you’re too tired or visit the market after going to the top of the monastery.
The hike to the top is relatively easy. You will see a buddha statue at the top looking over the Kaza village. There are stairs all along the way, only at the top there’s a bit of rocky hiking to be done.
Even if you don’t go to the top, the monastery in itself is quite beautiful.
After returning from the Kaza Monastery, we went for a stroll in the Kaza market.
Bought a few souveneirs and had a delicious meal at the Himalayan Cafe.
The moon was shining bright, the wind was pleasantly cold. So we decided to walk to our homestay and end this long day with a peaceful walk and music playing on our bluetooth speakers.
I had cheese omlette and mango shake at the Himalayan cafe. I was almost full but when I reached the homestay and saw that there’s rajma chawal for dinner, I just had to stuff my stomach more!
The Kaza Homestay was undoubtedly, without a second thought, the best place I stayed at during the whole Spiti expedition.
Athough, the hosts were kind and sweet in every place I stayed at.
The Kaza Homestay felt like home, the food was always a treat to have after a long day of exploring the Spiti valley and the rooms were quite comfy & clean.
Day 6: Kaza – Kunzum pass, Chandrataal Lake
This was the day most of us on the trip were dreaming of from the day 1. I literally had it highlighted in the itinerary for Spiti valley.
We left early because we had to reach Chandratal by 2 PM at least to get enough time at the lake.
Entry closes at 5 PM and you’ve to get out by 6-7 PM.
We packed our suitcases and left at 8 AM. We decided to have breakfast on our way to save time.
On the way to Chandrataal we had a pit stop at Kunzum pass. It was out of this world! It joins Lahaul & Spiti valley.
There were wild horses around in the lush green meadows with snow-capped mountains.
Oh! And also, you will see two kinds of roads while going to Chandrataal lake.
One will be a scenic route with a nice well-made road in the middle and mountains on the sides and the other will be a bumpy off-road ride.
The distance from the Chandrataal camp area to the lake is around 5 km. Our traveler took us 3 km of the way and rest we had to trek, I mean we have to, traveler can take you any further.
A good backpack is a MUST. Here’s a list of things you should carry in your backpack when trekking to Chandrataal lake,
- Water bottle
- Sunscreen
- A few munchies
- Umbrella – It’ll be sunny has heck plus it will double up as a walking stick
- Warm jacket
- Woolen cap
- Gloves
- Warm muffler
Day 7: Chandrataal – Manali – Delhi
The distance of Spiti Valley from Manali is around 180 km. But from Chandrataal lake Manali its about a 100 km.
After a quick breakfast in the camps we left for Manali from where we had a bus scheduled to Delhi.
On the way I saw amazing views, views different from the ones I saw in Spiti.
These views had lush green mountains, waterfalls, and meadows!
There’ll come a place called Chattru. We took a 15 minute break there to take in the view and shoot a few photos.
