Leh & Ladakh Travel Guide

All roads and passes open, 15–30°C by day, cold at night. July and August are busiest and also when the Manali route is most reliable. The only window in which a standard Ladakh itinerary works.

Fewer people, sharper light, and lower rates. Road access depends entirely on snow clearance dates, which shift year to year. Build flexibility into your plans.

Leh is reachable by air but temperatures drop to −20°C and below. Most high roads, Pangong access and Nubra are closed or unreliable. The Chadar trek runs in January and February. Beautiful and genuinely demanding.

By air

Kushok Bakula Rimpochee (IXL) at Leh, with direct flights from Delhi and seasonal service from Mumbai and Srinagar. Flying takes you from sea level to 3,500m in 90 minutes, which is exactly why the first two days must be rest days. Morning flights only — afternoon winds close the airport.

By road from Manali

About 470km over two days with a night at Jispa, Sarchu or Pang, crossing Baralacha La and Tanglang La. Open roughly June to September. Hard, spectacular, and it acclimatises you far better than flying does.

By road from Srinagar

About 420km over two days via Kargil, crossing Zoji La. Usually opens earlier than the Manali route — often May — and is the gentler ascent of the two. The best option if you want to arrive overland without a brutal first day.

Getting around

Hired taxis operate under a fixed union rate card — there's no negotiating and no app cabs. Motorcycle rentals are widely available but note that non-Ladakhi-registered private bikes are restricted, so rent locally. Public buses connect Leh to major villages cheaply but infrequently.

Leh main bazaar & Changspa

Changspa Lane is the traveller strip — guesthouses, cafes, agencies, and a walk to Shanti Stupa. Convenient and where you'll spend your acclimatisation days. Book a room with reliable hot water and, in shoulder season, a heater.

Old Town Leh

Below the palace, mudbrick lanes under restoration by the Tibet Heritage Fund. A handful of restored heritage guesthouses. Atmospheric, steep, and much quieter than Changspa.

Sabu & Shey

Villages 8–15km out along the Indus, with homestays among barley fields and poplars. Slightly lower, greener and calmer. Right for a longer stay if you have a vehicle.

Nubra — Hunder & Turtuk

Hunder has the dunes and the camel rides and the camps. Turtuk, further on, is a Balti village only opened to visitors in 2010, and considerably more interesting. Two nights lets you do both.

Pangong — Spangmik & Man

Basic camps and homestays on the lake shore at 4,350m. Cold, minimal facilities, unreliable power — and waking up next to that lake is the reason people come to Ladakh. Sleep here only after you're well acclimatised.

Thukpa and thenthuk

Tibetan noodle soups — thukpa with cut noodles, thenthuk with hand-torn ones. The correct thing to eat at altitude: hot, salty, hydrating and easy on a stomach that isn't behaving. ₹150–250.

Momos

Steamed or fried dumplings, mutton or vegetable, with a fiery tomato chutney. Ubiquitous and usually good. The fried ones are heavier than you want on your first two days.

Skyu and chutagi

Actual Ladakhi home food rather than Tibetan restaurant food — thick wheat-pasta stews with root vegetables, built for cold and calories. Hard to find commercially; homestays are where you'll eat it.

Butter tea and gur gur cha

Churned tea with salt and yak butter. Most visitors dislike it on first contact. It also does genuinely help with cold and dehydration at altitude, so try it more than once.

Apricots and seabuckthorn

Ladakhi apricots are excellent fresh in July and August and sold dried year-round. Seabuckthorn juice is tart, local, and heavily marketed for its vitamin C. Both are better souvenirs than a pashmina of uncertain provenance.

Khambir with apricot jam

A dense local sourdough-style bread, baked in the old town, eaten at breakfast with butter and apricot jam. Look for it early in the bazaar before it sells out.

Fly in, check in, lie down. Drink water constantly, skip alcohol entirely, eat light. A short flat walk in the late afternoon at most. This day feels wasted and is the reason the rest of the trip works.

Still acclimatising. Leh Palace, the old town lanes, the bazaar, Shanti Stupa in the evening — all on foot, all at a deliberately slow pace. If you have a headache or nausea, do less, not more.

Your first proper day out, and deliberately at low altitude. Thiksey at 6:30am for prayers, then Shey, Hemis and Stakna. Back in Leh by evening. Sort permits today if your agent hasn't.

Lamayuru's moonland, Alchi's murals, Basgo, Magnetic Hill and the Indus–Zanskar confluence. Long day in a vehicle but no significant altitude gain, which is what you want before the passes.

Over Khardung La to Diskit and Hunder. Don't linger at the top of the pass — 20 minutes maximum at 5,359m. Night at Hunder, and push on to Turtuk the next morning if you can spare it.

Via Shyok if the road is open, or back through Leh and over Chang La. Night at Spangmik on the lake shore. Sunrise on Pangong is the single best hour in Ladakh. Return to Leh on day 8.

Keep one full spare day before your flight. Ladakh roads close for weather and landslides with no notice, and Leh's airport shuts in afternoon wind. People miss international connections here every season.