Manali travel review & recommendations by dare

Up in the northern regions of Himachal Pradesh, surrounded by snow tipped mountains is the town of Manali. What I found most interesting about Manali, and the other small towns in the Kullu Vally, was the mix of Indian and Tibetan cultures and peoples. There are prayer flags blowing in the wind on every bridge and shrines and temples all through the villages.

Manali is famous in India as a honeymoon destination and you can see many families out on the main mall celebrating a marriage while shopping for beautiful shawls. The shawls come in anything from polyester through various types of wool (lamb, yak, pashmina) and silks. There are a few fixed price stores which are also good for a purchase, or a price check as you like. Some of the smaller stores off the main mall are very good for more authentic Kullu patterned shawls. There appears to be a lot of Chinese knock-offs as well so definitely bargain for those!

Manali is also famous (maybe more with the Indian tourists?) as an adventure tourism hot-spot. Skiing is popular. There are hundreds of shops renting ski/warm clothing. Trekking is good and the mountains are beautiful. A few bungee outfits seem to have set up. I went paragliding, under my Uncles recommendation that he had watched this outfit jumping off a cliff near his house for a number of years and had never seen a crash. However, there have been a number of deaths related to paragliding and inexperienced outfits in Manali. The gear we jumped with was very old and faded. Maybe I wouldn't recommend it - but the view of the valley was phenomenal! Go with caution.

The Khyber restaurant has good Indian food. It is just above the roundabout on the Mall. The Tibetan food in the area is also fantastic. See if you can convince them that Chow Mein is a Chinese dish though! Mo Mos are essentially a fried or steamed dumpling and they are delicious.

But without a doubt Manali is a beautiful place to chill out and relax.