Hola Travelers! Everyone can relate to the feeling when we are too young to go for a trip and could never really get permission for an unofficial one, so we looked for every opportunity possible to get just one trip which is not with the family because let’s face it Trip with Friends is more fun than Family Trip.
Our college is in awe of Manali somehow. I never understood the reason except “Manali would be safer than Goa”. Every year every batch has to go to Manali has somehow become a ritual of our College. But I could go anywhere had it been a Trip with Friends. I wanted to have a different experience this time and I was fed up with all the stories and experiences everyone used to share.
So the day came when we hit the road heading towards Manali. It was 5 Days and 4 Nights Trip which involved visiting places:
Manali Mall Road
Gulaba, Old Manali
Jogni Falls, Hadimba Temple, Van Vihar, Club House
Manikaran and a bit of Kasol
The experience you gain when you travel yourself is far more different than what we experience with our Parents. Trip with Parents is much more comforting because they handle everything and you don’t have to worry about much but when you travel alone or with your friends it is much more adventurous. And when it is the first time it is the most exciting thing in the world.
Now going into the details of the places I went to. I am not a professional but a profound traveler so whatever I say here are all my personal experiences that may be a help for anyone planning to go to Manali.
Before everything else just some things to know about Manali:
Best time to visit Manali- October to February
Carry winter clothes as it gets very cold at night no matter the season.
Look for a hotel near mall road as it is the center of connectivity to rest of the places.
Enjoy your best.
So starting with my Favorite Place of the entire trip:
Gulaba, Manali, Himachal Pradesh
Trust me when I say this, Gulaba is one of the best places to visit if you love Hills and Snow because the view is so overwhelming and if you love treks. Also, it is the best place for photo shoots. During my entire trip to Manali, we have the highest number of pictures from this place itself. You don’t get much to eat here but sitting on a giant snow hill and eating Maggie is pure bliss!
Old Manali, Himachal Pradesh
Moving on to the second best place of Manali, according to me would be Old Manali. As we were staying up at New Manali going to Old Manali was a trek and trip in itself. We explored Old Manali to its depths and there are end number of lounges, cafes and also live music bars etc. As we went on an off-season there was not much of a crowd so it was easy to hang around.
Old Manali is like a big never-ending lane with shops on each side of them and the trek is really tiring but worth the effort. After exploring all of it we went to the café which we started the trek from- Café 1947, it is one heck of a beautiful café and it was the only café that had some kind of waiting, so we assumed that it would be amazing. And it was amazing, no doubt it had a waiting even in off-season. It was a riverside café with indoor and outdoor sitting. Food was good, not great but the view would be enough to fill your heart. It had amazing ambiance and they also had books for readers and a variety of board games for players I would totally recommend visiting this café once.
No Picture can do justice to what your eyes can experience.