Travel Guide
Chitkul: Everything You Need to Know About India's Last Village
The permits, the road, the altitude, the monastery — a complete guide to India's most dramatic border village.
Discover the last frontier of Himachal Pradesh — land of snow-dusted peaks, ancient monasteries, wooden temples draped in prayer flags, and valleys laden with the sweetest apples on Earth.
There are places in India that defy expectation. Kinnaur is one of them. Tucked between the great Himalayan ranges — the Great Himalayas, the Zanskar, and the Dhauladhar — this remote district sits at the confluence of three ancient worlds.
Every bend in the Hindustan-Tibet Road reveals a new world: a cluster of flat-roofed stone houses clinging to a cliff face, an orchard of gnarled apple trees weighed down with fruit, a monastery painted in ochre and crimson watching over a valley from its rocky perch.
Discover Kinnaur's story →Kinner Kailash Sacred Peak
Aug – Oct Harvest Season
Satluj · Baspa · Spiti
The Hindustan-Tibet Highway is arguably the most dramatic road in India — carved into sheer cliff faces, suspended above roaring rivers, tunnelling through rock.
Kinnaur contains three principal valleys — Satluj, Baspa, and Spiti — each with a distinct character. A single journey compresses multiple ecosystems into one experience.
Unlike many Himalayan communities smoothed out by tourism, Kinnaur retains authentic cultural texture. Festivals still shut down commerce. Local deities still hold court.
Between August and October, entire hillsides turn golden-red with fruit. Villages smell of ripening apples. Varieties you will not find anywhere else on Earth.
Kinnaur's monasteries are not manicured tourist sites — they are working spiritual centres, sometimes centuries old, where monks conduct rituals unperturbed by the outside world.
An 80-kilometre sacred circumambulation of the 6,050m peak — one of the most challenging and spiritually charged treks in all of the Himalayas.
Each village is a world unto itself — a different altitude, a different culture, a different light.
The crown jewel of the valley — birch forests, meadows, and the ancient Kamru Fort watching over it all.
Explore →India's last inhabited village before the Tibetan border. The edge of everything.
Explore →Wake up to Kinner Kailash at eye level. No other village offers this sunrise.
Explore →A glacial lake and an 11th-century monastery — silence so complete it becomes sound.
Explore →Between Sangla and Chitkul — the village everyone drives past and all regret it.
Explore →More villages to discover
View All →Everything you need to travel Kinnaur with confidence, safety, and wonder.
Season-by-season breakdown — from apple season to winter snowfall.
Learn more →Road routes from Delhi, Chandigarh, and Shimla with distances and timings.
Learn more →Who needs it, where to get it, what to bring. Complete guide.
Learn more →Curated routes for every schedule — from a long weekend to a full week.
Learn more →When to visit, what to expect, and where the best orchards are.
Learn more →Kinner Kailash circuit, Bhabha Pass, camping, river walks and more.
Learn more →The permits, the road, the altitude, the monastery — a complete guide to India's most dramatic border village.
Golden orchards, crystal skies, and the Fulaich festival — October in Kinnaur is close to perfection.
How mountain deities still govern village life in 21st-century Kinnaur — a deep dive into the oracle tradition.