Travel style · Spiti & Lahaul
Homestays and villages in Spiti & Lahaul
Sleep in the hive itself
Homestays are the Himalaya's best value and its best way in: Ladakhi kitchens, Spiti mud houses, Kumaoni stone homes, Lepcha villages in Dzongu, Apatani homes in Ziro. Simple rooms, home food, money that stays in the valley.
Photo: John Hill · CC BY-SA 3.0 · CommonsA homestay is a room in a family home, with meals from the family kitchen. Expect clean, simple rooms, often a shared or outside bathroom in the high valleys, and food made from what the village grows.
Spiti and Lahaul form one high district of Himachal Pradesh behind the Pir Panjal. Spiti is a rain-shadow desert at 3,000–4,500 m with thousand-year-old gompas and fossil villages; Lahaul is greener, reached in two hours from Manali through the Atal Tunnel. Go June to September, by HRTC bus and homestay or by private car.
Trips
Homestays and villages trips in Spiti & Lahaul
Photo: Sumita Roy Dutta · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Saver
Spiti by HRTC bus, the slow Kinnaur way in
HRTC and local buses, with one shared taxi loop from Kaza
Photo: Sumita Roy Dutta · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Saver
Spiti village homestays: Dhankar to Langza
Shared car to Kaza, then local buses and short taxi transfers
Photo: Sumita Roy Dutta · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Signature
Slow Spiti and Lahaul with a private guide
Private SUV with driver, private guide
7 places
Where to go
Photo: John Hill · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons
Dhankar
Spiti's old capital, a gompa on a cliff above two rivers
Photo: Rodmantyler · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Kaza
Spiti's only town, base camp for every village loop
Photo: Pranav perspective · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Key Gompa and Kibber
Spiti's largest gompa and the village where snow leopards winter
Photo: Madhumita Das · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Langza, Hikkim and Komic
Fossil slopes, a high post office and a 4,587 m village
Photo: Sumita Roy Dutta · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Nako
A lake village and 11th-century temples on the road to Spiti
Photo: Timothy Gonsalves · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Pin Valley and Mudh
A national park of ibex, blue sheep and Nyingma villages
Photo: 11th century West Tibetan painter Photography … · Public domain · Commons
Tabo
A working monastery founded in 996 CE, painted inside
Experiences
Days that fit the style
Photo: John Hill · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons
Inside the cliff-top gompa of Dhankar
Climb through the narrow rooms of Spiti's old capital monastery, perched 300 m above two rivers, and see why conservati…
Photo: Sumita Roy Dutta · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Hike to Dhankar Lake
A steep climb of about an hour from Dhankar village to a small high lake with views of the Manirang peaks. Short, hard …
Photo: Arup1981 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Lhalung village and its old temple
A quiet side valley above Dhankar leads to Lhalung, a farming village with an old temple full of clay figures. Few visi…
Photo: Nrr1729 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Old Kaza and Sakya Tangyud morning walk
An easy first-morning walk through the mud-walled lanes of Kaza Khas to the Sakya Tangyud monastery, perfect for acclim…
Photo: Kirechko · Public domain · Commons
Spitian kitchen supper with sea buckthorn
Eat what Spitian families eat: thukpa, tsampa, barley bread, peas from the fields and sea buckthorn juice. Best done in…
Photo: Ksuryawanshi · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons
Night sky over the Spiti river at Rangrik
Cross the river to Rangrik, away from Kaza's lights, and watch the Milky Way rise over dry mountains. Clear, thin air a…
Photo: Pranav perspective · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Morning prayers at Key Gompa
Sit quietly at the back of the assembly hall as young monks chant at Spiti's largest monastery. Go early, before the da…
Photo: Sanky cse · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Kibber lanes and the Chicham bridge
A slow afternoon in one of the highest villages in the world inhabited all year, then across the Chicham bridge for the…
Where to sleep
Stays in these places
Photo: Rupak Sarkar · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Budget
Zostel Spiti, Kaza
The Kaza branch of the Indian hostel chain is where most solo travellers and students land in Spiti. Dorm beds and…
Photo: Tim Dellmann · CC BY 3.0 · Commons
Budget
Tabo Monastery Guest House
A plain guesthouse run beside the 996 CE monastery complex in Tabo. Simple rooms, some with shared bathrooms, a sh…
Photo: Sumita Roy Dutta · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Budget
Langza homestays
Langza's farming families open their homes to travellers at about 4,420 m, below the Buddha statue and Chau Chau K…
Photo: Ksuryawanshi · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Budget
Kibber homestays
Kibber, on a plateau above a deep gorge at about 4,270 m, has a good number of family homestays. In summer they ar…
Photo: This Photo was taken by Timothy A. Gonsalves. … · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Budget
Mudh homestays, Pin valley
Mudh, at about 3,800 m where the Pin valley road ends, has a cluster of family homestays and small guesthouses. Th…
Photo: Prof Ranga Sai · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Mid
Sakya Abode, Kaza
A long-running family hotel in Kaza near the Sakya Tangyud monastery. Warm rooms with attached bathrooms, a dining…
Homestays and villages elsewhere