Trip members: Karthik and Siva
Trip date: 01 to 06 Oct 2026
Trip Plan : Chennai - New Delhi - Chandigarh - Kasol - Tosh - Chalal - Kasol - Chandigarh - Chennai
A trip planned few months ahead, just to explore Kasol, Tosh and any other Himachal villages if possible. A trip for a more relaxed time rather than an itinerary driven one! We planned around trip around the long weekend of 02nd Oct.
The plan was to travel by flight to New Delhi, train to Chandigarh and then, cab to Kasol.
Reaching Delhi
On 01st Oct, we had our flight around 11:30 PM (red eye flight) post completing the work. We landed around 2:30 AM at Delhi; took a cab to NDLS railway station. At the ever renovating NDLS station, with adhoc sign boards and plenty of construction happening, we atlast located the AC waiting hall. It was a makeshift place covered with plastic covers and very average rest rooms! We had couple of hours to spend before our train to Chandigarh; not a very pleasant experience.
Day-1
Our tickets were on Vandebharat to Chandigarh at 5:50 AM. We boarded the train and slept off. The breakfast was very average, almost below average - by quantity and quality. 30-mins delayed and we reached Chandigarh by 9 AM. Our cab, through savaari.com was waiting and we started towards Kasol.
To Kasol
Around 11 AM, our driver stopped at Manjeet's restaurant near Ghanauli. It was an adhoc hour, but we were hungry and had a paneer paratha each and chai. We were sleeping most of the journey until we started the climb from Mandi. The route was busier and getting crowded as the climb begun!
Lots of people from Delhi and Chandigarh were entering the Himachal - towards Kasol and Manali and the traffic pile up begun. We realised that it is going to take more time - not sure how much more!
Around 3:30 PM, we stopped for late lunch at Tandoor Punjab - just before Pandoh. Had few rotis, dal and mix veg curry. We understood, it is going to take more and more hours from suppose to be 6 hours to almost 10+ hours as the vehicle movement was stuck in few places.
Around 6 PM, we took the turn towards Kasol and the whole segment showed red on the map. We reached Kasol around 8:30 PM, thanks to many hapazard parking of white board vehicles and making the already narrow roads very difficult to cross!
Reached Kasol atlast after 11+ hours of journey from Chandigarh! Ufff!
Reaching Kasol
We checked in to Whoopers hostel - requires to walk in narrow, not so clean pathways and up by few stairs. Exhausted for almost a 24 hour journey from Chennai to Kasol, refreshed and dinner of parathas at hostel itself.
Day-2
Started to Tosh
Woke up early to see the beauty of Kasol, nice scenes around and was getting ready for moving to Tosh.
We had breakfast at a local Dhaba - Namaste Dhana - possibly only one open by 8 AM; we learnt that most of the places open only by 9 AM onwards. Had some basic food and started to Tosh - we had prebooked a cab through hostel overnight. The hostel guy did charge extra than the driver - which is uncommon to hostels; based on my experiences of staying all across India.
Parking Harakiri !
One thing was unexpectedly common from the earlier day. Some stupid guys had parked cars happazardly on the way to Manikaran on very narrow roads, and few buses and trucks were stuck totally with a jam that lasted for almost 4 hours. YES, 4 hours - from 8:30 to 12:30 - we hardly moved 200m and were stuck before Manikaran; until the drivers coordinated and moved few vehicles!
Atlast, we reached Tosh around 2 PM! One more UUFFF! Thanks to the pleasant views enroute.
Tosh - The Scenic Village
Tosh is a beautiful scenic small Himachal village in the Parvati valley. This is a end-of-the-road village; requiring a km of walk with luggages, crossing a bridge and reaching the village by foot. yeah - that is adventurous! Typical backpackers paradise!
Tosh is a laidback place, known for rustic village life, but for a relaxed view of stunning Himalayas with snow capped ones, alpine forests, few great cafes and stunning sunset views! One can spend time by trekking trails, exploring villages nearby - like Kutla, and cluster of villages like Bharshaini, Pulga, Tulga and Kulga. These villages have good cafes - serving Israeli, Continental and North India food and some amazing pastries and brownies.
These places are best suited for people who just want to chill, vibe with nature and relax! We had planned 3 nights at Tosh; however upon reaching, we decided to spend 2 nights and then one night back in Kasol exploring some other place.
Hostel at Tosh
There are hostels and small home stays in Tosh. We had booked our stay at Whoopers hostel. This is on top of the hill, and requires a good 12-15 min trek after entering the village. The pathways are not laid and are quite bad. We had booked a private room at Whoopers and checked-in. We were super hungry and ordered food immediately - jeera rice and dals.
This facility is one of those which has 360 degree view from the terrace - uninterrupted nature view!
Exploring Tosh
Post lunch, we rested for some time and headed into the village to explore. The native wood based houses, few cafes and beautiful views welcomed us. We spent walking around the village and bought few pastries and brownies at German bakery.
We trekked back to the room, sat outside - with a view and enjoyed the pastries. The evening was just a pass enjoying the nature from terrace and the room! We had dinner at the hostel and hit the bed!
Day-3
The plan was to do a trek! There are treks to Kutla through Tosh waterfalls, Glacier point, Buddhaban, Kheerganga and walk around to neighbouring villages. We are not regular trekkers, but want to pursue as much as possible towards Kutla.
Trek towards Kutla
We started from the hostel around 8 AM and had breakfast in Tosh at cafe enroute the trek. The route was exciting as the scenic views were interesting. We carried water and assorted nuts with us.
We first saw a stream to cross over and it was quite beautiful. We decided to comeback and sit there for sometime.
We then walked through steep narrow pathways guided with occasional scriblings on rocks showing direction to Kutla.
Tosh Waterfalls
We continued and cited the Tosh waterfall. The place was quite sunny and required to steep getting down to touch the waters. We thought the earlier place we saw was under shades and quite good; so continued our trek. The views were quite nice as we climbed and enjoyed beautiful views of snow clad peaks, valley beneath with the blue skies!
The skyline from Tosh village and all through the route remains the same, however, the views change as elevation is higher.
Steep and further
After trekking for another 45 mins through quite steep climbs, we encoutered few people returning back, not reaching Kutla, and want to return as the trekking route was steep. Moreover, few met few villagers, who said, it would take another hour of climb. We were already into more than 90 mins of climb, consistent progress all across, not ready to spend more for climbing.
We took a water break and decided to descend back to Tosh.
We stopped in the only cafe inbetween, had lime soda and reached the lower part of Tosh waterfalls. We got down into water and spent around 20 mins relaxing and enjoying the sound of water!
It was quite sunny indeed and we were sweating out heavily and reached Tosh around 1 PM.
Lunch at Pink Floyd Cafe
Pink Floyd Cafe is one of the most reviewed cafes in Tosh - primarily for the views from the top and food. We climbed almost 350-400 more steep steps - another trek just to reach this cafe! Worth it or not? Read on ...
We reached and got a place to lean. Ordered our food and waited for it to be served, while we rested. The food was just ok - unsure what the hype is all about. We also had a take away; climbed down all the way for 400 steps, walked through the village and again trek up to our hostel! The take away was also not that great experience!
Well .. well, village to cafe to hostel trek was indeed very demanding; glad we reached hostel to take some real good rest. We spent the evening at leisure, only to be greeted with one of the best Himalayan sunsets.
We also tasted Siddu - a local delicacy - steamed food filled with a paste of almonds, cashews and walnuts - drenched with a special local chutney.
The Golden hour - Yes - this was it!
One of the most breathtaking sunsets we’ve ever witnessed — on one side, an endless canvas of clear blue skies; on the other, freshly falling snow on the mountains glowing in the golden-yellow hues of the setting sun. A magical contrast of blue, white and gold, so surreal that it felt like nature had saved its finest masterpiece for that very moment.
Great that we witnessed it!
The hostel evening was simple, chitchatting with hostelers, listening to songs; we had carried our own bluetooth speaker and the vibes set with Tamil romantic songs! Thus, went the evening, very relaxed, pleasant and memorable and inhouse dinner of roti, rice and curry.
Day-4
Plan was Simple - start early from Tosh. Woke up, witnessed the morning hue and started to Kasol.
Back to Kasol
We backpacked, walked down to Tosh parking area - a km of trek and took a cab - available at fixed cost for Rs.1500 to Kasol. One more from the hostel joined us and shared the cab with us.
Beautiful morning scenes all throughout the drive by the Parvati river and reached Kasol around 9 AM. Cited several small villages - seems almost not reachable at all on steep sides of the hill!
We had breakfast at Pinewood Dhaba - Parathas and tea - the only item that is available all across. Parathas were ok.
Rooms were booked at Hotel Royal Castle; knowing that rooms would be ready only after 11 AM, we dropped our luggages at the hotel reception and walked to village Chalal.
Nature Park @ Kasol
First, we spent 5-10 mins at the Kasol nature park; probably late evening could have been a great option. Just a passby place, unless, you just want to sit and keep seeing the river and chilling.
Exploring Chalal
Chalal is 2 km far village from Kasol. Partially approachable by road and partially by walk. It is a simple terrain leading through Pine trees by the Parvati river, crossing the river at Kasol. This is a quiet, river-side village hosting many cottages and cafes enroute. Place is for very casual and relaxed time to spend sort of.
However, on the hot sunny day, we were very disappointed and exhausted as we neared the village. We tried to locate a waterfall, which was just a small stream of water.
We just returned back; had some chaas and pastries and reached Kasol by a cab for Rs.500. The highlight was that the cab drove through the walkway bridge and narrow shops!
Returned back to hotel for check-in, refreshed and took rest for some time. Thought of going to Manikaran; however, changed ideas as the 2-wheeler rental was higher than a cab for that distance!
Lunch at a local Cafe, wading through local shops for souvenirs and then, bought pastries at Rider's cafe we reached back the room to have some peaceful time.
With all the plan of the trip completed, we spent the rest of the evening seeing the water flowing on Pravati river without any boredom from the the balcony!
Ordered food at the room and slept like a baby.
Day-5
Prebooked cab to Chandigarh arrived at 7 AM and we started our return journey. Breakfast was near Bhuntar and we cruised through the route and reached plains around 11 AM.
We thought we would reach Chandigarh by 1 PM and spend couple of hours roaming around. However, there was a road roko at Rupnagar and stuck for a hour. Some de-tour to bypass the zone, led to extra couple of hours through Morinda and adjoining village roads and then to airport with no stop for lunch! We reached airport around 3:30 PM - starting early helps, but no extras done on this trip!
Enjoyed the food at Chandigarh airport lounge and took the flight back with beautiful memories! Possibly another trip to Kasol ....
Yes, it does call back!
Distances
- Chandigarh – Kasol – 247 kms – 5:30 hrs
- New Delhi – Kasol – 498 kms – 10 hrs
- Bhuntar airport – Kasol – 31 kms – 1:30 hrs
- Kasol – Tosh – 20 kms – 1:15 hrs
- Kasol – Pulga – 20 kms – 1:15 mins
- Pulga – Tosh – 5 kms – 25 mins
- Tosh – Chandigarh – 267 kms – 7 hrs
