This 14 days Motorbike trip which begins from Kullu Valley tackling an endlessly winding road, crossing three above 5,000-meter passes on our way to the old Buddhist kingdom of Ladakh on the banks of the Indus. The traditional way to get up to Ladakh, still mind-blowing. Long strokes, open carbs and spectacular views – we’ll be climbing the world’s highest motorable passes on our classic Royal Enfield Bullet 500s. A Manali to Leh tour package is a popular and adventurous journey that takes travelers from the scenic hill station of Manali in Himachal Pradesh to the breathtaking landscapes of Leh in Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir.
Route Highlights:
Manali:
Your journey typically starts in Manali, a popular hill station known for its lush greenery and adventure activities. Spend some time exploring the town and acclimatizing to the high altitude.
Rohtang Pass:
Cross the Rohtang Pass, which offers stunning views of the Pir Panjal range. It’s known for its challenging terrain and unpredictable weather.
Keylong and Jispa:
Travel through picturesque villages like Keylong and Jispa and enjoy the scenic beauty of the mountains and rivers.
Sarchu:
Stop in Sarchu, which serves as a resting point for travelers. It’s situated at a high altitude and provides a glimpse of the stark, high-altitude landscape.
Leh:
Arrive in Leh, the capital of Ladakh, which is known for its Buddhist culture and beautiful monasteries. Explore Leh Palace, Shanti Stupa, and local markets.
Pangong Lake:
Visit the famous Pangong Lake, known for its mesmerizing blue waters and dramatic landscapes. Stay in tented accommodations near the lake.
Nubra Valley:
Travel to Nubra Valley, where you can ride camels in the sand dunes of Hunder and visit the ancient Diskit Monastery.
Khardung La Pass:
Cross Khardung La Pass, one of the highest motorable passes in the world, on your way back to Leh.
Monasteries:
Explore the region’s ancient monasteries like Thiksey Monastery, Hemis Monastery, and Shey Monastery.
Tso Moriri Lake:
Visit the beautiful Tso Moriri Lake, another high-altitude lake surrounded by serene landscapes.
Adventure Activities:
The route offers opportunities for trekking, river rafting, mountain biking, and camping, depending on your interests and the season.
Cultural Encounters:
Interact with the local people and learn about the unique Ladakhi culture, including traditional music and dance.
Personalized Services:
Depending on the tour package, you may have a dedicated guide, experienced drivers, and accommodations suited to your preferences.
Altitude Acclimatization:
It’s crucial to acclimatize gradually to the high altitudes and follow the recommended safety measures to prevent altitude sickness.
The Manali to Leh tour is known for its breathtaking landscapes, adventurous journey, and the opportunity to experience a distinct culture and way of life. The best time to embark on this journey is typically from late May to September when the mountain passes are open and the weather is suitable for travel. It’s advisable to plan your trip with a reputable tour operator that specializes in the Manali to Leh route to ensure a safe and memorable adventure.
What to Expect
Once we leave the “civilized world” behind, we’ll be camping in spectacular settings and sleeping in remote mountain lodges. Our local crew will keep us supplied with food, water, fuel and spare parts, and will handle the logistics and excellent catering in our camps. Once we arrive in Ladakh, we’ll have 8 days to visit the renowned Hemis, Tikkse, Mathko, Likkir, Lamayauru and Alchi monasteries, and to ride up the Khardung La, the world’s highest motorable pass at 5,605 meters. In Leh, we’ll take time to shop and relax. Solid riding skills, a sense of adventure and flexibility are a must when taking part in our Himalaya motorcycle expeditions, which cover around 1,700 km and considerable altitude differences. Road conditions on the Ladakh bike trip vary from freshly-paved to rough tracks. Though the climate of Ladakh is dry and rainfall is very scanty but landslides due to abrupt weather changes can force us to change our Ladakh motorcycle tour program on very short notice. You can certainly look forward to great biking adventure. The climate and temperatures during the motorcycle tour are comparable to that of the Alps or mountain ranges in northern Europe. Warm riding gear is a must, but you can also expect heat and blazing sunshine at times. In extreme cases, you can expect night-time temperatures below freezing when camping at high altitudes in the Himalayas. Generally, the night-time lows will be around 10°C, even at higher elevations. The humidity is extremely low, comparable to a dry desert climate. Skin lotion, lip balm and sun blocker are a must.
A maximum of 15 bikes and riders, plus a maximum of five passengers in the jeeps. We guarantee a seat in a jeep for all passengers. Groups will not exceed 20 participants, plus the crew. Minimum number of participants: 6 riders We recommend booking early due to the great demand for this tour and its complex logistics. Wherever possible, we stay in hotels, tourist bungalows and government rest houses, in double rooms with en-suite showers and WCs. Sometimes we have to fall back on dorm-style accommodations in places where our usual standard isn’t available.
Our crew also carries camping and catering gear to give us the greatest possible autonomy. In some places, local accommodations are so poor that we simply prefer camping in a beautiful spot in the countryside. It also ensures that we’re always ready for sudden weather changes, delays or detours, thus avoiding long, forced rides to often-remote hotels. Our catering crew prepares breakfast and dinner for us when camping. We’ll also eat in hotel restaurants whenever they seem suitable. Lunch will normally consist of a snack on the road.
You should bring your own sleeping bag, thermal mat and rain gear.
Our Crew for The Ladakh Bike Trip
Our English-speaking guide are skilled motorcyclists and inveterate travellers who have spent years on the road in the Himalayas. They’re resilient in the face of stress and have considerable knowledge of the history and culture of the regions they cover. Our skilled motorcycle mechanics also have years of experience accompanying us on the road, following groups in the support jeep. Our local catering and camp crew is responsible for setting up and tearing down camp, cooking, and handling our water and fuel supplies.
Indian blood, English heart – our 500cc Royal Enfield Bullets
Our talented mechanics have the tuning skills to ensure that our Bullets keep going strong, even at the highest altitudes.
Upon arrival at Manali Bus Stand by Volvo you will be picked up and transferred to the hotel. The day for relaxation and a short hike, hotel in Manali (1985 mts)
Accommodation: Hotel /Resort
Warm-up tour ride near to Kullu Valley through the winding path of the Valley. Overnight at Manali.
Get acclimatized with our Bullet motorcycles and the climate. We’re confident that it will be the start of a great friendship. To warm up, we’re going to explore winding mountain roads along the picturesque Beas River valley.
Accommodation: Hotel/Resort
After an early morning breakfast, the journey to the passes begins. “Rohtang” means “a pile of corpses”, in Tibetan and the pass once marked the end of the inhabitable world in the imagination of many Indians. Even today, crossing the pass on our bikes can be an adventure, with convoys of trucks and a track muddy with meltwater providing our first proper challenge. From here on out, the road is our destination, especially for the next four days. On the ninth day of our journey, we’ll reach Leh, an exotic green oasis in the otherwise arid Greater Himalayas – at the point where our highway meets the old Silk Road from China to Persia. Near Keylong, the main town of the Lahaul region, we’ll be spending the night in a hotel near the confluence of the Bagha and Chandra rivers (3,350 m).
Accommodation: Hotel/Resort
Riding onward you will feel the difference in weather and vegetation which now getting sparse at this point and the rugged mountain ranges are becoming ever loftier. We’ll be setting up camp at Brandy Nalla, after crossing the pass but before reaching the Sarchu Valley check post.
Accommodation: Camping
Altogether tough day as we’ll ride on our bikes from Sarchu over Lachalang La pass (5,065 m) to the vast lunar landscape of the Moore Plains at 4,300 meters. From there, we’ll begin our ascent of the Taglang La pass (5,360 m). After a stop at the crest for a quick toast and summit photo op, we’ll be descending to 4,400 meters, setting up camp near the first Ladakhi village.
Accommodation: Camping
On approach to Uphsi we’ll enter the Indus Valley, rolling on to the Tikse monastery. We’ll be spending the night in Leh, the capital of Ladakh. At 3,550 meters, the air is noticeably thicker.
Accommodation: Hotel
After and leisurely breakfast and free time for sightseeing. We recommend a stroll through town to the royal palace, shopping in the bazaars of the old city, or a hike up to the stupa overlooking Leh. We’ll be having dinner in a restaurant with a beer garden.
Accommodation: Hotel
After breakfast leave for Khardungla Pass the highest motorable pass everyone desires to reach by bike. 50 kms on the road and 2,000 meters ascent to Khardung La pass, the highest motorable road in the world. After a brief stop in the thin mountain air for a photo, we’ll descend quickly into the arid Nubra Valley, which until recently was a restricted military zone due to the nearby Pakistani and Chinese borders. It’s now a new high point of our Ladakh tours, with breathtaking views, remote oasis villages and rugged river landscapes.
Accommodation: Camping
After visiting the Diskit monastery, we leave the Nubra Valley and return to Kardungh La, once again crossing the highest pass. After riding through Leh, we’ll follow the Indus downstream until we reach the confluence of the Zanskar and Indus rivers. A narrow road leading high up into the Zanskar Valley begins there. A stretch of about 40 km is motorable, which will bring us to the village of Chilling and an unusually beautiful camp ground. The only way further up is to hike across the often-treacherous ice of the frozen river in winter. Our “1,000-star hotel” is on the banks of a clear mountain stream only a short stroll away from the village. It’s not often that outsiders find their way to this peaceful setting. Time now to enjoy the first-class service of our camp crew.
Accommodation: Camping
Back to Indus from there we’ll continue to Basgo, the ancient capital of western Ladakh, with its impressive temple and palace ruins. We’ll cross the Indus on the way to the oasis of Alchi. Alchi’s monastery contains impressive murals dating back to the 10th century – the greatest artistic treasures of Ladakh. We’ll spend the night in a basic but picturesque guest house. Our crew will set up its kitchen tent in the garden and serve us a delicious meal.
Accommodation: Camping
After a morning visit to the monastery, we’ll be heading out to the westernmost point of our tour, into little-known regions of the Indus Valley. We’ll be crossing Fatu La pass (3,990 m) to the panorama road overlooking Moon Valley. Our destination for the day is the Lamayuru monastery, situated in an amazing craggy landscape at an altitude of over 4,000 meters. We’ll be returning to Alchi for the night.
Accommodation: Hotel
Drive through Leh where our first stop will be the peaceful Matho monastery, then traveling on a side road to Hemis which is the wealthiest and most ornate monastery in Ladakh. We’ll be setting up our camp one last time on a green meadow with a breathtaking view of the Indus Valley.
Accommodation: Hotel
The beautiful grounds of the monastery and the bejeweled Buddha statue inside will be our last contact to the living Buddhism of the red-robed monks of Ladakh. We’ll spend the last afternoon and night in Leh.
Accommodation: Hotel
Our domestic flight back to the capital will be leaving in the morning thus coming to end of our memorable tour.
Please share your details here.
