Dalhousie

Finally visited Dalhousie, the hill station that was in my must visit list for a long time.

My first impression – crowded with people and hotels/motels/malls. Fortunately for us our hotel, though next to the Bus Terminus, seemed secluded once we entered and the view of the Pir Panjal 

range of the Himalayas from the hotel premises was magnificent.

Dalhousie, a hill station in Chamba district of the State of Himachal Pradesh, was named after The Earl of Dalhousie, who was the British Governor-General in India while establishing this place in the 1850s as a summer retreat, at a height of 1970 metres above sea level.

Our local sight seeing started with a visit to Panjpula where one can avail of the adventure activities

like walking across the rope bridge and zip lining or chill in a mountain café with a tea, coffee, soft 

drink or maybe a hookah/sheesha of your favourite flavour.  You can start your souvenir shopping 

right here or move on to Gandhi chowk where there is a pedestrian zone for a mall. Do check out the

St.John’s church established in 1863 in Gandhi chowk and then move on to the next chowk, the 

A tiny temple on the path to Subhash chowk.

 Rock art on the path to Subhash chowk

Subhash chowk seen from Gandhi chowk

The mall between Gandhi chowk and Subhash chowk

Coffee if you wish to feel refreshed in the mall.

Subhash chowk, where you can check out St.Francis church built in 1894.

In Shubash chowk there are plenty of restaurants that serve excellent food. We ate at Shere-e-Punjab 

which afforded beautiful views too apart from wonderful service and delicious food.

Next morning we decided to explore Khajjiar, 22kms from Dalhousie, as the roads had opened up a 

couple of days earlier after the snow was cleared. Khajjiar is famous for its bowl shaped, pine ringed 

meadow. It offers a lot of photo ops which we indulged in, had lunch there and started back to 

Dalhousie. 

The return drive was made memorable due to a massive traffic jam in the narrow mountain roads. We were stuck in the traffic for an hour and a half.

A couple of nights in Dalhousie, I think, were good enough, and am glad I knocked it off my list.