Spiti Valley Road Trip :Ultimate Guide To Plan A Self Drive

Introduction

Self Drive road trip to Spiti Valley is not just a journey but a crazy experience where you connect with yourself mentally, spiritually and physically. It makes you cherish yourself and then shower the beauty of life. It pushes you to your limits and then blesses you with all-time natural beauty. It makes you break all self-consciousness and then encourages you to move ahead to dream more and more. It breaks the wall of your comfort zone and then offers you a new skyline full of opportunities and possibilities.

Why should one plan a self-drive to Spiti Valley road trip

For Self-drive road bikers, Spiti Valley is the dream destination as it tests your mental and physical grit on every turn before you could cherish its vast panoramic beauty. Spiti Valley is not a hidden treasure, but a mystery; with each mile, one layer unfolds itself and blows all your senses. It keeps allowing you something for each mile of your effort and determination. It is like a roller coaster, the biggest, largest, but the slowest and slothful natural roller coaster on planet earth. With each passing moment, it gives an unexpected twist and turn, steeping more state of excitement into your soul, mind and body. You want more, you push for more, you work hard for more and finally you get what you always wanted. 

Maintain your vehicle for Spiti Valley road trip 

It is most important to keep your vehicle well prepared in advance for the road trip to Spiti Valley. Check the quality of your tyres, hand brake and clutch plate. Clutch plate usually gets ignored during the preparation, but it is going to be used a lot during this trip along with hand breaks so make sure to keep them in best condition.  Please make sure to have the following in your vehicle – air pump, tow cable, puncture repair kit, jack and related accessories. Keep a hammer, small shovel also. Carry a little bit of extra fuel in a 2-liter plastic bottle. At least carry Minimum 10 liters of fuel with you all the time. 

Note:- I would strongly recommend all of you to learn how to repair tubeless tyres which will come handy in any emergencies.  

Always Know your Priorities to have best time in Spiti Valley Tour

The whole Spiti Valley circuit starts from Shimla and ends at Manali via Kinnaur, Kaza. It has many beautiful and ravishing  towns, villages, lakes and monasteries which are very tempting to watch. It is important to map out your trip and stick to it. Know your total days in hand well in advance only and accordingly give time to your trip as per your list of priorities. It will ensure that you have a short and sweet time exploring and enjoying the natural beauty without any problem. 

Prepare itinerary well in advance for a smooth road trip to Spiti Valley Tour

Once you have your priorities set in place and you know the number of days available, prepare the itinerary keeping following things in mind –

• Most of the days, you would have to only stick to daytime driving so do not plan any puff out day. Always plan to reach your destination around sunset to enjoy the glittering golden hours.
• Every day, Spiti valley would give you thousands of reasons to relish the moment. That means you would take photo-stops very frequently and suddenly. Make enough provision for this while preparing an hourly itinerary for each day.
• Himalayan terrain of Spiti valley is an uncertain geographical study, so please keep a one day buffer with you to address any unfortunate circumstance like landslides, road blockage, snow fall, uncertain weather etc.

Always Try to Interact with locals

For so many times, we have been guided by locals to an unknown place which was a mind blowing experience; they helped us with best photo points, sunset location etc. Their roadside quick story motivated us many times to explore. So, keep talking to locals at every point of time to know more about the place, road conditions and Do’s and Don’ts. It is a one time opportunity and should be our duty to support the local economy.

 Buy several things from locals and buy local and ancient things. Make a gesture of carrying small things from your place like stationery, books, used clothes and crayons and give them to the kids to make them feel happy. Such things are a huge luxury for them and simply brings a smile on their face which would be one of the most treasured memories from Spiti Valley.