For a western visitor a journey to Ladakh is like travel into a fairytale. Beautiful landscape with high mountains, emerald green wild rivers and carribean-like beaches at high altitude lakes. Rich traditional and almost self-suficient way of life, almost no trash anywhere, lush gardens in front of most houses and very nice people … All this is Ladakh.
But be aware: there is a big danger also in this fairytale part of the world – altitude sickness that can happen to anyone who is not following some basic rules. Read more about our experience with it here.
On our three weeks road trip in this amazing part of India (where you don’t fell like you are in India at all) we experienced some unforgettable things, saw impressive landscapes, met great local people and admired their way of life.
Our Ladakh itineray begins in Alchi, where we drove to directly from Leh Airport to descend a little bit and avoid problems with altitude as much as possible. Later we practically had our base in the capital Leh and made multi day trips to various parts of Ladakh.
Above is the map of our journey and below is our Ladakh itinerary with the places we have visited:
Day 1: Leh – Alchi
Day 2: Alchi
Day 3: Alchi – Dumkbar – Dha Hanu (read more about Dha Hanu here)
Day 4: Dha Hanu – Lamayuru (read more about Lamayuru here)
Day 5: Lamayuru – Likir – Leh
Day 6: Leh – Thiksay – Stakna – Leh
Day 7: Leh
Day 8: Leh – Tso Kar (read more about Tso Kar here)
Day 9: Tso Kar – Tso Moriri
Day 10: Tso Moriri
Day 11: Tso Moriri – Leh
Day 12: Leh
Day 13: Leh
Day 14: Leh – Pangong Tso
Day 15: Pangong Tso – Hunder (Nubra Valley)
Day 16: Hunder – Turtuk
Day 17: Turtuk – Diskit
Day 18: Diskit – Leh
Day 19: Leh – New Delhi
We had almost 3 weeks for discovering Ladakh, if you are on a shorter holiday you can easily adjust the itinerary to the number of days you have.
We traveled around with rented car and a driver – all our transportation was arranged by Konchok Stobgais, a great local guy that can arrange everything you like (his Facebook contact is here). Almost all the time we slept in homestays and guesthouses. You can read more about the accommodation we recommend here.
Ladakh is know for being crowded in peak season from May to August, mostly of Indian tourists. Traveling there just before or just after the peak season is the best way to experience this unique place on Earth. We chose October, because it’s a dry month, during the day is still quite warm and the landscape is covered with beautiful fall colors. And the best part was that we were practically alone in every place we visited.
If you are traveling to Ladakh, it’s worth to visit some places that are not on average tourist’s radar as well. The way to Tso Moriri lake and the lake itself is one of those places for example. And there are many more – we loved every single place we visited. Check out the places we mentioned in our itinerary and you will see what we are talking about.
