Café Amigos
The Mall, opposite Nehru Park
Offers great coffee, local dishes, pizza and pastries. Perfect place for breakfast, lunch and snacks. The music is mellow, the staff friendly. For a special souvenir, check out local artist Jimmy’s work, which hangs on the walls of the café.

Johnson’s Café
Circuit House Road
Fresh trout, homemade pastas and divine desserts. Uses only organic ingredients.

Mayur Restaurant
Old Mission Road
Locals claim this is the best Indian-cuisine restaurant in town.

Manali offers endless choices for accommodations. If you’re on a tight budget, choose John Banon’s Guesthouse which, at around $10 per night, is a great bargain. The rooms are big and include fireplaces.

If you’re looking for more deluxe accommodations, try Negi’s Hotel Mayflower, which offers beautiful, enormous wood-paneled rooms with fireplaces, separate sitting rooms and verandas for about $37 per night. The attached restaurant dishes up delicious Indian, Chinese and European fare.

Another good choice in the moderate price range is Johnson’s Lodge, which also houses the best restaurant and liveliest bar in town.

Solang Valley also has a range of options, including the high-end Solang Valley Resort and, for the more budget-conscious, the Iceland Hotel.

John Banon’s Guesthouse
Circuit House Road
Phone: 0091-1902-252335
Web site: www.fhrai.com

Negi’s Hotel Mayflower
Club House Road, Manali
Phone: 0091-1902-252104
Web site: www.negismayflower.com
Email:

Johnson’s Lodge
Circuit House Road, Manali
Phone: 0091-1902-253023
Email:

They're all good.

Coming Soon: The Himalaya’s First World-Class Ski Resort

The ski culture in Manali is about to change dramatically for the better. Himalayan Ski Village (HSV), the first world-class ski resort in the Himalaya, is scheduled to open in 2009. Adventure sports enthusiasts everywhere are expected to ascend upon Manali to take advantage of its ideal conditions for skiing and snowboarding, as well as rafting, mountain climbing, trekking and biking.

“The skiing in Manali is unsurpassed. Even Switzerland can’t offer better. But you don’t see people carrying their skis up the Alps,” says Himanshu Sharma, a Manali native and Swiss-trained, internationally certified ski instructor. After spending three years on Swiss slopes Sharma returned home and, with a group of local businessmen, went to work on creating his vision to bring gondolas and ski lifts to the majestic mountains above Manali.

An American entrepreneur, John Sims, spearheads the project, which is funded primarily by Alfred Ford of the Ford Motors family. Sims has developed numerous resorts in India and around the world, including a chain of resorts that he sold to Hyatt. HSV, he stresses, will be environmentally sensitive, and rather than aping the West, will show the West how to “take old wisdom and adapt to modern times.” In addition to the full array of adventure sports, HSV will offer yoga and yogic breathing exercises, known as pranayama, to help travelers with acclimatization for the altitude.

While sports aficionados worldwide will have luxuries never before experienced in the Himalaya, it’s the locals who will benefit most from HSV. Sims estimates that people from the state of Himachal will comprise at least 70 percent of HSV’s staff. “HSV will bring local people into the prosperity every other tourism group promises and then ignores,” he says.

For more information, visit HSV’s web site: www.himalayanskivillage.com.

Adventure Sports Tour Operators
Himalayan Journeys is the most reliable adventure sports tour operator in town. Guides there can arrange any sport or other activity you want to do, including visits to the numerous thousands-of-years old temples in and around Manali, hot springs in neighboring Vashisht, a 10-minute drive from Manali, and the Roerich Art Museum in Naggar, about 20 minutes away. Roerich was a Russian painter, explorer, philosopher and writer who lived in Naggar for 20 years, painting the Himalaya.

Himalayan Journeys
Located on the Mall (Manali’s main road), next to the German Bakery and across from Nehru Park.
Phone: 0091-1902-254397, 0091-1902-252365
Web site: www.himalayanjourneysindia.com
Email:

Other reputable tour operators

Himalayan Adventurers
On the Mall, opposite tourist information center
Phone: 0091-98162-23004
Web sites: www.himalayanadventurersindia.com,
www.incrediblehimalaya.net
Email:

North Face Adventure Tours
On the Mall, lower level, Hotel Rohtang Inn
Phone: 0091-1902-254041
Web site: www.northfaceindia.com

Hadimba Temple, Old Manali; Nicholas Roerich Museum, Naggar (24 km from Manali), hot springs in Vashisht

Traveling to Manali is relatively easy from Delhi. A small airport in Bhuntar, one and a half hours from Manali, offers daily flights. You can also hire a jeep and kick back for a 12-hour drive that lets you soak in the striking shifts in scenery as you pass the sunflower fields of the Punjab, and wind your way up the Himalaya along the Beas River. Sights I’ve encountered during that drive include a gentleman dressed in business attire, clutching a briefcase, riding to work (presumably) on an elephant, and a young couple crossing the Beas in a flying fox—a cage that shuttles passengers from bank to bank à la pants on a clothesline. Buses to Manali are also an option from most other northern India spots. Be warned, no matter how tight your budget, taking a bus in India will make you wish you had sprung for more comfortable transportation.

When you travel to India, always bring a flashlight or, better yet, headlamp. Electrical blackouts are frequent. Nights are cool, even during the warmer months, so pack one layer of fleece. Raingear is also a good idea.
For skiing and snowboarding in Manali, consider bringing your own equipment. While rentals are available through tour operators, quality equipment is hit or miss. If you’re not overly attached to your gear you can always sell it to a tour operator at the end of your stay.