Places to visit in Himachal Pradesh
74 places to visit in Himachal Pradesh, each with LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own: Great Himalayan National Park, Kalka Shimla Railway, Baijnath Temple and more. Stand at any of them with the app open and the stamp is yours, confirmed on site, in your Himachal Pradesh volume.
2 UNESCO World Heritage sites · 6 National monuments · 22 Famous places to visit · 15 Offbeat places · 29 Hidden gems
UNESCO World Heritage sites in Himachal Pradesh (2)
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Great Himalayan National Park
Eleven hundred square kilometres with no roads through it, holding snow leopard, musk deer and western tragopan.
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Kalka Shimla Railway
Ninety six kilometres, one hundred and two tunnels and eight hundred and sixty four bridges, built in narrow gauge in 1903.
National monuments in Himachal Pradesh (6)
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Baijnath Temple
Shiva as the physician, in a Nagara temple facing snow.
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Hidimba Devi Temple
A four tiered wooden pagoda of 1553 around a rock, standing in deodar forest above Manali.
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Kangra Fort
One of the oldest forts in the country, taken only twice.
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Masroor Rock Temples
Fifteen temples cut from one rock, facing the Dhauladhar.
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Rashtrapati Niwas
The Viceroy's lodge on Observatory Hill, where the decision to partition India was taken in 1945, and a scholars' institute since 1965.
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Tabo Monastery
A thousand years of murals in mud walls.
Famous places to visit in Himachal Pradesh (22)
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Bagalamukhi Temple, Bankhandi, HP
Bagalamukhi at Bankhandi in Kangra, also called Peetambhara, the one dressed in yellow.
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Bara-lacha la
A pass at 4,889 metres in the Zanskar range, on the road from Lahaul into Ladakh.
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Bir Billing
The take off point for the paragliding world cup.
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Chail
Built by a Maharaja of Patiala after Shimla threw him out, with the highest cricket ground in the world at 2,444 metres.
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Chamba
A thousand-year-old hill capital on the Ravi, with a grassy chaugan at its centre and six stone temples older than most kingdoms.
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Chintpurni
One of the Shakti Peethas, busiest in Navratri.
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Dalhousie
Five hills and a Scottish idea of a summer.
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Gobind Sagar
The water Bhakra holds back on the Sutlej, named for the tenth Sikh guru.
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Kalpa
At twenty eight hundred metres facing Kinner Kailash, with apple and chilgoza pine on the same slope.
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Kasol
The Parvati valley's front door.
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Khajjiar
A meadow with a lake in the middle of it.
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Kullu
The valley town on the Beas whose Dussehra begins when everyone else's ends, with two hundred village gods carried in for it.
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Manali
Where the Kullu valley narrows and the road to Ladakh begins, with apple orchards on both banks of the Beas.
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Mandi
Eighty one temples along the Beas, and a week-long Shivratri fair to which the gods of every valley are carried in on palanquins.
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Manikaran Sahib
Boiling springs, a gurudwara, and langar cooked in the water.
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McLeod Ganj
The seat of the Tibetan government in exile since 1960, a Himachali hill town that became a Tibetan one.
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Nahan
A Sirmaur capital on a ridge at the foot of the hills, with a temple pond in the middle of the bazaar and no traffic in the old town.
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Palampur
The tea town of the Kangra valley, with the Dhauladhar a wall of snow behind every garden.
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Paonta Sahib
The town on the Yamuna where Guru Gobind Singh spent four years writing, and the gurdwara that stands where he wrote.
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Pong Dam
An earth dam on the Beas in Kangra district, just above Talwara.
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Shri Chamunda Devi Mandir
Chamunda's temple in the Kangra valley, nineteen kilometres out of Palampur.
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Vajreshwari Devi Temple, Kangra
Durga here is Vajreshwari, goddess of the thunderbolt, and hers is one of the fifty one Shakta pithas.
Offbeat places in Himachal Pradesh (15)
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Barog
A hill station on the Kalka to Shimla railway, sixty kilometres above Chandigarh.
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Chandra Taal
A crescent lake at four thousand three hundred metres, reached on foot over the last stretch, frozen most of the year.
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Chitkul
The last inhabited village on the old Hindustan Tibet road, at thirty four hundred metres on the Baspa.
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Dhankar Monastery
Built on a spur of crumbling rock above the Spiti.
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Kareri Lake
Snowmelt held in a bowl above the treeline.
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Kaza
The Spiti sub divisional headquarters at 3,800 metres.
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Key Monastery
A thousand year old Buddhist monastery stacked on a hill in Spiti at four thousand metres, rebuilt after fires, raids and an earthquake.
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Kinnaur Kailash
A six thousand metre peak with a rock shaft near the summit that Shaivites walk forty kilometres to circle.
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Kunzum Pass
The gate between Lahaul and Spiti.
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Malana
A village with its own laws and its own language.
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Nako Lake
A village around a lake at four thousand metres.
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Pin Valley National Park
Snow leopard country, and the Buchen lamas.
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Rewalsar Lake
A small hill lake that the Tibetans call Tso Pema, above Mandi at thirteen hundred metres.
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Rohtang Pass
Thirty nine hundred metres, open roughly five months a year, and the old gate between Kullu and Lahaul.
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Saach Pass
A pass of 4,414 metres over the Pir Panjal, out of Chamba and into the valley beyond.
Hidden gems in Himachal Pradesh (29)
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Bharmour Chaurasi
Eighty four shrines in one courtyard.
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Bhimakali Temple
Timber and stone stacked into a tower.
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Bhrigu Lake
A high lake above Gulaba the sage Bhrigu is said to have meditated by, and gods bathe in.
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Christ Church Shimla
The second oldest church in north India, on the Ridge.
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Deo Tibba
A flat-topped peak above Manali that looks easy from the valley and is not.
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Hatu Peak
The highest point above Narkanda, with a temple of dark deodar said to be Mandodari's.
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Jakhoo Temple
The tallest Hanuman in the country, and monkeys who take glasses.
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Jwalamukhi Temple
A flame that burns with no fuel anybody can find.
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Khirganga National Park
High forest and glacier in the Parvati valley, notified in 2010 and mostly trackless.
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Kufri
The nearest snow to the plains.
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Laxmi Narayan Temple
Six stone shikharas in a row, tenth century.
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Manimahesh Kailash
A peak in Chamba nobody has climbed, and nobody local thinks anybody should.
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Manimahesh Lake
A lake under Kailash in Bharmour, walked to in Bhadon by thousands.
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Manirang
A peak on the Spiti-Kinnaur divide, with a pass of the same name beneath it.
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Mount Gya
The highest peak in Himachal, on the Ladakh border, and unclimbed by agreement with the local people.
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Naina Devi Temple
On a ridge above the Gobind Sagar.
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Naldehra
A golf course Lord Curzon laid out himself.
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Pin Parvati Pass
The crossing from green Parvati into bare Spiti, over a glacier, five thousand three hundred metres.
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Prashar Lake
A round lake with a floating island and a thirteenth century pagoda temple above Mandi.
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Renuka Lake
The largest natural lake in the state, shaped like a woman.
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Reo Purgyil
The highest peak in Himachal Pradesh that anybody is allowed to climb, on the Tibet border.
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Rupin Pass
A crossing from Uttarakhand into Himachal through a hanging valley and a snow gully.
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Sangla Valley
Apple orchards under Kinner Kailash.
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Shinku La
The pass from Lahaul into Zanskar, open a few months a year and soon to be tunnelled under.
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Shipki La
The Sutlej's way into India, and a border post opened for trade a few days a year.
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Simbalbara National Park
Sal forest in Sirmaur on the Haryana border, small and quiet, with goral.
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Solang Valley
Snow in winter, paragliders in summer.
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The Ridge
The open spine of the summer capital of British India, with Christ Church at one end and the mall below.
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Triund
One day up, and the whole Dhauladhar in front of you.
Collecting in Himachal Pradesh
What are the best places to visit in Himachal Pradesh?
LOQAH lists 74 places in Himachal Pradesh. The best known include Great Himalayan National Park, Kalka Shimla Railway, Baijnath Temple, Hidimba Devi Temple and Kangra Fort. Each has a stamp of its own to collect when you are there.
How many LOQAH stamps are there in Himachal Pradesh?
74, and more are added over time. Each place has LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own.
How do I collect a stamp in Himachal Pradesh?
Open LOQAH at the place and get its stamp. LOQAH checks where you are once, at that moment; at the place itself the stamp is confirmed on site, with a gold badge.
I have been to places in Himachal Pradesh before. Can I add them?
Yes. In Earlier trips, choose Himachal Pradesh and swipe through its stamps, or import your Google Timeline. Each one goes into your volume with the date, if you know it.
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