A Road Trip to Ladakh - What, When and How from My Experience!

6 min readJul 25, 2022

A heaven for drivers!

Finally I did the most awaited road trip to Ladakh. Yes! I drove myself and I’m proud of it. One should be because it’s kind of an experience that you get when you move towards those muddy, uneven and high altitude landscapes. Specifically if you’re a rider or driver then it gets more special.

In this article, I’ll share my experience & learnings from this road trip and what one can do to make it better. Will cover the whole story while answering some obvious questions when we plan for a Ladakh trip.

Is it worth visiting?
Why should you do it?
When should you do it?
How should you do it?
How long does it takes?
What precautions to take?
What all places should you visit?
How much it costs?

All the answers are based completely on my personal experience.

So, Let’s begin the journey!

Is it worth visiting?

Definitely if you’re driving/riding yourself.

Honestly not much if you’re going via flight because 1) you don’t get to see the beauty of the journey via roads 2) it gets really tiring as Ladakh site seeing points are very far from each other with an average 150 Kms one side. Also once you would be done visiting two three points, you would find rest as similar. So yeah! A little boring in this case.

Why should you do it?

You should visit Ladakh if 1) you’re an explorer and like to visit places 2) you’re a traveler 3) you’re a driver/rider 4) you want to see a completely different landscape. 5) you want to feel history.

Other than these I don’t actually see a strong reason to visit Ladakh.

When should you do it?

I went in second week of July 2022. Road to Ladakh remain open from April til September/October (depending on weather). Generally it starts raining there from July end to August end. So mostly tourists prefer visiting Ladakh between April to June.

I would suggest to visit Ladakh in either July start or in mid September because at this time mostly tourists come back, it doesn’t rain there as such, and it become very less crowded. Hotels, Stays, Camps etc becomes little cheaper as well. Also If you would be there around July end(like I was), you may encounter some shower of rain which is perfectly fine and pleasant too. It remain cold at night and fairly hot in day.

How should you do it?

Well! I drove from Delhi to Ladakh to Delhi, a total of 3200 kms all by myself. But I won’t advice this to you. Not at all a good idea.

Take the road if 1) more than one person can drive 2) Whoever drive has good driving experience combine in both city and mountains.

If there is only one driver then make sure 1) you’ve enough time 2) you cover max 350 kms in a day and 3) keep halting after 120 kms around.

Take the flight if 1) you’ve less time 2) you’re with your family 3) you’ve a slightly more budget 4) senior citizen traveling with you.

How long does it takes?

It took me 12 days to complete the journey home to home which included major attractions in Central, North and South Leh. I kept 3 days in buffer. So the total time I had was 15 days.

You can plan for 7 days, 10 days and 15 days trip as per the attractions you want to cover. For less than 10 days trip, you should prefer traveling via flight.

Overall, 12 days are sufficient both via flight or car.

What precautions to take?

I got stuck in few situations which could be avoided. So here are few precautions which you can take to avoid any issue during your road trip.

There should be at least three person and two must be able to drive. It prevents overload on a single person. It also helps in pushing car if it gets stuck somewhere.
The car preferably should be a SUV. Though any car can go. In fact I went via Alto 800. But small cars may encounter issues while crossing uneven terrain or river patch with slippery stones. Small cars are even tough to raise on a slope. I got stuck on Chang La Pass due to slope in mid night during rain.
Car tyre must be tubeless with Nitrogen air. Nitrogen air is preferred for long routes. I filled mine with Nitrogen in Delhi at the start of the trip and they’re still maintaining the same pressure after covering the whole distance.
Spare tyre must be tubeless with Nitrogen air.
You should know how to change tyre and must have an air pump. It would be helpful if you can carry a tyre puncture kit because you never know what awaits ahead when you travel to Ladakh.
Carry 10k to 15k amount of cash while you’re in Leh. At some places, network is not available so better keep cash handy.
Buy a postpaid connection of either Airtel or BSNL. I had Airtel and it worked fine. There are areas where you won’t even receive any network like Tso Moriri.
Carry sunglasses and sun cream because in day time you may get tanned.
Carry one 5 litres of extra petrol/diesel camper.

That’s it. Take care of these points and you’re good to go without any issue.

What all places should you visit?

Central Leh you can visit all the attractions in 2 days easily. They are very near to each other.

Leh market, Pattar sahib gurudwara, Magnetic Hill, Sangam, Hall of fame, Shanti Stupa and Spituk Monaestry.
Leh palace (Optional) and Zorawar fort(Optional)

North Leh you need 3–4 days to visit the attractions easily. North leh is approx 180 kms from Central Leh. You’ll cross Khardung La Pass.

Diskit, Hunder, Turtuk, Tyakshi,
Thang — Last Village of North Ladakh. You can watch Pakistan from here.

South Leh you need 2 days again to cover.

Pangong Lake — 3 Idiots point
Tso Moriri Lake— Less people go here but this is more scenic than Pangong

Kargil this is again 200 kms from Central Leh. You can visit Kargil city and Kargil War Memorial.

How much it costs?

Well, cost depends on everyone’s way of traveling but in general you can estimate as follows:

Average per day stay cost : INR 1500 (excluding dinner and breakfast)

Average per day stay cost : INR 2500 (including dinner and breakfast)

Average food per day: INR 750 (for one person and three times a day)

Average fuel cost: INR 16000 (assuming 25 kmpl mileage)

Permit: INR 620 (per person)

Alcohol: INR 200 (one beer bottle)

Well that is it about Ladakh. You should go there once and see yourself. It would be one of a lifetime journey. Take care of the points I mentioned and you won’t face any issue.

How I made it? Where I got stuck? When you feel you’re in Ladakh?

All of that experience I’ll share in detail in a separate article soon.

So get up and go and I wish you a Happy Journey to Ladakh in super advance!

Until next time..

Cheers!