Delhi to Manali by road — the 513 km, stop by stop
The shape of the road
Delhi to Manali is 513 km from ISBT Kashmere Gate, and it is really three roads joined end to end. The first is the plains: the expressway and highway north through Haryana to Chandigarh, flat, fast and dull, where the only decisions are where to eat and how early to leave. The second is the climb: from Kiratpur the road enters the Shivaliks and winds up through Bilaspur and Sundernagar to Mandi, the stretch that has been widened in parts and still bends in others. The third is the river: from Mandi the highway follows the Beas through its gorge, through the Aut tunnel, and up a valley that opens at Bhuntar and Kullu and narrows again below Manali.
Photos: Dhruv shridhar (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Gannu03 (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Vyacheslav Argenberg (CC BY 4.0) — via Wikimedia Commons, resized.
Most people do it by overnight bus and see only the third road, at dawn. That is the sensible way. Driving it once in daylight is the reason this page exists.
By bus — the overnight
The state corporation's coaches leave from the Kashmere Gate area in the evening and arrive at the Manali bus stand the next morning; private operators run the same road from nearby at similar times and prices. Seats are booked online days ahead for weekends and holidays and on the day midweek. Sit towards the front for the hairpins after Mandi, and eat before you board — the dinner stop is a highway dhaba at an hour nobody wants dinner. Carry a layer: the air conditioning is set for the plains and the last hours are in the hills.
The bus stops once for dinner and once, usually, for tea somewhere around Sundernagar or Mandi in the small hours. It arrives early enough that the first day in Manali is a real day: the one-day plan is written for exactly that arrival, and the weekend from Delhi is built round the bus both ways.
By car — the day
Leave Delhi before five in the morning or after nine at night; everything in between is the traffic. Before five you clear the city in the dark, take breakfast at the paratha dhabas of Murthal with the sun coming up, and are past Karnal and Ambala before the plains get hot. Chandigarh's bypass is the last of the flat road; from Zirakpur the hills start.
The climb from Kiratpur to Mandi is where the day is decided. The widened stretches move; the old bends through Bilaspur and past the reservoir do not, and a slow truck on a hairpin costs twenty minutes with nowhere to pass. Sundernagar and Mandi are the tea stops. Beyond Mandi the road drops to the Beas and follows it — the gorge, the dam at Pandoh, the temple at Hanogi where the traffic stops for five minutes, the Aut tunnel. On the far side the valley opens, and from Bhuntar the road runs up between orchards through Kullu, 40 km and about 49 min short of Manali, to the bus stand.
Chandigarh is 264 km and about 289 min from Manali on a clear road — five to six hours with a stop — and it makes the natural halfway. Sleep there, leave at six, and the second day is the hill road in the morning light with lunch at Mandi and the valley in the afternoon, which is the drive at its best. The weekend from Chandigarh is that second day on its own.
Where to eat
Murthal for breakfast: the paratha dhabas on the highway north of Delhi are an institution and the reason to leave before five. Lunch is a highway dhaba around Ambala or Zirakpur if you left early, or Chandigarh's outskirts if you left later. Tea and something fried at Sundernagar or Mandi. After Aut the roadside stalls along the Beas sell fruit from the orchards in season — the apples from August, the plums in June — and the dhabas at Bhuntar and Kullu do the last real meal before Manali. In Manali itself, eat in Old Manali; our cafés page has the ones we know.
The last hour — Kullu to Manali
From the Kullu bus stand it is 40 km and about 49 min up the valley on the highway, on the right bank of the Beas, through Patlikuhl and Katrain. The quieter left-bank road through Naggar takes longer and is prettier; on a first arrival, take the highway and save Naggar for a day out. The road passes the turning to Vashisht across the river just before the town — the hot springs are the best first hour after a long drive — and ends at the bus stand, from which Old Manali is 2 km up.
Coming the other way, the spring at Nehru Kund, 5 km north of town, is where the valley opens ahead of you towards Solang and the tunnel; that road is the next trip.
Season and the road
May and June and the long weekends double the drive: the Chandigarh stretch fills, the hill road queues behind buses, and the last hours into Manali crawl. July and August bring slides on the Mandi–Kullu stretch that close the road for hours; check before you leave and carry food and water in the car. October is the clear month. From December the plains have fog in the early hours, which is the reason to leave after nine at night rather than before five. The hill road is dry and fast until the first snow, which does not reach the highway at Manali until deep winter. The snow plan has the winter arrival.
Flying and the train, briefly
Bhuntar airport is 49 km and about 62 min from Manali, with a few flights a day from Delhi and Chandigarh that are cancelled in cloud more often than elsewhere; it turns the trip into a weekend when it runs. The railway ends at Chandigarh for practical purposes, with the road up the valley for the last five to six hours. The how to reach article compares all four ways; this one is for the people who want the road.
Plans that include this
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1 night · 2 days · Slow travelWaterfallsQuestions people ask
How long does it take from Delhi to Manali by road?
The distance is 513 km from ISBT Kashmere Gate, and by car it is a full day — twelve hours or more with stops, longer on a long weekend when the Chandigarh stretch and the hills both fill. The overnight buses leave in the evening and arrive the next morning. Chandigarh, 264 km from Manali, is the halfway.
Is it better to drive or take the bus from Delhi to Manali?
The bus, for most people: the coaches leave in the evening from the Kashmere Gate area, you sleep through the plains, and you wake up in the Beas valley. Driving is the same road in daylight, which is the reason to do it once — the valley opening after Mandi is worth seeing — and needs two drivers or a Chandigarh night.
Where do you stop between Delhi and Manali?
Murthal for parathas at the start, the dhabas around Ambala and Zirakpur for lunch, Sundernagar or Mandi for tea, and the roadside stalls along the Beas above Pandoh for the last stretch. The Hanogi Mata temple beside the highway between Mandi and Aut is the traditional five-minute stop. Everything else is the road.
What is the road like from Mandi to Manali?
A river road: the highway follows the Beas through a gorge, then the Aut tunnel, then the valley widens at Bhuntar and Kullu and the last 40 km to Manali run up the valley floor between orchards. Two lanes, slides in the monsoon, traffic on weekends; allow about 49 min from Kullu to Manali.