The Ridge
The Ridge, Shimla's large open square, connects the Mall to Lakkar Bazaar and holds Christ Church and the town's own historic water reservoir beneath it.
Himachal Pradesh⛰ 2,205 m3 itineraries
Shimla
Shimla at 2,205 m: the Ridge, Christ Church, Jakhoo Temple, the UNESCO Kalka-Shimla Railway — and copyable itineraries for one to two days in town.
Itineraries you can copy
All 3 →
Day plan · First visitClassic
One day in Shimla — the Ridge, Christ Church and Jakhoo
A single-day Shimla loop: the Ridge, Christ Church, the former Viceregal Lodge, and Jakhoo Temple's giant Hanuman statue. Free, copyable itinerary.
Best Apr–Jun · Sep–Oct
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1 night · 2 days · First visitClassic
Two days in Shimla — the Ridge and Kufri
A two-day Shimla plan: the Ridge, Christ Church and Jakhoo Temple on day one, then Kufri and Tara Devi Temple on day two. Free, copyable plan on HimLocal.
Best Apr–Jun · Sep–Oct
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2 nights · 3 days · First visitClassic
Three days in Shimla — the full circuit
A three-day Shimla plan: the colonial town core on day one, quieter temples and a waterfall on day two, Kufri and Tara Devi Temple on day three.
Best Apr–Jun · Sep–Oct
See the plan →Shimla is the capital of Himachal Pradesh, built across seven hills at 2,205 m, and was the summer capital of British India from 1864 until 1947. The town's Victorian-era core — the traffic-free Mall and the Ridge above it — still carries that history in its half-timbered buildings and colonial churches.
Christ Church, the second oldest church in North India, stands on the Ridge itself. Jakhoo Temple, on the town's highest point, holds the world's largest Hanuman statue. The Indian Institute of Advanced Study, the former Viceregal Lodge, is where the 1945 Simla Conference and the 1947 partition decision both took place. The Kalka-Shimla Railway, a UNESCO World Heritage line, is how most visitors arrive by train at all.
A day covers the Ridge, Christ Church, Jakhoo Temple and the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, all close to town; a second reaches Kufri and Tara Devi Temple further out. See the one-day plan and the two-day plan for both, and things to do in Shimla for the same stops laid out with costs and timing.
Photos: Virusism (CC BY-SA 4.0) · ShashankSharma2511 (CC BY 3.0) · Jishnu Mohan (CC BY-SA 4.0) — via Wikimedia Commons, resized.
Places worth the drive
Kufri
Kufri, at around 2,720 m and 15 km from Shimla, is a resort hill station with a Himalayan wildlife zoo and a winter ski track through the potato plantations.
Kalka-Shimla Railway
The Kalka-Shimla Railway, built 1898–1903 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008, is a narrow-gauge line through more than a hundred tunnels to Shimla.
Indian Institute of Advanced Study
The Indian Institute of Advanced Study, on Observatory Hill in Shimla, is the former Viceregal Lodge — site of the 1945 Simla Conference on India's self-rule.
Army Heritage Museum
The Army Heritage Museum, in Shimla's Annadale cantonment, covers Indian military history across four sections, from the Mahabharata era to today.
Tara Devi Temple
Tara Devi Temple, at about 1,850 m near Shimla, is a roughly 250-year-old shrine to the goddess Tara Devi, built by Sen dynasty kings atop its own ridge.
Sankat Mochan Temple
Sankat Mochan Temple, at 1,975 m on the Chandigarh-Shimla highway, was founded in 1950 by Neem Karoli Baba, Shimla's second-busiest Hanuman shrine today.
Jakhoo Temple
Jakhoo Temple, at 2,455 m on Shimla's highest point, holds a 108-foot Hanuman statue unveiled in 2010, reached by a demanding walk, taxi or the Jakhu Ropeway.
Christ Church
Christ Church, on Shimla's Ridge, was designed in 1844 and consecrated in 1857 — North India's second oldest surviving church, built in the neo-Gothic style.
On the map
Open the Shimla map →The places a Shimla day reaches, with the road time from town. Each opens on the map with its plans and pages beside it.
Before you go
All articles →Things to do in Shimla — 9 worth the visit, and what each costs
Nine things to do in Shimla sorted by distance from the Ridge, with measured drive times, what each one costs, and the best time of year to see them.
How to reach Shimla — road, rail and air
Getting to Shimla via Chandigarh in about three hours, by the UNESCO Kalka-Shimla Railway, or by HRTC bus — and what each approach actually involves.
The best time to visit Shimla
Shimla by season, using its own IMD weather record: when the monsoon hits hardest, when the snow falls, and the clearest windows for the Ridge and Kufri.
Questions people ask
How many days do you need in Shimla?
One day covers the Ridge, Christ Church, Jakhoo Temple and the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, all close to town. A second day reaches Kufri and Tara Devi Temple further out. Most visitors combine both into a 2–3 night stay.
Is the Kalka-Shimla Railway worth taking?
Yes — it's a UNESCO World Heritage line through more than a hundred tunnels, and for many visitors the train itself is as much a reason to come as any single sight in town. Book well ahead in peak season.
What's the best time to visit Shimla?
April to June or September and October — both sit outside the heavy July–August monsoon, when Shimla's own IMD record shows 328.3 mm and 351.3 mm of rain respectively, together well over half the year's total.
Photographs by Wikimedia Commons contributors (CC0, CC BY, CC BY-SA), resized; each picture is credited on its own page.