Mini Switzerland in India
Best Time to Visit October to December & Febuary to May
Dalhousie is located in Chamba District of Himachal Pradesh with view of Snow Clad Mountains of Aksai China & Kashmir (India). It holds one of the oldest charms of Hill Station. It is also home to Old Colonial type buildings since British Rule. It is believed to be developed & named at the time of Lord Dalhousie in India. It has one of the finest churches like St. Francis & St. John's.
Khajjiar located just 21 Kms from Dalhousie holds the tag of Mini Switzerland for its panormic view of Pine Trees spread over valley & adventure sports. Route to Dalhousie from Khajjiar has also some beautiful views of Balakot Hills where National Wildlife Santuary is there & Snow Points (depends on the season of visit). Diankund HillTop located 12 Kms from Dalhousie for round the year view of Snow Clad Mountains. Chamera Lake located 35 Kms is ideal place for boating in the midst of Mountains.
Panjpulla located 3 Kms from Dalhousie has Waterfall which later falls in natural ponds where one can sit in the pond and have some coffee which further divides into 5 different flows. It is also regarded sacred waterfall. This place has an amusement park, adventure park and some shops for shopping woollens.
Nearest Airport is Dharmshala & Nearest Railway Station is Pathankot.
About My Trip:
I booked my train tickets for darshan of Mata Vaishnodevi but after the pulwana attack & attack in Jammu, i diverted my program from Mata Vaishnodevi to Dalhousie. With the same train tickets, I boarded at Pathankot from where i took taxi for Dalhousie. It took 3 hours to reach Dalhousie from Pathankot. I made my hotel bookings for Dalhousie online. I booked Alps Resort which was 2 Kms above Dalhousie on Balakot Hills.I booked the resort for 4 Days. It was complete relaxing holidays. I was lucky enough for the reason that this year there was plenty of snowfall in Dalhousie & surrondings. Moreover as i visited the place in first week of April there was mixture of snow clad mountains and Pine Trees allround. Our resort has a beautiful view of Mountains with Pine Trees on the front side & snow clad mountains on the rear side. Resort was located on the way to Khajjiar.
On the first Day as we reached in the evening, we did relaxed in the resort itself. Food was good at the resort.
On the second Day, after breakfast in the resort we decided to move to Gandhi Chowk & Subhash Chowk. Both these places are the main markets of Dalhousie. Gandhi Chowk is 2.5 Kms from the resort, so we decided to take short route from the resort which is only 1 Km from the resort. The route was deserted as there were few persons using that route. We came to know about the route from resort. This route was itself adventureous and also with all scenic beauties. As soon as we reached Gandhi Chowk, we found crowd in the market. There were shops of Woollens, Toys etc. There were several restaurants on Gandhi Chowk & Statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the middle of the chowk. First we visited St. John's Church which was in midst of Gandhi Chowk. It was one of the oldest and nice church. We did some shopping at Gandhi Chowk. There is possibility of good bargaining. Then we felt that we should have lunch, so we decided to take lunch in Cafe Dalhousie, one of the oldest restaurant of Dalhousie. There were several restaurants of different cuisines at Gandhi Chowk. More precisely Gandhi Chowk and Subhash Chowk is all of Dalhousie. Then we went to Subhash Chowk which was another 1 Km from Gandhi Chowk. As we reached to Subhash Chowk, there was St. Francis Church. We visited this church, it is also one of the oldest church of Dalhousie and is beautiful. It has mini zoo inside the church. It has several sculptures of Mother Mary and Jesus Christ made outside the church which were astonishing. There were also several shops at Subhash Chowk. There was a Statue of Subhash Chandra Bose facing the beautiful mountains. Route from Gandhi Chowk to Subhash Chowk can be covered through Garam Sadak & Thandi Sadak. Garam Sadak is little hotter as it faces direct sunlight while Thandi Sadak is pleasant as it faces cold breeze from the mountains. We returned to the resort by evening with the same route, we opted to come down. Had our dinner & took rest.
It was the third day, which was our busiest day. We hired taxi to go to Khajjiar, Snow Point and Punjpulla. We were also planning to go to Diankund Peak but the route was closed due to heavy snow fall. It was highest peak of Dalhousie. It took around 1 Hrs to reach Khajjiar, the entire route was covered with snow clad mountains and waterfalls. Though Khajjiar was somewhat down the hills, therefore there was no Snow in Khajjiar but the place was really beautiful. This place is also called Mini-Switzerland. Entire place was a plateau surrounded with dense Pine Trees all over. Soon after reaching Khajjiar, we decided to do Paragliding. Haven't done till date in my life. It was my first experience of flying all above without any wire attached to anything. I had done parasailing but in that i was attached with the boat via wire. They took us in some other vehicle to a village which was reached with rough roads. That was the place which has that steep cliff. We are tied with the parachute which was holded by 6 persons as it was too big to hold. Then we were told to run to the edge of the steep cliff from where we started flying in the sky. These immense pleasure of capturing the fear was out of the world experience for me. After flying for few minutes we landed on a plain surface in the midst of hills from where a vehicle took us to the main location where Khajjiar lake & Khajjiar Park is located. The route from the place where we landed to Khajjiar Park was breathtaking & most dangerous. Vehicle was just passing all the edges of the hills with few inches.
Khajjiar Park and Khajjiar Lake was really a scenic beauty. Covered all around with Pine Trees this plateau was really beautiful. It is true to be named as Mini-Switzerland. Some snow clad mountains were also visible from the place. There was crowd of tourists visiting this place. There were several eateries around the park. One can get shelter beneath this Pine Trees where benches to sit were there. There is a Lake in the midst of the Park. As the water was less, Boat services had been temperorarly terminated. Breathtaking view of the Park makes it worth visiting. There were several adventurous rides and also Horse riding facilities were available but it was very costly. Khajjiar Park holds beautiful photogenenic views as there were some wooden bridges and walkway over the lake made to add the beauty of the park. There were several places where there was high landscaping and low landscaping in the park covered with green grass. Though the place had too much insects disturbing us in entire visit. It is advisable to the department maintaining the place to make intiative to remove insects from the place for convienience of tourists. Overall above all that the place was worth visiting.
From there on the way to Dalhousie, there were several snow points as there was plenty of snowfall this year in this region. We stopped our driver at one such snow point where we enjoyed with the snow. We played for few minutes in the snow and then we departed for Punjpulla. Punjpulla can be reached via Dalhousie. It is 2.5 Kms. from Dalhousie.
Punjpulla has basically a Waterfall which flows from the top portion as single stream and later distributes into five Streams. Moreover it has ponds made before & after the streams are distributed. One can get into the pond and have a cup of tea and coffee. It can be an experience of pedicure where small fishes in the pond makes this possible. There are shops at Punjpulla, Adventure Rides and an Amusement Park. There is a Statue of Great Patriot Sardar Ajit Singh under a architectural design made for tourist for taking snaps. View of the mountains is also photogenic from this point.
On returning to our resort, we stopped our Driver to Beeji Park which was mere 0.5 Km from our resort. It is a park where replicas of defence vehicles and look alike ammunition are placed for taking snaps with them. We also noticed Dalhousie Public School where a scene of Film 'Tare Zameen Par' was shot. It was just beside Beeji Park. This Beeji Park is located on the Highway from Dalhousie to Khajjiar. It can be viewed while driving also. We reached our resort in the evening and had our dinner and took rest.
It was our fourth Day in Dalhousie. We relaxed and used the property of the resort. We played pool and participated in other activities of the resort. We also finalized our Taxi to Pathankot for the next day to return to our home town. Weather on the fourth day changed and there was heavy rainfall. We were lucky to enjoy the trip in the Dalhousie to the fullest. It was very much chilled and hence one could not even come out of the room without proper woollens.
Do & Don't :
Do carry Torch as there is frequent power outages. Carry Raincoates to Snow Points to enjoy in snow and during rainfall. Don't roam on deserted roads after evening and early mornings as there is fear of Bear attack which we came to know from local people.
It was the third day, which was our busiest day. We hired taxi to go to Khajjiar, Snow Point and Punjpulla. We were also planning to go to Diankund Peak but the route was closed due to heavy snow fall. It was highest peak of Dalhousie. It took around 1 Hrs to reach Khajjiar, the entire route was covered with snow clad mountains and waterfalls. Though Khajjiar was somewhat down the hills, therefore there was no Snow in Khajjiar but the place was really beautiful. This place is also called Mini-Switzerland. Entire place was a plateau surrounded with dense Pine Trees all over. Soon after reaching Khajjiar, we decided to do Paragliding. Haven't done till date in my life. It was my first experience of flying all above without any wire attached to anything. I had done parasailing but in that i was attached with the boat via wire. They took us in some other vehicle to a village which was reached with rough roads. That was the place which has that steep cliff. We are tied with the parachute which was holded by 6 persons as it was too big to hold. Then we were told to run to the edge of the steep cliff from where we started flying in the sky. These immense pleasure of capturing the fear was out of the world experience for me. After flying for few minutes we landed on a plain surface in the midst of hills from where a vehicle took us to the main location where Khajjiar lake & Khajjiar Park is located. The route from the place where we landed to Khajjiar Park was breathtaking & most dangerous. Vehicle was just passing all the edges of the hills with few inches.
Khajjiar Park and Khajjiar Lake was really a scenic beauty. Covered all around with Pine Trees this plateau was really beautiful. It is true to be named as Mini-Switzerland. Some snow clad mountains were also visible from the place. There was crowd of tourists visiting this place. There were several eateries around the park. One can get shelter beneath this Pine Trees where benches to sit were there. There is a Lake in the midst of the Park. As the water was less, Boat services had been temperorarly terminated. Breathtaking view of the Park makes it worth visiting. There were several adventurous rides and also Horse riding facilities were available but it was very costly. Khajjiar Park holds beautiful photogenenic views as there were some wooden bridges and walkway over the lake made to add the beauty of the park. There were several places where there was high landscaping and low landscaping in the park covered with green grass. Though the place had too much insects disturbing us in entire visit. It is advisable to the department maintaining the place to make intiative to remove insects from the place for convienience of tourists. Overall above all that the place was worth visiting.
From there on the way to Dalhousie, there were several snow points as there was plenty of snowfall this year in this region. We stopped our driver at one such snow point where we enjoyed with the snow. We played for few minutes in the snow and then we departed for Punjpulla. Punjpulla can be reached via Dalhousie. It is 2.5 Kms. from Dalhousie.
Punjpulla has basically a Waterfall which flows from the top portion as single stream and later distributes into five Streams. Moreover it has ponds made before & after the streams are distributed. One can get into the pond and have a cup of tea and coffee. It can be an experience of pedicure where small fishes in the pond makes this possible. There are shops at Punjpulla, Adventure Rides and an Amusement Park. There is a Statue of Great Patriot Sardar Ajit Singh under a architectural design made for tourist for taking snaps. View of the mountains is also photogenic from this point.
On returning to our resort, we stopped our Driver to Beeji Park which was mere 0.5 Km from our resort. It is a park where replicas of defence vehicles and look alike ammunition are placed for taking snaps with them. We also noticed Dalhousie Public School where a scene of Film 'Tare Zameen Par' was shot. It was just beside Beeji Park. This Beeji Park is located on the Highway from Dalhousie to Khajjiar. It can be viewed while driving also. We reached our resort in the evening and had our dinner and took rest.
It was our fourth Day in Dalhousie. We relaxed and used the property of the resort. We played pool and participated in other activities of the resort. We also finalized our Taxi to Pathankot for the next day to return to our home town. Weather on the fourth day changed and there was heavy rainfall. We were lucky to enjoy the trip in the Dalhousie to the fullest. It was very much chilled and hence one could not even come out of the room without proper woollens.
Do & Don't :
Do carry Torch as there is frequent power outages. Carry Raincoates to Snow Points to enjoy in snow and during rainfall. Don't roam on deserted roads after evening and early mornings as there is fear of Bear attack which we came to know from local people.
