District: Kangra, H.P.; STD code: 01892

Location : Dharamsala (1830 M altitude) is situated in Kangra valley on western part of Himachal Pradesh. The town can be approached from three sides: (a) from west - Pathankot; (b) from south- Jullundhar and (c) from south-east- Chandigarh (248 KM)/ Shimla via Mandi. Those traveling from Delhi, may avail the trail reaching Pathankot/ Chakki Bank from where road journey is of 3.5 hours. Otherwise, one can travel by road from Jullundhar or Chandigarh or Shimla.

General description : Dharamsala is a cool hill town in Kangra District. It is the district HQ and 92 KM east of Pathankot (Punjab) and surrounded by Dhauladhar range. The all weather roads connects all the important places of HP with Dharamsala. The rain fall is very high in rainy season. Therefore, the mountain areas have thick forest cover consisting of pine, cedar, oak etc. Dharamsala is mainly divided in two parts- Upper Dharamsala (1830 M)and Lower Dharamsala (1250 M). It takes about an hour to climb 3 KM from Lower to Upper Dharamsala. Upper Dharamsala is consisting of Mc Leod Ganj and Forsyth Ganj. The British army ha set up a camp at Mc Leod Ganj

Nearby Places to visit: Nurpur, Chamunda Devi and Mcleodganj

Tourists season : During Mar-May and Oct-Nov the temperature is comfortably cool and not much rain. These months are most comfortable for the tourists visiting Dharamsala. The snow-fall occurs during Dec-Feb at upper Dharamsala area.

The town was built by the British in 1855 and it is one of the 80 hill stations they had built in 1815-1857. The main business center, locality, Post Office, Government Offices, bus stand, etc. are situated at lower Dharamsala. The Tourist Office (Ph. 222363) is near the bus stand

Deluxe & Semi-Deluxe buses to & from Dharamsala

Transport : The nearest broad gauge rail station is Pathankot/Chakki Bank and is connected to major cities by direct trains. The taxis & buses are plenty in number to take the train passengers to Dharamsala and many other places in Himachal Pradesh. It is about 3.5 hours journey. The narrow gauge trains also run from Pathankot to Jogindernagar via Kangra. It is more time consuming and the passengers are to detrain at Kangra (4 hours) and travel by bus/car to Dharamsala (18 KM). For train timings and reservations please get the information from the Indian Rail's web site: http://www.indianrail.gov.in or train time table.

The Gaggal Airport is at 13 KM from Dharamsala. Jagson Airlines has service from Delhi via Shimla, Kullu in 2.5 hours with smaller aircrafts. The nearest airport for larger aircrafts is at Amritsar. For road distances between Dharamsala and other places, please refer the page for distance chart [Click here]. Super luxury AC buses (Volvo line) of Himachal Road Transport Corpn. ply between Delhi ISBT/ Himachal Bhavan at Cannaught Circus and Dharamsala. This apart other deluxe and ordinary bus services are also available for Delhi, Shimla, Chandigarh, Manali, etc. There are night service bus also available for long distance. The journey time for Shimla is about 9.5 hours, Chandigarh in 9 hours Delhi in 14 hours, Manali in 12.5 hours. This apart the buses from neighboring states also ply. The roads from Dharamsala to Chandigarh or Shimla or Manali are all weather motor able and good. There are a large numbers of tour & transport operators who arrange tours in car.

Last Updated on Sunday, 02 January 2011 20:27