This trip to the land of Passes starts from Manali fondly known as the “Gateway to Ladakh” by motorbikers and covers all the prominent high altitude passes. Luxury bus ticket from Delhi to Manali and return is provided for comfortably reaching Manali from where the ride starts. Keeping the ride comfort as highest priority the default motorbike provided is the mighty RE Himalayan 411cc or RE Standard 500c. This tailor-made motorbike trip to Ladakh will be operated with small group size to ensure the highest safety standards and individual attention to every rider. The non-riders who will be preferring to travel in a multi-utility vehicle will be provided comfortable cars like Toyota Innova or Mahindra Xylo.

The trip will be led by a highly experienced and qualified Road Captain from whom you can learn a few tricks and techniques to make your ride more comfortable and easy in the technical section. He will also be helping you to cross difficult sections like water and slush crossing which is very common in this high altitude ride. The road captain and the hospitality manager travelling in the backup vehicle will be Wilderness First Aid qualified and trained to handle all kinds of medical emergencies. An exhaustive first aid kit along with the foldable stretcher will be available in the backup with easy access. The back up vehicle will be always travelling behind the group sweeping all the riders and ensuring even the slowest rider is safe and with the group. The experienced mechanic who is trained to do quick fixes and repairs to motorbikes will be in the backup carrying all the necessary basic spare parts of the motorbikes.

This trip gives you immense opportunity and time to explore and relax at beautiful Manali and progress your ride towards the high passes like Rohtang Pass, Baralacha Pass, Nakee La, Lachung La, and Tanglang La. A buffer day in Leh is included for conditioning your body with proper rest after the strenuous ride through Manali Leh Highway. You can also utilise this day to explore the Leh city and nearby attractions. The trip is designed in a way that you cover the prominent and famous destinations in Leh like Nubra Valley crossing the mighty Khardung La Pass and fascinating Pangong Tso lake. 

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Itinerary:
 

Day 00: Overnight Luxury Bus to Manali

Day 01: Arrival in Manali
The bus usually reaches the Manali bus stand by late morning around 1000HRS. Our pick up support will be waiting to receive you from the bus stop and drive you to the pre-booked hotel. Finish your check-in formalities and utilise the rest of the day for resting and preparing for the wonderful expedition ahead. The timings for the evening expedition briefing will be communicated to you as you finish the check-in formalities.

Ensure you are back on time for the briefing, a detailed expedition briefing will be provided by our Road Captain along with hospitality managers. The briefing will be followed by the motorbike & helmet allotment. The mechanic and the road captain will be there to support you and do the necessary adjustments in the bike to suit your riding style.

The first dinner of the expedition will be served early and we love to call it the ‘Welcome Dinner”. It is the best opportunity to socialise and know each of the team members, which is actually very important for a harmonious and successful expedition.

Day 02: Manali to Jispa | 140KMS | 8 to 9 Hrs
Today we have an early breakfast and start the first day of the motorbiking expeditions. The first days are always the busiest and time consuming one in any expedition, as this is the day you are just starting a daily expedition routine which gradually becomes much easier and seamless as the days pass on. The extra luggage will be loaded in the backup vehicle and you are supposed to gear up properly as advised in the earlier briefing. Finish the hotel check out formalities and you are all set for ‘Wroooming’ the motorbikes through the winding high altitude roads ahead.

Leaving early is very pivotal today as the first high altitude pass Rohtang Pass at 3978m comes en route. This is a pretty famous and highly touristy pass due to its easy accessibility from Manali which makes the road towards it more jam-packed with day visit tourist vehicles. To avoid the chaos and traffic it is advised to leave early. We spend a few minutes in Rohtang Pass enjoying the views and clicking some cool photos then continue towards Jispa.

We have lunch at Khoksar, a few kilometres after crossing Rohtang Pass. There are lots of small Dhaba selling some great foods. The varieties may be limited to mutton Rice, Dal Rice, Chow Mein, Instant Noodles etc from which you can select as per your taste and appetite. One thing is for sure the taste of the food you have from these places is going to be tingling in your taste buds life long. We continue the ride towards Jispa crossing the prominent villages and small mountain towns like Sissu and Keylong.

Reach Jispa by early evening and check in to the pre-booked hotel. Fresh up and it's time for reflecting on the beautiful and adventurous moments of the day. Enjoy the buffet dinner along with some warm and refreshing soup.

Day 03:Jispa to Sarchu | 90KMS | 5 to 6 Hrs
Today’s ride is one of the smallest rides of the trip distance-wise but the adrenaline level is going to be at the top. We start our ride immediately after a refreshing breakfast. We slowly ride through winding roads which are pretty much in good condition and cross Darcha. The road leading towards left from Darcha will take you to the Zanskar Valley crossing Shinku La pass, but we will stick to the Manali - Leh Highway towards Deepak Tal. After Deepak Tal, we start our climb towards the treacherous Baralacha Pass at 4890m, negotiating Zing Zing Bar and crossing the beautiful Emerald lake Suraj Tal on your right. You will find snow in Baralacha Pass most of the time, and if you are lucky enough you may also encounter fresh snow up here.

Just below Baralacha, we hit Bharatpur where we stop for the well-deserved lunch. Have your lunch from the roadside Dhaba who sells mutton rice, bread omelette, instant noodles, chowmein etc just like Khoksar. The major difference you will see here is pretty much all the Dhabas are inside a tent and the food will taste much better after the fulfilment of crossing Baralacha.

We continue our ride to Sarchu, the terrain would have completely changed by now, Tsarap River can be seen on the left-hand side carving and raging through the mountains. The air is very thin with an average altitude above 4000m, what you see around can be termed as high altitude regions, these places are not favourable for human inhabitation. Acute Moutain Sickness starts peeping in most of the people even after having a pit stop in Jispa before reaching here. Our expert crew will be there to support and guide you through this difficult region. Once we reach the campsite the tents will be allotted which are comfortable luxury twin sharing tents with attached washroom facility. The winds can be very strong and can be heard howling the whole night. 

Warm and delicious dinner will be served in the dining tent, many of us may not be feeling like having food due to the headache and the AMS symptoms, but this is exactly what we have to fight against. Keep yourself well hydrated with warm fluids and eat the minimum food required to help the body fight the AMS and tiredness. We go to sleep early tonight and try to get the maximum sleep before we head towards Leh the next day morning.

Day 04: Sarchu to Leh | 250KMS | 7 to 8 Hrs
After a difficult forced sleep in Sarchu, we wake up early to check out from the campsite after breakfast for yet another thrilling ride to Leh. Today we get to cross some great high altitude passes and other interesting road features before reaching Leh. The road conditions will be pretty much good with well-tarred roads throughout. Just after leaving Sarchu we start our climb towards Nakeela Pass at 4739m, crossing the zig-zag Gata loop which is a series of 21 hairpin bends within a span of just 7KMS. We descended from Nakeela and soon again started to climb to reach the next high pass Lachung La at 5065m.

Soon we reached Pang at 4600m, after descending from Lachung La, which is basically an Army Transit Camp claimed to be the highest in the world. There are many dhabas around, where we will be having our lunch the major options are thupka, soup, instant noodles, dal rice etc. We aim to finish lunch as soon as possible and continue the ride. Then comes the plateau of  Morey plains at 4700m which stretches about 45KMS long. Don’t get deceived by the breathtaking beauty and its long straight stretches, as it is also an accident-prone area due to its uneven road surface. Road Captain will brief you on how to navigate the section safely, closer to the end of the plains we will start climbing the Tanglang La at 5328m which is also the highest in Manali Leh highway.

Crossing Tanglang La we continue straight towards Leh, on the way we cross many small remote towns like Upshi, Karu. From Upshi we will have the Indus river accompanying us along on the left side. We reach Leh by evening, check in to the hotel and relax. 

Day 05: Rest Day in Leh
Today we rejuvenate yourself and reflect on the adventures of the last few days. The day can be utilised to roam around the Leh city and do some sightseeing of the attractions. The shopaholics can do the much-awaited shopping at leisure. Evening we meet again for dinner and plan our upcoming days.

Day 06: Leh to Nubra Valley | 158KMS | 6 to 7Hrs
After a full day's rest, we start our ride again to Nubra Valley through the highest motorable road Khardung La Pass at 5359m. We need permits to continue towards the Nubra Valley and then to Pangong Tso as per our schedule. The crew facilitates the permits the day prior itself for the smooth start of our ride. The road towards Khardungla is well paved and tarred till South Pullu and checkpoint before the pass, from here to North Pullu which is about 15KMS from Kahardung La is unpaved and mostly muddy, loose rocks and melting snow. Once in  Khardung La we will have some quick photo sessions and continue our ride. Due to very thin air and high altitude, it is not safe and advisable to stay for a longer time on top of the pass. We ride down to reach North Pullu to have our lunch. We finish our formalities in the checkpoint and select a dhabha with good seating arrangements and nice food for scrumptious lunch. Here there are many restaurants and hotels to select from and we get pretty much every kind of Indian and Tibetan food to order from.

After lunch, we continue our ride towards Nubra Valley. It is a beautiful valley which is also where the River Shyok, a tributary of River Indus, meets River Shyok. The valley formed actually separates the great Himalayan ranges from Karakoram ranges in Ladakh. After crossing the village Khalsar, the road forks towards Siachen on the right which leads to the villages like Sumur and Panamik along the Nubra River. We will continue towards the left leading us to the headquarters of Nubra Valley Diskit and then to Hunder. A quick stop to visit the 32m  high Maitreya Buddha statue in Diskit monastery and continue towards Hunder. Between Deskit and Hunder lies the famous the white sand dunes of Nubra Valley where the amazing double-humped Bactrian camels graze. Enjoy some quality time in the dunes along with a few good photo sessions and camel rides. We reach Hunder and check in to the luxury camp pre-booked. Staying in Nubra will be much more comfortable than in Sarchu due to the lower altitude and better greenery. 

Day 07: Nubra Valley to Pangong Tso Lake | 241KMS | 8 to 9Hrs
We check out from the camps after breakfast and start our ride towards the much-awaited Pangong Tso Lake. Today’s ride is unique because of two major things, one, we will not cross any high altitude passes today and two, it is one of the least travelled routes in the whole trip. The outer world came to know about this route from Nubra to Pangong Tso via Agham and Shyok village only about a decade ago. It became very popular since the last couple of years when the road conditions became better. Earlier the option to reach Pagong Tso from Nubra was coming back all the way to Leh and then taking the route crossing Chang La Pass to the lake or another treacherous and unpredictable route of crossing Wari La pass and Changla.

Most of our ride will be along the beautiful Shyok river and crossing the major villages like Agham, Shyok, Durbuk and Tangste. There will be few deep water crossings, rocky patches and some slushy wobbly patches. We have our lunch at Durbuk, good options and a variety of vegetarian food is available here like Chowmein, Thupka, Instant noodles, Daal Rice etc. After Durbuk we ride straight towards Tangste and then to Spangmik, riding along the lake in the last stretch.

We check-in into the luxury camps pre-booked and spend our late evening stroll along the serene lake. The expansion, beauty and the calmness of the lake can take anybody to a natural trance provoking the inner happiness and satisfaction.

Day 08: Pangong Tso Lake to Leh | 160KMS | 5 to 6Hrs
Enjoy the beauty of the lake with rising Sun and later reach camp for breakfast. We pack and leave towards Leh after breakfast. On the way, we will visit the spot where the famous 3 Idiots movie climax scene was shot. Spend some time there for a few photos and say a quick Goodbye to the mesmerising Pangong Tso Lake. The road towards Leh is pretty good except few muddy patches.

Soon after leaving Pangong Tso lake, we will cross the villages like Lukung, Tangste and Durbuk. We start our climb towards Chang La pass at 5360m after crossing Durbuk. We have our lunch at village Sakti which is about an hour and a half from Chang La. The major delicacies available would be dal rice, rajma rice, paratha, chowmein etc. Once the lunch is done we restart our ride and continue towards Leh, Karu is the next village and from here we join the Manali Leh Highway. Before reaching Leh we will come across the major monasteries of Leh like Thiksey and Shey. There are many spots on the highway where you can take some great pictures of Thiksey just like the one in a postcard!

Being the last night in Leh of the whole trip, we ensure that it is going to be a special one. A gala dinner is what we plan on tonight. 

Day 09: Leh to Sarchu | 250KMS | 7 to 8 Hrs
We wake up in the morning and start our return journey towards Manali with an overnight break-in Sarchu.

If anybody is short of time and wants to cut short the ride can fly out from Leh on this day. In that case, we will be transporting the motorbikes in trucks and would be much helpful if you let us know this decision before the start of the trip.

This would be your second stay in Sarchu, and I bet it's going to be a much better experience than you had while coming towards Leh. This is mainly because 

Day 10: Sarchu to Manali | 230KMS | 8 to 9 Hrs
We continue our ride to Manali after a good night's sleep in Sarchu. Today’s ride is going to be a little longer and tiresome so we start a little early just after an early breakfast. We will be riding through the roads with all those beautiful memories of the last few days. We reach Manali by late evening and check into our pre-booked hotel.

Day 11: Board Overnight Luxury Bus to Delhi
Today you have ample time to do some much needed last-minute shopping and visit the places you wanted to visit in Manali. 

Your pre-booked bus usually departs from Manali in the early evening.