It’s easy to hike Nepal. Not so in India.
The hiking infrastructure for foreign tourists is not nearly so well developed. There are far fewer hiking guidebooks.
You need to do much more research when planning a hiking trip to India. The easiest jumping off point is Leh, Ladakh — a region administered by India as a union territory, and constituting a part of the larger region of Kashmir.
AT A GLANCE
- Ladakh, and Uttaranchal in the west
- Darjeeling and Sikkim in the east
- many peaks over 7000m (23000ft)
- every serious hiker wants to travel to Nepal. The savvy trekkers to the Indian Himalaya, as well.
- though challenging, India is a wonderful tourist destination
- English is widely spoken
- public transportation is slow at best, downright terrifying at worst
- getting to the trailhead may be much more dangerous than anything you do on the trek. Take the train rather than a vehicle whenever you can.
- best for experienced, confident, self-sufficient high altitude hikers
- hiking season somewhere May-Nov (though micro-climates vary greatly). Many treks are not recommended Jul-Aug — though you can hike most places in Ladakh most of the year.
Our list of BEST HIKES in INDIA is on our Asia information page.
