This review is not to highlight Dharamshala as a place and the beauty of McLoadgunj and surroundings. This review is to the point comments on local sight seeing, charges, transport and hotels.
We visited Dharamshal in month of Jun 2006.
We reached Dharamshala from Manali. The journey takes around 12 hrs. We took a private bus which starts 7:00 pm from Manali and reach Dharamshala by 7:00 am. HP state transport buses ply during the day only. Private bus is quite comfortable and takes you to Dharamshala within time. The fare is around 350 bucks.
We stayed at HP Tourism approved hotel called "Yatri Niwas" which is just before the bus stand. We didn’t find Hotel up to the mark. Daily DBR charges are 700 plus tax. The water supply was cut off at 12:00 noon to allow cleaning of other rooms. We got our room cleaned and setup by 7:00pm in the evening after following up with the staff. I would not recommend this hotel as this is not at all good value for money.
Sight seeing can be done in one day and best done by taxi. There are no auto rickshaws as such available to move within the city. We hired a cab from Bus stand to visit upper dharamshala (400 /-) and lower Dharamshala (250/-). Total time they offer is 5 hrs for both, but can be covered in 4 hours. HP buses ply from bus stand to some of the spots but you would end up consuming most of the time in travel.
Upper Sharamshala visit consists of the following spots
Naddi - beautiful view from this spot.
Dal lake - small lake with boating available. Not clean water.
St John’s church - small and beautiful church
Bhagsu Nag temple - very old temple. There is a huge waterfall behind the temple. Proper walkable way available to reach upto the top of the waterfall. Must see.
Dalai lama temple - Tibetian temple. Beautiful Buddha statue.
Mcloadgunj - city. You can roam around through market for some shopping.
Lower Dharamshala consists of following spots. Don’t press too hard for seeing this. Even if you miss this, you won’t regret much.
Devi kunal pathiri temple
Tea gardens - tea plants spread over huge area. Worth a look at neatly planted and cultivated plants.
War memorial
Cricket stadium
A few restaraunts are available on Kotwali bazar road. Would recommend Hotel Monal. Try out vegetable fried Mo-Mo. You can also try Himachal thali at Hotel Atithi on Kotwali Bazar road.
Buses to Shimla available from bus stand one at 7:00pm and the other at 9:30pm. These are ordinary buses (2x3) and costs something like 180/- per head. There are no private buses to Shimla. We took 9:30pm bus and reached Shimla by 5:00 am.