This review is not to highlight Manali as a place and its beauty but is to the point comments on local sight seeing, charges, transport and hotels.
We took sleeper volvo from Delhi To manali. The journey is 16 hrs but quite comfortable. I stayed at Hotel Sagar resorts, Hotel Zarim and Hotel Everest. All of these are very near from bus-stand. So if you don’t have too much luggage you can take a quick walk to these. An auto would charge you from 20 bucks to 30 bucks depending on the tourist season.
Hidimba temple
Hidimba temple is quite walkable from these hotels up the road. The walk goes through woods and is quite enjoyable. You may find big queue for the temple. You may get lucky if you manage to reach before 4:30pm.
Manu temple
This is a very old temple and on the way to old Manali. Take road towards club house and immediately turn left after crossing the bridge. Steep walk of around 1 km is required. You can catch some stunning views by following in the direction of Shivshakti cafe and with little bit of trekking. This cafe is just around Manu temple area.
Solang valley
This is 9km from Manali and on the way to Rohtang. Best to get a sumo from Taxi union near bus stand. Will charge you around 650/- for a tour of 4 hours. Transit time is around 30 minutes, so you have around 2 and half hours to spend there. Once you reach the parking area, people will offer to take you to the valley by hourses charging 200/-. Its hardly 10 min walk, better not to use hourses unless you would want to ride them.
Main attraction is paragliding which costs 600/-. This is what is charged in tourist season, off-season it comes down to under 300-400 Rs. Its a worth experience if not already taken. The whole ride takes around 2 mins but fully worth. You will have to climb a tiny hill before taking a plunge.
Locals do video-shoot for your descent and offer you VCD for 100/-. Hundred is an overkill, but you can negotiate for 50-75/-. If you are not carrying handycam then this could be a good option to capture your thrill. They however shoot from ground.
Rohtang Pas
51 km from Manali, this place is a must must visit. Best way to go is hire qualis. The first stop on the route is "Madhi". Ensure to reach Madhi by 10am otherwise you will be stalled till 01:00pm as the traffic to and from Rohtang is controlled. Also ensure to start off from Rohtang by 01:00pm otherwise chances that you will get stuck in inbound traffic.
The entire route to Rohtang is quite scenic, so do not miss out on your handycam. You will need to get suits to cope up with the cold on top. Hundreds of shops are available on the route which offers suit for complete day for 100 bucks per head only. If you choose to get the suite from top, it will cost you more than 3 times. You can either get body hugging suit or just an overcoat.
Snow sledges are available at top to go till zero point. Its a good option especially for older people. However you will have to bargain hard as they claim anything from 200 to 500 bucks. If you are enthusiatic then you can easily walk down to the zero point; takes no more than 10-15 mins.
You can do skiing just for 100 bucks for half an hour. Its fun but tiring experience. The guide will make sure you learn the basic things before actually starting on somewhat steep slope. These guys carry all necessary things for skiing and quite helpful as they run beside and behind you when on the slope.
During season stalls serving tea, coffee, snacks, maggie etc available on the top.
Manikaran
This is also a one day trip and is around 140 km to and fro. Best way to go is to get HPTC bus which charges around 220/- per head. The bus starts from state bus stand which is 5 min walk from HP tourism corporation office.
We started at 10 in the morning.The first stop was Vaishno devi temple. The idols are like replicas of actual Viashno devi temple. However you are not allowed to carry any leather stuff like belt, wallet etc, mobile, camera, eatables inside temple. Locker facility is available at the base of the temple for 5/-.
Next stop is Kullu shawl factory. This display weaving machines at the ground floor whilst the show room is on first floor. This is a good option to buy Kullu shawls at reasonable prices. Other attraction just before the factory is sangam of Vyas river and Parvati river. You can literally see crystal clear water of Vyas and somewhat dirty water of Parvarti river merged into a stream. Unfortunately the bus does nt stop at the junction.
We reached Manikaran by 3:00 pm. Road is very narrow but in good condition. Places to see are old Ram temple, Raghunath temple, shiv temple and Gurudwara. Natural hot water springs can be seen at Shiv temple. This complete visit does not take more than 40 minutes even at a leisurely pace.
Bus almost comes non-stop to Manali except a brief halt at Angora rabbit farm. Return journey took us around 3.5 to 4 hours.