I and my family went there in May 09.I went from Delhi by bus and it was a bumpy ride.It took approx 15 hrs.try to avoid sitting at back .
We stayed at Himchal tourism corporation Lodge.The lodge was good but there is no eating facility available there.It was about 2 KM from Mall road.The minimum charge of auto is Rs.30/- or Rs 35/-.There are spotslike hidimba temple, Nature park & others details of which are available in web sites.
The place is very crowded.The mall road is like mumbai railway station area.The weather is like hill station.Beas River was extremely cold and on putting legs inside the water, I felt like electric current running through my legs.
The area of beas river near mall road has been dirty by people who have toileted on the banks of the river.there is urgent need of shulabh shauchalaya there.
The journey to rohtang pass is time consuming.In summer the road is extremly crowded, We started at 8.30AM and reached at 2.30PM.The whole path was jammed and road is also vey bad.Road is broken at many places.There is a place where the boots and clothes are rented.The clothes are all old(Probably second hand sold by the army people).Hard bargaining should be done to reduce prices.Rohtang pass has become extremely dirty by excessive crowding.There is too much disturbance by the people who operate the hand carts and they try to fleece
the tourists. On the way there are dabbas which sell parathas, tea & other snacks.We reached back at maanali at 7PM.We went to Kullu town( it takes 1-1, 5hr from manali) and outside the town(approx 5 KMs) there is "Angora Rabbit farm".We went there by town bus.Kids will love this place as there are lot of rabbits.there is small hotel near kullu bus stand where the food was very tasty and price very reasonable.The outward decor of hotel is not nice but the quality of food is very good.
My best advice to budget travellers is to stay at HPTDC lodges( by the name of apple blossom) outside Manali as they are very cheap(Rs 500/- per day) compared to Rs 2000/-per day.
Return we went to Kullu airport from Manali.The charges are Rs 1000/- per trip.There is a flight to Delhi at 7AM.