Kasauli is a town of about 5,000 in the Solan district of Himachal Pradesh, 1,900 metres up on a ridge, founded by the British in 1842 as a cantonment and still largely administered as one. IT IS A PLACE WITH ALMOST NOTHING TO DO AND THAT IS THE ENTIRE POINT.
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One honest note about the photographs. KASAULI'S IMAGE SET IS THIN. Of five attributable frames, two show a pair of macaques and a man holding a book, neither of which tells you anything about the place, and they are not used here. What you see is the church tower, a house in the woods and the hills in snow, which is a fair representation of a town whose character is quietness rather than sights.
What Is Here
THE UPPER AND LOWER MALL ARE THE TOWN, two roads along the ridge with deodar and chestnut on both sides, colonial bungalows behind hedges, and no traffic through the central section. Walking them is what people come to do.
CHRIST CHURCH WAS BUILT IN 1853 and is the building the town arranges itself around: neo-Gothic, with stained glass brought from England and a clock tower, set among cedars. It is the image at the top of this post.
The second image is the honest one: a house in wooded hills, which is most of what Kasauli is.
MONKEY POINT IS THE HIGHEST SPOT AND IT IS INSIDE AN AIR FORCE STATION. There is a Hanuman temple at the top with a view over the Punjab plains to Chandigarh on a clear day. ACCESS IS CONTROLLED BY THE INDIAN AIR FORCE: photo identification is required, cameras and phones are usually not permitted beyond the checkpoint, and the hours are set by the base rather than by a tourist office. Check before walking up.
The Gilbert Nature Trail is a level 1.5km walk along the hillside through pine, with birds and a view, and it is the best short walk in town.
The Kasauli Brewery is said to be among the oldest operating distilleries in Asia, founded in the 1820s, and it does not generally admit visitors, which people are regularly disappointed by.
When to Go
March to June and September to November. April, May and October are the best months.
Summer is the busy season, when Delhi and Chandigarh come up to escape the heat, and weekends fill.
Avoid the monsoon, July to mid September: heavy rain, leeches on the trails, and landslides on the approach roads.
December to February is cold, with occasional snow, frost at night and a town that is almost empty. Rooms are not heated.
Getting There
By road from Chandigarh, about two hours for 65km; from Shimla, roughly two and a half.
By train to Kalka, 40km away and the terminus of the Kalka to Shimla narrow gauge line, then a taxi up.
By air, Chandigarh is the nearest airport at two hours.
Most visitors come from Chandigarh or Delhi for a weekend, and many combine it with Shimla.
Is Kasauli Safe for Women?
Kasauli is a cantonment town with an army and air force presence and is extremely safe. The FCDO does publish advised-against areas for India, and being precise about them matters more than a general warning. It advises against all travel to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, except air travel to and movement within the city of Jammu, and against all travel within 10km of the India-Pakistan border, where the Wagah-Attari crossing is closed. It advises against all but essential travel to the state of Manipur, including Imphal. None of that is anywhere near this destination, and it is worth knowing which parts of a very large country the warnings actually describe.
The military administration is a feature rather than a footnote. Large parts of the town are cantonment land, building and commerce are restricted, and that is why it has stayed small and quiet. It also means PHOTOGRAPHY NEAR MILITARY INSTALLATIONS IS PROHIBITED and Monkey Point has its own access rules.
The hill roads are the real risk, as everywhere in Himachal: two hours of curves from Chandigarh, shared with buses, and worse in rain.
MONKEYS ARE NUMEROUS AND BOLD, which the name of the high point suggests. Do not carry visible food, do not feed them, and do not make eye contact with a large male. Bites require medical attention because of rabies risk.
The ridge paths have unfenced drops in places and are slippery in rain.
Nights are cold and rooms are unheated, which is the most common complaint about a winter visit.
The Kasauli Packing List
A 1,900 metre ridge: mild days, cold nights, no heating, and a lot of walking.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is the sensible first layer in a town whose entire activity is walking a ridge: warm in the sun, warm when the cloud comes in, and still comfortable in the evening when the temperature drops twelve degrees and the room has no heater. It also covers your shoulders, which is the dress expectation in a Himachali town. A heavyweight merino base layer from November to March.
A Columbia Powder Lite insulated hooded jacket for the evenings, which is the item visitors most often wish they had brought, and a Marmot PreCip Eco rain jacket.
Waterproof hiking shoes with Darn Tough merino socks: the Mall is paved and the nature trail and ridge paths are not.
A rechargeable headlamp, because power cuts are routine and the Mall is poorly lit at night.
Not linked and worth packing: PHOTO IDENTIFICATION, which you need for Monkey Point and should carry anyway in a cantonment; A SCARF; A BOOK, genuinely, since that is what Kasauli is for; A WATER PURIFICATION METHOD; and CASH, as ATMs are limited. Leave the drone at home: this is military airspace.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Kasauli
Emergency numbers: 112 is the single national emergency number and works from any phone. 100 reaches police directly, 108 ambulance and 101 fire. 1091 is the national women's helpline and 1098 the child helpline.
Monkey Point sits inside an Indian Air Force station. Photo identification is required, cameras and phones are usually not permitted beyond the checkpoint, and the opening hours are set by the base rather than by a tourist office: check before walking up. PHOTOGRAPHY NEAR MILITARY INSTALLATIONS IS PROHIBITED and large parts of the town are cantonment land. DO NOT BRING A DRONE. MONKEYS ARE NUMEROUS AND BOLD: no visible food, no feeding, no eye contact with a large male, and a bite needs medical attention because of rabies risk. THE RIDGE PATHS HAVE UNFENCED DROPS and are slippery in rain. THE HILL ROAD from Chandigarh is two hours of curves shared with buses. NIGHTS ARE COLD AND ROOMS ARE UNHEATED. THE BREWERY DOES NOT ADMIT VISITORS, which disappoints people who have read otherwise.
US State Department travel advisory: the India advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/india, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospital: Kasauli has a civil hospital and the Central Research Institute, with larger facilities at Solan and Kalka about an hour away and Chandigarh's major hospitals at two hours. Dial 108 for an ambulance. Healthcare in the large Indian cities is genuinely good in the private hospitals and variable in the public ones, and the private sector expects payment or a direct insurance guarantee up front. Carry insurance with a high medical limit and repatriation cover, and carry proof of it. The commonest problem by far is not dramatic: it is stomach upset, so drink sealed bottled or filtered water, and be more careful with raw salad and cut fruit than with hot food cooked in front of you.
Official health authority: the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. covers the Himachal Pradesh state health service
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in New Delhi.
Official tourism authority: Incredible India, the Ministry of Tourism's official site. publishes the Monkey Point access arrangements, which are set by the Air Force, and the Gilbert Nature Trail information
Takeaways
There is nothing to do. That is what it is for.
Monkey Point needs photo ID and usually no camera. Check the hours first.
The monkeys are a real nuisance. Carry nothing visible.
Bring a warm layer. Nights are cold and nothing is heated.
Solo women safety assessment: Kasauli is one of the safest places in this library for a woman travelling alone, and the reason is structural rather than cultural: it is a cantonment, administered in large part by the Indian Army, with an Air Force station at the top of the hill. That brings a permanent official presence, restricted building, no through traffic on the central Mall, and a general orderliness that is unusual for an Indian hill town. The visitor population is families and couples from Chandigarh and Delhi on weekends, and almost nobody at all midweek. Dress covered as you would anywhere in Himachal and there is nothing further to manage. 112 IS THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY NUMBER, with 100 for police, 108 for an ambulance and 1091 the women's helpline, and there is a civil hospital in town with Chandigarh's major facilities two hours away. THE FCDO'S INDIAN PROHIBITIONS ARE NOWHERE NEAR HIMACHAL. WHAT YOU ACTUALLY NEED TO KNOW IS ADMINISTRATIVE RATHER THAN DANGEROUS. Monkey Point, the highest point and the best view, is inside an active air force station: carry photo identification, expect to leave your phone and camera at the checkpoint, and check the hours locally because they are the base's and not a tourist office's. Photography near military installations is prohibited, and a drone would be a serious mistake here. THE GENUINE NUISANCES ARE MONKEYS AND COLD. The macaques are numerous, bold and entirely unafraid; carry nothing visible, never feed them, avoid eye contact with a large male, and treat any bite as needing medical attention because of rabies risk. And a 1,900 metre ridge in December is near freezing at night in guesthouses that have no heating at all, which is the single most common complaint about a winter visit and the easiest thing to prepare for. The ridge paths have unfenced drops and turn greasy in rain, so the shoes matter more than the gentle distances suggest.
Reading On
Kasauli is lower Himachal and Shimla is up the road. The Shimla packing list covers the former summer capital two and a half hours away and the Chandigarh packing list the planned city two hours below, with the Dalhousie packing list and Dharamsala packing list for the western hill towns and the Kasol packing list and Manali packing list for the Kullu and Parvati valleys. Higher, the Spiti Valley packing list and Ladakh packing list cover the trans-Himalaya. East, the Mussoorie packing list, Dehradun packing list and Rishikesh packing list cover Uttarakhand, with the Amritsar packing list and Delhi packing list on the plains. For the country the India travel guide for women and the India packing list carry the transport and the practical material in full. For why wool suits a mild day and a freezing unheated night, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
