For roughly sixty years, from 1864 until the 1930s, the government of British India moved to Shimla every summer. Viceroys, the army command and the whole apparatus of administration relocated some 1,800 kilometres from Calcutta and later Delhi to a ridge in the Himachal foothills at 2,200 metres, and from there governed around a fifth of the world's population. The Viceregal Lodge where they did it still stands, now the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, and the Partition of India was negotiated in its rooms.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, Roman Trail earns a small commission at no extra cost to you.
The Kalka to Shimla railway, built in 1903 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, climbs 1,500 metres in 96 kilometres through 102 tunnels and over more than 800 bridges, and it takes five to six hours. The town it reaches is a long spine along a ridge with the streets stacked below it. Pack for cold, for steep ground, and for monkeys.
What Makes Shimla Different to Pack For
It is cold, and it snows
Winter runs minus 2°C to 10°C with snow from December to February and occasional heavy falls that close roads. Summer, which is the season, runs 15°C to 28°C and is why Indian families come. The monsoon from July to September is heavy and brings landslides.
A merino wool base layer for women covers October through April, and accommodation heating here is often a single electric heater in a cold stone building.
The whole town is a slope
Shimla is built on a ridge with everything below it, connected by stepped lanes and a lift. The Mall and the Ridge are level; nothing else is. Walking from the station or the bus stand to a hotel means climbing, often with luggage, and porters work the station for exactly that reason.
The monkeys are a genuine problem
Rhesus macaques around Jakhoo temple and along the Ridge snatch food, bags, glasses and phones, and bites are common enough that the town has signage about it. They are bold and fast.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Shimla Packing List
Footwear
Warm, grippy and waterproof. The lanes are steep and often wet, and in winter they ice badly, particularly in the shaded sections below the Ridge. Waterproof hiking shoes are the right call most of the year, with proper boots in deep winter.
Shoes come off at Jakhoo and the other temples, so wool socks.
Clothing
A layering system with a windproof outer. A warm hat and gloves for winter, which visitors arriving from Delhi consistently fail to bring. Himachal is conservative; covered shoulders and knees is the comfortable baseline.
Note that the Mall is a pedestrian promenade where the town walks in the evening, and Indian families dress up for it.
For monsoon
A genuinely waterproof packable rain jacket, and schedule slack, because landslides close the Kalka road and the railway for hours or days in July and August.
For the monkeys
A bag that closes properly and nothing carried loose. Sunglasses in a case rather than on your head at Jakhoo. Sticks are handed out at the temple entrance and are genuinely used.
Practical
Cash, though Shimla is better served than most of Himachal. A wide brim sun hat for the summer, since UV at 2,200 metres is stronger than the temperature suggests. Book the toy train well ahead, since it sells out weeks in advance in season.
What to Wear at Key Sites
The Kalka Shimla railway
Narrow gauge, 1903, 102 tunnels, and a five to six hour climb through pine forest with the plains dropping away behind. The Himalayan Queen and the Shivalik Deluxe are the named services.
Practically: book weeks ahead, since it is the single most popular thing here and reservations open months out. Cold on the upper stretch even in summer, with limited heating. Take food; the on board offering is thin.
The Ridge and the Mall
The Ridge is the open level space along the top with Christ Church, the second oldest church in north India, at one end and the Scandal Point junction at the other. The Mall below it is the shopping street, pedestrian only.
Practically: level, which is a relief, and busy from late afternoon. Christ Church is open and free. The lift from Cart Road saves a long climb from the lower town and costs very little.
Jakhoo temple
A Hanuman temple on the highest point above the town at 2,455 metres, with a 33 metre statue of Hanuman visible from most of Shimla, reached by a steep walk of around half an hour from the Ridge or by a ropeway.
Practically: the climb is short and hard. The macaques here are the most aggressive in the town and staff hand out sticks at the gate; carry nothing loose, remove glasses, and do not carry food. Shoes off at the temple.
The Viceregal Lodge
Built 1888 in Scottish baronial style for Lord Dufferin, with electricity before most of Britain had it. Guided tours cover a few rooms and the grounds, and the table where the Partition boundary discussions happened is shown.
Practically: a few kilometres west along the ridge, walkable in around an hour on a pleasant wooded road or a short taxi. Tours are timed and the interior access is limited.
The lower bazaar and the town below
Under the Mall, reached by stairs at several points, the lower bazaar is the Shimla that was always there: a dense stack of shops, workshops and houses on terraces cut into the slope, where the town actually buys things. The British kept the two levels formally separate and for a long period Indians were restricted from the Mall and the Ridge except by permission.
It is the most interesting part of the town and the least visited by tourists, who stay on the promenade above.
Practically: steep stepped lanes, wet underfoot, and genuinely confusing to navigate, since the levels connect irregularly. Go in daylight. It is where to buy anything you actually need, at a third of Mall prices, and where the good cheap food is.
Out of town
Kufri at 2,600 metres is the standard day trip and is crowded and fairly grim in season. Chail has the highest cricket ground in the world at 2,444 metres. Narkanda and Hatu Peak are quieter and better for walking, and the Great Himalayan National Park is further east.
What Not to Bring
Leave the assumption that India means warm; Shimla in January is below freezing at night. Leave loose bags and dangling sunglasses near the temples.
Leave a tight schedule in monsoon. Leave the expectation of getting a toy train seat on arrival, and leave a large suitcase you cannot carry up a stepped lane.
Essential Resources for Women in Shimla
Emergency numbers in India: 112 is the national emergency number. Police 100, ambulance 102 or 108, fire 101. The women's helpline is 1091.
Tourist support: India operates a 24 hour multilingual tourist helpline on 1363. Himachal Pradesh Tourism has an office on the Mall, and the state police maintain a tourist presence in season. A stolen passport needs an FIR filed at the local station before the embassy can issue a replacement.
US Embassy and consulate: the embassy is in New Delhi at Shantipath, Chanakyapuri, telephone +91 11 2419 8000, at in.usembassy.gov, around eight to ten hours by road or the train to Kalka and on. Enrol in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at step.state.gov before you travel.
Main hospital or clinic: the Indira Gandhi Medical College hospital in Shimla is the state referral hospital and handles serious cases, with several private hospitals in the town. This is better provision than most of Himachal. Travel insurance is advisable.
Official health authority: the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare at mohfw.gov.in.
US State Department travel advisory for India: current advisory level and detail. Read it directly rather than relying on this page.
UK FCDO travel advice for India: entry requirements, safety and health guidance.
Official tourism authority: Incredible India at incredibleindia.gov.in. Note that Himachal Pradesh Tourism has had no reliable working domain in recent checks, recorded in candidate_notes.md, so use the national board and IRCTC for the railway booking.
Solo women safety assessment: Shimla is one of the more comfortable Indian hill stations for a woman travelling alone. It is a state capital with a large resident population rather than purely a resort, the Mall and the Ridge are pedestrianised and busy with families into the evening, the police presence is visible, and the atmosphere is domestic tourism rather than backpacker. Violent crime against visitors is rare. Expect staring, which is standard in northern India, and some persistent attention from touts and photographers on the Ridge; dressing conservatively and a firm no both work. Petty theft is at a modest level, concentrated around the bus stand and the lower bazaar, which is the one area worth avoiding alone late at night since it is a warren of unlit stepped lanes. The practical hazards are terrain, monkeys and weather. The lanes are steep and ice hard in winter, and falls are the commonest injury here. The macaques are the most likely thing to actually hurt you: bites and scratches happen regularly, particularly at Jakhoo, and a bite means a rabies risk assessment, so carry nothing loose and do not engage with them. In monsoon, landslides close roads and the railway with little warning, and in deep winter snow can cut the town off for a day or two, so build slack into onward plans rather than assuming the schedule holds.
Reading On
Shimla is the grandest of the Indian hill stations and the one where the colonial history is impossible to look past, which is part of what makes it interesting. The India travel guide for women is the parent for the whole country and covers the regions, the seasons and the trains, and the India packing list for women covers a multi region trip. In the same state, the Manali packing list for women covers the Kullu valley and the road north, the Dharamsala packing list for women covers McLeod Ganj, and the Spiti Valley packing list for women covers the high desert beyond. Elsewhere in the Himalaya, the Ladakh travel guide for women and the Darjeeling packing list for women cover the west and the east. The travel packing guide for women is the parent for all destinations. For why merino is the right layer in a cold hill station where the heating is one electric bar, the best merino wool base layers for women explains the fibre, and the Roman Trail collection is where the tops themselves live.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
