North India · City
Ladakh's high desert capital of palaces, gompas and prayer flags
Photo: Anirvan Shukla · CC BY-SA 3.0
Best: May–Oct
Leh became the capital of Ladakh under the Namgyal kings in the early seventeenth century, when Sengge Namgyal built the nine-storey palace that still leans over the old town like a smaller Potala. For three hundred years caravans from Yarkand, Lhasa, Kashmir and Punjab unloaded pashmina, tea, salt and turquoise in its bazaar, and the mix of Buddhist, Muslim and Kashmiri traders is still visible between the Jama Masjid of 1666 and the gompas on the ridge. The town stands at 3,500 m in a bare brown valley of the Indus, green only where irrigation channels feed barley fields and willow groves.
Days start slow, because they must; the first morning is for walking the Main Bazaar, drinking butter tea and letting your body catch up with the altitude. After that the old town's whitewashed lanes lead up to the palace and on to Namgyal Tsemo, whose red gompa looks over the whole valley. Shanti Stupa is the sunset spot, and the Hall of Fame museum tells the story of the Siachen and Kargil wars.
The best excursions lie along the Indus: Thiksey for the six o'clock morning prayers, Shey for the copper Buddha, Hemis for the biggest monastery in Ladakh, and Alchi for eleventh-century murals. Leh is also the place to arrange Inner Line Permits, hire a driver, and buy apricot jam and pashmina before the road climbs to Khardung La.
Best May–Oct
May to September for open roads and clear skies; January to February for the Chadar trek and frozen lakes.
Give Leh 3 days and it repays the time; with fewer you are choosing between Leh Palace and the old town lanes below it and Namgyal Tsemo Gompa on the ridge above the palace. We build the hours around the weather — early starts when it is hot, long afternoons when it is not.
On the ground
The days we would actually plan for you, in the order that suits the light.
At the table
Non-vegLadakh
A broth of hand-pulled wheat noodles with mutton or vegetables, spring onion and a little local chilli, ladled out steaming at 3500 metres. Ladakhis eat it as a full meal, often after skyu and before butter tea. The kitchens along Changspa Lane in Leh serve it from late morning until the shops close.
Getting there
Kushok Bakula Rimpochee airport is 4 km from town with daily flights from Delhi; the nearest railhead is Jammu (700 km); Srinagar is 434 km and Manali 473 km by road.
Airport pickups, station transfers and the driver for the days here are all part of what we arrange — including the hour you should leave, which is usually earlier than you think.
Next door
Places that join Leh without a long drive — the way a real week is built.
ValleyLadakh
Sand dunes, double-humped camels and monasteries beyond Khardung La
LakeLadakh
A 134 km lake that changes colour by the hour
LakeLadakh
A high blue lake on the Changthang where nomads still graze
MonasteryLadakh
One of Ladakh's oldest gompas above a valley they call moonland
ValleyLadakh
Cliff monasteries, a frozen river walk and Ladakh's remotest valley
2 journeys
8 days · 7 nightsChallenging · Best Jun–Sep
Eight days over 5,000-metre passes to Nubra, Pangong and Tso Moriri
Route: Leh → Nubra Valley → Pangong Tso → Tso Moriri
10 days · 9 nightsChallenging · Best Jun–Sep
Ten days over Zoji La and Khardung La to Pangong Tso
Route: Srinagar → Sonamarg → Lamayuru → Leh +2 more
From the journal
· Itinerary · 5 min
Everything that decides whether a Ladakh drive works: which highway to enter on, how many days to give altitude before Khardung La, what permits cost, when the passes open and close, and a tested twelve-day loop from Leh to Tso Moriri.
· Guide · 6 min
India is not one climate but six, from a Himalayan cold desert at 3,500 metres to hills that take eleven metres of rain a year. Here is the whole calendar, month by month, with the regions, roads and parks that open and close with it.
Before you ask
Photograph of Leh: Anirvan Shukla · CC BY-SA 3.0
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