
Ten days in Ladakh in July 2026. Seven of us flew into Leh, five of us came out through Srinagar, and somewhere in the middle we spent a whole afternoon sitting at the bottom of a closed mountain pass.

This is what we actually did, day by day, with what it cost. Not a list of rules, just our trip.

## At a glance

| | |
|---|---|
| **Route** | Leh → Pangong → Hanle → Lamayuru → Drass → Sonmarg → Srinagar |
| **Days** | 10 |
| **Group** | 7 into Leh, 2 flew home from Leh on day six, 5 on to Srinagar |
| **Top altitude** | Umling La, 5,798 m |
| **Highest night** | Hanle, 4,500 m |
| **Cost** | ~₹75k per person, flights included |
| **When** | July |
| **Flights** | Into Leh, out of Srinagar |

---

## The route

| Day | Where | Sleep at |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reach Leh, market in the evening | 3,500 m |
| 2 | Leh day out | 3,500 m |
| 3 | Thiksey, Rancho School, Chang La, on to Pangong | 4,350 m |
| 4 | Pangong → Rezang La → Umling La → Hanle | 4,500 m |
| 5 | Hanle | 4,500 m |
| 6 | Hanle → hot springs → Leh → Lamayuru, drone at moonland | 3,500 m |
| 7 | Lamayuru moonland → Kargil → LOC viewpoint → Drass | 3,300 m |
| 8 | Kargil War Memorial → Zoji La → Thajiwas glacier → Sonmarg | 2,800 m |
| 9 | Sonmarg → Srinagar | 1,600 m |
| 10 | Srinagar, fly out | 1,600 m |

We gave ourselves two full days in Leh before going anywhere high. Everything from day three onward sits above 4,000 m, and that buffer is the single best decision we made.

---

## Day 1: Leh

**Stay:** Zostel Leh.

We landed and did nothing, which was the plan. Everyone had read the same warnings about not exerting yourself on day one, so we drank a lot of water and stayed horizontal.

By evening we felt fine enough to walk the Leh market and sit at Lehvenda Cafe for a while.

## Day 2: Leh day out

We did the loop out of town rather than the monasteries. **Gurudwara Pathar Sahib** first, then **Magnetic Hills**, where we did an ATV ride at ₹1,200 each, then the **Sangam**, where the Indus and the Zanskar meet and stay visibly different colours for a stretch. There's a cafe at the confluence and we ate there.

We also did the **Hall of Fame**. Back in town, **Shanti Stupa** and **Leh Palace**, tickets ₹50 and ₹25 each.

<div class="flex flex-col sm:flex-row gap-3 my-4">
  <img src="/content/blogs/ladakh-itinerary/sangam.webp" alt="The Indus and Zanskar meeting at the Sangam" class="w-full sm:w-1/2 min-w-0 rounded-lg object-cover max-h-[60vh]" />
  <img src="/content/blogs/ladakh-itinerary/leh-palace.webp" alt="Looking over Leh town from Leh Palace, Shanti Stupa on the ridge behind" class="w-full sm:w-1/2 min-w-0 rounded-lg object-cover max-h-[60vh]" />
</div>

*Left, the Sangam. Right, the view from Leh Palace with Shanti Stupa up on the ridge.*

Food that day was Tibetan Kitchen, and Gupp Shupp Chai in the evening. Leh has a proper cafe scene and we made the most of it, because it's the last of that until Srinagar.

## Day 3: Leh to Pangong

**Drive:** around 4 hours. **Stay:** Pangong Heritage Resort, in Spangmik, about 100 m from the lake.

We checked out of Zostel Leh and ate at **Montagne Cafe** on the way out of town.

Then **Thiksey monastery**, and the **Druk White Lotus School**, which everyone calls Rancho School because of 3 Idiots. Both are basically on the road to Pangong, so neither cost us much time.

After that we crossed **Chang La**, at around 5,360 m. It's the second highest point of the whole trip and it lands on day three, right after the acclimatisation days.

Pangong entry was ₹10 each. We got there with enough light left for the lake.

Of the three dark nights on this route this was the easiest one, and the lake is in the frame. I wrote that up separately in [the astro post](/blogs/iphone-astrophotography-ladakh).

## Day 4: Pangong to Hanle, via Rezang La and Umling La

**Stay:** The Hanle House.

This was the hardest day and the one that didn't go to plan at all.

The road is properly off road for long stretches. Not rough tarmac, actual dirt and braided tracks. We stopped at the **Rezang La memorial**, which was worth it.

Then **Umling La**, at 19,024 ft. It's the highest road you can actually drive to. BRO finished a higher one at Mig La in late 2025, but that isn't open to civilians.

Except the road had taken damage and the pass was shut from the morning. Bikers had been waiting for hours. A lot of them gave up and turned around while we sat there. It finally opened around **5 PM**, and everyone who'd been waiting all day went up at once.

The top was a mess. People pushing into your frame while you're trying to photograph the marker, bikes being shoved into shots, nobody willing to wait thirty seconds for anyone else. We got our photos. They're not the photos we wanted.

We got into Hanle around 8 PM, the last of it in the dark.

None of that was predictable. The pass opens when the pass opens.

<img src="/content/blogs/ladakh-itinerary/umling-la.webp" alt="The Umling La marker, and the crowd in front of it" class="w-full min-w-0 rounded-lg max-h-[60vh] object-cover" />

*Getting a clear shot of the sign was its own problem.*

We still tried stargazing that night. It was heavily clouded, but we got a few shots out of it anyway.

## Day 5: Hanle

**Stay:** Padma Homestay.

Hanle is a Bortle 1 sky and India's first legally protected dark sky reserve. The whole village runs on warm dim lighting and blackout curtains.

During the day we visited the **Hanle Monastery** and the **observatory**.

<div class="flex flex-col sm:flex-row gap-3 my-4">
  <img src="/content/blogs/ladakh-itinerary/hanle-day.webp" alt="Sitting above the Changthang plain at Hanle" class="w-full sm:w-1/2 min-w-0 rounded-lg object-cover max-h-[60vh]" />
  <img src="/content/blogs/ladakh-itinerary/hanle-stupa.webp" alt="A stupa on the ridge above Hanle village" class="w-full sm:w-1/2 min-w-0 rounded-lg object-cover max-h-[60vh]" />
</div>

*Hanle in daylight.*

The sky was clouded over again that night. There are trained local astronomy ambassadors here who run telescope sessions, and we lost ours because there was nothing to point a telescope at.

We were staying at Padma when Hanle House called to say one of the **astronomy ambassadors** had turned up. No telescope that night, but he was shooting the Milky Way himself. We went over and paid ₹200 each for a few frames and a group photo, mostly as insurance in case the sky never opened.

<div class="flex flex-col sm:flex-row gap-3 my-4">
  <img src="/content/blogs/ladakh-itinerary/hanle-portrait.webp" alt="Standing under the Milky Way at Hanle, cloud still crossing it" class="w-full sm:w-1/2 min-w-0 rounded-lg object-cover max-h-[60vh]" />
  <img src="/content/blogs/ladakh-itinerary/hanle-night.webp" alt="Milky Way over Hanle after midnight, prayer flags and village lights below" class="w-full sm:w-1/2 min-w-0 rounded-lg object-cover max-h-[60vh]" />
</div>

*Left, the ambassador's shot before midnight, cloud still across it. Right, ours from the Padma rooftop once it cleared.*

Then a few hours later it did. Around midnight the clouds went and we got up on the Padma rooftop and shot it ourselves. If we'd gone to bed at ten, like it looked like we should, we'd have nothing.

## Day 6: Hanle to Lamayuru

Long day, roughly ten hours with stops.

We left around 09:00 and **skipped Tso Moriri**, which was in the original plan. We stopped at the **hot springs** instead and didn't regret it, because this day is already too long.

Lunch at **Riwo**. It's the last pass through Leh, so it's where two of our group left us and stayed on for their flight back to Bangalore. It's also where the car changed, off the Tempo Traveller and into an Innova Crysta for the run out to Lamayuru.

We got to Lamayuru in the evening and sat at a **cafe near the moonland** for a while.

**This is where we flew the drone**, and it's the only place on the whole trip we did. Everywhere else had army presence either on site or near enough that none of us wanted to find out.

<img src="/content/blogs/ladakh-itinerary/moonland.webp" alt="The Lamayuru moonland" class="w-full min-w-0 rounded-lg" />

<img src="/content/blogs/ladakh-itinerary/lamayuru.webp" alt="Lamayuru village with the monastery on the hill" class="w-full min-w-0 rounded-lg" />

*Lamayuru village, monastery up on the rock.*

## Day 7: Lamayuru to Drass

**Stay:** D Meadows, Drass.

**Lamayuru moonland** properly in the morning, then the monastery, ₹250 for the group.

Lunch at **Kargil**. After that we went to the **LOC viewpoint**, which is near Kargil on this stretch. It wasn't on our itinerary, so the detour cost us ₹2,000 with the driver, plus ₹80 each for the telescope once you're up there.

We stopped at the **Kargil War Memorial** on the way through and it had already closed. We had snacks there and carried on to the stay.

## Day 8: Drass to Sonmarg

**Stay:** Villa Himalaya, Sonmarg.

We went back to the **Kargil War Memorial** early this time and got in.

Then Zoji La. The **tunnel is still under construction** and you drive past the works. Heavy army presence the whole way through.

We had lunch on the way and hit **blockages from Amarnath Yatra movement and army convoys**, which is just part of this road in July.

We got to **Thajiwas glacier** around 4 PM, which turned out to be too late. We booked five ponies, quoted ₹2,250 and negotiated down to ₹1,500. They took us as far as the river point, and then the army wasn't letting anyone go further up.

The horse owner knew that before we set off and didn't mention it. We sat up there a while and came back down.

<img src="/content/blogs/ladakh-itinerary/thajiwas.webp" alt="The river point at Thajiwas, where we were turned back" class="w-full min-w-0 rounded-lg max-h-[60vh] object-cover" />

*The river point. That's as far up as anyone was going.*

## Day 9: Sonmarg to Srinagar

**Stay:** Zostel Srinagar.

We wanted to do **Shankaracharya Temple** and missed it. We hadn't checked the closing time.

Evening in Srinagar: **Nishat Garden**, then a **shikara on Dal Lake** across four points. He opened at ₹3,500 and we settled at ₹2,100.

Dinner and ice cream at **Lal Chowk**.

## Day 10: Srinagar and out

Breakfast, then shopping. We did a group shop for saffron, macadamias and dry fruits, and bought shawls separately.

The vajra and bracelets at Lamayuru monastery were a few hundred rupees, and magnets and keychains cost less in Leh than they did in Srinagar.

Airport security in Srinagar is slow and thorough. We left a lot of time and still felt rushed.

---

## Where we stayed

Group totals, advance and balance together. Seven of us until Leh on day six, five after that.

| Stop | Place | Group cost | How it was |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leh, 2 nights | Zostel Leh | ~₹16k | Fine |
| Pangong | Pangong Heritage Resort, Spangmik | ~₹22k | Good |
| Hanle night 1 | The Hanle House | ~₹25k | Good |
| Hanle night 2 | Padma Homestay | ~₹25k | Not great |
| Lamayuru | Moonland stay | ~₹13k | Good |
| Drass | D Meadows | ~₹14k | Better |
| Sonmarg | Villa Himalaya | ~₹19k | Best of the trip |
| Srinagar | Zostel Srinagar | ~₹10k | Good |

The two Hanle stays cost about the same and were not remotely the same. Hanle House was good. Padma we wouldn't go back to. Price told us nothing.

The back half got steadily better. Lamayuru was good, Drass was better, and **Villa Himalaya at Sonmarg was the best stay of the trip**, riverside with a bonfire going.

---

## The car, and the taxi union thing

We had a Tempo Traveller for seven on the Ladakh side, Leh through Pangong and Hanle and back. **Fuel was included**, which I'd half expected not to be, because the daily rate looked low for July. It wasn't a problem. We tipped ₹2,000 to Tenzen on the Ladakh side and ₹1,000 to Stanzin on the Kashmir side.

The Ladakh and J&K taxi unions don't let each other's vehicles do local sightseeing across the boundary, so the handover happened near Leh.

What caught us out was something else entirely. Our Kashmir side vehicle was an **older JK registration out of Kargil**, and it wasn't allowed to drive around Srinagar. The local union wanted a lot of money to cover the gap. We gave up arguing and **booked an Uber rental for ₹2,000**, which handled our Srinagar running around for a fraction of what they were asking.

---

## Permits

Our agent and driver sorted the permits. We never handled the paperwork ourselves and never carried printouts. As far as I saw, the PDF on a phone was what got used at the checkposts.

Worth knowing it's the **EDF receipt** now, not the old ILP, and it runs around ₹590 per person online.

---

## Phone signal

This was messier than we expected and it wasn't uniform across the group.

Most of us were on **Airtel postpaid**, which held up on the Leh side. Two people got nothing usable at all and ran off hotspots from the rest of us for most of the trip. I had my own patchy stretches.

Past Pangong and out toward Hanle, coverage thins out badly regardless. Hanle itself is unreliable on everything.

---

## What it cost

**₹75,000 per person, flights included.** That's the number, off our group's split, for the five of us who did all ten days.

| | Per person |
|---|---|
| Ground: stays, transport, food, entries, activities | ~₹49k |
| Flights: Bangalore to Leh, Srinagar back | ~₹26k |
| **Trip total** | **~₹75k** |
| Shopping and souvenirs, saffron included | ~₹7k |
| **All in** | **~₹82k** |

I'd budgeted roughly this before we left and it held up, which surprised me a bit given how much of it was booked on the ground.

**Where the money went**, across the whole group:

| | Group |
|---|---|
| Drivers, both legs | ~₹86k |
| Accommodation, 9 nights | ~₹145k |
| Food | ~₹26k |
| Activities | ~₹18k |
| Entry fees | ~₹850 |

The cars and the beds are basically the entire budget, around 80% of it.

The thing that surprised me is how little the sights cost. **The entries we split came to about ₹850 across the group**, roughly ₹120 a head. Shanti Stupa, Leh Palace, Pangong and the Lamayuru monastery together cost less than one night's accommodation. It's the car that costs money.

Food stayed low because most homestays included dinner and breakfast, so we were only paying for lunches and cafes. Activities were the Thajiwas horses, the ATV at Magnetic Hills, the Dal Lake shikara, the astro photos at Hanle and the LOC telescope.

---

## Altitude

We were split on Diamox and the results didn't settle the argument.

Some people took it and felt it helped. **Two of us didn't take it at all and were completely fine.** The only real headache anyone got was at **Umling La**, which is by far the highest point of the trip, and it faded on the way down.

The people who did take Diamox got **tingling in their hands and feet**. None of us had expected it, which made it more alarming than it needed to be at 4,500 m.

The two days in Leh at the start did more for us than the tablets did.

---

## We overpacked for the cold

It never went below about 5°C. We only felt cold at **Pangong and Hanle, and only at night**.

All of us packed a lot of winter clothes and didn't need them at all. **Windcheaters were much more useful.**

---

## The drone

I carried a sub 250g drone for ten days and flew it once, at Lamayuru.

Hanle is out, it's near the LAC and the observatory. Kargil, Drass and Zoji La are near the LoC. Leh town is geofenced. Everywhere else just had army presence close enough that nobody in the group wanted to be the person who tried.

---

## What we'd do differently

Mainly one thing: **sort the Kashmir side car before leaving Leh**, so the registration problem surfaces somewhere you can still do something about it.

And we'd pack lighter. All the winter gear we hauled around got used on three nights out of nine.

If you're going for the night sky, I wrote up what a phone got me in [Shooting the Milky Way on an iPhone in Ladakh](/blogs/iphone-astrophotography-ladakh).


Our day by day Ladakh route through Pangong, Hanle, Umling La, Lamayuru, Drass and Sonmarg. What we did, what it cost, and what we got wrong.

Hey, I'm Aman

AI Engineer

Ladakh Itinerary: 10 Days, Leh to Srinagar