I love to travel with my family. This trip was with my Wife, daughter, my wife’s parents and brother. It was a refreshing travel experience to a scenic hill station known as Khajjiar in Himachal Pradesh in India. The trip was planned by my father-in-law, and I should say really well planned. We started from our home city Mumbai to Amritsar, Punjab (that will write in another post). From Amritstar we went to Dalhousie, Himachal Pradesh.
In this post I am writing about Khajjiar Valley which is around 24 kilometres from Dalhousie. The valley is beautiful with huge trees, lake, mountains, green land and lots natural elements. Now its May (Summer) in India so there was greenery all around, in winters its a totally different scenery with snowfall.
Here is a photo panaroma of Khajjiar. Google Map url - https://goo.gl/maps/Z3bNBAhk6oXKhdVFA
We travelled from Dalhousie to Khajjiar in car, the roads are narrow with lots of curves and bends. The drive around the hills was so thrilling (sometimes scary) but our driver who was a local person made sure we reach safe and sound. The first time he parked the car and we stepped out I was so happy to see the big view. Wonderful… I said " I love my India".
About Khajjiar: There is a parking area, then we walk down into the grounds. I was happy there were only 4-6 shops at one side of the hill. Good to see there was minimum concrete structures and all rest was natural structures. Looked to be a well governed tourist location. The best time to visit is March to June. Khajjiar is a small grassy meadow (1 × 1 sq km) between tall deodar trees. It derives its name from its ancient, golden-domed temple of Khajinag. The 12th-century Khajinag temple ( https://goo.gl/maps/YjL9JvG1hZgniUvi8 ) is a small shrine dedicated to the local Goddess or the Devi.
Activities and food at Khajjiar - and what all we did.
Photo Walk !
You can just walk around and enjoy the scenery and sit in the lawns. Most of all take lots of photos of every side of the valley. I enjoyed playing with my little daughter, running in the open lawns. We ate candy floss, had french fries and coffee. There are few locals who help take pictures - they provide the Himachal dress and accessories to wear and click photos. One of them were carrying rabbits, My daughter was happy to touch and pet the rabbit.
Horse Riding to the hills and knowing the local stories.
We took the services of 4 local horse riders to go uphill and watch the mountain views. The horses were well cared and clean. We spent around 90 minutes on horse back riding through the surrounding forest. On the top there were 2 houses who had fruit trees of almond, apple and plums, also some herbs. We saw some snow clad mountains in the north side. It was a good experience.
Food and fun near the lake.
We had snacks at the small restaurant near the lake. We ate veggie noodles, french fries, fresh-lime soda and coffee. I was expecting some local food, but did not find any authentic local dishes on menu. Over all had fun relaxing and eating watching the huge open view of wonderful scenery. Here is link to the Praul Hotel for nice food. https://goo.gl/maps/7WwmjYjGi9qzYqia6
Other things that were available
There was Paragliding - adventure sport offered from a nearby mountain. There would take people the top and paragliding down to the land near the lake. https://goo.gl/maps/bdmWkFrX5y2DZh6j9
Zorbing - activity is also offered at lawns near the lake. I saw a few people doing it and having fun. I am not sure I would like to enter a ball and roll around, so I watched as a spectator.
There are only a few hotels and home-stays. There public toilets which are clean and take small service charge. Also vendor stalls that sell small packed food and playthings.
I would recommend this place to visit for family travel and nature trails and treks.
Hope you liked this small post about Khajjiar trip with my family.
Will try and add some google map links there.