Ladakh Travel Guide: How to Plan a Trip to Leh, Nubra and Pangong

Leh sits at about 3,500m and most of Ladakh's sights are higher, so altitude sickness is a genuine risk. Official advice is a mandatory 48-hour rest in Leh to acclimatise before going higher, then a gradual ascent; ask your doctor about altitude medication before you travel. Restricted areas, including Nubra Valley, Pangong Tso, Tso Moriri and Hanle, need a permit (a Protected Area Permit for foreign visitors), which a registered operator arranges. Areas close to the borders are off the tourist circuit. Ladakh is open to tourists, but check your government's current travel advice before booking.

Ladakh is India's high-altitude desert, a Buddhist land of bare ochre mountains, whitewashed monasteries and impossibly blue lakes on the far side of the Himalaya. Since 2019 it has been a Union Territory in its own right, separate from Jammu and Kashmir. Leh, the old caravan capital at about 3,500 metres, is the base for every trip, and from there the classic route runs over the high passes to the Nubra Valley and out to Pangong Lake. It is one of the most spectacular places in India and a rising force in Himalayan tourism, and also one where planning is a health matter, not just a convenience, which is why this guide leads with altitude and permits above.

Ladakh is really Leh plus a couple of valleys and lakes, strung along high mountain roads. The order below also happens to be the sensible acclimatisation sequence. Beyond these, the monasteries of Thiksey, Hemis and Lamayuru and the Indus-Zanskar confluence fill out a longer trip.

May to September is the season, when the passes are open and the weather is at its most reliable, with June to September the sweet spot for Nubra, Pangong and the high roads. If you can time it, the Hemis festival in early summer fills the monastery of Hemis with masked cham dances. From November to March Ladakh is bitterly cold, often below minus twenty, and mostly cut off by snow, the preserve of hardy travellers and the frozen-river Chadar trek. One caution: mountain weather is unpredictable, and even in summer a spell of rain can close the Leh road or the airport, so keep a buffer day.

Five to seven days is the right length for a first trip: two days acclimatising in and around Leh, then a night in the Nubra Valley and a night by Pangong Lake. Add two or three more for the remote lakes of Tso Moriri and Hanle, or to arrive overland by the Srinagar or Manali roads instead of flying. Do not try to compress it: at this altitude, a rushed itinerary is the surest way to spend the trip unwell.

Ladakh's Tibetan Buddhist heritage runs through whitewashed monasteries, colourful festivals of masked cham dancing, and a distinct high-altitude way of life.

• Tibetan Buddhist heritage
• Colourful festivals
• Warm hospitality
• A unique, high-altitude lifestyle

Most travellers fly into Leh (Kushok Bakula Rimpochee Airport) from Delhi, a short but spectacular flight over the Himalaya, and the gentlest option for altitude. The two overland routes are epic drives in their own right: the Srinagar to Kargil to Leh road, which pairs beautifully with Kashmir, and the higher, harder Manali to Leh road. Both are summer-only and both demand extra acclimatisation, since you are crossing very high passes. One practical note: mobile connectivity is limited in Ladakh. Only postpaid SIMs work in the region, and there is little or no signal in the remote areas around Nubra and Pangong, so expect to be largely off-grid once you leave Leh.

Ladakhi food is Tibetan-influenced and made for the cold and the altitude: warming thukpa noodle soup, steamed momos, the hearty pasta-and-vegetable stew called skyu, barley tsampa, and salty butter tea. It is exactly the light, warm food your body wants while acclimatising.

• Thukpa — noodle soup with vegetables or meat
• Momos — steamed dumplings
• Butter tea — salty tea made with yak butter and salt
• Skyu — Ladakhi pasta in a vegetable and meat stew
• Churpi — hard dried cheese, chewed slowly on a long mountain drive