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Leh travel guide

2 tour packages in Leh

Leh travel guides

  • Leh Travel Guide: Palace, Monasteries and Your First 48 Hours
    Leh Travel Guide: Palace, Monasteries and Your First 48 Hours

    Travel guide · Destinations

    Leh Travel Guide: Palace, Monasteries and Your First 48 Hours

    Leh, at about 3,500 metres, is Ladakh's main town and the base for every trip into the region. The places to visit in Leh start with the nine-storey palace, the Tsemo fort, the Shanti Stupa and the Main Bazaar, then the monasteries of Spituk, Shey, Thiksey and Hemis and the palace museum at Stok. Rest for 48 hours before going any higher.

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Frequently asked questions

What can you do in Leh in the evening?

In your first two days, very little, and that is the point: our eight-day tour suggests a short walk only if you feel well, then an early night, and the Leh health advisory asks you to avoid alcohol. Later on, the bazaar's cafes make an easy evening.

What can you do in Leh in one day?

Once your 48 hours are behind you: Thiksey for morning prayers, then Hemis or Spituk, with the palace, the bazaar and the stupa later in the day. During your first two days, keep to the palace, the stupa and the bazaar.

Are Leh's monasteries open all day?

Most are, according to the Leh district. Take a torch, because the shrines inside are often poorly lit. Entry is included on our road trip; on the eight-day and ten-day tours, monastery fees are extra.

What is the Ladakh Festival?

A week-long festival that the Department of Tourism holds in Leh every September, listed on the Leh district's festival calendar. Ladakh's monasteries hold their own festivals of masked dances in their courtyards, Hemis's in early summer being the best known.

About Leh Tours & Experiences

The best things to do in Leh start gently: the view from the roof of Leh Palace, the Shanti Stupa on its hill, the bazaar, and morning prayers at Thiksey once you feel well. After 48 hours you can drive up Khardung La. Our road trip stays in Leh throughout; our longer tours give it two days before Nubra and Pangong.

Reviewed by Experience My India Editorial Team · Updated 21 Oct 2026

Things to do in Leh

Climb to the roof of Leh Palace

The palace roof looks out over the old town. King Sengge Namgyal had the nine storeys built in the 17th century, and it is the only monument in Leh where the Archaeological Survey of India charges for entry. Our eight- and ten-day tours visit it early on.

Walk round the Shanti Stupa

Gyomyo Nakamura, a Japanese monk, raised the white stupa on a small hill in 1991; it has a panoramic view of the town and its villages, and devotees walk round it clockwise. Our road trip and both longer tours stop here.

Browse the bazaar

The bazaar, with the cafes, pashmina and apricot stalls our road trip points out, is an easy outing for your second day. The Leh district also lists the town's mosque and Moravian church among its sights.

Join morning prayers at Thiksey

At Thiksey, 19 km from town, a monastery of 1433 that the Leh district likens to the Potala Palace, the monks' daily morning prayers are open to visitors. Our Leh and Khardung La road trip starts its monastery day there at dawn.

See Hemis and Spituk

About 45 km away, Hemis is the monastery the Leh district rates most popular, known for its riches and for a masked-dance festival in late June or early July. Spituk is just 7 km out. The road trip includes entry to the monasteries on its route.

Drive up Khardung La

After your first 48 hours, Khardung La, about 40 km away, makes a day out: the road trip drives up on day four for the view back down the valley. The permit portal names the pass itself as a protected area for foreign nationals; the road trip arranges the permit.

Choosing between our tours

For a first visit, the road trip keeps you in Leh for all five days, with a Ladakhi guide, the monasteries and the pass. The eight-day tour and the ten-day tour with Srinagar spend two days here at each end of a loop to Nubra and Pangong. The Manali–Leh highway arrives by road, via a night at Sarchu, and ends with a rest day here. Our Leh tour packages page lists all four; the Leh travel guide describes the town.

When to go for these

Summer days in Leh are mild, about 23°C in June and September and nearer 28°C in July and August, by IMD's 2011–2024 averages, but nights stay cool, and by October they come close to freezing.

Planning tips for Leh

Count the 48 hours from the moment you reach Leh, by air or by road: the Directorate of Tourism times them from arrival.

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