The plan? Drive from Pune to Jibhi in Himachal Pradesh and back. By the end of the 12-day trip, my two dogs and I had gotten used to 2 am to 5 am wake-up times. We’d driven 4,264 km through 6 states and 1 union territory, averaged 533 km a day across 8 driving days and stayed at some truly amazing places while taking in some breathtaking sights. We went from the hot plains to arid deserts to lush farmland to cold mountains.
In the words that follow I will tell you as much as I can about the routes I took, the places I stayed at and the things I did. Towards the end I’ll also share what it cost me. What I hoped to get was a vacation I would remember for the rest of my life. It was something new for me to attempt a road trip this long.
So, would I do it again?
Planning and preparing for the drive
I had been itching to do a long trip in my Thar Roxx but had not found a destination when I decided to investigate driving to the hills. And before you know it, I had decided to drive to Jibhi in Himachal Pradesh and live in the cold mountain air for a while. Manali was considered for a short while but discarded because I had already been to Manali twice before. The trickiest part of the planning was finding pet-friendly hotels and as I look back, I’d say I managed to find some decent ones and some unforgettable ones. So, with the destination set and the stays booked, I set about preparing the car.
There was not much I needed to do to get the car ready except set up the seat cover and bed for the dogs in the back seat of the car. I also took the opportunity to complete my tool kit for the car and attach a holder for the second phone I would carry as a navigation backup since my car’s Android Auto is unreliable at best. I also made sure I had all my documents and printouts where needed. Nothing fancy, just the usual licence, insurance, PUC Certificate and RC. The very last thing I did just before setting off was to fill the car up with fuel.
To make the trip easier for the dogs I broke the drive down into smaller segments. While I can go on driving for a 1,000 km in a day, it can get too much for the dogs. I also made sure to prepare their bag with enough food, water and medicines to cover the trip and most emergencies.
The new thing I did on this trip was to add a food bag and it became a lifesaver. I had surmised that because of the distances I was covering and the early morning departures I would regularly run into food problems. To solve that I packed a bag full of things like cornflakes, packets of milk, honey, biscuits, instant poha, coffee, juice, sugar, a flask of hot water, plates, bowls and a spoon. This meant that not only did I get to enjoy a good breakfast each morning, but I also saved on dhaba stops for tea.
Eventually, with the car, the dogs and the human all prepared for the journey ahead, on the day before the drive was to begin, to get enough rest before the first of many 2 am wake ups, I went off to sleep at 6 pm.
Pune to Jibhi: The route I took
When planning the route, I made one thing very clear to myself. Whenever possible, I was going to avoid putting the destination in Google Maps and just hitting the fastest route. With that principle established, I woke up at 2 am on Day 1 to start loading the car up and departed by 4 am – on time.
The final route became: Pune Ahmedabad Bikaner Chandigarh Jibhi Chandigarh Jaipur Vadodara Pune (via Chikhli and Nashik) – 4,264 Km
Day 1: Pune to Ahmedabad
The very first day was about a 650 km drive from Pune to the overnight halt at Ahmedabad. And while each day of driving that followed would give me something to write about, this was the only day that didn’t. I followed the Pune Thane Ahmedabad route. The biggest lesson from this day was that if you are exuberant with the speed in a Thar Roxx, you’ll pay for it in mileage. This was the day the car returned the lowest average of about 10.4 kmpl. Luckily this was the ONLY day with such low mileage.
Day 2: Ahmedabad to Bikaner
This drive was the first fascinating thing I was looking forward to. The day was another 660 km of driving ending in Bikaner. I had chosen Bikaner because while plotting the route to Jibhi on the map I noticed that there was a very straight piece of highway running up to the north in Rajasthan. It was NH 754A, and the thing that fascinated me was that I had not seen any highway that straight in India.
And since Bikaner was west of the highway, further into the Thar Desert, I decided that Bikaner would be the second stop and what a good decision it turned out to be. I got onto 754A from near Sanchore. For the next 400+ km, I was in heaven driving down a highway with hardly any traffic and the Thar Desert on either side of me with the car set to 80 km/h on cruise control.
Driving through that desert is something that I was glad I got to experience. There is a quiet majesty to it, and it definitely leaves an impression on you. It was also the place with the perfect set up for the very lame Thar in Thar joke.
Day 3: Bikaner to Chandigarh
The distance for this stretch was about 545 km and it was supposed to an easy day. I got to do one last 200 km stretch on 754A, which was fast becoming my favourite highway. Then I was handed over to the state highways of the agricultural parts of Punjab. The transition was dramatic and yet another beautiful one. The arid deserts gave way to lush farms and they stayed with me almost up to Chandigarh.
But my luck was not going to last and due to a navigation goof-up by Google Maps (and yours truly), I ended up in the wrong place wasting about an hour trying to find my way out. I was supposed to go to a place called Malabar Monsoon Hillside Farm, which is what I put in Google Maps. Unfortunately, on Google Maps that place is in the middle of an unfinished residential area with no hills and a maze of narrow roads. Fortunately, I called the property owner, who gave me better directions and before long I was back in the city of Chandigarh heading in the right direction… finally.
Day 4: Chandigarh to Jibhi
This was the day I had been waiting for: the entry into the hills and the scariest day of the whole trip. The distance for this day was just 230 km, so I broke my 4 am departure rule and left only at 7 am. I wanted to see the entry into the hills and enjoy every second of it.
Everything started well with a cool morning and a short drive to get to the first sighting of the hills. This was it. I was in the hills. The windows came down and the sunroof was opened and I settled into a relaxing drive through the mountains.
Then came the tunnels. The first was exciting, the second was fun but then they became more frequent and longer. I found myself cursing the tunnels because their presence made movement easy, but they take a lot away from the enjoyment of the drive because you ask yourself, did I come to drive through the mountains and enjoy the view or stare at the inside of a concrete tube?
As luck would have it, after the 5th or 6th tunnel I was diverted onto another road and joy of joys it had no tunnels. What it did have was some proper mountain driving over bad roads that were barely wide enough to accommodate a bus. And since my car is almost comparable to a bus in width it was not easy threading an elephant through a needle. But I enjoyed every second of those narrow roads. I also ran into another car whose driver was surprised to see another car from Pune in Himachal Pradesh. We stopped to exchange some pleasantries and after a couple of minutes wished each other all the best and went our separate ways.
Once I was close to Jibhi the hillside changed to deodar forests with a beautifully made road. Still narrow but at least the bouncing ended. But the trials were not over as the biggest one was still to come. The last 300 m to my guest house needed me to drive down a path that was so narrow that my left tyre was barely an inch or two from the road’s edge and on the right, I had moved as close to the mountainside as physics would allow me to. At one point it got so uncertain that I actually had to get out of the car and walk ahead to see what the road was like before proceeding.
I’ll come back to what I did in Jibhi later; first, the drive home.
Day 9: Jibhi to Chandigarh
The trip was starting to wind down but it was not the end of the entertainment as I would realise in the days to come. The plan for this day was simple: drive the 230 km back to the place I stayed at while driving up. And with the correct place set on Google Maps, the drive was very pleasant, starting with crisp cold mountain air and ending with slightly warmer but still crips Chandigarh air. I felt a bit sad as I drove out of the hills because it meant saying goodbye to the mountains and the cold, two things I love!
Day 10: Chandigarh to Jaipur
The distance I had to cover on this day was just about 500 km, but the car decided to make a day of it. I suffered constant Android Auto disconnects. The right-side windshield washer stopped spraying water and by the end of the day Android Auto just failed completely and the car refused to connect to the phone’s Wi-Fi. The problem created was that android auto was the one providing route guidance and every time it went down, I had no map to look at. The thing that saved me was the backup phone I had been using alongside Android Auto for navigation. Luckily, I was able to get both problems sorted once I reached the overnight halt. Other than that, the route itself was pretty unremarkable.
Day 11: Jaipur to Vadodara
The drive from Jaipur to Vadodara was the longest leg of the entire journey with a 750 km drive. It started at 3 am and finished at 3 pm but was an absolutely fantastic drive. It started off a bit rocky when I started feeling drowsy a couple of hours into the drive. Staring at a black road with your headlights lighting up only a small patch can get hypnotic. So, I stopped the car by the side of the road, lowered the backrest and took a short 20-minute nap.
The route I took was NH58 (through Ajmer and Beawar) out of Jaipur, past Udaipur and onto NH 48. By the time the sun came up, I was in the Aravalli Range and the scenery was stunning. The road was nice and wide even through it swept through the hills in wide lazy curves. The Aravallis themselves were not too tall but quite green and very pretty. There were no unfortunate incidents with the electronics, except the odd Android Auto disconnect, which had become routine by this time.
The best thing about this drive was that I almost rejected this route in favour of a slightly shorter one, but I am glad I took the Udaipur route in the end. With the brilliance of the place that awaited me, the drive was the icing on the cake!
Day 12: Vadodara to Pune via Nashik
The last day of the drive was supposed to be a relaxed drive of just over 500 km along NH 953 down towards Nashik and then onto NH 60 for the final stretch towards Pune. The hostess of the last stay, however, suggested that I head towards Chikhli down NE 4 and NH 48 and then head to Nashik before setting off for Pune. She said it would be a nicer, more scenic drive. After staying on NH 48 past Chikhli, I decided to follow Google Maps and abandoned NH 48 since neither was the traffic easing off, nor was the view improving.
This turned out to be a good decision because after passing through some nice back roads, I was on NH 848 and driving through the hills. The problem with this route was that not only did it funnel me into Nashik city, but it also brought me into Pune through Chakan. That was a TERRIBLE experience. There were long stretches of roadworks and massive jams. The route that Google Maps was showing me, before I altered it, was actually shorter, more scenic and completely avoided Chakan because it went from NH 60 to SH 61 and into Pune via Lonikand.
In any case, by the end of the drive, I had covered 4,264 km and gone through 362 litres of petrol, but I had enjoyed every kilometre and every litre.
The stays
Throughout the trip I stayed at 6 different places. My assessment of those 6 is that 2 were entirely forgettable, not bad, just not special. 3 were absolutely brilliant and 1 was underwhelming. I’ll talk about the 4 memorable ones in greater detail, so you know why I feel the way I do. I’ll also place them in the order that I encountered them in. One thing about the places I stayed at is that, since I was travelling with Bella and Doodle, they were all pet friendly. But as I would discover, there is a difference between pet friendly and pet welcoming.
Sankhu Niwas, Bikaner
This was the first nice place of the trip, and I stayed here on my second night of the trip. The place is an old Rajasthani house that was converted into a boutique hotel many years ago. Reaching it is very easy because the location mentioned on the map is accurate.
What I liked about the place was that you still got the old house feeling but it was very well maintained and very well run. The place doesn’t have its own kitchen so you can either order from a restaurant they have a tie-up with, visit the restaurant yourself or eat at any other place of your choice.
What I loved about this place was that when I told the guy at the reception that I’d be leaving at 4 am the following morning he was most concerned that I would hit the road on an empty stomach. After thinking about the problem for a minute, he announced that he would give me a packed breakfast of some butter and jam sandwiches and some fruits so that I could eat breakfast when I get hungry.
But this thoughtful gesture was not where their hospitality ended. In the evening after walking the dogs, I was sitting on the lawn with my dogs on a leash when the owner of the place came up to me and told me that she would close the gate of the hotel for a while so that my dogs could run around freely off the leash, within the yard.
Malabar Monsoon Hillside Farm/Kang Farm Chandigarh
This was the third place I stayed at during this trip What I loved about this place was the quiet and the lawns. If you are travelling with dogs, this place is heaven because everything is fenced in so your dogs can run around the lawns all you want. The house itself is very tastefully furnished and has 2 big bedrooms, a drawing room, a dining area and an open kitchen. Frankly I could have stayed there for days on end.
Now for the property itself. It’s sitting in some farming area in Karoran, Punjab, slightly north-west of Chandigarh. It sits very close to the north-west edge of the Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary. I got no cell phone reception, but the house has Wi-Fi to keep you connected to the world. It also doesn’t have any catering, so you need to bring your own food and groceries. Since it is a house, it is equipped like one and has everything from gas for cooking to a fridge along with any cutlery and crockery you may need.
So, how do you get here? On Booking.com the place is called Malabar Monsoon Hillside Farm, but the actual place on the map is called Kang Farm. How you get to it is by first setting your destination to PGI Hospital and then to Kang Farm, or the location that the property shares with you on WhatsApp. Do not try to navigate by setting Google Maps to Malabar Monsoon Hillside Farm. That takes you to the wrong location kilometres away from where you need to go. Trust me… I made that mistake.
This place was the biggest and best surprise of the whole trip. I loved it so much that on the way back, I cancelled my original booking and rebooked this place.
Sunshine by Nature Crest, Jibhi
Now this place was the main stay of the trip, and it left a very poor impression on me. This is also the place, the approach to which gave me the recurring nightmare at the end of Day 4 of driving. Suffice it to say not only did I walk away with a better understanding of the width of my car, but I also walked away with a few moments of terror I’ll never forget. 😛
Now as far as the place is concerned if I was to be asked to rate it, I’d give it a 2 out of 5. But let me explain why. I had no complaints about the room, which was quite comfortable, or the location or even the view from my balcony. The food was fine, and they had parking available. In fact, they could accommodate up to 5 big cars in their parking lot at one time.
What I found not to be up to standard was the feeling of expectations vs reality not matching. When I booked it on Booking.com I saw things like 24-hour concierge service and some very pretty pics and I thought wow, this is a professionally run property. When I got there the concierge turned out to be a caretaker, not a problem by itself but not as sold. They also asked me to check in via a portal which said this would help avoid check-in queues. There was no reception or concierge desk, as the listing leads you to believe. All of it put together leads you to expect a professionally managed boutique hotel but what you get is a simple guesthouse.
The kitchen had severe limitations because though I had the menu a lot of items on it were not available. The room, while well set up, lacked attention to detail. For example, it had the customary electric kettle, a few sachets of sugar and milk powder but no teabags or coffee sachets. There were no towels, big or small, placed in the room or the bathroom.
And then there was the price. if I looked at the daily cost including taxes, I was paying somewhere around Rs. 5,500 a night but the place felt more like a Rs. 3,500 a night place. In fact, a lot of the pictures you see in their Booking.com listing are not how things are in reality. For example, unlike the picture of the reception, the actual area had no wall-mounted pictures, polished floors, warm lighting, or a reception desk as shown. What they have is a gas cylinder behind what should be the reception desk.
I definitely would not book this place again nor would I be comfortable recommending it.
Madhav Bagh Royal Heritage Stay: Vadodara
This was the last place that I stayed at during this massive adventure and honestly, I couldn’t have thought of a better place to start the final drive from. Madhav Bagh was built in 1892 for Shrimant Madhavrao Gaekwad who was a cousin to Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III. Today it is occupied by his fifth-generation descendant Shivraj Gaekwad. He and his wife live on the first floor of the haveli and give the rooms on the ground floor to guests.
The place itself has been maintained very well and definitely puts you in a different world once you enter it. The room I was staying in was massive. First there was the bedroom, attached to which was a separate dressing room and attached to that was the bathroom where you needed to book a train to go from one end to the other.
But jokes aside, the whole experience of the stay was very warm and welcoming. It wasn’t like staying at a hotel or a commercial property. It was like being a guest in someone’s house and I spent a fair amount of time having a wonderful conversation with the hosts.
As I look back all the places I stayed at, there is only one conclusion I can come to. While some stays were underwhelming and some entirely forgettable, there were 3 places – Sankhu Niwas, Kang Farm and Madhav Bagh – that I wouldn’t think twice about before booking again.
Things to do in Jibhi & What I did
There are a lot of things you can do when in Jibhi, and I managed to explore a few of them. Let me walk you through my experiences.
Jibhi Falls
This was the first place I visited and since I was staying just about 2 km away from it, I decided to walk to the falls and back. The falls themselves are only about 55 ft high, but what makes them worth visiting is the setting. Once you pay the entry fee of Rs. 20, you have a short walk across a very pretty trail ahead of you. At the end of the trail, you reach an opening where the falls are located.
What struck me immediately was the scenic setting of the place. There is also a pool at the bottom of the falls with a small wall built around it. You can sit on this small wall and take a few moments to soak this place in.
The day I went there were very few people there, so I got a chance to enjoy the place without having to cut through a crowd.
For the gamers out there, it looks like something straight out of an Uncharted game.
Kulhi Katandi (Mini Thailand)
Kulhi Katandi is basically a place where you can get down to the edge of the river that flows through Jibhi. This place also charges an entry fee of Rs. 20 per person and once you pay it, you have to walk down a few steps cut into the mountainside and you’ll reach the river. You can then walk along its edge and see the reason it is called Mini Thailand; two huge rocks that lean against each other and form a natural archway and are reminiscent of some similar structures found in Thailand.
Personally, while I found the place itself to be quite nice, I didn’t much care for the crowd that was present. Some suggest that the best time to visit this place is earlier in the morning before the rest of the tourists crowd it.
The one thing I did do here was to sit down to a nice cup of tea and have a local dish called siddu at a nice little tea shop by the riverbank.
Siddu is a steamed bread made of wheat flour stuffed with a savoury filling. It is served with a chutney made of tomatoes and another made of ground-up walnuts and groundnuts. I loved it. I would definitely recommend you try it at least once.
Jibhi market
On my third day in Jibhi, I decided to walk down to the market and see what’s what. To be brutally honest, I didn’t find it to be a greatly engaging place. Most of the place is dominated by guest houses and restaurants. There is one handicraft shop too and a few department stores along with a couple of wine shops.
Jalori Pass and Raghupur Fort
Now this was the main event. I was staying in Jibhi, so I was about 12 km away from Jalori Pass. If you stay in Shoja then you are only 6 km away from it, a distance you can easily walk in my reckoning. As for me, I hired a cab to get from my guest house to Jalori Pass and back and for that I paid Rs. 2,000.
When you set out from Jibhi to Jalori Pass, you start climbing almost immediately. Jibhi sits at roughly 5,500 ft, while Jalori Pass is at around 10,500 ft. Halfway through the drive, you’ll pass through Shoja and then finally arrive at the pass. Your cab guy will drop you off at the point where the walk for Raghupur Fort actually begins.
Other places you can visit around the area are:
- 360-degree viewpoint – 900 mts
- Jalori Fort – 1 km
- Sareulsaur (Serolsar) Lake – 5 km
- Pandu Ropa – 6 km
- Nochi Top – 7 km
Before I could start the walk, I paid the entry fee of Rs. 30 per person. You can also rent walking sticks from the people sitting near the entrance. These are simple wooden poles that have been cut and smoothened for use as walking sticks. In my opinion you can avoid them because you are not going to need it and it’ll be one less thing to carry around.
The walk to the fort is 3 km and it took me about 1 hour and 20 min or so to do on the way up. As you head towards the fort it starts as a normal path with some undulations but after the first 2 km is over it gets steep. This is the part that will have you panting because what you need to do is to summit the ridge that leads to the fort.
Once you summit you will be a few hundred meters from the fort and the walk gets easy from this point on. You will pass a whole host of tent cafes and can buy water, Maggi or sandwiches from them. The best part is that you will be above the treeline when you summit and the view is worth every painful breath. You will see yourself surrounded by snow-capped mountains in the distance on almost every side.
Once satisfied, you can head back to the starting point, and the going is much easier because it is mostly downhill. I did the walk from Raghupur Fort back to the entrance in about 40 minutes and after that I headed back to my stay.
But what about the Jalori Pass viewpoint? Well, in my opinion if you skip it, you won’t miss anything simply because the view is the same from the pass and from the climb to Raghupur Fort so if I was you, I’d go straight to the fort.
The two things that annoyed me A LOT
While the trip to Raghupur Fort was otherwise quite pleasant, there were just two things that happened that annoyed me a lot.
The first was the groups of people with Bluetooth speakers just blasting music. I get it, you are on vacation and want to have fun and all, but I am on vacation too, and I don’t want music being blasted around me while I am on what is supposed to be a peaceful walk through a rather lovely forest. Use earphones! The worst part was that it wasn’t one group, it was group after group after group which makes it 10 times worse. I don’t expect you to sacrifice your vacation for me but DUDE! Be a little considerate.
The other was my cab guy. When I finished the visit to the fort and got back, he was nowhere to be found. When I finally found a spot where I got a signal and called him, he gave me some story about needing to get a tyre fixed and assured me he’ll be reaching me in 15-20 min. An hour later, when he finally arrived, I found that he had been busy ferrying other passengers on my dime.
Anyway, irritants aside, the only other bit of shopping that I did was buying loads of fridge magnets. Some of them are really nice and almost all the places selling them charged me about Rs. 50 per magnet.
The Weather in Jibhi
As for the weather, since I went in mid-October, the temperatures I experienced ranged from 3°C at night to 15°C during the day. It gets extremely chilly in the evenings and early mornings, so warm clothes are a must. If you go later in the year, like December, you can expect snow and even colder temperatures. The locals told me that the road to Jalori Pass is now cleared during winter, but that doesn’t necessarily mean regular cars can get there. Depending on the snow conditions, you may need a four-wheel drive vehicle equipped with snow chains.
Jibhi vs Shoja
While finalising this trip, I found accommodation options in both Jibhi and Shoja. Not fully understanding how close they were to each other, I chose Jibhi. Don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with Jibhi. I’m mentioning this to give you some context for the differences between the two places.
- Jibhi is lower in valley at about 5,500 ft whereas Shoja is at an altitude of 8,800 ft.
- The higher position in the valley means that Shoja has views of snow-capped mountains in the distance which Jibhi does not offer
- While Jibhi has its fair share of places to stay and eat Shoja is a bit more touristy and has better restaurant and café options
- Jibhi, and this is a big advantage, has 5G service, Shoja has signal issues and the best I got was three bars at LTE
- Shoja is only 5-6 km from Jalori pass whereas Jibhi is 12 km which means that if you are inclined to do so, you can walk to Jalori Pass. Although, I would not recommend this because once you reach the pass there is still more walking to be done to get to the various attractions and if you are not accustomed to the distance and altitude it can quickly become a painful memory rather than a pretty one.
The costs
Now we come to the elephant in the vacation… the cost of the trip. I am going to share the amount I ended up spending on the trip. After 12 days, 11 nights and 4264 km driven, I ended up spending 1.2 lakhs on the trip, and the biggest chunks were spent on stays and fuel.
| Expense Category | Amount (₹) |
| Accommodation | 60,416.00 |
| Fuel | 37,061.37 |
| Tolls | 5,713.00 |
| Himachal Pradesh Entry Fee | 100.00 |
| Food & Drinks | 8,402.00 |
| Pre-trip Food, Supplies & Milton Flask | 4,300.00 |
| Sightseeing & Local Transportation | 2,070.00 |
| Souvenirs | 600.00 |
| Dog Medicines | 1,021.00 |
| Grand Total | 1,19,683.37 |
The big question here is weather this trip can be done on a smaller budget. The answer is Yes. Two main things that will change that spending for you is the choice of the car and the accommodation.
In my case places like Kang Farm and Madhav Bagh were worth every rupee but definitely not on the cheap side. Then there is the car. I took a petrol Mahindra Thar Roxx on the journey which can be expensive as a result of its mileage and the per-litre costs of the fuel. I ended up paying between Rs. 101 – 112 per litre depending on the state I was filling up in. If you were to take a more economical car then you would save a lot on fuel.
If you want to read more about my mileage and consumption observations, you can read my review of the Thar Roxx MX 5.
Final thoughts
So, would I do it again? Would I drive from Pune to Jibhi? The answer is yes, in a heartbeat. And here is why. Some vacations start when you reach the destination; this one started the moment I left. Between the roads and the destinations, I always had something exciting to look forward to each day… except the first day… that was just a commute.
I LOVE driving, so the commute was also a part of the vacation for me, and I got to drive through some incredible places. I drove through the Thar Desert, the lush green fields of Punjab, the stunning mountains of Himachal Pradesh and the beautiful Aravalli Range, all in a vehicle that handled each drive as though it was meant to be there all along.
About the Author
