Further afield
Paragliding at Bir Billing, the lake at Naddi, Norbulingka's workshops, and the two-day walk to Kareri Lake.
- Distance
- From 2 km to a two-day trek
- Effort
- Day trips and overnights
- Best time
- October to December, and March to June
Bir Billing is India's paragliding capital, about seventy kilometres and two hours away by road. The season runs from mid-September to early July and it closes for the monsoon in July and August. A day trip is six to nine hours door to door, so plenty of people stay a night.
Closer in, Naddi viewpoint is the classic Dhauladhar panorama and a good sunset run, and Dal Lake (the small cedar-ringed one near Tota Rani, not the Kashmiri one) is a short walk beyond McLeodganj.
Norbulingka Institute, twelve kilometres down at Sidhpur, was founded in 1995 to keep Tibetan craft traditions alive. You can walk through working studios of thangka painters, statue makers, appliqué and woodcarving. It is one of the more quietly impressive things in the valley.
Kareri Lake is a proper trek rather than a day out: a glacial lake at 2,940 metres, two to three days there and back, with a good deal of ascent from Kareri village.
While you're here
The Triund trek
The ridge walk everyone comes to Dharamkot for: about six kilometres up from the Gallu trailhead, with the Dhauladhar on one side and the Kangra valley on the other.
Gallu Devi temple
A small ridge temple among the cedars, the Triund trailhead, and the best short sunset walk from the village.
Bhagsu waterfall and temple
A twenty-metre fall behind the old Bhagsunag temple, with the café terraces of Upper Bhagsu stacked above it.