A Trek Basecamp for Hampta, Bhrigu, Lamadugh and Patalsu

Why start a trek from here, not from town

Most first-time trekkers roll into Manali on the overnight Volvo, sleep four hours in a noisy Mall Road room, and start walking the same morning with a churning stomach and a headache they blame on the food. It's usually not the food. It's the altitude, and it's the lack of a proper base. A trek basecamp isn't a fancy idea — it's just a quiet place at the right height where your body catches up before you ask it to climb.

That's the job we do well. Our Shanag home sits near Bahang, about 4-5 km north of Manali on the road toward Old Manali and Solang, higher and closer to the snow line than the town. Wake here, walk out onto the orchard lawn with tea, and your lungs get a gentle head start on the thin air you'll meet at 3,600 m on Hampta or 4,300 m at Bhrigu Lake. The Badgran flagship, 14 km south at 14 Mile, is the calmer, lower base — better if you're driving up over two days and want a full night's sleep before you even reach the trailhead.

The four treks we send guests off to

• Hampta Pass (about 4-5 days) — the classic crossover from green Kullu forest to the bare moonscape of Lahaul. Trailhead at Jobra, roughly a 1.5-2 hour drive from us via the Prini-Jagatsukh road. Best mid-June to early October.
• Bhrigu Lake (2-3 days) — a high alpine lake at ~4,300 m reached from Gulaba, about 40-50 minutes up the Rohtang road from Shanag. Steep meadows, big exposure, doable as a tight weekend if you're already acclimatised. Mid-May to mid-October.
• Lamadugh (1-2 days) — the gentle one. A forest-and-meadow walk starting near Old Manali, close enough that you can leave after our breakfast and be at the meadow by lunch. Good for a warm-up day or a first trek with kids who walk.
• Patalsu Peak (2 days) — the sharp acclimatisation climb above Solang, often paired with a Lamadugh night. A real summit feel without a multi-day commitment.

The 6 AM breakfast, and why it's hot

Trek days start ugly-early, and the one thing that ruins a first morning is walking out cold on an empty stomach because the kitchen opens at eight. So we don't make you wait. Tell us your start time the night before and we'll have breakfast ready at 6, or earlier if your driver wants to beat the Rohtang-road traffic to Gulaba. It comes off our small family kitchen — no buffet, no chafing dishes, just food cooked to order for the people actually leaving.

What lands on the table is deliberate: parathas or eggs and toast for something that sits well while you climb, hot chai and coffee, a flask filled if you want it, and boiled eggs or fruit to push into your daypack. We'll pack a simple lunch to carry too if your trek isn't a fully supported one with its own cook. It's honest farm-kitchen food, not a hotel spread — which is exactly what you want at six in the morning before a pass.

Your car sleeps safe while you're on the trail

The quiet worry on every multi-day trek is the car. You've driven up from Delhi or Chandigarh, and now you're leaving it somewhere for four days while you're out of phone range. Parking a loaded car at a random trailhead lot, or on a Manali street, is how people come back to a broken window and a missing bag.

Leave it with us instead. We have free off-street parking inside the property, and your car stays here for the length of your trek — no daily charge, no clock running. Our travel desk arranges the drop to the trailhead and the pickup on your way down, so you're not negotiating with a taxi at Jobra at dawn with a 40-litre pack on your back. A rough sense of the transfers, both ways: Jobra for Hampta runs about ₹2,000-3,000 for a small car; Gulaba for Bhrigu is shorter, usually ₹1,500-2,500. Prices move with season and fuel, so we'll confirm on WhatsApp before you commit.

One couple left their car with us for the five days of Hampta, trekked over to Chatru, and got a shared cab back to Manali from the Lahaul side. We kept the car parked, kept their spare bag in the store, and had a hot dinner on when they finally walked in from the bus stop at nine. That's the whole point of a basecamp — the mountain gets your full attention because the boring logistics are already handled.

— your hosts at Persimmon Farmstead

Coming down: the recovery night matters as much

Everyone books the room for before the trek. The smart ones book the night after too. You come off Hampta or Bhrigu with dead legs, a sunburnt face, and clothes that need a fire to dry — and the last thing you want is to immediately fold yourself into a car for a nine-hour drive to Delhi. A recovery night here fixes that.

Hot water runs 24x7, so the first thing you do is stand under it until the cold leaves your bones. We'll light the bonfire and you can drape wet socks and boots near it to dry overnight. Dinner is generous and warm — the food guests keep coming back for — and there's no early alarm the next morning. Sleep in, eat a slow breakfast, let your legs remember how to walk on flat ground, then drive home rested instead of wrecked. If you're a pet parent, your dog is welcome the whole time; both our homes are genuinely pet-friendly, so the trek doesn't mean boarding them somewhere.

How to plan it with us

The pattern that works best: arrive a day early, sleep, do a short leg-loosener like Lamadugh or a village walk to test your body at height, then start the main trek fresh the next morning. Book the pre-trek night, the parking, and ideally the recovery night in one go so we can hold the room and line up your transfers. Message either of us on WhatsApp with your trek, your dates, and your start time — we'll sort the early breakfast, the trailhead drop, and the safe-parking side of it, and tell you honestly if your window has enough acclimatisation built in or if you're cutting the altitude too fine.

We're not a trek operator and we won't pretend to be — for the actual guiding, permits and camping on Hampta or Bhrigu you'll go with a registered agency, and our travel desk can point you to ones our guests have come back happy from. What we are is the warm, quiet, safe base at either end of the walk: a real bed at the right height, a hot breakfast before dawn, a locked-up car, and a fire and a farm dinner for when you make it back down.