This Himalayan town has worn a few names over the centuries. It was once a stop on the old Indo-Tibet trading route, later an apple-growing settlement the British helped establish, and, according to local legend, the very spot where Sage Manu stepped off his boat after the Great Flood to repopulate the earth, a story that runs oddly parallel to Noah's. Set in the Kullu Valley at close to 2,000 metres, with the Beas river running through it and the high passes of Lahaul and Spiti beginning just beyond, it has earned its old title, Valley of the Gods, from a landscape and mythology that both feel larger than life. Anyone shortlisting places to visit in Manali usually starts with a mix of temples, valleys, and one very famous mountain pass.

The list of things to do in Manali only grows from there. Hidimba Devi Temple, a pagoda-style wooden shrine set in a cedar forest, ties back to a Mahabharata legend involving the demon Hidimbi and her son Ghatotkacha, while Old Manali, across the Manalsu river, trades temples for riverside cafes, live music, and a backpacker crowd drawn by wood-fired pizza and Tibetan gyathuk. Just up the same lane sits the Manu Temple, one of the few shrines in India dedicated to the sage the town is named after. Solang Valley, a short drive out, is the region's adventure hub for paragliding, skiing, and zorbing, and serves as the usual stop before the long climb up to Rohtang Pass, a high-altitude crossing at over 13,000 feet whose name translates to pile of corpses, now made easier to reach through the Atal Tunnel. Quieter detours include Vashisht, known for its temple and natural hot springs, the short trek out to Jogini Waterfall nearby, Manikaran, sacred to both Sikhs and Hindus and home to a geyser hot enough to cook food, and the artists' village of Naggar, where the Russian painter Nicholas Roerich lived and worked inside what is now Naggar Castle.

What tends to stay with visitors is the sheer range packed into one valley. There's snow at Rohtang even in June, apple orchards heavy with fruit in autumn, and a bonfire with Himachali folk music once the temperature drops after dark. Sterling Manali, a short drive from the town's Mall Road, keeps this entire circuit within easy reach, with its own Himalayan Trout and Aloo Palda on the Kullu Kitchen menu, and seasonal orchard picking, paragliding, and skiing arranged right from the resort.