We Did It! My Husband Drove Me and the Kids from Mumbai to HP!

Being a travel loving family and with a husband who loves to drive, we have embarked upon many memorable road trips from Mumbai. One day, we decided to go for the most amazing eleven-day road trip from Mumbai to Himachal Pradesh, traversing through eight states being the best part of the journey.

One of the reasons for this exploration was that my kids were born and brought up in Mumbai and we wanted them to experience other parts of the country as well. On this trip, they met with people from different states and experienced the rich Indian heritage.

Himachal Pradesh is one of the favourite destinations for my hubby and me. In addition, another good part about this trip was that it included my son’s birthday, in the end of December.

We wanted to do something unique on his birthday so we started planning a few months before. It took us time to fix a route with all the halts, hotels in Manali and Shimla and time needed. The kids were already so excited!

The journey began on an evening as we started from Mumbai while singing along our favourite numbers, munching on chips or chewing gum while chitchatting. Soon it was shivering and late in the night when we halted in Rajasthan where we gorged on local food and rested until morning. It was quite noticeable how the landscape, the language and clothing of the people around, had changed. For our kids, it was their first exposure to the Rajasthan culture.

Our next halt was in Gurugram and we were too excited to reach the hilly state of Himachal Pradesh. My daughter was the most excited as she had never been to Himachal before.

As we entered Himachal, we stopped at a very humble dhaba to savour the best aloo parathas in the world, paired with loads of butter. We were craving for this type of North Indian food!

Late evening we reached Shimla and encountered the Himachal winters! For the next 2 days, we enjoyed Shimla’s beauty, the Chail Palace, and other surrounding locations. Then came our next stop- Manali!

We had booked the more than lovely Naggar Castle in Kullu. When we reached Kullu the temperature was below zero. At the heritage property, the view from our room was to die for! We could see snow-covered mountains. 

In Manali, we visited Roerich Art Gallery, Hadimba Devi Temple and Mall Road. Along with that, we tried hot jalebis and milk then just strolled around Manali!

Then we bid adieu to Manali and started for our next stop, Agra! After a night’s rest, we headed to check out the Taj Mahal as soon as we got up. I do not have words to describe how gorgeous the monument looked. Kids were equally mesmerised. Our helpful guide added to our experience. Later, we visited the Agra Fort and learnt about its history.

We resumed our journey after devouring a sumptuous daal-roti-sabzi meal at a modest dhaba! It was amazing how different the dialects were as we drove from one state to another.

Then we reached our last halt- Udaipur, the city of lakes. Our stay was in a heritage resort built during the British era, oozing out an old world charm while overlooking the city.

After covering all the major attractions in Udaipur, it was time to head home, towards Mumbai. However, none of us wanted the trip to end!

We reached home with memories of the astonishing highways, dhabas, languages, and extremely cold weather. The trip was a much-needed one as we all bonded and were away from gadgets, tensions and daily stresses from work and school.

The trip was just amusing! My husband did not get tired even after such long drives and we did not get fatigued after such a long journey!

As the long road trip was so successful, we are awaiting our next road trip from Mumbai to an awesome new destination so that we get another chance to adore the richness of India’s ethnicity.