Shimla Travel Guide

Introduction

107km (66 miles) NE of Chandigarh

In the days when Shimla inspired scenes from Rudyard Kipling's Kim, it was a popular pick-up center for lusty British officers and flirtatious maidens keen to create a stir among the scandalmongers who gathered along The Mall during the summers. Shimla enjoys a proud history as the preferred mountain escape retreat from the unbearable summer heat of the plains (or "downstairs," as many Himachalis refer to their low-altitude neighbors) -- a cool spot in which to sink into a life of idle gossip, romantic conquests, and military brown-nosing. Today, this romantic image has been somewhat ruined by unchecked urbanization and reckless construction. Development has now been curbed, but the clogged roads and ugly concrete tenements that cling to the mountainsides beneath Shimla detract significantly from the town's former glory.

Sprawling over seven hills fringed by dense forest and magnificent mountains, Shimla is a useful starting point from which...