Manali in May: What the Peak Season Really Feels Like (From the Orchard)

By the first week of May, the plains have already given up. Delhi is sitting at 40-43°C by mid-morning, Chandigarh is not far behind, and every WhatsApp enquiry we get starts with some version of the same sentence: it's unbearable down here, is it cool up there? The honest answer is yes — and that yes is exactly why May is the busiest month on the Kullu-Manali highway. We run two homes in this valley and we have watched this pattern for a few seasons now. So rather than sell you the postcard, let us tell you what May in Manali is genuinely like, where the crowds go, what the weather does, and how to plan around all of it.

Persimmon Farmstead sits at 14 Mile, Badgran, about 14 km south of Manali town on the highway. Our second home, Shanag, is roughly 4-5 km north of Manali towards Solang. Between the two, we sit on either side of the town's May traffic — and that geography turns out to matter a lot in this particular month, which we will get to.

The weather: cool, but not cold — and that catches people out

Here is the thing people from the plains underestimate. May in Manali is pleasant, not freezing. In town and around our Badgran orchard (roughly 1,900 m), daytime highs sit around 20-27°C through the month, climbing a little as June approaches. Nights are the real gift: 8-14°C, cool enough for a light quilt, which after a 43°C day in Delhi feels close to a miracle. Early May mornings can still nip; by late May the days are properly warm in direct sun.

Go higher and it changes fast. At Solang (around 2,500 m) it is several degrees cooler, and up at Rohtang Pass (3,980 m) there is still snow on the ground and the air is genuinely cold — single digits, wind, and the odd flurry. This is the mistake we see most often: guests drive up to the snow at Rohtang in cotton shirts and slippers because it was 25°C when they left, and spend the whole time miserable. Carry a fleece or jacket and closed shoes for any high-altitude day trip, even in warm, sunny May.

May is largely dry and clear compared to the July-August monsoon, which is a big reason it is prime season. You will still get the occasional afternoon cloudburst or a grey mountain evening — this is the Himalaya, not a resort brochure — but long stretches of blue-sky days are the norm. UV at altitude is strong; sunburn on a 'cool' day is a real thing here.

The crowds are real. Let's not pretend otherwise

May is peak season, full stop. School summer holidays across North India line up almost perfectly with the month, so families travel, and honeymoon and couple traffic is heavy too. The town's Mall Road gets packed by late morning, the Kullu-Manali highway sees serious jams on weekends, and the two big draws — Solang and Rohtang — can turn into slow-moving queues of vehicles by mid-day.

We won't tell you the crowds aren't there, because they are. What we will tell you is how to sidestep the worst of them, because most of it comes down to timing and where you base yourself.

• Travel mid-week if you possibly can. A Tuesday-to-Friday trip is a different valley from a Saturday-Sunday one. Weekend day-trippers from Chandigarh and Delhi pour in and clog the highway and the sights.
• Start early. For Solang or Rohtang, leave by 6.30-7am. The queues build after 9-10am. By late morning the Solang road can crawl.
• Do the town in the evening, not mid-day. Mall Road, Hadimba Temple, and Old Manali cafés are far more bearable after 4pm once the day-tour buses thin out.
• Base yourself outside the town centre. This is the quiet advantage of both our homes — you sleep in an orchard, not above a honking street, and you drive into the crowds only when you choose to.

“We tell every May guest the same thing: give the valley its mornings and its evenings, and let the crowd have the middle of the day. Breakfast slow on the orchard deck, head out for one thing, and be back before the highway fills. The people who try to cram three sights into one May day come home frazzled — the ones who do one thing well come home rested.”— the hosts

Rohtang Pass in May: open, snowy, and heavily regulated

Rohtang usually opens for the season sometime in the second half of April or early May, once the Border Roads Organisation clears the winter snow — the exact date shifts year to year with the weather, so don't lock plans to a fixed day. Through May you get the best of it: deep snow walls on either side of the road and proper snow to play in at the top, which is what most plains visitors have come for.

But Rohtang is not a turn-up-and-drive affair. To control traffic and protect the fragile pass, the authorities cap the number of vehicles per day and require an online permit (via the Himachal government's Rohtang permit portal). The permit runs a few hundred rupees plus a green/congestion charge; the pass is also closed to tourist traffic on one day each week (commonly a Tuesday) for maintenance. Diesel vehicles above a certain age are restricted. Permits sell out in peak May, so book yours a few days ahead.

• If you don't want the permit hassle, most guests take a local taxi or a shared cab — operators handle the permit, and you skip the paperwork and the anxious drive on snow. A private taxi from the Manali area to Rohtang and back typically runs in the region of ₹4,000-6,000 depending on season, waiting time and bargaining.
• Snow gear (gumboots, jacket, gloves) is rented at stalls near the top for a few hundred rupees — negotiate, and agree the price before you put anything on.
• Altitude is real at 3,980 m. Go slow, don't sprint about in the snow, and skip it if anyone in your group has a serious heart or breathing condition. Kids and elders do fine if you take it easy.
• If Rohtang is closed, sold out, or just feels like too much, Solang and the Atal Tunnel-to-Sissu run (below) are the easy alternatives — and often the better day out.

Solang in full swing — and the Atal Tunnel alternative

Solang Valley, about 14 km north of Manali town and only a short hop from our Shanag home, is where May really performs. In summer it becomes an adventure-activity ground: paragliding, zorbing, the ropeway/gondola, ATV rides and the rest. It is busy and unabashedly touristy, but it is genuinely fun if you go in with the right expectations.

Rough costs, so you can plan and haggle from an informed position: a short paragliding joyride runs around ₹1,500-2,500, a longer high-altitude flight considerably more; the Solang ropeway is a few hundred rupees per person; zorbing and ATV rides are a few hundred each. Prices are seasonal and negotiable — settle the number and what it includes before you commit, and be wary of touts quoting mid-air add-ons.

Our quiet tip for May: the Atal Tunnel. The 9.02 km tunnel under the Rohtang massif opened in 2020 and it changed day trips in this valley completely. Drive through it (about 15-20 minutes from Solang to the tunnel and then the crossing) and you pop out in the Lahaul valley near Sissu — a different, starker, less-crowded landscape with a waterfall and a calm riverside that most Rohtang-bound crowds never see. No permit needed for the tunnel itself. It is our go-to suggestion when Rohtang is a zoo.

Getting here in May — and why booking early actually matters

Most guests reach us by road from Delhi/Chandigarh. It is roughly 530 km and 12-14 hours from Delhi (overnight Volvo buses leave in the evening and get you in by morning), and about 270 km and 7-8 hours from Chandigarh. Volvo sleeper/semi-sleeper fares from Delhi to Manali typically run ₹1,200-2,500 each way, and they climb in peak May — book those ahead too, not just your stay. If you're flying, Bhuntar (Kullu) airport is about 50 km south of Manali (roughly 1.5-2 hours by road), with limited and weather-dependent flights; many people instead fly to Chandigarh and drive up.

On booking early: we mean it, and not as a sales line. May is the single most in-demand month in this valley, and good stays across the whole Manali-Solang belt fill weeks ahead, especially for weekends and the school-holiday stretch. We keep our two homes small and personal on purpose, which means we simply run out of rooms in May. If you're eyeing a May weekend, a WhatsApp message in March or early April is not too early. We take bookings over WhatsApp so we can actually talk through dates, your group, and whether Badgran or Shanag suits you better.

Badgran or Shanag in May?

A quick honest steer, since the two homes suit different May trips. Our Badgran home at 14 Mile is 14 km south of town — that puts you slightly away from the northbound Solang/Rohtang traffic snarl, which is lovely for a slower, food-and-orchard trip and easy runs down to Kullu, Naggar and Manikaran. Shanag, north of town towards Solang, puts you on the right side of the valley for early-morning dashes to Solang, the Atal Tunnel and Rohtang before the crowds wake up. Tell us what you most want to do and we'll point you to the right one.

A few honest May cautions

• Highway jams are unpredictable. A weekend backup near Kullu or the Solang turn-off can add an hour or two. Don't schedule a same-day sightseeing-plus-departure — give yourself buffer.
• Sightseeing costs are negotiable and touts are active at Solang and Rohtang. Agree every price up front, ignore aggressive mid-activity upsells, and use established operators where you can.
• Book Rohtang permits and snow-point plans a few days ahead in May — they cap and they sell out.
• Carry warm layers for high-altitude days even when the valley is warm. The temperature gap between our orchard and Rohtang can be 15°C or more.
• Weekends are the crush. If your dates are flexible, mid-week is a genuinely different, calmer trip.

For all that, May remains our favourite month to hand the valley to first-time guests. The plains are an oven, our orchard is in full leaf, the nights are cool enough to sleep properly, and the food — which is honestly why most people come back to us — tastes better after a day out in the mountains. Come with a loose plan, give the crowds the middle of the day, and let us feed you well. That's the trip that works in May.