Spiti Ladarcha Festival Tour with Chandratal

The Ladarcha Fair is the biggest annual event in Spiti, held in the third week of August in Kaza, right after Independence Day. This departure is timed so your Kaza days fall during the festival season. The exact daily programme is announced locally each year, so we keep the Kaza days flexible to give you the best possible experience.

It can happen, since the daily schedule is set locally and may shift. Even then the trip is fully worth it on its own — you still get the complete Spiti circuit, three nights in Kaza, the high villages, the Kibber–Chicham heritage belt, Kunzum Pass and Chandratal. The festival is the bonus, not the whole trip.

Three nights give you more time for the fair, gentler acclimatisation at altitude, and a fuller look at the high villages and the Key–Kibber–Chicham belt. It also means your stay is locked in during a week when Kaza fills up fast.

Before 1962, Ladarcha was a trans-Himalayan trade fair held on the Ladarcha ground near Chicham village in upper Spiti, where traders from Ladakh, Tibet, Kinnaur and Spiti met to barter. The old fair ended when the 1962 war closed the border, and it was later revived as a cultural festival at Kaza. On this trip you walk that very Kibber–Chicham belt where the old gathering once took place.

We plan for it on every departure, but Chandratal is condition based. Access depends on road clearance, weather and local permissions, and camping is only at the designated campsite near the lake, not on the shore. If it is not safe or accessible, we move the stay and route to the safest available alternative and keep you informed.

This batch is built around the third week of August, so it sits right after Independence Day. Depending on how the calendar falls, you may be able to line up part of the trip with the long weekend and use fewer leave days. Share your dates and we’ll help you work the leave around the 13–22 or 14–23 August departures.

Entering from Shimla through Kinnaur lets you gain height slowly over several days, which is the safer way to reach Spiti. Exiting towards Manali over Kunzum Pass and Chandratal completes the full loop without backtracking, so you see the whole circuit rather than the same road twice.

The package includes 7 breakfasts (Day 3 to Day 9) and 7 dinners (Day 2 to Day 8) on the MAP plan, tied to your stay nights. Lunches, snacks, beverages and the meals during the Volvo journeys are not included, so carry some cash for those.

Yes. The route is built to acclimatise you gradually, the group is supported on the ground throughout, and a coordinator stays in touch. It is a real high-altitude circuit with long drives, so come prepared, but first-time Spiti travellers do this trip comfortably.