Ladakh Road Trip Planner

We believe anyone who has done a road trip in Ladakh has done everything, now most things in life don’t hold any meaning. We salute everyone who has taken time out, spent the effort in planning, reading forums, convincing friends, bosses, family. Once you hit the road, you realize everything, every effort was completely worth it, you were rewarded more than what you came for.

Now the ones who are still planning, think no more and make sure you are in Ladakh this summer, Take a bus, take a tour package or if you are ambitious enough get a ‘BULLET’ and ride through heaven on Earth. We did the same last year in our lazy style spending about a month. So feel free to ask all the questions that may arise in your mind. For starters, below is a break up of the money we spent in this road trip.

Category Expenses for 2 people  INR USD
Fuel 11500 186
Accomodation 18750 303
Breakfast 3760 61
Lunch 4210 68
Dinner 7110 115
Bike Rent 18200 294
Miscellaneous 3400 55
Total 66930 1082

For those who love to see pie-charts

Ladakh Expenses Road Trip Empty Rucksack

The route we followed was

Delhi – Manali – Leh – Nubra Valley – Kargil – Zanskar Valley – Kargil  – Srinagar – Jammu – Delhi

Summary of where we spent our money.

1. Bike Rental : We have a BULLET, but did not take it for this trip and had to rent one out. It cost us INR 650/- a day and was a major chunk of our daily budget.  They are easy to rent in Karol Bagh in New Delhi. All you need to know about renting motorbikes is here

Empty Rucksack Travelers Ladakh Road Trip Planner

2. Food :  Once you are in the mountains, food tends to get simpler, tastier and international at the popular places. We spent about INR 500 – 600/- a day on food. This could have been more, but thanks to Ishwinder, she was fasting on a lot of days and I kept on eating most of the food.

What is the best meal you have had above 4000 meters?

3. Accommodation :  You get basic, simple, clean guest houses everywhere in the area. What they come with are stunning views, great hospitality, lovely smiles all for free. It cost us about INR 500 – 600/- and could have been less, but we decided to stay in the better places. we can skip a meal but need a nice and clean bed.

Empty Rucksack Travelers Ladakh Road Trip Planner

4. Fuel : We rode about 3500 kms in this trip. The roads were either the best tar roads in the country and there were no roads at all. You need to constantly keep on checking your bike to make sure you have a smooth trip. We did two checks everyday morning and evening. An important tip was to have enough engine oil, this made sure we never had a breakdown. The only trouble we had were a punctured tyre, but it resulted in lots of events and cost us about INR 2000 – 3000/-.

Empty Rucksack Travelers Ladakh Road Trip Planner

5. Body Suits :  We are not bikers, but decided to stay safe. Researched a bit on the internet, had past experience of riding in Spiti valley and went with the body suits which cost us a whooping INR 25,000/-. But they made sure we had a great journey, were never too cold, a little warm at times. We also brought two new helmets. We did not carry any rain coats or thermals as they body suits took care of everything. This is an optional expense but highly recommended.

P.S. If you wish to have a detailed account of day to day expenses, please leave a comment and we will send you the xls.

About Empty Ruck Sack

Empty Rucksack travelers is an attempt to bring together many wonderful stories of career breaks, long term vacations and great travel destinations together at one place. The posts authored by Empty Rucksack Travelers are put together by Vikram and Ishwinder, an Indian couple out on a long term travel to find that perfect place in the world where they may want to stay forever.

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44 comments

  1. I and my girlfriend have been planning on this trip for a some time. Sadly, we have been procrastinating due to the usual reasons. Your article has given a spark again. But we are blind on the trip planning part. It would be helpful if you could email me your day to day activities

    • Thejas,

      The excel sheet will be in your inbox soon.
      Go through it and then tell us how many days you are planning to spend and where arw you based so that we can help you plan your trip.

      Empty Rucksack

  2. Hey can u ride along on a rented jeep? Can,t ride.

  3. Really helpful post. Thank you. 🙂

  4. nice breakdown of costs. I don’t think I’d go by bike as I can barely ride a scooty- but would love to go by car.
    Rachel of Hippie in Heels recently posted…17 Reasons I Love the Cows in India (Even Though One Tried to Kill Me)My Profile

  5. Excellent description. Makes you feel like planning this beautiful part of India!
    I will be planning it in June. Please can you email me the expense sheet where I can go the way you’ll have gone. Thanks in advance!

  6. I had planned for this trip last year but due to some commitment didn’t materialize, I and my wife are planning for this year.
    Have been going through many travelogue this found very interesting. I need some info on Bike rental and cost.
    It would be helpful if you could email me the details and your day-to-day activities, thanks in advance

  7. Actually you can do without the whole riding suit. Better to buy a riding jacket with padded elbows and back, and knee guard separately. Jacket costs about 3000-5000, depending on style and your size, knee guards cost less than 1500.

    That’s what I have done. I have had a situation where i slid on the road at about 70 kph, and slid into one of those sloped banks our Indian roads often have. The screws in my knee guards had to be replaced, but otherwise nothing was wrong. Even with the knee guards, the shop i normally use (ProBiiker in Pune) replaced the screws for free, and you can even carry the screws with you, really easy to replace.

    Thermals below jeans, and knee guards above.

  8. Me and wife are planning ladakh trip with 2 other couple.
    Need your advise the trip and essential required for bike tour.
    Suggest a suitable itineray

  9. any contact person in manali to get bullets in good conditions, as have heard that d bullets there are in d worst conditions !!???

  10. Hi, we are 6 people from delhi, travelling to Ladakh in August 1st week.
    Can you send us your travel plan, we have made one but just wanted to check out a few things.
    Thanks a lot!!

  11. Hi,

    We are a group of 7 travelling to Leh from 8th to 17th. Landing in srinagar and then planning on renting bikes there. Any good places you know. It will surely help us. And flying back to bangalore from srinagar itself. Any not-so-touristy-must-see-places recommendations would also help a lot. (and the daily expense sheet too 😉

    • Ashish,

      Srinagar will be a little difficult to rent motorbike, here is one guy but he charges a lot.

      http://theliontravels.com/Bikeonrent.aspx

      Since you are there only for a week,and already 7 people it would be advisable to get a taxi, it will turn out cheaper and you will less time in transfers.

      For staying in leh, call Goba Guest house, and book rooms in their new building, it should be about 600-700.

      You can easily rent bikes in Leh if you want to.
      Send more details of your itinerary and then we can suggest more things

      Empty Rucksack

  12. Hi,

    We 4 ppl are planning a ladakh bike trip in this august. The information you have provided is very useful. It will be very helpful if you can provide the day to day detail expense ?

  13. hI,

    Thanx for your Blog ,its realli encouraging and we are planning a trip around this 20th would you please provide the detailed expenses and your day to day activity list ?How much time would it take to travel from delhi ?and is it better to rent a bike from delhi or manali ?

    Thanx in advance

  14. Akash,

    The sheet I sent was expenses for two people, we rode two on a bike, with me riding and my wife as pillion, it’s easily doable if you don’t exert yourself too much and keep 2-3 days buffer. Share details of your trip and I will be able to suggest better

  15. We are 4 guys planning bike trip to Ladakh in June. Can you please suggest me the best way to get there and what are the do’s and dont’s for the same :). Will 7 days will be enough for the trip. And the most important part is cost. Please send me xls file for budget. Our budget is 30 to 40k per person.

  16. Please mail me yours day to day expense, it will help a lot

  17. I would love to know more about the expenses that you incurred during the trip. Could you please send that excel sheet

  18. Excellent write up!

    Could you email me the expenses breakup to lehroad2015@gmail.com

  19. Hi ,

    We planed our trip from Srinagar to leh (6th June -15 june), but problem we r not getting any bikes on rent.
    Can you please help us out?
    Or we can ask from any company who can deliver bikes to Srinagar ?
    Please suggest something
    Regards
    Rajiv

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