Palampur and Andretta tour from Kangra

About 40 km, an easy hour on a good road through Nagrota Bagwan and Chamunda. Andretta is a further 13 km beyond Palampur, and Baijnath about 15 km on from there, so the whole loop is comfortable in a day if you want it to be.

Yes. The Palampur estates keep the last real tea country in the northwest, and the co-operative tea factory takes visitors through the process and sells directly. The gardens are at their most photogenic from March through the monsoon, when the bushes are flushing and being plucked.

A small artists' village founded around Norah Richards, the Irish theatre figure who settled here, and later home to the painter Sobha Singh — his gallery is still open. The Andretta Pottery and Craft Society runs a working studio you can visit, and sometimes short courses. It is a quiet, unglamorous place and all the better for it.

It is the highlight for many. The Baijnath Shiv temple dates to the 13th century, survived the 1905 earthquake that flattened much of the valley, and sits on a bluff with the Dhauladhar behind it. It is directly on the route between Palampur and Bir, so it costs you almost nothing in time.

One long day covers Palampur, the tea factory and Baijnath. Take two if you want Andretta and Tashijong monastery without hurrying, or if you would rather have an evening by the Neugal Khad than a drive home in the dark.

All year, and it is one of the few Himachal trips the monsoon improves — the tea gardens are at their greenest July to September. March to June and October to November give the clearest Dhauladhar views. Andretta’s studios keep their own hours and can be shut midweek, so we ring ahead.