How to calculate cost or budget for Spiti Valley trip in 2022?

Spiti Valley is getting very popular among adventurists year by year. Often people ask me about what could be the budget for Spiti Valley trip, and I feel a dedicated post around will help all seeking such answers. This article is for you in case you are looking forward to preparing or analyzing the budget or cost of your Spiti Valley trip 😉

Frankly speaking, the cost or budget of any trip including the road trip to Spiti Valley, depends a lot upon person to person. The definition of taste and comfort is a matter of personal preference and hence, the cost of any trip can be calculated as an estimate on certain assumptions.

Calculating the cost of Spiti Trip

Spiti Valley is a place where you can get varied stay options depending on your choice for comfort, preference, taste, road conditions, season, and not to forget the present circumstances 😛 … It is true for any remote and tribal place in Himachal Pradesh or other parts of the Himalayas.

The variety of stay options may range from Rs 100 stay at some dhabha tent or shack to Rs 250-400 stay at the low-cost guest house or a homestay in Spiti to a Rs 700 – 1500 at medium cost hotels/guest house to Rs 3000 and above for hotels that offer much more comfort, convenience, food, etc…

A similar thing applies to food as well. It depends on what you want to eat, pizza or dal – rice or roti – dal fry or maggie/veg/ non-veg food, etc. Well, with food, it also depends upon more importantly where you want to eat and drink 🙂

So, you can see with so many variables of personal perspective and choices, it is quite hard to estimate the cost or budget for any trip, including Spiti Valley. However, still, I will try to sketch a basic average budget analysis for a trip to Spiti Valley. I will consider the choice of accommodation and food which the majority of people will be OK.

What is the Cost or Budget for Spiti Valley Trip?

Given below is a basic budget-friendly itinerary for Spiti Valley via Shimla tour ex. Delhi (without any buffer days) covers all major tourist destinations of Spiti & Kinnaur Valley. This is a common Spiti valley trip plan followed widely by many travelers including me :)…

We will be analyzing or finding the budget or costing for this Spiti Valley tour as a part of our exercise. You can roughly guess for yourself that for a similar trip or based on your point of interest, what will be the approximate cost or budget for Spiti Valley trip. An example itinerary for Kaza Spiti Valley covering almost all basic tourist places including Kinnaur Valley –

So, you can see for our sample Spiti Valley itinerary we have taken nine days (without any buffer days). You can add/remove modify it according to your needs. Of course, the budget outcome will depend a bit on the plan. However, that is very much trivial to say 🙂

Ideal Group Size for Spiti Trip

Also, consider that while traveling alone the cost of accommodation and transportation is bound to increase. If you are traveling in an evenly balanced group it will surely decrease.

As of now, I will also assume that you guys are five in number so that you can calculate the budget on a twin/triple sharing basis. A group size of five is also ideal for splitting the taxi cost appropriately, as well. Hence, Shimla to Spiti Valley taxi fare will reduce with the number of people in the group.

Now, to analyze the budget of Spiti Valley trip on the above or any other itinerary, we can categorize it in two major parts as described below in the article.

Food + Accommodation + Miscellaneous Budget of Spiti Trip

If you are staying in an average budget hotel with decent comfort and you are traveling in a group (at least 2 in number) then the average cost per day for food, accommodation, and other misc. things like toll, permit fees, entry fees to monasteries, etc. come about Rs 900 – 1200 per day.

This trip will need about nine days at the very least. So roughly you will be spending some Rs 8100 – 10800 per person for food, accommodation, and other miscellaneous expenditures. Again, 900 – 1200 figures could be a low budget for someone and a little high for the others depending upon the choice of stay and food or other activities you plan to do.

An example could be, if you dine at a dhabha tent, then the cost of the meal would come out to be around Rs 50 – 70 only per person. However, for the same meal you may pay Rs 150 – Rs 200 per person or maybe more when you eat it at your hotel.

Vegetarian or Non-Vegetarian also matters concerning food pricing, so take that too into account. The same thing applies to the other activities, and here I have considered which are unavoidable, such as toll, permit charges, entry fees, snacks, etc. If you are going paragliding in Manali, rafting, mountain biking, shopping, etc.. then that will surely be something additional for you.

Hence, if you are going with the budget hotels having decent comfort, eating decent quality food, and including only mandatory miscellaneous charges then you may need to shell out Rs 8100 – 10800 per person for the above Spiti Valley itinerary of 9 days. For stay options in Kinnaur and Spiti, check the article on Some Good Options of Stays in Spiti Valley / Kinnaur Valley.

Mode of Transportation

On a trip to Spiti Valley, the major cost comes out to be for taxis or transportation or fuel depending upon your mode of transport. Using public transport inside Kinnaur – Spiti Valley is a challenge as the frequency of such shared vehicles or buses is feeble and based on their schedules you may require more days to complete the above trip 🙂 …

So, in Spiti Valley, travelers mostly commute either by privately hired taxis or by finding travel partners and sharing the cost with them or riding rented bikes from Manali or ultimately self-drive on their bikes or cars. All these options will present you with different costs of the trip.

Let’s look at each one of them below to get an idea of the total cost of a Spiti Valley trip.

Self-Drive Private Vehicle – Bike and Car

On this road trip from Delhi to Kinnaur to Kaza, you will be traveling about 1600-1700 KMs for the above Spiti Valley trip. So, if your bike gives a mileage of about 25 KMPL on average in hills + plains, then you are looking for about Rs 7000 for fuel roughly as per current August 2021 petrol prices.

Similarly, you can calculate if you are driving the car. Just keep in mind that in hills, your car will give much lesser mileage than in plains. So, calculate accordingly and divide them among the people traveling in the car to calculate the per-person cost. Most people prefer to ride to Spiti Valley without a pillion on a bike, so cost is calculated singularly.

Finally, taking food + accommodation into account, traveling to Spiti by self-drive mode of transport, you are looking at about ((Rs 8100 – 10800) + (Rs 7000) = (Rs 15100 – 17800)) as the total budget for Spiti Valley trip by bike.

In case you are traveling in your car with 4 people in the car, well you are looking at about Rs 3500 approximately per person for the fuel. So, you are looking at about ((Rs 8100 – 10800) + (Rs 3500) = (Rs 11600 – 14300)) as the total budget for Spiti Valley trip by car.

Self-Drive or Self Ride But Rented Bike or Car

Here, the cost of fuel would be the same as for a self-drive private vehicle calculated above, but you will be adding the cost of bike/car rent as well. Usually, you get a decent bike in good condition at around Rs 1000 – 1200 per day, depending on the make and model of the bike you rent. So, the cost of rent only comes out to be around Rs 9000 – 10800.

Adding the fuel cost as calculated above, the cost here becomes approximately about Rs 24100 – 28600. Please note that bike ride is not twin sharing for bike and fuel. Depending upon the deal you are getting for self-drive cars from Delhi, you can yourself add up that cost. Some car rentals also provide fuel within the rent too, so do that maths accordingly.

You should check more details about the tips on how to hire the bikes in Manali / Leh.

Privately Hired Taxi for Spiti Valley trip

Here I will assume that you have used public transport such as HPTDC or HRTC Volvo to reach Shimla from Delhi and then used the same for Manali to Delhi. We can take the cost of Volvo to be Rs 2500 per person. Now, you are left with Shimla to Kaza to Manali for about 7 days.

Shimla to Spiti Valley Taxi Fare

The rates of the taxis for Kinnaur & Spiti Valley trips are about Rs 3800 – 4000 per day depending upon the number of days you plan to travel, more the days, less the price.

So, for seven days of Spiti Valley tour, you are looking at Rs 5000 per person for a taxi considering five people are traveling in your group. So, total commute expenses by this mod of transport come out to be Rs 7800 – Rs 8100 per person.

Again, taking food + accommodation into account, traveling by privately hired taxi for Spiti Valley and reaching Leh in public/shared transport, you are looking at about ((Rs 8100 – 10800) + (Rs 7800 – 8100) = (Rs 15900 – 18900)) as the total cost for the entire Spiti Valley trip.

Taxi Drivers for Spiti Valley

You can get connected directly to some drivers in Spiti Valley or Kinnaur Valley at the link List of Taxi Drivers for Spiti Valley & Kinnaur Valley. These drivers can come and pick you up from Manali / Shimla / Delhi / Chandigarh, too. Of course, with the price of the pickup as well. Otherwise, taxis, in general, are also available on the spot from Shimla or Manali from respective taxi stands.

Spiti Valley Taxi Cost

Please note that experienced drivers from Kinnaur and Spiti region charge about Rs 3800-4000 per day. Drivers who are inexperienced in the roads of Spiti Valley or Kinnaur Valley or who are from lower hills like Shimla/Manali who have not done many roads in Spiti or who are totally from plains like Chandigarh and Delhi may offer less price per day but then their inexperience, skills, and warmth could pose a question in some challenging water crossing or bad road condition section.

Spiti Valley Backpacking Trip using Public Transport or Shared Taxis

In case, you plan to travel to Spiti Valley by public transport, you can read the article How to make a budget trip to Spiti Valley by public transport?. It covers in detail, how you can make a trip to Spiti Valley in public transport and also project the cost of it.

As explained in the article linked under this topic, you can easily make a budget trip to Spiti Valley within Rs 10000 using public transport and other shared transport means.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

I hope the above article helps you calculate your budget for Spiti Valley trip. I understand that it takes one base itinerary into account, but I am sure it will also help you in your itinerary as well. In case you still have any doubts, feel free to post your questions in the comments section of this article.

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I will look forward to knowing your perspective/tips on cost analysis for the Spiti Valley trip as well. Kindly share your valuable thoughts/feedback/inputs etc here which will help many other fellow travelers.

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