When visiting the Kullu Valley, it is best to avoid Kullu and Manali as much as possible. There are many beautiful and peaceful villages to stay in nearby; Naggar, where we stayed, is just one of them. In Naggar, if you stay at the Hotel Castle, you are paying (Rs 1200) for the history and for the best views in town, not for the quality of the rooms. It is run by the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation, which must be contacted for reservations (http://hptdc.nic.in).
If you must stay in Manali, we recommend the Kalpana Hotel (Rs 600), near the Hidimba temple, away from pollution, with excellent views and walks nearby. Good restaurants in Manali include Green Forest and Tibetan Friends. Also there is an excellent bookstore near the bus station.
Our Chandrakani Pass and Malana trek was organized by Kuram Dutt and Astrid Jansen of Tiger Eye Adventure. They organize treks all over Himachal Pradesh, and we highly recommend them. We paid $25 per person per day for our all-inclusive trek. They can be contacted at: tigereyeindia@yahoo.com, 01902-254336, 01902-252718 (f), Old Manali Rd, Manali. Our guide on the trek was Mohan Sharma, whom we also recommend.
After the trek, Kuram and Astrid helped us out in a million ways. Most importantly, they hired on our behalf Seshram Negi and his Toyota Qualis, to take us to Leh. (The standard price is Rs 10,000, but we got a Rs 1000 discount.) For such a treacherous road, it is important to have a good vehicle and a good driver, and we were lucky to have the best: a vehicle in perfect condition (and with an excellent stereo!), and a driver-owner who was friendly and skilled and knew both his vehicle and the road like the back of his hand. Hire him if you can. If you can't, at a minimum insist on a vehicle with seat belts, both for the obvious safety reasons and because they make the bumpy ride much more comfortable.
We have two more general recommendations about the Manali-Leh road. First, you should consider it as a destination in itself, not merely a way to get from one place to another. This is why we recommend, if your budget permits it, hiring a car rather than taking the bus--there are so many interesting places to stop along the way. And if you have time, stretch it into a 3 or even 4 day trip, making the pace much more relaxing. Secondly, unless you have spent some time at altitude before undertaking it (for example in Himachal Pradesh, as David and Matt did), it is advisable to do it at the end of the trip rather than the beginning. As Minette and Jayashree discovered--having just arrived from Bombay when we set out from Manali--it is rather unpleasant (though probably not dangerous) to go straight from sea level to 5,300 m without acclimatization. Better to fly into Leh (at a mere 3,500 m) and spend a couple of days immobile there to acclimatize, and then enjoy the road on the way home.
In Leh we highly recommend the Skit Tsal Guesthouse in Upper Karzoo (01982-251242, Rs 250). An excellent (though not Ladakhi) restaurant is Budshah Inn.
Our guide on the Hidden Valleys of Ladakh trek was Phuntsog Angchok (Spituk, 01982-260015, phuntsogangchok3@hotmail.com), and the cook (who did a lot more than cook!) was Rigzen Gyatso. Both work for Wall Travels in Delhi. We recommend them both highly. In particular, Phuntsog, whose English is perfect, was a great guide not only on the trek but also in the monasteries we visited beforehand--much of what we know about Buddhism we learned from him. The all-inclusive trek cost $26 per person per day.
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