The Road Less Taken Is Often the Best One
The Leh-Manali Highway and the Spiti Valley circuit are magnificent. They’re also, increasingly, extremely crowded in peak season. India has hundreds of road trip routes of equivalent scenic quality that receive a fraction of the vehicles and offer an experience that feels genuinely exploratory rather than managed.
1. The Konkan Coastal Route (Goa to Gokarna)
NH66 south of Goa follows the Arabian Sea through the Konkan coast — a sequence of fishing villages, hidden beaches, ancient temples, and jungle-covered cliffs that the tourist industry has barely touched. The drive from Palolem in South Goa to Gokarna in North Karnataka takes 3-4 hours without stops, a full day with them. The Om Beach and Half Moon Beach near Gokarna are among India’s finest.
2. The Valley of Flowers Circuit, Uttarakhand
The road from Haridwar to Joshimath, then to Badrinath, and back via the Valley of Flowers trailhead at Govindghat — this is a road trip through some of Uttarakhand’s most sacred and scenically extraordinary territory. The road quality varies but the views are consistently breathtaking.
3. The Dzukou Valley Road, Nagaland-Manipur Border
The road from Kohima to Dzukou trailhead passes through Nagaland’s highlands — ridge-top villages, sacred forests, and mountain views that extend to Myanmar on clear days. This is one of India’s least driven scenic routes and one of its most spectacular.
4. The Dangs, Gujarat — The Forest Corridor
The Dangs district of south Gujarat is a tribal forest area that most Indians have never heard of. The road through the Saputara hill station (the only hill station in Gujarat) and down through the Dang forest to the Maharashtra border passes through extraordinary dipterocamp and teak forest with almost no traffic.
5. Meghalaya’s Living Root Bridge Circuit
A circuit from Shillong through Cherrapunji (the world’s wettest place) to Mawlynnong (Asia’s cleanest village) and back through the living root bridge valleys — this is a road trip through a landscape so green it seems impossible and a culture so distinctive that every stop produces genuine surprise.
6. The Rann Road, Gujarat
The drive from Bhuj across the edge of the Great Rann of Kutch to Dholavira and back — a route through India’s most otherworldly landscape. The Rann in November to February (peak Rann of Kutch festival season) is moon-white and immense. The road quality is variable but the experience is irreplaceable.
7. Kerala’s High Range Road
The road from Thekkady through Rajakkad and into the High Range above Munnar — a route through the highest tea estates in Kerala, through the Eravikulam National Park buffer zone, past Rajamala and down into the upper Munnar valley. Almost no tourists take this route, which is extraordinary given the scenery.
8. The Sangla Valley, Himachal Pradesh
The Sangla Valley (Baspa Valley) above Kinnaur is less than 200km from Shimla and feels like a different country — fortified Kinnauri villages, apple orchards, and the Baspa River running turquoise between walls of granite that rise to 6,000m peaks. The road is narrow, the villages are barely connected to mainstream India, and the valley is one of Himachal’s greatest secrets.