Introduction
I’ll be straight with you, I almost didn’t write this. Every travel site in India publishes a “best hill stations” list around March, and most of them read like they were put together by someone who has never actually left their desk. Same five destinations, same two facts per place, done. I’d only write this if I could make it useful.
So here’s what I’ve tried to do. Each place on this list, I’ve either visited personally or spent serious time researching through people who have not just pulled from press releases. Summer 2026 is shaping up to be a big travel year. Flights are expensive, international trips feel heavy on the wallet, and honestly? The mountains within India are criminally underrated by people who keep defaulting to Bali or Thailand. You don’t need to go that far.
Here are ten places worth visiting this summer. In no particular ranking, they’re all different enough that comparing them directly doesn’t make much sense.
1. Manali, Himachal Pradesh
Okay, I know. Everyone and their cousin has been to Manali. But stripping away the Instagram crowd and the overpriced cafes near old Manali market, there’s still something here that other hill stations in Himachal Pradesh struggle to match. The sheer scale of the landscape does something to your head. The Beas runs loud and cold right through town. Snow peaks sit in every direction.
What actually makes Manali worth it in summer 2026, specifically, is that the road connectivity has improved quite a bit. If you’re planning to push toward Spiti Valley via Rohtang Pass or do the Hampta Pass trek, Manali is your base and a pretty good one at that. Solang Valley for the adventure stuff (paragliding, zorbing, river crossing), Naggar for a quieter version of the Kullu Valley, and the Hidimba temple in the deodar forest if you want something that doesn’t require effort. Get there by 7 AM before the tour buses arrive, and it’s genuinely peaceful.
Honest tip: Avoid the May long weekends entirely if you can. The traffic between Kullu and Manali is brutal, and the hotels jack up prices. First week of June is often quieter and just as beautiful.
2. Shimla, Himachal Pradesh
Two kinds of people go to Shimla. The first type does Mall Road, eats at a mid-range restaurant, takes photos at the Ridge, and leaves. The second type actually wanders and finds the quieter lanes behind the main bazaar, takes the Kalka to Shimla toy train instead of driving up, sits somewhere with a view, and does absolutely nothing for an hour. If you’re in the second group, Shimla will genuinely surprise you.
The colonial architecture here isn’t just preserved, it gives the town an atmosphere that newer hill stations haven’t had time to develop. Christ Church, Gorton Castle, and the old Viceregal Lodge (now called Rashtrapati Niwas) are proper, substantial buildings with actual history. Kufri is 16 km out and worth a morning. The toy train, which is a UNESCO World Heritage mountain railway, books up fast every April, so don’t sit on that decision.
Honest tip: April is genuinely nicer than May in Shimla. Less crowded, still cold enough in the evenings to need a jacket, and the rhododendrons are out.
3. Munnar, Kerala
I’ve had people tell me they went to Munnar and found it underwhelming. I suspect they drove straight to the viewpoint, took a photo of the tea gardens, and drove back. That’s not Munnar. Munnar is getting out of the car and walking into those estates. It’s the smell. It’s the way the mist sits in the valleys at around 7 in the morning when it hasn’t quite burned off yet. It’s understanding that you’re standing in one of the most important tea-growing regions in South Asia, and the whole infrastructure of it surrounds you.
Eravikulam National Park outside Munnar protects the Nilgiri Tahr, a stocky mountain goat that you’ll probably walk past without realizing is endangered. The park was closed for a while for conservation, but should be open for the summer of 2026. Check before you go. Top Station, at around 1,700 metres, gives you a view of Tamil Nadu on a clear day. And the drive from Cochin to Munnar through the ghats, that alone is worth the trip.
Honest tip: February to April is actually the sweet spot. By late June, the monsoon hits hard, and some roads get rough. If you’re visiting in summer, aim for May before the rains come in.
4. Mussoorie, Uttarakhand
The Queen of Hill Stations is a bit of an overused tag at this point, but Mussoorie does have a quality to it that justifies the reputation. It sits at just over 2,000 metres with the Doon Valley below and the Himalayan ridgeline above, and the views from Lal Tibba on a clear morning towards Kedarnath, Badrinath, even Gangotri on exceptional days are exactly the kind of thing that makes you stop mid-sentence.
For people in Delhi, this is also the closest serious hill station in Uttarakhand worth the trip. About 290 km, doable in a day. Gun Hill by ropeway is touristy but gives a good, quick aerial view of the town. Kempty Falls is honestly too crowded in summer; you can give it a miss or go very early. The Tibetan market on the lower Mall Road has better stuff than most people expect and the prices are fair.
Honest tip: Camel’s Back Road for an evening walk, it’s a stretch of road closed to vehicles with a view of the valley and the hills. Much better than the main Mall Road crowd in the evenings.
5. Nainital, Uttarakhand
Nainital is a town that works because of one simple geographical fact: there’s a lake in the middle of it. Naini Lake gives the whole place a centre of gravity. Everything orbits around it. You eat near it, you walk around it, you go boating on it, you sit by it and watch other people do all those things. It sounds simple, but it creates a coherence that a lot of hill stations lack.
Snow View Point via ropeway is the main viewpoint, and on clear days, you can see Nanda Devi and a stretch of the Kumaon Himalaya that’s properly impressive. Tiffin Top is a good walk if you want to earn your views. Land’s End is another one, quieter and better for people who want to avoid the main tourist drag. The hills around Nainital also have some excellent, lesser-known spots, Bhimtal, Sattal, and Naukuchiatal, if you want to base yourself in Nainital but do day trips to somewhere less crowded.
Honest tip: The town gets very busy in May. If you can shift your trip to late March or early April, the weather is still cold and pleasant and you’ll have half the crowd.
6. Darjeeling, West Bengal
Nobody told me that Darjeeling would feel the way it does until I went. It’s small, it’s steep, the streets are narrow and a little chaotic, and Kanchenjunga, the third-highest mountain in the world, sits there above it all like it’s perfectly normal. I stood at Tiger Hill at sunrise and watched the first orange light hit those peaks and didn’t say anything for about ten minutes. Some places earn their reputation, and Darjeeling is one of them.
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is a UNESCO World Heritage line, and it deserves the classification. The toy train winds through tea gardens and bazaars and small hillside stations in a way that feels like a different era entirely. The Darjeeling tea gardens are the obvious draw. First-flush tea from this region in March and April is one of the genuinely distinct things the country produces. Take a plantation tour if you can. Happy Valley Tea Estate near town does them. The Tibetan Refugee Self-Help Centre is worth a visit too, both for what it sells and what it represents.
Honest tip: April is the best month. Clear skies, blooming rhododendrons, and the best tea of the year being harvested. Book Tiger Hill jeep safaris the night before they leave, around 4 AM.
7. Ooty, Tamil Nadu
Ooty is one of those places I’d been vaguely dismissive of for years — seemed too well-known, too easy, too obvious — until I actually went during the May flower show and completely revised my view. The Government Botanical Garden in Ooty during the annual Summer Festival is genuinely impressive. Over 650 plant species, a fossil tree supposedly 20 million years old, and more colour than you’d expect from a garden in a cool hill climate.
The Nilgiri Mountain Railway from Mettupalayam to Ooty is the other must-do. It’s slower than driving, obviously, and takes longer than you’d expect, but the route through tunnels and forest and tea estates is one of the more beautiful train journeys available in the country. Doddabetta Peak, one of the highest points in the Nilgiris at 2,637 metres, on a clear day, gives you a view across two states. The rose garden near the lake has over 20,000 varieties, according to their signage, which seems like a slight exaggeration, but it’s genuinely large and very well kept.
Honest tip: The May Summer Festival usually runs for about two weeks and draws big crowds. If crowds aren’t your thing, April is calmer and the weather is almost identical.
8. Coorg, Karnataka
Coorg smells different from other places. That’s the first thing you notice driving in the air has coffee and cardamom in it and something green and damp underneath. The coffee estates of Kodagu district cover the hills in a way that makes the whole region feel like one big, beautifully maintained garden. It’s not a dramatic landscape in the Himalayan sense. It’s lush and layered and quietly overwhelming.
Staying on a working coffee plantation in Coorg is genuinely the way to do this. You wake up, walk through the estate before breakfast, watch the mist lift off the hills, and understand why people who’ve been here keep coming back. Abbey Falls is lovely, but busy. You can go before 9 AM. Raja’s Seat for sunset is non-negotiable. The Kaveri River flows out of these hills, and the Dubare Elephant Camp, where the forest department’s elephants are kept, is one of the more legitimate elephant experiences in South India. They bathe in the river in the morning, and you can also watch from the bank.
Honest tip: Coorg has a good homestay culture. Staying with a local family in the estate beats any resort for understanding what this place actually is.
9. Gulmarg, Jammu & Kashmir
People know Gulmarg as a ski destination, and that reputation sometimes makes them overlook what summer does to this place. The snow retreats, the meadows turn an almost aggressive shade of green, and wildflowers come up in patches across the whole Pir Panjal range. It’s a completely different destination from the white-out winter version, and in some ways a more accessible one.
The Gulmarg Gondola is one of the highest cable car systems in the world and runs through the summer, taking you up to Apharwat Peak at around 4,200 metres. There’s usually still snow at the top even in June, which feels slightly absurd when you’re sweating at the bottom. The golf course, one of the highest altitude golf courses on the planet, is a genuinely strange and wonderful experience even if you don’t golf. Baisaran meadow nearby is sometimes called mini Switzerland, which is an excessive comparison, but the meadow itself, surrounded by dense pine forest and mountains, is worth the ride.
Honest tip: Book accommodation well in advance. Gulmarg has limited good options, and they fill up. May and June see the strongest demand.
10. Mount Abu, Rajasthan
Mount Abu is the wildcard on this list and deliberately so. Most people don’t think of Rajasthan when they think of hill station travel in India, and that’s exactly why this works. When the plains around it are at 45°C and the whole state looks like it’s on fire, Mount Abu sits up in the Aravallis at a relatively cool 23–28°C and feels like a different country. For people in Rajasthan, Gujarat, and parts of Madhya Pradesh, this is the nearest mountain escape and they use it accordingly.
The Dilwara Jain Temples here are, and I don’t throw this phrase around among the most beautiful religious buildings in India. The marble carving work, done between the 11th and 13th centuries, is the kind of detail that makes you stand very still and look closely for a long time. Photography inside is restricted, but you won’t forget what you see. Nakki Lake is pleasant for an evening walk. Sunset Point does what its name suggests. It’s not a destination with enormous depth, but for what it is, a cool, accessible, underrated summer getaway in Rajasthan, it delivers well.
Honest tip: Mount Abu in the monsoon (July–August) is quite beautiful, everything turns green, and waterfalls appear. It’s wetter and harder to get around, but scenic in its own way.
Conclusion
A few practical things before you start booking accommodation at popular Indian hill stations, as they fill up early. If you’re traveling in May or June, the time to book is now, not two weeks before. The best properties in Manali, Shimla, Darjeeling, and Coorg are often fully booked by April for peak season.
The weather at altitude is genuinely unpredictable. Carry a jacket even if the forecast looks warm. Mountain afternoons can turn in an hour. And in Himalayan regions, especially, check road conditions before you leave, as landslides and highway work can close key routes without much warning.
None of these places is undiscovered. But all of them, visited with a bit of thought about timing and approach, are still worth every bit of the trip.
