Kasauli travel guide: Top things to do in Himachal's quiet hill town

Khaleej Times

22-05-2025

Spooky stories abound in Kasauli of ghosts that linger in its hauntingly beautiful, colonial-era cemeteries. However, beyond those relics of the Raj, Kasauli (located 77 km from Shimla) is draped in a beguiling aura of a town that hasn't lost its soul.
Yet the charming Himalayan retreat, located in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, remains under the radar for most tourists. They head there only for a weekend getaway and a quick reset or skip it in favour of the more 'happening' Shimla, Naldehra and Chail.
On a typical Kasauli vacation, the days pass by in a blur of invigorating walks that unravel up and down the hills, shaded by pine, elm and oak and twist past gabled homes with fairy-tale facades and chimneys. In the higher reaches, majestic cedars reach for the sky. On a recent vacation, we downed coffee in atmospheric cafes, gorged on local specialities like bun samosas simmering on a large pan in an immaculate hole-in-the wall eatery in the Heritage Market; took home rum plum cakes studded with shaved nuts from a local bakery and meditated in the neo-Gothic Christ Church with its stained glass and wood pews.
Back in the day, the British built Christ Church and a brewery which they later converted to a distillery to produce a malt whisky as smooth as Scotch whisky. The combo of church and brewery may contribute to an interesting bit of trivia, shared by historian and author Raaja Bhasin. 'Kasauli today is believed to have one of the highest rates of alcohol consumption, per capita, in India.' (A sobering sidelight — the brewery closed down in the 1840s and was later taken over by master brewer Edward Dyer. His son, Reginald was the infamous 'Butcher of Amritsar' who triggered the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919.)
And Kasauli's birth around 1842 was underscored by typical stiff-upper-lip Brit humour, Bhasin recounts: When the town was getting under way, the Viceroy of India, Sir John Lawrence who was known for his bluntness, visited the church. Sir John felt a great deal of money had been spent, and, in his opinion, wasted on the steeple. He was asked to subscribe to it. There were still no pews, in the church then and he remarked, 'You might as well ask me to subscribe to get a man a hat when he has no breeches.'
'That church went on to become Kasauli's landmark, the neo-Gothic Christ Church that with both hat and trousers — and if a limited congregation ­— still stands tall as you enter the little town,' adds Bhasin in a light-hearted vein.
Indeed, this charming Himalayan enclave is one of the few Raj-era hill retreats in the country where time is not of the essence. We could see its lights glimmer at night from the balcony of our room at hilltop resort Royalpine Rosastays. Kasauli was 4 km away, straddling a ridge of the Himalayas, lit and flushed every evening with muted red by dramatic sunsets that even dappled the barks of pines. And, at our resort, sculpted into a hill, clad with imported pinewood and glass, there were echoes of Kasauli. Not a single tree had been cut and it was enveloped in the soft rustle of pines. Royalpines Rosastays gentles the Earth from which it emerges and its rooms and suites have a log-cabin like aura.
Yes, there's something special about Kasauli, loved to death, not surprisingly, by its former and present residents. Located at 1,900 metres above sea level, the mountaintop getaway is an army cantonment town where the legacies of the Raj are immaculately maintained, says Rahul Singh, author, journalist and founder of the coveted Khushwant Singh Literary Festival, held in Kasauli in October each year. Rahul is the son of celebrated writer, Khushwant Singh and has been summering in his ancestral home in Kasauli since the 1950s. While home stays and hotels have sprung up on the adjacent hill slopes, Kasauli town has strict building codes enforced by the Cantonment Board, a municipal body, says Rahul.
The air in Kasauli is crisp and astringent, and the views are breathtaking. The eternal snows of the Greater Himalayas glimmer in the north and sweep in a swathe to the east, and the plains of the Punjab, below it, heave from south to the west. The pine-shrouded hills seem to fan romance and creativity. Writer Khushwant Singh did some of his best work in Kasauli and was often seen taking long walks and chatting with locals. Author Ruskin Bond was born in Kasauli and Sandra Hotz, whose father owned the 19th century Alasia hotel in town, married David Lean, director of classics such as Dr Zhivago, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia, Rahul informed us. She was Lean's fifth wife and is known as 'Kasauli's best known export'. The marriage lasted for three tumultuous years but the relationship had started much earlier.
We attempted to walk down the 1.5 km long Gilbert Trail which scythes through rustling pines and commands heart-stopping views of the tumbled swathe of the foothills, but gave up after a while. The fit and feisty could attempt the around 12-km-long Khushwant Singh Trail from the bazaar down to Kalka in the plains, a stretch that was beloved of the celebrated writer and journalist for its mountain vistas and bird song.
In the pulsing heart of Kasauli are two roads — the Upper and Lower Mall and they meet at the eastern end at Monkey Point below which unfold magnificent panoramas. Walking up and down the malls was once a mandatory mid-morning activity when residents got to socialise followed by an afternoon siesta, and dinner at the colonial Kasauli Club (only a member can sign you in). As is the tradition, in most colonial clubs, there is a strict dress code.
We, as tourists, did not have the bona fides nor the right shoes and were not allowed into the hallowed precincts but were permitted to click pictures of the exterior!
So, we retreated to our hotel, Royalpine Rosastays, sipped our evening cuppa, watching the sun play hide and seek and scintillate as it set over Kasauli and the neighbouring hills and valleys. On our last day, we woke up at dawn as birds trilled in the pine forests beyond.