Mall Road to Old Manali
By 2050 XP · · 2 min read
Photograph: Birte Fritsch / CC BY 4.0
Old Manali is uphill from central Mall Road. It is close enough to consider walking, but decide where in the village you want to finish before setting off. The first shops and cafés are not as far up as Manu Temple, and a hotel marked "Old Manali" may be farther up the lane than you expect.
You may see Manalsu in directions. It is the stream that runs below Old Manali and joins the Beas, not a neighbourhood or a place you need to visit. A bridge over it near Club House was rebuilt after the 2025 floods. Ask your stay which way to walk to the village today rather than relying on an old route description or a fixed walking time.
Choose the lower village or Manu Temple
For shops and cafés, set a particular place on Old Manali's lower lane as your destination. If you are going to Manu Temple, allow for the further uphill stretch through the village. The temple is not beside the stream crossing. These are different endpoints, which is why one distance for "Old Manali" can be misleading.
Walking is a reasonable choice if the climb suits your group and you have confirmed the current crossing. If you prefer to save your energy for the village, take a local auto or taxi and agree on a drop-off close to your actual destination. With luggage, share your hotel's map pin with the driver and ask the hotel whether you will need to walk from the drop-off.
Keep the other Manali outings separate
This is not the route to Hadimba Temple from Mall Road. Hadimba is in Dhungri, so you do not need to go through Old Manali to visit it. Vashisht Temple and the hot springs are a different town visit too. Our Manali page can help you decide which outing fits the day you have.
The photograph above shows Manu Temple in the upper part of Old Manali, not the bridge or the first village shops. If the temple is your destination, follow the directions displayed there and be considerate of people who have come to worship.
Photograph: Manu Temple in Old Manali by Birte Fritsch, photographed on 4 May 2019. Cropped, resized and converted to WebP by 2050 XP. The adapted photograph is shared under CC BY 4.0.
