Let me clear something at first. The Spiti Valley bike tour from Jaipur is not very expensive. Do not look up the tour packages where folks quote somewhere between INR 30K to INR 40K or maybe even INR 50K. Spiti valley bike tour does not cost that much even when your departure is from Jaipur and your arrival too. I did a bike tour of Spiti amidst Monsoons which is considered the most dangerous time because of untimely floods and landslides. Still manage to do it safely and within INR 20K.
Common Misconceptions for Spiti valley bike tour
- We do not know which season is best for this tour. All questions answered here about the season schedule.
- Spiti valley is dangerous! it’s not! The only rough patch is from Batal to Gramphu which is a stretch of 80 km. Other than that all roads are amazingly maintained by the BRO. Trust me some patches are better than city roads.
- The cost is too much. That’s because you are looking at everything online glued to your cellphone. I did this trip is approximately 20K with my bike. This includes fuel in Spiti valley(Jaipur to Jaipur), staying (usually homestays and hostels), and food and drinks expenses. (Ohh yeah this included our rum sessions as well along with non-veg food)
- What if we get lost? You simply can’t because BRO has laid out direction signs everywhere. You simply can’t just get lost. The route is pretty simple and after every major town/establishment, you have directions written on the signboard along with the distance.
- Our cell phones won’t work. Are you going to spend time in the mountains with your cell phones or with the mountains? For your information, only the stretch between Losar Khas and Gramphu has no cellphone coverage which is around 90 Km approx. Rest everywhere in Spiti valley has cellphone coverage, better than the city because of fewer users. 🙂
- Which network works in Spiti valley? All networks do, if I were to put them in ranking I would put JIO first, Airtel second and BSNL third based on my experience.
- Only expert bikers do the Spiti valley bike tours. NO! I went along with two bikers who did not have much experience riding in the mountains, they enjoyed and easily completed the trip with ease. You need just one experience rider to take them through. They had me 🙂
Watch all my Spiti valley bike tour vlogs on my YouTube channel
Cost of The Spiti Valley bike tour from Jaipur & Itinerary
The Itinerary for the Spiti bike trip
Let me first tell you the itinerary and then I would tell you the Cost of the Spiti Valley bike tour from Jaipur. The minimum amount of days that you need for the Spiti valley road trip is 10 days. This would be from Jaipur to Jaipur taking the Shimla route. There are plenty of fuel pumps in Spiti valley so don’t worry you do not have to carry fuel cans. You can click on these links to check out more details of the Spiti valley road trip.
Above is the spiti valley road trip route that I would recommend. You can check my article on the distance from Chandigarh here. For new riders and travellers, I would always recommend the Shimla Kaza Manali route to avoid acute mountain sickness.
Spiti valley road trip cost
I will give you a ballpark figure here. The folks who are offering Spiti valley bike tour packages in 2022 would be charging a bit too much. Firstly is because they want to earn and secondly they would have a mechanic going with them in case the bike breaks down. I never had any issues with my bike in Spiti and in Ladakh.
- Fuel expense: From Jaipur to Jaipur the total distance done will be approx 2100 Km, considering the price of petrol in Jaipur the cost comes out to be somewhere around INR 7500 (Rough approximation) The fuel however is cheap in Haryana and Himanchal as compared to Rajasthan. No tolls are to be paid by bikers!
- Food & lodging: I have a rule on this, I usually carry my tent and you can pitch your tent after speaking to locals anywhere for a cheap price of INR 200 if someone gives you their space like homestays or hostels. Or there are rooms available for INR 800 that you can share with 2 more riders, so it becomes economical. For a 10-day stay nothing more than INR 1000 a day for a single person, and it becomes more economical if there are two more riders. Luckily we were three riders.
- Permits: Indian nationals do not require any permits and even foreigners till Reckong Peo. Having said that foreign nationals will require an inner line permit by the HP government if they want to go to Kaza and beyond.
- Purchases (Local Market): There is no limit to this so it all depends on you. Having said that you can’t carry a lot of new items on your bike so just see if your luggage allows you to shop lavishly.
- Extra cash in hand: Till Narkanda ATMs are available, however, when you go to small villages like Chitkul, Nako, and Tabo there are very few and at times they don’t work. So carry a good amount of cash with you.
How to get your bike ready for the Spiti valley trip
I would split this section into two things. Primarily you need to prepare yourself physically and mentally. And then you need to get your bike ready for this long ride.
Preparing yourself for the Spiti bike trip
Everyone needs to be physically fit before going to the mountains. The spiti valley has some high-altitude passes that you will cross, some of the high-altitude villages where you will stay like Chitkul, Tabo, and Nako, or you might visit places like Hikkim village or Chicham bridge. Some first-time travellers might face some mild breathing issues due to mountain sickness. Learn what is mountain sickness and how to prevent it from happening.
I recommend picking up some sort of exercise that you can do daily and starting a month before your trip. Believe me, it would be very beneficial for you. I love cycling, so I do that regularly and it helped me in building my stamina over the years making mountain travel easy.
Keep your bike fit for the Spiti valley bike tour
Getting your bike serviced a couple of weeks before would be ideal. Get checked thoroughly every wire, every fuse, every circuitry, oil level, brake oil and other essentials. You know what I mean. I would also recommend going on a long ride a week before your Spiti bike trip just to get into that riding groove.
Carry all the safety gear like gloves, helmets, jackets etc. If you love making videos you can set up a motovlogging helmet with the help of this article.
Once you do this your ride is going to be fun and without any bottlenecks. Also, every village and every establishment will have a repair shop so don’t worry about getting stuck. I usually carry a puncture kit, air pump and some extra fuse. That is all that you need to get this trip done safely.
So folks, if you have any questions please leave them in the comment box below.
