Dog Friendly Getaways From Chandigarh: 7 Places, Honestly Assessed

Chandigarh is the best base in India for a dog owner who likes hills, and most people who live there do not realise it. Kasauli is two hours. Shimla is four. You can be walking a dog through deodar forest before lunch.

The drive is the part people underplan. A dog does not experience four hours in a car the way you do, and the difference between a three hour destination and an eight hour one is not twice the effort, it is a different kind of trip. So this is ordered by drive time rather than by how good the place is.

Within four hours of Chandigarh

These are the ones you can leave after breakfast and arrive at before your dog gets restless. For a senior dog or a flat faced breed, this is the range to stay inside.

Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh

About 2 hours from Chandigarh. Small, quiet and walkable, which suits dogs far better than a busy hill town. A cantonment area, so parts have their own access rules worth checking.

• Best months: March to June, September to November. Worth avoiding peak monsoon, because of landslide risk on approach roads.

• Watch out for: monkeys, steep drops beside some paths, cold nights in winter.

• Someone stays back for: Christ Church interior, Air Force station areas.

• Suits: Almost any breed. The gentle gradients and quiet lanes suit senior dogs unusually well for a hill station.

• Stays: Nature Stay Kasauli, Baikunth Resort, Captain's Nest, all worth confirming directly before booking.

Kasauli is a cantonment, so several roads have timing restrictions and some areas are closed to the public entirely. Ask your host which lanes are open before setting out on a long walk.

Full detail, including vet access and what you can do together, is in our guide to Kasauli with a dog.

Shimla, Himachal Pradesh

About 4 hours from Chandigarh. The Mall Road area is steep and busy with people, which can overwhelm a reactive dog. Quieter surrounding areas suit dogs better than the town centre itself.

• Best months: March to June, September to November. Worth avoiding peak December holidays, because of crowds and traffic.

• Watch out for: heavy crowds on the Mall, monkeys, aggressive around Jakhoo, steep drops beside paths.

• Someone stays back for: Jakhoo temple, Kufri adventure park activities.

• Suits: Thick-coated cold-weather breeds, and fit dogs comfortable with steep gradients.

• Stays: GS Cottage, Treebo The Alpine Heritage Residency, Taj Theog Resort, all worth confirming directly before booking.

Stay outside the Mall area. The centre is stairs, crowds and monkeys, while ten minutes out you get quiet deodar forest paths and a completely different trip.

Full detail, including vet access and what you can do together, is in our guide to Shimla with a dog.

Amritsar, Punjab

About 4 hours from Chandigarh. The Golden Temple does not permit pets. Winters are cold and comfortable for walking, summers are severe.

• Best months: October to March. Worth avoiding May and June, because of extreme heat.

• Watch out for: severe winter fog that makes early walks genuinely unsafe near traffic, summer heat on paving, crowd density around the Golden Temple approach.

• Someone stays back for: the Golden Temple, Jallianwala Bagh.

• Suits: Comfortable for most breeds between November and March. Thick-coated dogs do well here in winter.

• Stays: Golden Temple, Ista Inn Homestay, Hotel Hong Kong Inn, all worth confirming directly before booking.

Amritsar is really a food and history trip, and both of those are places your dog cannot go. It works well as a two night stop on the way to Dharamshala or Dalhousie, where the dog part of the holiday actually happens.

Full detail, including vet access and what you can do together, is in our guide to Amritsar with a dog.

Worth the longer drive

Everything below is five hours or more. Break the journey if you can, stop every two hours regardless, and travel on a light stomach because car sickness is the most common thing that ruins the first day.

Dharamshala and McLeodganj, Himachal Pradesh

About 6 hours from Chandigarh. Plenty of open walking country once you are out of McLeodganj centre. The area has a substantial free-roaming dog population, so keep your own dog leashed and be prepared for encounters.

• Best months: March to June, September to November. Worth avoiding July and August, because of heavy rain and leeches.

• Watch out for: leeches in monsoon, large free-roaming dog population, steep crowded lanes in McLeodganj.

• Someone stays back for: Dalai Lama temple complex, monasteries.

• Suits: Fit, confident dogs. Thick-coated breeds do well in the cooler months.

• Stays: Hotel Backpackers Inn, Chonor House, Ram Yoga House, all worth confirming directly before booking.

Stay in Dharamkot or Naddi rather than McLeodganj centre. The centre is narrow, crowded and full of street dogs, while a ten minute drive up gets you forest trails and calm.

Full detail, including vet access and what you can do together, is in our guide to Dharamshala and McLeodganj with a dog.

Bir Billing, Himachal Pradesh

About 6 hours from Chandigarh. Open meadows and a relaxed pace suit dogs well. Paragliding is the main draw and obviously not a dog activity, so plan for someone to stay with them.

• Best months: March to June, September to November. Worth avoiding peak monsoon, because of rain and poor visibility.

• Watch out for: landing paragliders coming in fast and low across the Bir landing field, which is the main open space in town and no place for an off-lead dog, leeches on the forest trails in the monsoon, the steep and heavily bendy road up to Billing.

• Someone stays back for: paragliding, which is why most people come, the monastery interiors.

• Suits: Thick-coated and mountain breeds, and generally fit dogs. Bir itself is mild enough for most, and Billing is cold enough to need a coat on a short-haired dog.

• Stays: Billing View Camp, Wild Buzz Camps, Treeboness Camp, all worth confirming directly before booking.

Bir has become a slow travel and cafe town rather than only a paragliding one, and it is unusually dog friendly as a result. Most of the cafes will let a dog sit on the terrace without being asked twice. Base yourself in Chowgan rather than beside the landing field if your dog is at all noise-shy.

Full detail, including vet access and what you can do together, is in our guide to Bir Billing with a dog.

Tirthan Valley, Himachal Pradesh

About 7 hours from Chandigarh. Quiet riverside guesthouses and very little commercial crowding, which suits dogs well. The valley borders Great Himalayan National Park, where pets are not permitted.

• Best months: March to June, September to November. Worth avoiding peak monsoon, because of landslide risk.

• Watch out for: a fast, cold river with slippery boulders, which is the main risk here, landslides on the valley road through the monsoon, leeches in the forest from July to September.

• Someone stays back for: the Great Himalayan National Park core zone and the Rolla and Shilt treks, the licensed trout fishing beats.

• Suits: Fit dogs of most breeds, and thick-coated ones are especially comfortable. The gentle riverside walking also makes it workable for a senior dog if you skip the Jalori trails.

This is the quietest valley in Himachal that is still easy to reach, and the homestays are family run, which means a dog is almost never a problem if you mention it when booking. Ask for a place on the Gushaini side rather than Jibhi. Jibhi has become the Instagram stop, Gushaini is fifteen minutes further and still just a river and some orchards.

Full detail, including vet access and what you can do together, is in our guide to Tirthan Valley with a dog.

Khajjiar, Himachal Pradesh

About 8 hours from Chandigarh. A wide open meadow ringed by deodar forest, which is close to ideal for a dog who wants to run. Parts fall within sanctuary boundaries, so check where pets are permitted.

• Best months: March to June, September to November. Worth avoiding winter snow, because of road closures.

• Watch out for: horses working the meadow, which spook badly around dogs, the commercial zorbing and pony rides that take over the meadow in season, leopards and bears in the surrounding Kalatop forest, so nothing off lead at dusk.

• Someone stays back for: Kalatop Wildlife Sanctuary, the Khajji Nag temple.

• Suits: Thick-coated and cold-weather breeds. The gentle ground also makes it one of the few Himalayan spots that works for a senior dog or a small breed.

• Stays: Aanantham Country Resort, Shining Star Resort, Grand Kailash, all worth confirming directly before booking.

Khajjiar between 10am and 5pm is a commercial meadow with zorbing balls, horses and food stalls. At 6.30am and after 6pm it is exactly the place the photographs promised, empty grass ringed by deodar. Stay overnight rather than day tripping from Dalhousie, because the whole point is the hours when the day visitors are not there.

Full detail, including vet access and what you can do together, is in our guide to Khajjiar with a dog.

Before you book anything

Two things decide whether a trip works, and neither is the destination. The first is the month. Several places above are genuinely unkind to a dog in the wrong season, and the difference is not comfort, it is safety. The second is where you are staying, because pet policies in India are set per property and change with the owner, so a place that welcomed dogs last year may not this one. Call and get the pet permission added to your booking confirmation in writing.

If you are taking the train rather than driving, read the rules for taking a dog on an Indian train first. Dogs are barred from 2AC, 3AC and Sleeper, which catches out almost everyone, and the parcel office step has to happen on the day.

And if you would rather not plan it yourself, our trip planner will build a day by day plan for your dates, your dog and how you are travelling, and email it to you.

The unglamorous part

A dog who will not go to the toilet in a strange place holds it far longer than is good for them, and a long drive followed by an unfamiliar room is exactly that situation twice over. Carrying a familiar surface from home is the single easiest fix, which is the reason we make a portable coir potty.