The Road Less Travelled: 7 Underrated Road Trips in India That Deserve Your Attention
Updated: 7 days ago
When most people think of road trips in India, their minds jump to the usual suspects. Manali to Leh. Mumbai to Goa. The Golden Triangle. All genuinely good roads, all genuinely crowded with the same convoy of vehicles every peak season.
For travellers who want something rawer, quieter, and further from the Instagrammed version of India, the country has a long list of roads that see a fraction of the traffic and offer just as much, sometimes more. Here are seven underrated road trips worth your attention, plus one we happen to run ourselves that belongs on this list as much as anything else here.
1. Jorhat to Ziro Valley, Arunachal Pradesh
Route: Jorhat, Lakhimpur, Yazali, Ziro
Distance: Approximately 275 km
Best time: October to March
Ziro Valley is known for its rolling meadows and the distinctive Apatani tribal culture, one of the few places in India where a genuinely unique indigenous way of life is still visibly intact rather than folded into a tourist performance.
The road from Jorhat winds through dense forest, crosses suspension bridges, and passes through mountain towns that see very few outside visitors. It is a slow, soul-stirring drive through a part of Northeast India that most of the country has never seen.
2. Bikaner to Jaisalmer via Khichan, Rajasthan
Route: Bikaner, Khichan, Pokhran, Jaisalmer
Distance: Approximately 330 km
Best time: November to February
Skip the direct highway and take the scenic desert detour through Khichan, a quiet village that hosts over 20,000 migratory Demoiselle Cranes every winter, one of the more extraordinary and underreported wildlife spectacles in India.
The road also passes ancient havelis and stretches of desolate dune that most Rajasthan itineraries miss entirely by sticking to the faster route.
3. Chopta to Gopeshwar via Mandal Valley, Uttarakhand
Route: Chopta, Mandal, Gopeshwar
Distance: Approximately 60 km
Best time: March to June, September to November
A short drive with an outsized reward. This stretch winds through dense rhododendron forest and alpine meadow with the Garhwal Himalayas as a constant backdrop.
Mandal Valley in particular is close to a secret, a quiet stretch of nature that most Chopta visitors, focused on the Tungnath trek, never bother to detour toward.
4. Kaza to Nako via Tabo, Himachal Pradesh
Route: Kaza, Tabo, Nako
Distance: Approximately 110 km
Best time: June to October
This is the one entry on this list we know intimately, since it is a core leg of our own Spiti Road Trip.
The stretch cuts through the cold desert of Spiti, dotted with ancient monasteries, high altitude villages, and landscapes that look genuinely lunar. It takes you from the cafe scene of Kaza, past Tabo Monastery, founded in 996 AD and one of the oldest continuously functioning monasteries in India, to the quiet village of Nako, where a small lake mirrors the vast Himalayan silence around it.
Read our monasteries of Spiti Valley guide for what Tabo actually gives you, and our Spiti Valley itinerary 9 days for how this leg fits into the full circuit.
5. Aizawl to Reiek, Mizoram
Route: Aizawl, Reiek
Distance: Approximately 30 km
Best time: October to March
A short drive, barely an hour, that delivers dramatic cliffs, caves, and panoramic views over the Mizo Hills. Reiek is one of the more accessible ways to experience Mizoram's landscape without a major expedition, with nature trails, waterfalls, and local Mizo homestays for anyone who wants to stay longer than a day trip.
6. Wayanad to Nilambur via Meppadi, Kerala
Route: Wayanad, Meppadi, Nilambur
Distance: Approximately 120 km
Best time: June to December
A misty drive through the Western Ghats, past tea gardens, rainforest, and colonial-era bungalows that most South India road trips never route through. The teak forests around Nilambur and the small mountain cafes along the way make this one of the more underrated stretches of road in Kerala, a state most people associate with backwaters rather than hill driving.
7. Tezpur to Tawang via Bomdila, Arunachal Pradesh
Route: Tezpur, Bhalukpong, Bomdila, Tawang
Distance: Approximately 320 km
Best time: March to June, September to November
Not for the faint-hearted, but genuinely one of the most rewarding drives in the country. Sela Pass, Buddhist monasteries, frozen lakes, and tribal culture along a corridor that remains one of India's least explored despite how much it offers. This is a serious undertaking rather than a casual weekend drive, and it rewards travellers who are prepared for that.
Bonus: Ladakh, Beyond the Manali-Leh Highway
Route: Leh, Nubra Valley, Pangong Tso, and beyond
Best time: May to September
Ladakh does not belong on a strict "underrated" list in the same way as Ziro or Khichan, everyone has heard of Leh. But most people who go only ever see the Manali-Leh highway version, Leh, Khardung La, maybe Pangong Tso on a rushed day trip, and call it done.
The deeper Ladakh circuit, Nubra Valley's sand dunes and double-humped camels, the full Pangong shoreline away from the crowded viewpoint, and the villages further out that most tourist itineraries skip, is where Ladakh's actual scale becomes clear. We run this as a full circuit rather than a rushed highlight reel, which is the difference between seeing Ladakh and actually experiencing it.
We include this as a bonus precisely because it proves the point of this whole list. Underrated is not always about obscurity. Sometimes it is about going deeper into a place everyone already knows the name of, rather than settling for the shortest version of it.
Pro Tips for Offbeat Road Trips:
Carry fuel cans. Petrol pumps are genuinely rare across most of these routes, particularly in the Northeast and deep Rajasthan.
Download offline maps and carry a physical backup. Signal disappears fast on remote stretches, and a paper map does not run out of battery.
Choose a vehicle with high ground clearance. Most of these roads are not maintained highways.
Check weather and road conditions close to your travel date. Conditions on remote routes change faster and with less warning than on major highways.
Respect local customs and leave no trace. Several of these routes pass through communities that see very few outside visitors, and that access depends on travellers behaving well.
Planning Your Own Road Trip with Panny Fack India
Two of the routes on this list, the Kaza-Tabo-Nako leg through Spiti and the deeper Ladakh circuit, are ones we run as full group trips from Delhi. If either has caught your attention, browse our Spiti Road Trip or Ladakh Road Trip for the full itineraries.
Browse all our Road Trips for the complete lineup, or check our Weekend Trips if a shorter escape is what you are after.
FAQs: Underrated Road Trips in India
What is the most underrated road trip in India?
It depends on what you are looking for. For desert landscapes and wildlife, Bikaner to Jaisalmer via Khichan is genuinely underexplored. For Himalayan cold desert terrain, the Kaza to Nako stretch through Spiti offers a version of the mountains most travellers never see.
Are these road trips safe for solo travellers?
Most are, with proper preparation. Remote stretches like Tezpur to Tawang and the deeper Ladakh circuit are better attempted with a group or an experienced local driver given the terrain and distance between services.
What is the best time to do a road trip in Northeast India?
October to March across most of Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram, when the weather is clearest and roads are most reliable.
Do I need a permit for any of these road trips?
Yes, for parts of Arunachal Pradesh including Ziro Valley and Tawang, Indian nationals require an Inner Line Permit, and foreign nationals require a Protected Area Permit. Check current requirements before travelling.
Panny Fack India runs group road trips to Spiti and Ladakh, two of the routes on this list. See our Road Trips or WhatsApp us with your dates.
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