Outstation and hills

The long day, and the climb at the end of it

Shimla, Dehradun, Manali or Jaipur, the whole party in one vehicle for the whole trip rather than split across two. The seating plan is the easy half of that. The hard half is a long climb with the car full, which is where a smaller class runs out of engine before it runs out of road.

Seats: 7
From, per km: ₹19.00

Get a fixed quote What we run in this class

A car rounding a bend on a hill road, with terraced fields, a few houses and two people standing on the slope below

What we run in this class

These are the models this class is made up of. What is confirmed in writing is the class, and what arrives is one of these or a similar one, because the allotment is made a day or two before the trip.

Toyota Innova
The older body-on-frame one, still working because it takes a bad patch of road without complaining and there is a mechanic who knows it in every town it passes through. Plainer inside than what replaced it, and on a straightforward trunk-road day nobody notices.
Seats
Up to 7
Per km
From ₹19.00
Toyota Innova Crysta
Ask a driver what he wants under him on the Kalka road and this is the answer. The diesel pulls from low down, which is the thing that matters when the car is full and he has been in second gear since Dharampur.
Seats
7
Per km
₹19.00
Toyota Innova Hycross
Petrol hybrid and monocoque rather than body-on-frame, so it is the quiet one in traffic and the one a company account tends to prefer for a city day. It rides like a car because it is one.
Seats
Up to 7
Per km
From ₹19.00
Toyota Fortuner
Taller and heavier, and it is the one available with drive to all four wheels, which is what puts it on a February booking that means to go above Kufri or up the Solang side.
Seats
Up to 7
Per km
From ₹19.00
Mahindra Scorpio-N
Ground clearance and short overhangs, so it gets down a broken kachcha approach to a farmhouse or a village without the underbody finding every rut. Firmer over a bad road than the Toyotas, and honest about it.
Seats
Up to 7
Per km
From ₹19.00
Mahindra XUV700
The one with the panoramic roof, which is the only thing children remember about a nine hour day. Cruise control and lane assist make it the easier vehicle on a long flat run down to Jaipur.
Seats
Up to 7
Per km
From ₹19.00
MG Hector
The odd one out here, and it is on the list because families ask for it: a wide cabin, a lot of glass and a big screen in the dash. It is a road car, so a Himachal booking is usually pointed at one of the others.
Seats
Up to 7
Per km
From ₹19.00

Effective 1 August 2026. Models are typical of the class and what arrives is that model or a similar one.

Get a fixed quote

The size question, answered before you book

Right when the middle row is genuinely full and the road is going to climb. Chandigarh and back in a day is something almost anything on the card will do well. Shimla with the family and a hotel booked at the top is a day where the engine is still being asked to pull two hours after the plains have finished, and that is the day this class is bought for.

When to take the class above

A tempo traveller takes the same party with room to spare rather than a full cabin, and on its top rung, the Force Urbania, every seat is reached from a gangway instead of a folded row to climb over, with a grown adult walking down the middle standing up.

Tempo traveller

A full car on a climb: A vehicle that walks up the Kalka road with a couple aboard is doing real work with every seat taken. The driver will hold a lower gear, run the air conditioning harder and take the hairpins slower, and the day will be longer than the distance suggests. That is the vehicle behaving correctly. If you want the same full car to feel unhurried, the answer is a larger class rather than a driver pushed to make the time up.
The hybrid on a hill day: A hybrid charges its battery from the engine and from braking, and a sustained climb offers very little of either, so above Solan it is running on the petrol engine most of the way and the mileage it returns in city traffic is not the mileage it returns on that road. Nothing is going wrong when that happens. It is worth knowing before you ask for the hybrid on a Himachal booking, because for that job a driver would rather have the diesel under him.
Snow, and who decides the road is shut: From about the middle of December the road above Kufri, and the Solang and Atal Tunnel side above Manali, can shut at a few hours’ notice. The barrier is manned by the local police and the decision is theirs, not the driver’s and not ours. Say at the enquiry if your plan has a snow point in it, so that a vehicle with drive to all four wheels is allotted where one can be, and so the day is drawn with somewhere else to go if the barrier is down.

Nothing is added at the drop that was not on the quotation.

The quotation carries the per kilometre rate and the driver allowance for every calendar day the car is held, and the hour of the pick-up changes neither of them. Toll, state permit and parking are passed through at the receipt value, and they are named on the quotation too, with the figure filled in once the receipts come back.

In the figure you are quoted

The per kilometre rate published for the class you booked, applied to the kilometres the trip actually runs once it is past the 250 km minimum. A shorter trip is charged for the minimum.
The driver allowance for every calendar day the car is held, including the day it comes back, whether it moves that day or not.
The same per kilometre rate whatever the hour. A pick-up at four in the morning is charged exactly as one at noon.
GST at the rate applicable to passenger road transport, shown as its own line on the quotation and again on the invoice rather than folded into the fare.

Passed through at the receipt value

Toll and state entry tax, at the receipt value. We do not mark it up.
State permit charges where a route crosses into a state the vehicle needs a permit for.
Parking, where the airport or the hotel charges for it.
Hill charges and green tax where a state levies one.

If a charge is not on the quotation you were sent, it does not appear on the invoice.

The full tariff page

Asked about this class

The ones the office answers on the phone most days. If yours is not here, ring and ask, and you will get the same answer as you would get on this page.

Do I need a four wheel drive for Shimla or Manali?

For the towns themselves, no. The road to Solan and up to Shimla is tarred the whole way and a two wheel drive full-size MPV runs it through the year, and the same holds for the Kullu valley up to Manali town. It changes above the towns. Kufri in a cold week, and the Solang and Atal Tunnel side, are where drive to all four wheels stops being a preference. Tell us at the enquiry how high you actually mean to go and you get a straight answer on whether we can put one on the trip.

Does a hill route cost more per kilometre than the plains?

No. The kilometre is charged at the class rate on the card, in the hills exactly as on the plains. What the hills change is how many kilometres a day will hold, because an hour on a ghat section covers a fraction of what an hour on the trunk road covers, so an itinerary drawn on plains distances usually needs another day in it. Toll and any state entry charge on the way are passed through at what they actually cost, with the receipt.

Is a Fortuner charged differently from an Innova?

No. Everything on this page is booked and quoted as one class, so the figure on your quotation is the same whichever of them is allotted. What moves a quotation is the route, the number of days and the driver allowance, never the badge on the bonnet.

Does the last row get its own air conditioning?

Yes, on the vehicles on this page. The vents are set in the roof over the middle and last rows with a blower of their own, and that is the reason a full car works on a June run down to Jaipur where it would be miserable in a smaller class. Ask the driver to set it before you get in rather than an hour into the day. If it is not blowing properly, tell him at the first stop, because there is nothing anybody can do about it at the far end of the run.

Manali is a long day at the wheel. Do you send a second driver?

On a single run up, one driver, and he paces it himself: the plains go quickly and the stretch after Mandi does not, so he is off the wheel more in the second half than the first. What we will not do is put him on that day and then start a full sightseeing programme at eight the next morning. If your itinerary does that, say so at the enquiry. Either the schedule is drawn around it or a second driver is quoted, and you are told which before you confirm.