A Shinkula Pass tour is a high-altitude road trip that starts in Manali, crosses the Atal Tunnel into Lahaul, and climbs past Jispa and Darcha towards one of the more remote motorable passes in this part of the Himalaya.

Some travellers do it as a long sightseeing and snow drive and return. Others use Shinkula as the doorway into Zanskar and keep going.

What you can actually reach on any given day depends on road and weather conditions, so we plan each trip around what the route is doing at the time. If you want a gentler Lahaul day instead, our Sissu and Rohtang Pass trips are worth a look.

In simple terms: Shinkula Pass is a roughly 5,000 metre class Himalayan pass that sits on the newer Darcha to Padum road linking Lahaul in Himachal Pradesh with Zanskar in Ladakh. Most people reach it by road from Manali or Jispa. A Shinkula Pass tour package is either a there-and-back road and snow trip, or the first leg of a longer Zanskar journey. Whether you reach the pass top depends on conditions on your travel date.

You will see the pass written several ways. Shinkula Pass is also called Shinku La, Shinkun La and Shingo La across different maps, government records and travel sources. They all refer to the same pass. We use Shinkula Pass throughout this page, and Shinkun La only when we talk about the tunnel project further down.