Explore India: This summer, enjoy the colonial charm of Kasauli in Himachal

Most Indian hill stations made a deal with tourism sometime in the 1990s and never looked back. Kasauli, apparently, missed the meeting. At 1,800 metres in the Himalayan foothills of Himachal Pradesh, this former British cantonment town has the quiet confidence of a place that knows exactly what it is and sees no reason to apologise for it.

No cable cars or hotel towers breaking the treeline. Just a grid of unhurried lanes, colonial bungalows slowly greening with moss and forest paths where the loudest sound is invariably a bird you cannot name but feel pleased to have heard. It is, in the best possible sense, a town built for walking. Arrive on a weekday if you can.

On a Tuesday morning, the Lower Mall is yours: a vehicle-free loop that winds along the ridge through deodar and oak, past bungalows with their verandahs draped in bougainvillaea. Locals call a long morning walk a prowl. This very road is also where you go for delicacies, like the popular Bun Samosas at Narinder Sweets. Want to walk more? The Gilbert Trail is a visitor’s favourite — a 1.5-kilometre stone-paved path that hugs the mountain’s edge, offering panoramic views of valleys rolling down toward the Punjab plains.

The colonial inheritance here is worn lightly but worn well. Christ Church, completed in 1853, is a handsome grey-stone affair with Italian and Spanish stained glass that floods the interior in coloured light on bright mornings. Its tower clock is one of the oldest working mechanical timepieces in India.

Then there is the Kasauli Brewery from the 1820s that is still in operation as one of Asia’s oldest functioning distilleries. The tasting at the end of a guided tour, needless to say, lands well after a morning’s walking. Did you know this Himachali town is also connected to an epic? Manki Point, which sits inside the Air Force Station at Kasauli’s highest elevation, is accessible to civilian visitors by day.

According to the Ramayana, this is where Hanuman paused in his search for the sanjeevani herb; the hillside’s silhouette, from the right angle, is said to resemble an enormous footprint. When the light dies down and chill sets in, Kasauli’s fruit wines made from apples, plums, peaches and black grapes make an appearance. The rhododendron squash, tart and floral, doesn’t have the marketing that the fruit wines do, but it outdoes your every expectation.

For more updates, join/follow our WhatsApp, Telegram and YouTube channels.