Explore Shimla

Shimla was the summer capital of British India from 1864 to 1947-the hill station where the Viceroy and the entire apparatus of colonial administration moved each April to escape the Delhi heat and conduct the business of empire from the cooler altitude of the Himalayan foothills. The architecture this produced-Gothic churches, Tudor cottages, a bandstand on the Ridge, and grand hotels built for visiting officials-is what distinguishes Shimla from any other Indian hill station. It is a place built by, and for, a particular kind of power, and the buildings reflect it. The Viceregal Lodge on Observatory Hill (now the Indian Institute of Advanced Study) was built in 1888 as the Viceroy's summer residence. Lord Curzon administered the partitioning of Bengal from its study. The Simla Agreement of 1914, which drew the McMahon Line between India and Tibet, was signed here. The 1945 Simla Conference, Nehru's last significant colonial negotiation before Independence, took place in these rooms. The building stands largely unaltered. Alike's complimentary heritage walk includes guided access inside with a heritage storyteller who can give the building its proper historical context. The Oberoi Cecil, first opened in 1884, is the oldest 5-Star hotel in Shimla and one of the oldest in the Himalayas. The original timbered exterior, the dining room where imperial dispatches were read over dinner, and the garden where Lord Kitchener reportedly designed the uniform of the Indian Army are not period recreations-this is the original fabric. Wildflower Hall at Mashobra, 13 kilometres from Shimla at 2,438 metres, was Lord Kitchener's private summer residence and is now an Oberoi resort. The altitude means the snowline is visible from the rooms in winter, and the Himalayan panorama on clear days extends to peaks above 6,000 metres. Mall Road, Shimla's pedestrian promenade, runs along the ridge at 2,200 metres. The Ridge Maidan at the eastern end, Christ Church (1857, second oldest church in North India), the Gaiety Theatre (1887, one of the most atmospheric heritage theatres in India), and the Scandal Point-where Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala reportedly eloped with a British officer's daughter-are the Mall Road circuit. Alike's evening Mall Road walk covers all of these with a guide who makes the stories worth knowing. Kufri, 16 kilometres from Shimla, is at 2,600 metres-snow activities in December to March, the Himalayan Nature Park the rest of the year. The nature park holds bar-headed geese, snow leopards, and Himalayan brown bears (the latter in managed habitat). The view from the Kufri ridge on clear days is the broadest Himalayan panorama accessible from Shimla.