How to reach

The town lacks train and air connectivity. It has a road connection to the nearby town of Kaza. Hikkim is a 45-minute (16-kilometer) trip from Kaza. The winding roadways provide breathtaking views. The ascent becomes steep at times, and there are numerous hairpin bends. To go to Hikkim, you can either take a taxi from Kaza or take a state bus until Kibber. 

If you are driving yourself, you will need to obtain a permission to cross Rohtang Pass (if taking the Manali-Kaza route).

Joginder Nagar (364 kilometers from Kaza) is the nearest train station, which is narrow gauge and gets trains from Pathankot (wide gauge). The nearest significant railway station is Chandigarh (500 kilometers from Kaza).

The nearest international airport is Chandigarh, while the nearest domestic airport, Bhuntar (Kullu), has minimal flight connectivity. If you are traveling by rail or plane, you can continue your journey by cab, self-drive, or bus.

Best Time to Visit

Summer is typically a nice season to visit the Spiti region because it is less crowded. A snow coated Hikkim in winter is eerily beautiful, but getting there is difficult.

The weather in Spiti Valley is chilly and dry. The winter months are brutal, with temperatures as low as -20 degrees. The valley is blanketed in many feet of snow during this season, making it difficult to reach Hikkim. Because the Rohtang Pass is closed in winters, the Manali-Kaza route is not a possibility in the winter.

Summer months are pleasant with plenty of sunshine, which is fully exploited by residents via solar panels that power various operations. Summer nights can be cool, so bring some woollens. During the monsoon season, there is little or no rain. However, rain and landslides cause obstructions and closures on the routes going to Spiti from Manali or Shimla, including the Rohtang Pass.

Nearby Places to Visit

Hikkim Post Office

Rinchen Cheering, the postmaster who has worked here from its beginning in 1983, deserves credit for establishing and administering this post office.

The post office serves 4-5 villages and also functions as Rinchen’s living quarters, which is a classic Spitian house. He and his family live there. Residents of little settlements like Gette and monks from high monasteries like Ki all receive their mail at the Hikkim post office. Due to the lack of stable mobile networks and internet connections, the presence of conventional Mail is critical.

For some, this is their sole means of communicating with the rest of the world. And Rinchen, along with his two postmen assistants, has been working hard for the last 29 years.

Village Monastery

The soul of any Spiti valley village is its deeply established culture and really organic way of existence.  Hikkim, like the other towns in the valley, has a monastery at the other end of town. If you’ve gone to Ki, Tabo, or other historic monasteries in the area, you might not notice anything unusual about this monastery. It is, nonetheless, worth a visit.