🪪Ladakh permits & logistics checklist
Ladakh is the trip everyone wants and the logistics nobody reads up on: prepaid SIMs go silent, ATMs thin out after Leh, and every checkpost from Nubra to Hanle wants your environment-fee receipt — the Inner Line Permit was scrapped for Indians in 2021, but the paperwork wasn't. Clear this list in the week before you leave and the trip stays about the mountains.
Documents
Carry ID copies for each traveller
Aadhaar or passport photocopies for the permit form and each checkpoint.
Permits
Pay the Ladakh environment fee online
The Inner Line Permit was scrapped for Indian tourists in 2021. Instead, pay the Environment & Development Fee at lahdclehpermit.in — ₹400 once, ₹20 a day, and a voluntary ₹50 to the Red Cross Fund, so about ₹590 all in for a week. Carry several printed receipts: checkposts on the Nubra, Pangong, Hanle and Umling La roads collect them. Foreign nationals still need the Protected Area Permit through a registered Leh agent.
Money
Withdraw cash in Leh
ATMs exist only in Leh and Kargil; Nubra and Pangong are cash-only and UPI rarely works.
Safety
Check pass status the night before
Khardung La and Chang La close after snowfall; ask your hotel or check the Leh traffic police page.
Transport
Plan fuel stops
Petrol pumps at Leh, Karu, Diskit and Tangtse. Fill up at every one and carry a jerrycan for the Hanle–Tso Moriri stretch.
Book Leh flights early and plan the airport transfer
Morning flights only, and they sell out for June–September. Airport taxis run on the union's fixed rate card.
Bike rental papers and spares
Only Leh-registered bikes may go to Nubra and Pangong. Keep the rental agreement, RC copy and a spare tube handy.
Connectivity
Get a BSNL or Jio postpaid SIM
Prepaid SIMs from outside Ladakh do not work. Postpaid Jio, Airtel and BSNL work in Leh; Airtel reaches Pangong's west end at Spangmik and Lukung, Jio patchily, neither on the south bank, and BSNL is the only bet at Hanle and beyond.
Stay
Sleep at Hanle, day-trip Umling La
The pass sits at 5,799 m — don't sleep anywhere near it. Stay at Hanle (4,270 m, homestays, India's first Dark Sky Reserve), ride up via Photi La in the morning (~75 km), spend twenty minutes on top and descend.
Book homestays in Turtuk and Hanle ahead
Both villages have limited rooms and no online booking; call ahead.
planning one of these?
Niklo suggests this checklist when your stops fall inside Ladakh — Leh, Nubra, Pangong, Hanle, Turtuk, Zanskar.
Tick it off as a crew, not alone.
Put this checklist on a Niklo trip and every item gets an owner, a due state and a crew that can see it — next to the itinerary, the map and the money.