Experience the best of Chandigarh

Chandigarh was planned in the 1950s as the capital of Punjab after Partition, and it is also the capital of Haryana. The Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier shaped the grid of numbered sectors, with wide tree-lined avenues, and designed the Capitol Complex, whose assembly building, high court and Open Hand monument are part of a UNESCO World Heritage listing. Its concrete buildings are a landmark of mid-century modernism.

Nek Chand's Rock Garden is an outsider-art park built from broken tiles, bangles and discarded materials into winding paths and thousands of figures. Sukhna Lake, made by damming a seasonal stream, is ringed by a promenade, and the Rose Garden is one of the largest in Asia. The Shivalik hills, Pinjore's Mughal garden, Kasauli and Shimla's hill roads begin a short way to the north.

Punjabi dishes dominate the menus: butter chicken, dal makhani, stuffed parathas and chole bhature, with lassi served in tall glasses. In winter, sarson da saag with makki di roti, a mustard greens dish with cornbread, appears on menus. October to March is the pleasant stretch, summers are hot and the monsoon brings rain from July.