Picture a wooden café table high in the Himalayas. Chai is steaming, a plate of shakshuka is still bubbling in its pan, and a guitar is being passed around. Someone is planning tomorrow's trek, someone else is planning nothing at all, and the conversation slides between Hebrew, Hindi and English. Months later, the same friends are sitting around a bonfire in the Tamil Nadu hills, swapping stories from Goa and Hampi and wondering where the time went.
That, in a nutshell, is the Hummus Trail: an unofficial, much-loved route across India, named after the chickpea dish its travellers missed most and that cafés along the way learned to make. Pull up a chair. Here's what it's like to be on it.
How it all begins
MAJOR HUBS ALONG THE TRAIL
Himachal: Kasol · Manali · Dharamkot
Goa: Arambol · Palolem
Gokarna: Kudle · Om Beach
Hampi
Kodaikanal: Vattakanal · Poombarai
…and everywhere in between: Kerala, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and beyond.
In Israel, most young Jewish, Druze and Circassian citizens are called up for military service at 18. According to the Israel Defense Forces, men serve a minimum of 32 months and women a minimum of 24. That's two to three years of early alarms and responsibility, at an age when many young people elsewhere are just starting college.
When it ends, many of them want air. They save up during their service and head off on a long trip before university and work begin, often for several months and sometimes for a year or more. India has been a favourite for decades. It's affordable for long stays, endlessly varied and full of other travellers. Nobody drew this route on a map. It grew over the years, one guesthouse, one café and one "you have to go there" tip at a time.
One thing to know before we set off: the stops below are just the big hubs. Israeli travellers roam every corner of India, from Uttarakhand's Rishikesh and Almora to Varanasi, Pushkar, the backwaters and beaches of Kerala, and the Andamans, and simply pass through these bases, which grew into Israeli hubs along the way. Think of them as the trail's best-known campfires, not its borders.
Act one: the mountains of Himachal
The Parvati river near Kasol
Photo: Himanshu Negi · CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Campsite on the Kheerganga trek
Photo: Photos Worldwide · CC0 via Wikimedia Commons
The trail usually starts high up, in Himachal Pradesh.
Kasol, in the Parvati Valley, is one of the oldest and best-loved stops. The river rushes past pine forests, signboards in Hebrew hang next to the Hindi and English ones, and the days run on their own clock. Travellers fuel up on a big Israeli breakfast at a riverside café, then set off on the Kheerganga trek: about 12 km of pine forest and waterfalls up to a meadow near 2,960 m, where a natural hot spring steams beside a small Shiva temple. (It's a day trek now; camping at the top was banned in 2024.) Others wander up to the villages scattered higher in the valley, or simply sit by the water with a book and a cup of mountain chai. In the evenings, cafés fill with music, and jam sessions start whenever someone pulls out a guitar.
Hebrew signboards are a common sight on the trail
Photo: Barry Pousman from New York, NY · CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Then there's Old Manali, with its cosy rooms and laid-back cafés, and streams and hot springs a short walk away. Further on are Dharamsala and the villages above it. McLeod Ganj is home to the Tibetan community-in-exile, and just uphill sits Dharamkot. There are yoga and meditation courses, music and craft workshops, and forest paths with views straight across the Kangra valley. Many travellers rent a scooter and spend lazy afternoons exploring the mountain roads.
On Friday nights, a lot of the trail heads to the local Chabad house, a Jewish community centre run by a young rabbi and his family. Kasol's Chabad house, opened in 2004, is known for Shabbat meals "with a young and enthusiastic vibe": long tables, new and old friends, and a home-cooked meal far from home. For many backpackers, these dinners are where new friendships start.
Colourful houses in Dharamkot
Photo: Tanvi.sharmaaa · CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The food: a trail you can taste
Shakshuka for breakfast, Goa
Photo: Soumendrak · CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Hummus, falafel and pita
Photo: Contrapunctus-1 · CC0 via Wikimedia Commons
Here's the delicious secret of the Hummus Trail: you eat brilliantly all the way.
In Kasol and Dharamkot, café menus put shakshuka, hummus with pita, falafel platters and sabich (the pita stuffed with fried aubergine and egg) next to masala Maggi and thukpa, and some menus are written in Hebrew. In Kasol, the Evergreen Café on Manikaran Road is famous for its Israeli platters, and Moon Dance Café, running since 1992, is a favourite for an Israeli breakfast by the river and a bonfire in the evenings. In Dharamkot, menus mix three kitchens: hummus and falafel, Tibetan momos and thukpa, and pizza and pasta.
The best part is that nobody eats only "home" food. Travellers swap hummus for steaming plates of momos in the mountains, unlimited thalis on the plains, Goan fish curry and rice by the sea, and crisp dosa with filter coffee down south.
Act two: sun, sand and boulders
Palolem, South Goa
Photo: iMahesh · CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
When winter comes to the Himalayas, the trail turns south.
Goa is pure joy for long-stay travellers. In North Goa, Arambol buzzes with cafés, live music, beach fairs. Every evening from mid-October to mid-March, people from all over the world gather on the sand for its famous drum circle. Dholaks, djembes and tambourines play while hula-hoopers and jugglers join in. Palolem in the south is calmer, with a curved, cleaner beach made for slow swims and long breakfasts. Days blur into beach days, scooter rides to hidden coves, yoga at sunrise and seafood at sunset.
And then there's the music. Goa is where Goa trance was born: open-air parties on Anjuna and the nearby beaches grew through the 1980s, and by the mid-1990s the sound had become a genre and later evolved into psytrance, now danced to at festivals around the world. From the mid-1990s, young Israelis became some of the scene's most devoted fans. One of them, Amit Duvdevani, spent a year in India, mostly in Goa, after his army service, and went on to co-found Infected Mushroom, one of the best-known psytrance acts in the world. Picture the classic Goa winter night: DJs, coloured lights, dancing until dawn and the sea right there when you need a break. Up north, Kasol has had its own trance parties too. Like any party scene, it has come with drug use and with occasional police crackdowns. Most travellers simply go for the music, the dancing and the friends.
GOA, AFTER SUNSET
From Goa, many continue into Karnataka. In Gokarna, Kudle Beach and Om Beach are made for doing very little: backgammon, juggling, jam sessions, deep conversations and jungle walks from one cove to the next.
Kudle Beach, Gokarna
Photo: Happyshopper · CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons
Inland, Hampi feels like another planet. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site where the ruins of the Vijayanagara capital sit among enormous granite boulders, banana groves and paddy fields along the Tungabhadra river. It's also one of the world's great bouldering areas, with more than 1,400 documented problems. In season (October to March), a couple of hundred climbers from a couple of dozen countries can be there at once, renting crash pads from guesthouses and local climbing shops. Mornings are for climbing and temples, afternoons for hammocks by the river. Hampi even has its own Chabad house, which lends travellers motorbike helmets and hosts Shabbat meals.
Other stops come and go, including Rishikesh, Pushkar, Varanasi and Almora, and more recently the Andaman Islands.
It's everyone's trail now
Granite boulders and palms, Hampi
Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg · CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Israeli travellers put many of these places on the backpacker map, and Israeli cafés with hummus and Hebrew menus still line the route. But the trail is global now. Kasol is one of the most popular destinations for young Indian travellers, and Hampi draws visitors from all over the world. In Gokarna, Goa or Dharamkot, the travellers sharing your table at a jam session could be from Bengaluru, Berlin, Buenos Aires or Tel Aviv.
Act three: the hills of Kodaikanal
The Kodaikanal hills
Photo: Ani.nyk · CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
“After the peaks and the parties, these hills offer cool air, misty mornings and starry nights by the fire.”
How did a Tamil Nadu hill station become the finale? The answer involves a tsunami, a falafel counter and a young man named Altaf.
As The Kodai Chronicle tells it, Altaf Hussain travelled with the first group of Israeli backpackers to reach Kodaikanal in 2004. When the Indian Ocean tsunami hit that December, worried families urged travellers on the coast in Goa, Gokarna and Hampi to move up into the mountains. Altaf led a big group to Ooty first, but there weren't enough affordable rooms for everyone. On a stranger's advice, they came to Kodaikanal instead.
Even the guesthouses on Observatory Road were beyond their budget. Then a German man living locally told them about Vattakanal, a tiny settlement about 5 km from town on the edge of the hills. At the time it had just two tea shops. The group rented rooms from a local tea-stall keeper, and the views, low prices and early sunrise made up for everything else. Altaf said it reminded him of the Himalayas.
Word spread. More travellers came the next season, and for years Altaf ran a falafel counter there from November to March, following the travellers to Rishikesh and Gokarna in between. In 2011 he opened his own restaurant in Vattakanal. Today the village is often called "Little Israel". Its homestays and cafés serve hummus, falafel and shakshuka alongside dosa and filter coffee, and it now draws travellers from everywhere.
Our own story begins here too. Long before TeHyCa existed, Mathew, the founder of TeHyCa, spent his days in Vattakanal at a little guesthouse the Israeli travellers of that time adored, known simply as "Sarah Auntie's place". It wasn't fancy at all, but it was awesome. The place, he says, "transformed my life in many ways", planting a quiet wish to live somewhere like Vattakanal and build a future in these hills. Sarah, born and raised in Vatta, still runs her guesthouse and tea shop today.
Sarah Auntie in Vattakanal
Photo: Azad Reese / The Kodai Chronicle
Sarah at her little shop, still open today
Photo: Azad Reese / The Kodai Chronicle
It's easy to see why the trail ends here. After the peaks and the parties, these hills offer cool air, misty mornings, forest walks and starry nights by the fire. It's the perfect place to rest.
Beyond Vattakanal: the quieter upper hills
Sunset over the upper hills, Poombarai
Photo: TeHyCa
As Vattakanal has grown busier, more travellers, Indian and international alike, are heading deeper into the Kodaikanal hills. They go past town and up the winding road into the upper hills: terraced fields of hill garlic, eucalyptus and pine, tiny villages, and wide valley views when the mist lifts.
Poombarai is one of those villages, about 18–20 km beyond Kodaikanal town. It's known for its old Murugan temple and its green terraces stepping down the slopes, and it still feels like a working village rather than a tourist spot.
A special last stop
Most long-trail travellers live on budget rooms for months, and that's half the fun. But a journey this big deserves a proper ending. So for your last few nights, treat yourself to somewhere special. Let it end on a high.
That's where we come in, and it's where Mathew's Vattakanal dream finally led him. TeHyCa sits in Poombarai, beside a waterfall. Our wooden cabins are set further downhill, private and quiet. The Smart Pod is a cosy room made for couples, with big windows looking out at the valley and the waterfalls, and its own private firepit for cold hill nights. Evenings here mean a campfire, a sky full of stars and the sound of falling water. It's worth the splurge, and fair warning: it's hard to leave. (See our rooms and tariff.)
A wooden cabin at TeHyCa, Poombarai
Photo: TeHyCa
Our campfire spot above the valley
Photo: TeHyCa
Waking up to the valley at TeHyCa
Photo: TeHyCa
If you're joining the trail
Go slow. The trail rewards weeks, not days. Stay put when a place feels right.
Respect local life. These are villages and towns where people live and work. Dress modestly around temples and in villages, ask before taking photos, and keep it down at night.
Pack for the hills. Kodaikanal nights are cool for much of the year, so bring layers. Check the current Tamil Nadu e-pass rules if you're driving in.
Leave it better. Carry your rubbish out from treks, beaches and waterfalls.
Wherever your trail begins, whether by a river in the Parvati Valley, on a Goa beach or on a Hampi boulder, there's a quiet spot in the Kodaikanal hills waiting at the end of it, with a fire, a view and time to think about what's next.
About the images: Photos are credited where known. If you have any issue with an image used here or its copyright, please contact TeHyCa and we will remove it.