A good place to pop your head in and learn about Ladakh.

It screens films every day and is a good resource for any questions you may have about Ladakh past, present and future, and other parts of the world. Focuses on climate change, ecology, the environment, agriculture, sustainability, and Ladakh's culture.

It has a shop where you can buy genuine souvenirs which will help the local economy (most souvenir shops in Ladakh are Kashmiri run). It's also a good place if you want a custom Ladakh souvenir - they can arrange someone to make you something in your size.

Sankar road, north east of central Leh.

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By no means the only good places of course, but I enjoyed these cafes and restaurants in Leh:

Summer Harvest (Fort Road) - highly recommended in the guide books, and for good reason. Loads of locals eating there means it's bound to be good.

Desert Rain Cafe (off a side road from the Main Bazzar - about half way down, in the direction of north). Don't come here for true Ladakhi atmosphere, but if you're wanting some decent coffee, and other western reminders, Desert Rain has a relaxed atmosphere, has film nights, and talks from interesting people. No outside seating, but a good place to relax whilst you acclimatise. Good cakes.

My favourite Ladakhi/Tibetan eats were the Wok Tibetan Kitchen and Amdo Cafe (both on the Main Bazaar) - not widely mentioned in the big guide books, but decent food with a mix of tourists and locals.

The Penguin restaurant (Old Fort road, near the bottom) was one of my favourite places to chill outside in, the food is fine, but not the best. The garden kept me returning though.

There's no shortage of restaurants to explore in Leh - and there's a massive amount of decent pizzas and other western food everywhere.

Dzomsa (Old Fort Road, near the top) has good juice, good food supplies to take trekking, and importantly offers cheap safe drinking water - the influx of tourists seriously threaten many beautiful things about Leh - please use filtered water instead of plastic throwaway bottles.

All of these places serve cheap meals, but beer (if available) will be expensive anywhere in Leh.

Be aware that there can be occasional strikes which close everything down - your best bet is to head to the more upmarket hotels for food, or to look carefully around for signs of activity - some places are open despite locked doors.

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Leh in the summer is THE Indian destination for the many, many travellers who flood this small town.

It's hard to believe that a shortage of accommodation does not exist in Leh, but from what I saw, there is no shortage.

The guide books mention only a small number of places, which led travellers I met to panic and book into the only places left with rooms - usually the most expensive ones.

I entirely understand that you may want to book in advance, but bear in mind that even in peak season in 2008, there appared to be far more rooms than tourists, and new guest houses are being built constantly.

As long as you've got a decent torch to walk home with, there are beautiful places to stay a short walk away from the centre of Leh, so if you are struggling to book accomodation, I would recommend trying to get a night or two booked somewhere, but then hunt around if you're staying a while - I paid a tiny fraction of the central hotel prices by staying in a family run beautiful but basic guest house 10 minutes walk from the centre.

Of course, you can turn up with no accommodation booked, but it is worth noting that when flying into at altitude, you will give your body the best chance of acclimatisation if you do very little on arrival and rest, rather than hump your bag around searching for the cheapest hotel (which is my tactic in other locations!).

I phoned a guesthouse listed in a trekking book (rather than the more popular mainstream guide books) the day before I flew into Leh, they seemed surprised that I was phoning to book, but I was glad as my flight arrived so early in the morning, I knew there was a room waiting for me, where I could dump my stuff, grab some filtered water, and then cafe-hop for 48 hours of acclimatisation chilling. I was just hugely shocked at how much some other travellers were paying in their upmarket hotels, which they weren't wanting to stay in, but they were all that were available in the popular guide book recommendations.

From the centre of Leh, there are hotels and guesthouses everywhere. The posher hotels tend to be southwest of central Leh, the densest backpacker area is in Changspar (north east). But I think the most interesting accommodation is in the Old Town area (to the east of centre), and off to the west are a few roads that wind through beautifully quiet scenery with homely looking guest houses.

If you've just arrived in Leh, even if you've come by road, for the purposes of allowing your body to acclimatise to the high altitude, beware of walking far with heavy bags.

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