Solan

Solan, also known as the "Mushroom city of India" because of the Mushroom centre situated there at Cambaghat, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, Solan is better known for the Mohan Meakin's brewery (reputed to be the World's oldest brewery) and the famous Solan No. 1 whisky.

Solan town is easily accessible by road as well as train. It is 68 Km from Chandigarh (2 hours journey by Bus). You can also get a taxi from there or take the train. However, be warned that you have to change to another train at Kalka (44 Km away) as the narrow gauge tracks starts from there. The train is quite slow but you can get to see some beautiful scenery along the way.

Besides the Dr. Yaswant Singh Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry at Nauni, some other places of interest in Solan include the Shoolini Mata temple (Solan is named after the goddess Shoolini), the Jatoli Shiv temple, the three centuries old Gurkha Fort overlooking the University at Nauni and the Young Drung Tibetian Monastery, also near Nauni.

In case you are surprised about the Gurkha fort, it turns out that hundreds of years ago, this area was under the Gurkha rulers of Nepal.