If you have a week in northern Pakistan and cannot do both, this is the decision. We are asked it on the phone almost daily, and the answer people usually get online is a list of attractions in each place, which helps nobody choose.
So here is the version we give when someone asks us directly. We run trips to both, we have no stake in which you pick, and they are far more different from each other than the map suggests.
The short answer
- First trip to Pakistan, one week, want it easy and beautiful — Hunza.
- You want mountains that frighten you slightly — Skardu.
- Travelling with parents or children — Hunza.
- You are a photographer — Skardu.
- You want to walk every day — Skardu.
- You want cafés, bazaars and conversation — Hunza.
- Ten days or more — do both, in that order.
What each one actually is
Hunza
Hunza is a cultivated valley. Terraced fields, apricot and cherry orchards, poplars along irrigation channels, villages that have been farming the same slopes for centuries — with 7,000 m peaks standing directly above them. Rakaposhi is 7,788 m and you look up at it from a roadside café over a cup of tea.
The valley is prosperous, literate and unusually relaxed. The Karakoram Highway runs right through it, so the driving is easy and the infrastructure is good. Karimabad has hotels with wifi, restaurants, and a bazaar where nobody hassles you. Baltit and Altit forts are genuinely worth the entry ticket, Attabad Lake is the improbable turquoise you have seen in photographs, and the Khunjerab Pass at 4,693 m puts you on the Chinese border on a paved road.
It is the softest introduction to the Karakoram that exists.
Skardu
Skardu is a different proposition. It sits at 2,500 m in a wide sandy basin on the Indus, where the Karakoram parts from the Himalaya, and the scale is harsher and larger. Cold desert with dunes, a river the colour of wet cement, forts on rock outcrops, and behind it all the approaches to K2, Broad Peak, the Gasherbrums and the Baltoro glacier.
The Deosai Plains above it are at 4,000 m — a high plateau of wildflowers and marmots and, if you are lucky and quiet, Himalayan brown bear. Shigar and Khaplu have restored forts that are now hotels, and the Shangrila and Kachura lakes are the postcard shots.
Skardu is where you go if you want the mountains to be the point rather than the backdrop.
Side by side
| Hunza | Skardu | |
|---|---|---|
| Getting there | Karakoram Highway, paved throughout | Flight from Islamabad, or a long road day |
| Altitude of the base | 2,400 m Karimabad | 2,500 m Skardu |
| Landscape | Green, terraced, cultivated | Cold desert, dunes, glacial |
| Best for | Culture, forts, easy days | Scale, trekking, photography |
| Roads | Excellent | Mixed, jeep tracks beyond town |
| Food and cafés | Plenty, good | Improving, more limited |
| Trekking access | Day walks, Passu, Hopper | K2, Concordia, Gondogoro La |
| Crowds in July | Busy | Busy in town, empty beyond it |
| Suits a first visit | Very well | If you are outdoorsy |
The honest differences nobody mentions
Getting to Skardu is the variable
Hunza is reached by road and the road is reliable. Skardu is reached either by a 45-minute flight from Islamabad — spectacular, and cancelled often enough in poor weather that you should never plan a tight schedule around it — or by a full day's drive of seven to eight hours from Gilgit along the Indus gorge.
We build every Skardu itinerary so that a cancelled flight costs you a day, not the trip. If an operator quotes you Skardu with no road contingency, ask what happens when the flight does not go.
Hunza is more comfortable, and that cuts both ways
Hunza's infrastructure is the best in Gilgit-Baltistan, which is why it suits families and first-timers. It also means Karimabad in July has a great many people in it. Skardu town gets busy too, but you are an hour from places where you will see nobody.
Culture reads differently
Hunza is predominantly Ismaili, and visitors — particularly women travelling alone — often remark on how easy and open it feels. Baltistan is predominantly Shia and more conservative in dress and custom. Neither is difficult to travel in, and both are exceptionally hospitable, but you should dress more carefully in Baltistan. Our safety guide covers what that means in practice.
If you only have one week
Pick one. The drive between them is a long day each way, and a week split across both means two days in a vehicle and no time to be anywhere.
- Seven days, first visit — Hunza. Islamabad, fly or drive to Gilgit, Karimabad as your base, Attabad, Passu, Khunjerab, and home.
- Seven days, outdoors-minded — Skardu. Fly in, Shigar, Khaplu, Deosai, the lakes, and out.
- Ten to fourteen days — both, Hunza first, then the Indus road to Skardu, which is one of the great drives anywhere.
That last option is what our Hunza and Skardu tour does, and it is the one we would book ourselves.
When to go, for either
April to October for both. April and early May give you blossom in Hunza and cold, clear light. July and August are warmest and busiest, and the only months Deosai is fully open. Late September and October are our own favourite — autumn colour, settled weather, thin crowds — and the best time to visit Pakistan goes through this month by month.
Frequently asked questions
Is Hunza or Skardu more beautiful?
They are beautiful in different ways and people rarely disagree about which they preferred once they have been. Hunza is green, terraced and human in scale, with enormous peaks above cultivated villages. Skardu is cold desert and glacial, harsher and larger. Photographers usually prefer Skardu; first-time visitors usually prefer Hunza.
Can I visit both Hunza and Skardu in one trip?
Yes, and it is the trip we would recommend if you have ten days or more. The Indus road between Gilgit and Skardu is a full day and worth doing in daylight. In seven days, doing both means spending two of them driving.
How many days do I need in Hunza?
Four full days is comfortable — Karimabad and the forts, Attabad and Passu, a day up to Khunjerab Pass, and one day spare for a walk or for weather. Three is possible and slightly rushed.
Is the flight to Skardu reliable?
It is spectacular and it is weather-dependent. Cancellations are common enough that no itinerary should depend on it. We plan Skardu trips so a cancelled flight costs a day rather than the trip, with the Gilgit road as the fallback.
Which is better for a solo female traveller?
Both are safe and both are hospitable, and Hunza is generally the easier of the two — more relaxed about dress, more used to independent travellers, and more infrastructure. Baltistan is more conservative and asks for more care with clothing, not more caution about safety.
We run both valleys on fixed departures and as private trips, with internal flights, hotels, meals and a guide in one printed price.
See Pakistan tour packages