Gilgit Baltistan Tour 2026-27

Trip highlights

• The Karakoram Highway

  The old Silk Route under tarmac, and the reason to see this region by road rather than by air.

• Khunjerab Pass, 4,880 m

  The highest paved border crossing on earth, standing where Pakistan meets China.

• Baltit & Altit forts

  UNESCO-listed and 700 and 1,100 years old, above the orchards of Karimabad.

• Nanga Parbat, 8,126 m

  The ninth highest mountain on earth, in view from the highway on the way up and the way down.

• Two royal palaces

  A night in the ex-royal fort at Khaplu, and lunch in the garden at Shigar Fort.

• The Deosai plateau

  The second highest plateau on earth, crossed by jeep, and home to the Himalayan brown bear.

Dates & availability

Dates not working? Every trip here also runs as a private departure — tell us your window and we will build it around you.

At a glance

• 14 days, 13 nightsIslamabad to Islamabad overland, with the Karakoram Highway both ways.
• Easy — no trekkingShort, mostly optional walks. The long drives are the real demand of the trip.
• Family friendlyGuided small groups, and a route that works for couples and families alike.
• Gilgit, Hunza, Skardu, Khaplu, DeosaiThe whole region in one loop, including Shigar and the Astore valley.
• Three and four star hotelsTwin-share en-suite throughout, including the palace hotels at Khaplu and Shigar.
• Khunjerab Pass, 4,880 mThe highest paved border crossing on earth, reached and left by road the same day.
• Summer departuresApril to early November, while the Babusar and Khunjerab passes are open.

Day by day

1. 1Day 1Arrival in Islamabad

   

   Welcome to Pakistan. Most international flights land at Islamabad International Airport in the morning; your guide meets you at the airport and transfers you to the hotel, and the rest of the day is yours to recover from the journey. Later, once everyone has arrived, we sit down together for a full briefing on the fortnight ahead. If the timings leave us room there is the option of some sightseeing in Islamabad — a city built from nothing in 1961 to be the new capital, and green and quiet in a way no other Pakistani city is. Night at the Hill View Hotel or similar.

2. 2Day 2Islamabad to Naran — 461 km, 8 hours

   

   After breakfast we start north on the Karakoram Highway, passing through the historic towns on the way to Mansehra. There we leave the highway, turn right onto the Naran road and follow the river up into the Kaghan Valley. Naran town sits on the riverbank and is popular with Pakistani travellers for exactly the reasons you will like it — the cool air and the green. Sleep well; it is a great deal colder here than in Islamabad. Night at Hotel One or similar.

3. 3Day 3Naran to Gilgit over the Babusar Pass — 134 km, 6 hours

   

   We climb the Naran road through the heart of the rugged Kaghan Valley, where the mountain flowers come out in summer, and cross the Babusar Pass at 4,067 m — a high pass open in the summer months only. On the far side we rejoin the Karakoram Highway along the mighty Indus, and this is where the trip changes character: twenty-one of the hundred highest mountains on earth are visible from this road, and civilisation slips away behind you. There is a first, sneaky view of Nanga Parbat, 8,126 m, on the way in. We reach Gilgit in the early afternoon with time to explore the biggest city in Gilgit-Baltistan and its regional capital. Night at the PTDC or similar.

4. 4Day 4Gilgit to Karimabad — 102 km, 3 hours

   

   North again on the Karakoram Highway into the Hunza Valley, through small villages with a great many friendly faces and as many tea stops as we can justify. The day's highlight is the Rakaposhi viewpoint at the roadside, where the mountain's 7,788 m face rises almost directly above you — worth more than a photograph and a cup of chai. We arrive in Karimabad around lunchtime, and the afternoon is free in a town built on a hillside above the valley: the capital of modern Hunza, and a place whose position on the central Asian Silk Route has drawn travellers, merchants and mountaineers for centuries. Beyond the glaciers, apricot farms and turquoise lakes it is the cultural heritage that makes it. Night at the Hunza Embassy Hotel or similar.

5. 5Day 5Karimabad, 2,440 m — Baltit and Altit forts

   

   Up early for the sunrise over Rakaposhi, then a day given to Karimabad itself. Wander the cobblestone streets, bargain for rubies and handicrafts, eat Hunza food, and get to grips with the dark history of the 700-year-old UNESCO-listed Baltit Fort. It stands on an artificially flattened spur below the Ulter Glacier — three floors of stone, storage chambers at the bottom and an open hall above — and from it the rulers of Hunza controlled the seasonal trans-Karakoram trade between South and Central Asia. Altit Fort, older still, gives you a look down the old Silk Route line, and the sunset over the river below. Late in the afternoon we drive up to Eagle's Nest for the bird's-eye view of the whole valley, with the option of dinner there and the last of the light on Rakaposhi. Night at the Hunza Embassy Hotel or similar.

6. 6Day 6Karimabad to the Khunjerab Pass, 4,880 m — 3 to 4 hours

   

   An epic day. We drive north by minibus or jeep to the Khunjerab Pass, the trade border between Pakistan and China and the highest paved crossing anywhere, stopping often for photographs and chai because the road gives you no choice. The pass sits in a craggy bowl of mountains ringed by glaciers — a landscape that is genuinely breathtaking and thick with history. After our time at the border we come back down to Passu for the night, under the serrated spires of the Passu Cones. Night at the Silk Route Hotel or similar.

7. 7Day 7Hunza to Skardu — 286 km, 7 hours

   

   South on the Karakoram Highway with Rakaposhi behind us. The road loses height so gradually that you will not notice until Alam Bridge, three hours on, where we leave the highway and turn east to follow the Indus towards Skardu. The villages along this stretch are laden with apricot, cherry and apple; we stop for tea and to buy fruit from the growers. Skardu is the administrative capital of Baltistan, at 2,500 m on the bank of the Indus where the Karakoram parts from the Himalaya, and it is the gateway to K2, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum I and II, Masherbrum, Spantik, the Trango Towers, the Hispar and Baltoro glaciers and Concordia. Night at the Summit Hotel or similar.

8. 8Day 8Skardu, 2,230 m — Sadpara, the Buddha rock and the Kachura lakes

   

   Baltistan was one of the oldest Himalayan kingdoms before it became part of Pakistan, and today is largely about what it left behind. After breakfast we drive half an hour up to Sadpara Lake, crystal-clear water held between pillars of Karakoram rock and the source of Skardu's drinking water. Then the Manthal Buddha Rock, where a large image of the Buddha was carved into a granite face in the 8th century — plain evidence of the Buddhism that was here before Islam. Lunch at Upper Kachura Lake, a look at Lower Kachura, and back to the hotel for dinner. There is often the chance to see the local bazaar, walk up to Kharpocho Fort above the town, and watch an old-style Balti polo match, which is not a sport played to the rules you know. Night at the Summit Hotel or similar.

9. 9Day 9Skardu to Khaplu — 103 km, 2 to 3 hours

   

   East along the famous Indus and then the Shyok, through lush green Balti villages, to Khaplu. This was the second-largest kingdom of old Baltistan under the Yabgo dynasty, guarding the trade route to Ladakh along the Shyok river. Khaplu is one of the largest and most beautiful Balti towns in Baltistan; its people speak Balti, a Tibetan language, and before the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 this was part of the same world as Kargil and Ladakh — which you can read in the architecture, the food, the traditions and the manners. Tonight you sleep in the ex-royal palace: Khaplu Fort, restored as a luxury hotel. Night at the Karakoram Lodge or similar.

10. 10Day 10Khaplu, 2,600 m — the Chaqchan Mosque

    

    A day on foot in the town. We visit the local bazaar and then the Chaqchan Mosque, built in 1370 and one of the oldest in Gilgit-Baltistan, dating from the time when the people of this valley converted en masse from Buddhism to Islam. Its architecture is a genuine blend of Tibetan, Mughal and Persian styles — an old way of building that also happens to make a weatherproof structure fit for a Baltistan winter. The mosque is open to visitors except at Friday prayer time. Night at the Karakoram Lodge or similar.

11. 11Day 11Khaplu to Skardu by way of Shigar — 2 to 3 hours

    

    We follow the Shyok, then the Indus, then the Shigar river up into the Shigar valley — green, wide, and the way in to K2 and to most of the great treks and peaks of the Karakoram. In Shigar we explore the historic fort, a raja's residence restored into a museum and a luxury hotel under the same brand as the palace at Khaplu, and take a long lunch in the royal garden before driving on to Skardu. You have the option of spending this night in Shigar Fort itself rather than the hotel in Skardu. Night at the Summit Hotel or similar.

12. 12Day 12Skardu to Astore across the Deosai plateau — 265 km, 7 hours

    

    The most adventurous day of the tour, and a jeep day. The road climbs onto Deosai, the second-highest plateau on earth, an enormous roof of grass and meltwater that is home to the Himalayan brown bear and, rarely, the snow leopard. We keep our eyes open — bears are seen here often enough to be worth watching for — stop on the plateau for lunch and a proper look around, and then drop off the far side to Astore for the night. Night at the Noor Mahal Hotel or similar.

13. 13Day 13Astore to Islamabad — 461 km, 9 hours

    

    Wake early for the sunrise over the Karakoram and over Nanga Parbat, take your last breakfast in the mountains, and start the long drive home. We follow the Astore river down to the Karakoram Highway junction, cross the bridge and run a short way along the highway before turning onto the Naran road, which carries us back over the Babusar Pass and down the Kaghan Valley to Mansehra. From there the Karakoram Highway again, through the culturally rich old towns of Abbottabad, Hasan Abdal and Taxila — an archaeological site of the first importance about 32 km north-west of Islamabad, a city dating from around 1000 BCE with ruins going back to the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BCE. Into Islamabad in the late afternoon, with dinner at the hotel. Order the Pakistani food; it is the last evening. Night at the Hill View Hotel or similar.

14. 14Day 14Departure from Islamabad

    

    Transfer to Islamabad International Airport for your flight home, and the end of the Gilgit Baltistan Tour. We think the majestic mountain valleys, the ancient culture and the friendly people of Gilgit-Baltistan — and four decades of running this route — will have made it a trip that stays with you for a long time.

Good to know

Prices are per person, based on two sharing a twin or double room. Single supplements are available on request at a small extra cost, and there are couple, family and group discounts — ask us before you book. Once you have booked, the price does not move: the figure advertised on the day you book is the figure you pay, this season or next. We accept cash on arrival, bank transfer, PayPal and all major credit and debit cards.

This is a suggested itinerary rather than a fixed one. We mean to keep to the day-by-day route below, but weather, road and local conditions can all move it, and your guide will rework the days around any change with as little disruption as possible. Adventure travel in this region asks for an open and flexible attitude, and for the willingness to travel as part of a group.

The route is overland by choice, so some days on the road are long — the jeep crossing from Skardu to Astore over Deosai and the run back down to Islamabad are both full days. The Babusar Pass at 4,067 m and the Khunjerab Pass at 4,880 m are open in summer only, and that is what sets the season.

There is a flight option to Skardu, and it is worth understanding before you count on it. The valley is ringed by high mountains and aircraft only land in good visibility, so Skardu flights are never guaranteed. They do run often, but if one is cancelled the journey is made by road instead, by way of Naran.

Ask your doctor or travel clinic about vaccinations well before you travel. Routine courses and boosters should be up to date — diphtheria-tetanus-polio and measles-mumps-rubella — along with hepatitis A and typhoid. Malaria prophylaxis is discretionary: there is a very low incidence of urban transmission around Islamabad and Rawalpindi, and no malaria risk at all in Gilgit-Baltistan and the mountain valleys. Dengue is present around Islamabad and has no vaccine or prophylaxis, so carry repellent and cover up against daytime mosquitoes. A dental check-up before a trip this far from a surgery is sensible.

Travel insurance is not optional in practice, and we do not advise on which policy to buy. If you already hold an annual multi-trip policy, send your insurer this itinerary and get written confirmation that they cover the activities on it.

Questions about this trip

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