Northern Pakistan Grand Tour 2026-27 — Hunza, Skardu & Nanga Parbat

At a glance

• 14 days, Islamabad to IslamabadFour days Skardu, five Hunza, two at Fairy Meadows, the rest travelling.
• Nanga Parbat Base Camp, 3,967 mOptional on the Fairy Meadows day; horses are available for non-walkers.
• Easy to moderateTouring for most of the trip, with one demanding day if you go to base camp.
• Small groups, 2 to 10Ages 10 and up. Families manage this trip well.
• The whole of Gilgit-BaltistanSkardu, Kachura, Hunza, Khunjerab, Naltar and the Raikot face of Nanga Parbat.
• Hotels, a lake resort and mountain cottagesFour-star in Islamabad, three-star in the valleys, cottages at Fairy Meadows.

Day by day

1. 1Day 1Arrival in Islamabad

   

   Met at Islamabad International Airport and driven to the hotel, a four-star in the diplomatic quarter. The day is yours to recover — the capital is green, calm and unusually easy to walk, and the Margalla Hills behind it are a twenty-minute drive if you want an early look at high ground. We gather in the evening for the trip briefing, run through what the fourteen days hold, and check footwear for anyone planning to walk to base camp.

2. 2Day 2Fly to Skardu, Shigar Fort and the cold desert

   

   The morning flight into Skardu is one of the world's great scheduled approaches, threading between eight-thousanders with K2 on the horizon in clear weather. We land and drive out to Shigar Fort, a seventeenth-century raja's palace of stone and poplar restored into a working hotel, then to the Sarfaranga cold desert — real sand dunes at 2,200 metres with the Karakoram standing behind them. Quad bikes and dune buggies are there for anyone who wants them. Overnight in Skardu.

3. 3Day 3Skardu — Manthoka Falls and Kharpocho Fort

   

   A gentle day in the Skardu basin. We drive into Kharmang to Manthoka Waterfall, a hundred feet of very cold water dropping into a green side valley, and spend an unhurried couple of hours there. The afternoon is optional: a one-hour climb to Kharpocho Fort on the rock above the town, best done towards sunset, when the braided channels of the Indus below turn silver and the whole basin goes gold. Those who would rather not climb can wander Skardu bazaar instead.

4. 4Day 4Kachura Valley — Shangrila, Upper Kachura and Soq

   

   The lakes. Shangrila is the famous one, small and green-blue with a red-roofed resort on the shore that has been on Pakistani postcards for half a century. Upper Kachura, a few minutes on, is deeper, quieter and better for walking around. In the afternoon we head up into Soq Valley — poplars, water channels, stone-walled fields — for a gentle hike and time in villages that see a fraction of the visitors the lakes do. Overnight in the Kachura valley.

5. 5Day 5Kachura to Hunza on the Karakoram Highway

   

   A long, magnificent driving day. The road drops out of Baltistan along the Indus to the main highway, then turns north into the Hunza gorge. We stop at Ashtaq Nala, at the junction where the Karakoram, Himalaya and Hindu Kush meet within sight of one another, and beneath Rakaposhi, whose 7,788-metre south face rises almost straight from the roadside — one of the shortest distances from valley floor to snow summit anywhere. Into Karimabad by evening, with time to walk the tourist street before dinner.

6. 6Day 6Central Hunza — Baltit, Altit and sunset at Duikar

   

   A day on foot in one valley. Baltit Fort first, the 700-year-old seat of the Mirs of Hunza, restored with Aga Khan support and looking straight down the valley from its spur. Then down to Altit Fort, older still at around 1,100 years and the oldest surviving monument in Gilgit-Baltistan; the Mirs lived here for three centuries before moving up to Baltit, so walking between the two follows the dynasty's own chronology. We finish at Duikar above Eagle's Nest for sunset over Rakaposhi, Ultar Sar, Diran and Golden Peak.

7. 7Day 7The Khunjerab Pass and Khunjerab National Park

   

   North to the roof of the country. The road climbs through Gulmit and Passu, past the serrated spires of the Passu Cones, and on to the Khunjerab Pass at 4,693 metres — the highest paved border crossing in the world, and the line where Pakistan meets China. The plateau is wide, cold and thin-aired, and the national park around it holds Karakoram ibex, blue sheep and marmots in numbers you will actually see. Tonight we move up-valley to a resort at Borith Lake.

8. 8Day 8Upper Hunza — Attabad, Hussaini and the Passu glaciers

   

   A day among water and ice. Attabad Lake is the startling turquoise created in 2010 when a landslide dammed the Hunza River and drowned four villages; boating, paddle boats and jet skis are all available and all optional. The Hussaini suspension bridge — the slatted rope crossing from every photograph of Pakistan — is likewise entirely up to you. There is a short hike to the Passu Glacier viewpoint for anyone who wants it, and time at Borith Lake, which draws migrating birds in spring and autumn.

9. 9Day 9Hunza to Gilgit by way of Naltar Valley

   

   We leave Hunza and turn up a rough road into Naltar, a forested valley of pine and high pasture that feels like another country after the bare gorges below. The Naltar lakes lie at the head of it in blues and greens that look filtered and are not. In summer this is walking, horses and a long picnic; in winter and early spring there is skiing on the air force chairlift. Down to Gilgit in the late afternoon, with time for the bazaar before dinner.

10. 10Day 10Gilgit to Fairy Meadows

    

    South down the highway to Raikot Bridge, where the tarmac ends. Local 4x4 jeeps take you up to Tattu village on a track cut into the hillside — an hour of switchbacks with a considerable drop and no barrier, driven by men who have done it all their lives. From Tattu it is three to four hours on foot through pine forest to Fairy Meadows at roughly 3,300 metres, with mules or porters carrying the heavy bags and horses available if you would rather ride. Then the trees end and Nanga Parbat is simply there. Two nights in a cottage at Raikot Serai.

11. 11Day 11Nanga Parbat Base Camp, or a day among the meadows

    

    The big day, and entirely at your pace. The full walk follows the lateral moraine of the Raikot Glacier through birch and juniper to Beyal Camp at around 3,500 metres, then on over rockier ground to base camp at 3,967 metres — the Rakhiot-side staging ground used by expeditions since the 1930s, and the closest you can stand to the mountain without ropes. Six to eight hours round trip. Beyal alone, two hours out, has much the same view and is a fine place to stop. Horses can carry you part of the way. Those who stay behind get the meadows, the shepherds and one of the darkest night skies in Asia.

12. 12Day 12Fairy Meadows to Gilgit, and the Kargah Buddha

    

    A last breakfast with the mountain in view, then the walk down to Tattu — about two hours, easier on the lungs and harder on the knees — and jeeps to Raikot Bridge. We drive north to Gilgit and, in the late afternoon, out to Kargah Nala to see the Buddha carved into the cliff face there in the seventh century, seven metres tall and still watching the valley. It is a quiet, strange, excellent place to end the mountain half of the trip. Hot shower and a proper bed in Gilgit.

13. 13Day 13Fly to Islamabad, and the capital in an afternoon

    

    The morning flight south over the mountains, passing Nanga Parbat at eye level, or the long drive down the Karakoram Highway if the weather closes the airport. On arrival there is a complimentary guided tour of the capital: the white expanse of Faisal Mosque beneath the hills, the granite petals of the Pakistan Monument, Lok Virsa for the crafts and music of the northern valleys, and the restored village at Saidpur for dinner or tea. Overnight at the four-star.

14. 14Day 14Departure from Islamabad

    

    Breakfast and a transfer to Islamabad International Airport in good time for your flight. If you have a late departure we will arrange a day room, and if two weeks has turned out not to be enough — which it often does — Lahore is two hours south and worth every one of them.

Good to know

Fitness: thirteen of the fourteen days ask very little — short walks, long drives and a lot of getting in and out of a vehicle. The exception is the base camp day from Fairy Meadows, six to eight hours on rocky ground at close to 4,000 metres. It is entirely optional, horses can carry you part of the way, and Beyal Camp two hours out is a beautiful place to stop instead.

Both mountain flights depend on the weather. Skardu and Gilgit are among the most cancelled airports in the country and among the most spectacular when they run. We keep road transport in reserve for both.

The altitude builds gently — Skardu at 2,200 m, Hunza at 2,500, the Khunjerab day trip at 4,693 and back down the same afternoon, then Fairy Meadows at 3,300 in the second week. That order is deliberate and does most of the acclimatising for you.

Pack for two climates. Valley afternoons in the twenties, nights at the meadows close to freezing, and boots you have already broken in.

Questions about this trip

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