Itinerary · for one

Pakistan · the Karakoram Highway

Eight nights through northern Pakistan on the Karakoram Highway · solo · MUST be hired with licensed driver-guide (no self-drive or solo trekking permitted in the Gilgit-Baltistan region). Two nights in Islamabad — Faisal Mosque (the largest mosque in Pakistan, the 4th largest in the world, 1986), Pakistan Monument

Museum, Saidpur Village heritage walk, Margalla Hills viewpoint, the Lok Virsa Heritage Museum + Folk Heritage Centre. Drive north on the Karakoram Highway for three nights at Hunza Valley — KKH is the world”s highest paved international road, 1,300 km from Pakistan to China through some of the most spectacular scenery on Earth. Karimabad village base in Hunza (2,500 m), Baltit Fort (the 700-year-old wooden fort, restored), Altit Fort (900 years old, even older), Eagle”s Nest viewpoint of Rakaposhi (7,788 m, the most-photographed peak), Attabad Lake (the 2010 turquoise landslide lake), Hopper Glacier, Passu Cones the “Tupopdan” jagged spires. Continue north for one night at Sost (near Khunjerab Pass at 4,693 m, the highest paved international border in the world, China just on the other side). Drive south + east to Skardu for two nights — the gateway to K2 + Concordia base camps (the 8-day K2 base camp trek is the serious mountaineer”s holy grail; we do not attempt), Shangrila Resort (the famous airplane-fuselage-restaurant Lower Kachura Lake), Upper Kachura Lake, Shigar Fort + the 17th-century Baltit House. Fly back to Islamabad for the long flight home.

1 traveler 3 bases 8 nights 8 min read

v1 · May 15, 2026

Sep 4 · Day 1 · the first one

Wheels down at Islamabad. Then the long road up the Karakoram.

Out of Hong Kong on a Friday night, Islamabad by Saturday morning via Bangkok — Thai or Emirates via Dubai, fifteen hours total. Eight nights ahead through northern Pakistan — two in Islamabad for the capital + Lahore-Islamabad cultural context, three on the Karakoram Highway (KKH) by 4WD to Hunza Valley (the legendary alpine valley that inspired James Hilton''s Shangri-La), one at Khunjerab Pass at 4,693 m (the highest paved international border in the world, China just on the other side), two final nights at Skardu for the Karakoram peaks and the Shigar Fort. September is the cusp — the snow has melted from the passes, daytime 20 °C at altitude, the apricot harvest in Hunza, the K2 + Nanga Parbat peaks at peak visibility, and the Karakoram Highway has been open since June after the winter closures. Pakistan is the world''s 5th most-populous country and the Karakoram is its tourism crown jewel — the Hunza people are famously long-lived, with centenarians attributed to the apricot + glacial-water diet.

Begin the journey ↓

Sep 4 → Sep 12 · 8 nights · 3 bases · 470 km between bases

Chapter 01 · Sep 4–5 Days 1–2

Islamabad · Faisal Mosque and the Margalla Hills

Two nights in Islamabad. Faisal Mosque + Pakistan Monument on day one, Saidpur Village + Margalla Hills on day two before the long drive north on the Karakoram Highway.

2 nights

Fly Hong Kong (HKG) → Islamabad (ISB) via Bangkok on Thai · 15 hr · or Dubai connection via Emirates · taxi to centre · 60 min

Visa Pakistan e-Visa USD 35 online · processing 7-10 working days · letter of invitation from licensed tour operator helps

Things to do

Faisal Mosque · the largest mosque in Pakistan + 4th-largest in the world · 1986 modernist design · 100,000 worshipper capacity inside main hall
Pakistan Monument · the granite four-petal flower in Shakarparian Hills · 2007 · the petal-engraved Pakistani history · panoramic view of Islamabad
Saidpur Village · the restored 500-year-old Mughal-era village on Margalla Hills foothills · the Hindu temple + Sikh Gurdwara + small museums + cafes
Margalla Hills + Damn-e-Koh viewpoint · the panoramic view of Islamabad from the foothills · the trail to Daman-e-Koh from Pakistan Monument
Lok Virsa Heritage Museum · the National Folk Heritage Museum · 75,000 artefacts of Pakistani folk culture · 4 hr visit
Shah Faisal Park + Centaurus Mall · the modern Islamabad commercial centre · upmarket shopping + Pakistani restaurants
Rawalpindi side-trip · 20 km south · the historic Mughal Rawal Lake + Raja Bazaar + the British-Colonial Mall Road
Dinner at Monal Restaurant · 1,275-m hilltop restaurant overlooking Islamabad · traditional Pakistani-Punjab cuisine + the city panorama at sunset

Stay in F-7 or F-6 sector for safety + restaurants · Serena Hotel for splurge · Marriott Islamabad for business · all 3-5 star hotels USD 100-300/night

Bookings

flight HKG → ISB via Bangkok or Dubai · Thai or Emirates · Friday pending

hotel Islamabad F-7 or F-6 · 2 nights pending

rental Licensed Pakistan tour operator + 4WD + driver-guide · 8 days pending

Solo travel restricted in GB; must use licensed operator (Pakistan Tours, Hunza Tours, etc)

Chapter 01 · the story

Faisal Mosque holds one hundred thousand worshippers under a roof that looks like a Bedouin tent dropped onto the foot of the Margalla Hills. The capital is a planned city of grid sectors and eucalyptus, and the mosque is the one thing in it that doesn't sit on the grid.

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The city is laid out on graph paper. The sectors run F, G, H, each divided into numbered sub-sectors, each numbered sub-sector planted with the same species of tree along the same width of road. Built from scratch in the 1960s to replace Karachi as the capital, the plan reads like a civil engineer’s daydream. The diplomats live in F-6. The Marriott is in F-5. The president works out of the Aiwan-e-Sadr in the Red Zone, and the road signs in English and Urdu point the way as if everyone has somewhere to be.

Then you drive north toward the Margallas and the grid stops. The mosque is at the foot of the hills, and the hills themselves are the southern edge of the Himalayas — the first ridge before everything gets serious. Faisal Mosque was completed in 1986, the architect a Turk named Vedat Dalokay who designed it to look like a desert tent held up by four minarets. The main hall takes one hundred thousand people. Add the courtyard and the porticoes and it goes to three hundred thousand. On a Friday at noon the courtyard fills.

Up the hill behind the mosque the trail climbs to Daman-e-Koh and then past it to Pir Sohawa, and the city unfolds below in its sector grid, white roofs in neat rows, the granite four-petal flower of the Pakistan Monument on the Shakarparian ridge to the south. Saidpur Village sits on the slope between mosque and monument — a five-hundred-year-old Mughal village restored into cafes and small museums, the Hindu temple still standing next to the Sikh gurdwara next to the small mosque, three faiths within a hundred metres, which is the older version of the country than the grid suggests.

What Islamabad asks, before the long drive north on the KKH, is whether a planned city can hold the country that surrounds it. The mosque, off the grid, points up.

Chapter 02 · Sep 6–9 Days 3–6

Hunza Valley · Karimabad and Attabad

Four nights in Hunza Valley + the Karakoram Highway. Drive to Hunza via Chilas + Gilgit on day 3, Karimabad + the forts on day 4, Attabad Lake + Passu Cones on day 5, Khunjerab Pass at 4,693 m on day 6.

4 nights

Drive Islamabad → Hunza · 600 km · 14-18 hr of driving · usually broken into 2 days with Chilas/Gilgit stopover

Altitude Hunza at 2,500 m · Khunjerab at 4,693 m · acclimatise 2 days before the pass attempt

Things to do

Karimabad village in Hunza · 2,500 m · the Mountain Wazir capital · the apricot-orchard valley + the panorama of Ultar + Diran + Rakaposhi peaks
Baltit Fort · the 700-year-old wooden Hunza royal fort · restored 1996 by Aga Khan Trust · the panoramic view of the entire Hunza Valley from the top
Altit Fort · 900 years old (older than Baltit) · the original Mir of Hunza residence · the small museum + the apricot-orchard garden
Attabad Lake · the 2010 landslide turquoise lake · 21 km long · the Karakoram Highway tunnel passes through (5 tunnels totalling 7 km)
Eagle's Nest viewpoint of Rakaposhi (7,788 m) · 30-min walk above Karimabad · the most-photographed peak from the most-photographed angle in Pakistan
Passu Cones (Tupopdan) · 6,106 m · the jagged-tooth spires above Passu village · the iconic "Pakistan postcard" backdrop · 90 km north of Karimabad
Hopper Glacier · 30 min walk from Hopper village · the black-ice glacier (covered in moraine debris) · the Hopper-side traditional wooden houses
Khunjerab Pass at 4,693 m · the highest paved international border in the world · the China Border Crossing · the white-yak herders + the Markhor wild goats

Stay in Karimabad village · Eagle's Nest Hotel for the iconic view · Hunza Embassy Hotel + Hard Rock Hotel · simple guesthouses USD 30-60/night

Bookings

hotel Karimabad Hunza · 3 nights · plus 1 night at Sost (near Khunjerab) · 4 nights total pending

activity Baltit + Altit Forts combined ticket pending

Chapter 02 · the story

The Karakoram Highway is a road two countries agreed to build through mountains that did not agree. Eight hundred Pakistanis and two hundred Chinese workers died on it. At the end of it, Baltit Fort sits on its ridge above Karimabad, seven hundred years old, and Rakaposhi rises behind the apricot orchards at seven thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight metres.

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The road is called the KKH on every sign and on every lip in the valley. China-Pakistan friendship highway. Built between 1959 and 1979, it climbs from the Indus plain at five hundred metres up through Chilas and Gilgit and into the Hunza valley, and then over the Khunjerab Pass at four thousand six hundred and ninety-three metres into Xinjiang. The Pakistani side took twenty years and roughly a thousand lives. The road runs along the seam where three mountain ranges meet — Hindu Kush, Karakoram, Himalaya — and the seam is not stable. Landslides close it for days at a time. In 2010 the Attabad slide blocked the valley and made a lake that the highway now tunnels through.

Karimabad is at two thousand five hundred metres on the south wall of the valley, an apricot terrace town the old Mirs of Hunza chose because the apricots ripen here and the snow-line stays high overhead. Baltit Fort sits at the top of the village, seven hundred years of mud-brick and timber stacked on a rock spur, restored in 1996 by the Aga Khan Trust after the last Mir moved out in 1945. The wooden window frames came from Baltistan; the carved beams came from Ladakh; the cribbage of Tibetan, Persian, and Kashmiri detail in the upper rooms is the cribbage of the trade route the valley was on.

Across from the fort, on the north side, Rakaposhi fills the window. Seven thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight metres. The twenty-seventh-highest peak in the world, but the most visible — the foot of it is below the village and the summit is straight up from breakfast. The Eagle’s Nest viewpoint, half an hour above Karimabad on foot, shows the whole valley with Ultar, Diran, and Rakaposhi in one frame. The light goes pink at six twenty-three in early September. The fort lights up first.

Chapter 03 · Sep 10–11 Days 7–8

Skardu · K2 gateway and Shigar Fort

Two final nights in Skardu, the gateway to K2 + the Karakoram base camps. Shangrila Resort + Kachura Lakes on day one, Shigar Fort + Skardu Fort on day two before the flight back to Islamabad.

2 nights

Drive Hunza → Skardu · 8 hr · 240 km via Gilgit + Khaplu road · winding mountain

Return Skardu → Islamabad · 1 hr by PIA flight (weather-dependent) · or 24-hr drive · book the flight if weather window allows

Things to do

Shangrila Resort + the airplane fuselage restaurant · 1959 lodge on Lower Kachura Lake · the converted Dakota-DC-3 airplane fuselage as the main dining room
Shigar Fort · the 17th-century Raja palace at Shigar · 30 km from Skardu · restored by Aga Khan Trust 2001-04 · now a heritage hotel + museum
Upper Kachura Lake · the higher of the two Kachura Lakes · turquoise glacial water + cliff-side viewpoint
Skardu Fort (Kharpocho Fort) · 16th-century · 200 m above Skardu town · the panoramic view of the Indus river + the Skardu valley
K2 viewpoint at Concordia (not the actual base camp, just the panoramic view) · the 4-hr drive to Askole + 1-day walk to a viewpoint of K2 + Broad Peak
Deosai Plains National Park · 4,114 m high-altitude plateau · the Himalayan brown bear sanctuary · 4WD day-trip from Skardu (Jul-Sep only)
Sheosar Lake in Deosai · the alpine lake at 4,142 m · the panoramic mountain-meadow scene
Skardu Bazaar · the local market · the dried apricots + the carved wooden crafts + the small Tibetan-influenced shops (Skardu was historically part of Baltistan)

Stay at Shangrila Resort (the iconic airplane restaurant lodge) · OR Skardu town hotels · book 60+ days for September peak season

Bookings

hotel Shangrila Resort or Skardu town · 2 nights pending

activity Shigar Fort + Skardu Fort combined ticket pending

flight Skardu (KDU) → Islamabad (ISB) · PIA · day 9 morning · weather-dependent pending

PIA Skardu flights weather-cancel 30% of the time; budget extra days

flight ISB → HKG via Bangkok · day 9 evening pending

Chapter 03 · the story

Skardu sits at two thousand two hundred and twenty-eight metres in a wide grey-sand valley the Indus runs through, and from here the porters set out on the eight-day walk to K2 base camp. The town is where the road ends and the mountain begins.

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The flight from Islamabad takes an hour when it goes and it cancels about three days in ten. The PIA ATR climbs up from the Punjab plain, over Nanga Parbat at eight thousand one hundred and twenty-six metres on the left wing, and drops into Skardu’s grey-sand bowl between walls that look closer than they are. The road in from Hunza takes eight hours along the Indus gorge if the river is behaving and the landslides have been cleared. Either way, you arrive somewhere that was Baltistan first and Pakistan second — the script on the older gravestones is Tibetan, the food is Ladakhi, and the men in the bazaar greet each other with Asalaam o Aleikum and then switch to Balti.

The town is the staging point for the Karakoram. K2 is one hundred and sixty kilometres east, the second-highest mountain in the world at eight thousand six hundred and eleven metres, statistically the deadliest of the eight-thousanders. The expedition jeeps load up in Skardu Bazaar at five in the morning with three weeks of rice and flour and rope, drive seven hours to Askole at the end of the road, and then the porters take it on foot. Concordia — the glacial junction where four eight-thousanders stand in one frame — is eight days from Askole. The porters from Hushe and Machulo do the walk forty times a season.

The town itself is low and dust-coloured under the Kharpocho fort, which is sixteenth-century stone above the Indus. Shangrila is twenty minutes out, a 1959 lodge on Lower Kachura Lake with a Dakota DC-3 fuselage repurposed as the dining room — the plane crashed near here, and the lodge owner dragged it up and turned it into a restaurant. Shigar Fort, an hour north, was restored in 2004 by the Aga Khan Trust and is now a heritage hotel: seventeenth-century carved-wood rooms with the original beams. The expedition ends, but the road still ends at Askole.

Sep 12 · Day 9 · the last one

Last karahi at Monal. Then the long flight east.

Final dinner at Monal restaurant overlooking Islamabad from 1,275 m — chicken karahi in the heavy iron wok, naan straight from the tandoor, kashmiri chai pink salty tea. Taxi to Islamabad airport at midnight, Thai via Bangkok east to Hong Kong by next-day evening. Eight nights — two in Islamabad, four on the Karakoram Highway + Hunza Valley, two in Skardu under the K2 horizon. The silhouette of Rakaposhi at dawn and the colour of the Hunza apricot orchards already half-remembered.

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