Gilgit-Baltistan

Why go

The Reason Most Travellers Come to Pakistan

Gilgit-Baltistan is a land of superlatives. Three of the planet's great ranges meet here, and with them five of the fourteen peaks above 8,000 metres, K2 among them. The Hunza and Nagar valleys glow with autumn gold and spring blossom; Skardu opens onto the Deosai plains, the second-highest plateau on Earth.

Skardu, the administrative heart of Baltistan at roughly 2,500m, is the usual gateway to K2, Broad Peak, and the Gasherbrums, and a jumping-off point for Shigar's restored fort-palace and the cold desert dunes nearby. Hunza rewards a slower pace: Baltit and Altit forts look down over Karimabad, the Hussaini and Passu suspension bridges cross turquoise glacial water, and the Passu Cones rise sharp against the sky above Passu village.

Deosai's rolling plateau, above 4,100m and closed by snow from November to May, is one of the last strongholds of the Himalayan brown bear; blossom season runs roughly late March into mid-April in Hunza and Nagar, and by October the same orchards turn gold before the first snow. Attabad Lake, a startling turquoise stretch along the Karakoram Highway, did not exist before a 2010 landslide dammed the Hunza River, a reminder that this landscape is still being actively reshaped.

Balti, Shina, and Burushaski are the everyday languages of the valleys, and each carries its own food: apricot in every form in Hunza, from sun-dried to oil-pressed, walnut and mulberry harvests through late summer, and the layered, slow-cooked stews of Baltistan's high villages. Getting here means flying to Gilgit or Skardu when weather allows, or the two-day drive up the Karakoram Highway from Abbottabad, one of the world's great road journeys in its own right. This guide walks you through where to go, when, how long to give it, and what GreenPak handles along the way.