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Recommendations
Filter by season, length and who you are travelling with. You get a reading list, not a quote. If you want a person to look at your dates, ask afterwards.
Itineraries
3 days
Three days, mostly Srinagar
Three days is a Srinagar trip with one outing. It is not Gulmarg, Pahalgam and Sonamarg. If a poster promised all three, the poster was selling the drive.
5 days
Five days for a first visit
The first-timer plan that still leaves you time to sit down: two nights Srinagar, a Gulmarg day, two nights Pahalgam. Sonamarg waits for a longer trip or a different one.
7 days
Seven days around the valley
A week is enough for Srinagar, Gulmarg and Pahalgam without cruelty, plus Sonamarg if you are here in the meadow season. It is still not Gurez. Gurez wants days of its own.
Couples
A slow week for two
Two people do not need a louder itinerary. They need fewer car hours, one beautiful room they return to, and meals that are not booked as a performance.
Family
A week with children or parents
Children and older parents do badly on a plan that is mostly NH-44 with a viewpoint at the end. This week keeps drives under a morning, walks short, and leaves one day with almo…
Winter
Winter: snow and Gulmarg
Winter Kashmir is Srinagar in the cold and Gulmarg in the snow. Sonamarg, Gurez and most upper meadows are the wrong bet. Short days, heating, and one ski or gondola morning.
Offbeat
Off the main circuit
The main circuit is popular because it is good, and also because it is easy to sell. This week stays in Srinagar and visits meadows and a garden that do not need a cable car. Gu…
Fewer moves
One base in Srinagar
The cost of a Kashmir trip is often the moving: a new hotel, a new taxi negotiation, a new dinner you did not choose. Staying in one simple Srinagar room and eating ordinary mea…
Places that fit
City
Srinagar
Srinagar is the practical base for almost every Kashmir trip, and it is also the part most people rush. The lake, the old city and the gardens are three different speeds. Two ni…
Meadow
Gulmarg
Gulmarg is a meadow with a gondola, not a town you wander for its lanes. In summer it is grass, ponies and a view. In winter it is snow, a queue, and skiing that is real if you…
Lidder valley
Pahalgam
Pahalgam is a valley town on the Lidder, and the reason to stay is the morning before the day-trippers arrive. Aru, Betaab and Chandanwari are short add-ons. They are not three…
High meadow
Sonamarg
Sonamarg is a high meadow on the road toward Zoji La. It is excellent in the short summer and a closed road for much of the year. Plan it as its own day or night, not as a winte…
Day meadow
Doodhpathri
Doodhpathri is meadows, a stream and pine, southwest of Srinagar. It does not have a gondola or a market to kill three hours. That is why it works as a day out when Gulmarg feel…
Permit valley
Gurez
Gurez sits north of Bandipora, over the Razdan Pass, along the Kishenganga. It is one of the few places on a Kashmir trip that still feels like you left the tourist circuit. It…
Experiences
On the water
Dawn shikara and the floating market
The lake before breakfast is a workplace. Vegetable boats trade, weed is pulled, children go to school by boat. By late afternoon the same water is a ride. If you only do one sh…
A shared meal
Eating wazwan
Wazwan is a sequence of meat dishes around a mound of rice, served on a trami to a group, eaten with the right hand. It is a wedding food that restaurants also sell. It is not a…
Mornings
Noon chai and the bakeries
The meal visitors skip is the one locals repeat: salt tea and bread from a kandur, eaten early. It will not look like a café brunch. That is the recommendation.
Srinagar
A walk in the old city
The old city is wooden houses, mosques, bakeries and working lanes. It is not a themed market. Two unhurried hours will teach you more than a week of meadow car parks.
Etiquette
Shrines, quietly
Srinagar’s shrines are in use. Hazratbal holds a relic and a long waterfront. Khanqah-e-Moula is a wooden khanqah in the old city. You can visit both as a guest. You cannot visi…
Terraces
The Mughal gardens
Nishat and Shalimar are terrace gardens on the Dal shore, built for water running downhill. They are at their best when something is in flower and you are not late for a gondola…