Pakistan remains one of the most underrated destinations on the planet. Five of the world’s fourteen eight-thousanders, ancient Silk Road stops, mountain roads that shouldn’t exist, and people who will make you feel like a guest of honour from the moment you arrive. Here’s what you’re actually going to see.
1. See K2 and the Karakoram
The Karakoram range is home to more extreme altitude than anywhere else on Earth. K2 at 8,611 m is the world’s second-highest peak and, by most accounts, the hardest of the eight-thousanders to climb.
The Karakoram also holds Nanga Parbat, Broad Peak, and Gasherbrum I and II. Five eight-thousanders in one region.
2. Visit Hunza Valley
Hunza has a reputation as a place where people live to 120. That’s been exaggerated over the years, but visit and you’ll understand where the legend came from. Elders in their eighties still tend their fields. Nearly every family grows apricots: eaten fresh in summer, dried for winter, pressed into oil for cooking. In spring, the trees bloom pink against the snow on Rakaposhi. It’s one of those sights that makes you stop talking mid-sentence.
3. Drive the Karakoram Highway
1,300 km through the Himalayas, Karakoram, and Hindu Kush. The highest paved international road on Earth, crossing into China at 4,693 metres. It took 20 years to build and over 1,000 workers died during construction. Today it passes remote villages, glacier viewpoints, and old Silk Road stops.
4. Cross the Hussaini Suspension Bridge
The Hussaini Suspension Bridge is a 194-metre pedestrian hanging bridge over the Hunza River in the Karakoram range. It is made of around 472 wooden planks suspended roughly 50 feet above the river, with gaps between each plank and strong winds that pick up in the afternoons. When the wind blows, the entire length of rope and wooden planks begins to sway. Locals cross it without breaking stride. Most visitors take considerably longer.
5. Experience Pakistani Hospitality
This is the one that’s hardest to explain before you go. Strangers invite you in for tea before you’ve finished asking directions. Families feed you before they know your name. It’s just how things work here. After a week of it, travelling almost anywhere else feels a little cold.
6. Eat Your Way Through the Country
Mughal, Persian, Central Asian, South Asian — Pakistani food sits at a crossroads of all of it. Slow-cooked nihari, charcoal-grilled kebabs, biryani, naan straight from a tandoor. In the north, try chapshoro, meat pastries from Gilgit-Baltistan. In Lahore, the food streets run until 3am.
7. Come Back Different
This sounds like a cliché until you’re standing under K2 at dusk, or sharing a meal with a family who earns very little and gives everything. Pakistan has a way of making your ordinary concerns feel very small. No hot water, no signal, no plans, and somehow everything feels right. Trips like this show you a different version of yourself.
Want to see Pakistan?
We run small groups along the Karakoram Highway with local and foreign English-speaking guides who know this region properly.
Check our upcoming Pakistan Tours, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
