A wall of peaks above a valley under a pale sky

About

The money should stay in the valley.

Most of what a traveller pays for a trip in northern Pakistan has historically been collected somewhere else. This is an attempt to change the split.

A guide in Minapin who has walked to Rakaposhi basecamp two hundred times has no website, no card processing and no way of appearing next to an agency in Islamabad that has never been up the trail.

That gap is the whole reason this exists. We check who is running a trip, list what it actually includes, and make it comparable — which is the part that has been missing. A traveller looking at three prices for the same mountain has never been able to see what the difference actually buys.

We take a commission on confirmed bookings and nothing else. There is no listing fee, no promoted placement, and no way to pay to rank higher. When we get the order wrong, the ranking is the thing to fix, not the invoice.

The catalogue is deliberately small: 15 journeys across 21 places, all in Gilgit-Baltistan, all checked. It will grow slowly, in the same order — check, list, compare.

Check before listing

Registration with the Gilgit-Baltistan tourism department, a valid liability policy and identification. Re-checked annually.

Hold the money

Deposits and balances sit with us until 48 hours after departure, so a refund comes from money that is still there.

Show the difference

The same fields in the same order on every listing, and a comparison table that marks the strongest value where one exists.

Where we work

Everywhere we list.

All destinations

Hunza Where apricot orchards meet the Karakoram. 2,438 m at Karimabad Upper Hunza Glaciers on both sides of the road, and the Chinese border at the top. 2,500 – 4,693 m Nagar Valley The south side of the valley, and the way to Rush Lake. 2,000 – 4,694 m Gilgit The junction town everyone passes through and nobody stops in. 1,500 m Ghizer River, poplars, and almost no traffic. 2,100 – 3,700 m Phander A green river bending through a flat-bottomed valley. 2,900 m Yasin A side valley almost nobody drives into. 2,300 – 4,700 m Skardu Cold desert on the Indus, and the road to every 8,000-metre peak. 2,230 m Shigar Apricot orchards, a 400-year-old fort, and the road to the Baltoro. 2,300 m Khaplu The old Yabgo capital, terraced up a hillside above the Shyok. 2,600 m Deosai Four thousand metres up, and completely flat. 3,900 – 4,300 m Astore The green side of Nanga Parbat. 2,600 – 3,600 m Fairy Meadows A grass shelf at 3,300 metres with a killer mountain above it. 3,300 m Nanga Parbat 8,126 metres, standing entirely alone. 8,126 m summit Chilas Hot, dusty, and covered in 2,000-year-old rock carvings. 1,265 m Chitral Hindu Kush, Khowar, and Tirich Mir over the town. 1,500 m Kalash Valleys Three valleys, four thousand people, and a religion older than the region. 1,900 – 2,200 m Swat Green, forested, and full of Gandharan stupas. 980 – 2,100 m Kumrat Deodar forest, a cold river, and no road worth the name. 2,100 – 3,000 m Azad Kashmir The Neelum river, and forest all the way up it. 1,500 – 3,700 m Khunjerab The highest paved border crossing on earth. 4,693 m

Come and see for yourself.

Explore Pakistan

Comparing