Hotels in Gilgit

Gilgit is a functional town rather than a destination, and that is exactly its value. At around 1,500 metres on the Gilgit river, it holds the banks, hospitals, workshops and vehicle hire that the rest of Gilgit-Baltistan does not. Hotels concentrate along Airport Road and in Jutial, the newer district at the southern end with the better mid-range properties. Konodas and the bazaar area hold the cheaper stock. Danyore, across the river toward the Karakoram Highway, has a few quieter guesthouses.

Rooms run Rs 5,000 to Rs 11,000 for a clean mid-range double and Rs 14,000 to Rs 20,000 at the better Jutial properties. Rates rise thirty percent in July and August when domestic tourist traffic peaks and every vehicle in town is booked. This is the place to draw cash for the whole trip: ATMs above Gilgit are unreliable and often out of notes, and jeep hire, fuel and hotel balances up the valleys are almost all settled in cash.

Getting here has three options. Flights from Islamabad take about an hour but are cancelled frequently for weather, sometimes for several days running, so never plan a tight connection around one. The Karakoram Highway from Islamabad via Besham takes fifteen to eighteen hours and is landslide-prone in monsoon. The Naran and Babusar Top route is shorter and far more scenic but only open from roughly late June to October. Hunza is two and a half hours north; Skardu is six hours east on the rebuilt road.

May to October is the season. Spring blossom through the side valleys peaks in April and early May, summer is hot and dusty in Gilgit town itself, and October brings clear air and autumn colour. Naltar valley, about forty kilometres and two hours by jeep, has the lakes and the ski slope and is the main day trip. The Kargah Buddha rock carving is twenty minutes out and takes an hour. Winters are cold, quiet and cheap.