Hotels in Hunza (Karimabad)

Hunza runs along the Karakoram Highway for about eighty kilometres, and where you stay changes the trip. Karimabad is the tourist centre, terraced above the valley with Baltit Fort at the top, guesthouses on the slope and a Rakaposhi view from most rooms. Aliabad below it is the commercial town with the banks, fuel and cheaper hotels but no view. Duikar, twenty minutes above Karimabad, is where people go for sunrise. Gulmit and Passu, an hour north past Attabad Lake, are quieter and closer to the Passu Cones.

Rooms in Karimabad run Rs 6,000 to Rs 14,000 for a guesthouse with a valley view and Rs 18,000 to Rs 30,000 at the established hotels on the ridge. Aliabad sits a third lower. Gulmit and Passu guesthouses are Rs 5,000 to Rs 12,000. April blossom week, the July and August peak and the late-October autumn window all book out three to four weeks ahead, and Karimabad has limited stock, so alternatives sit thirty minutes away rather than around the corner.

From Gilgit it is about two and a half hours north on the Karakoram Highway, past the Rakaposhi viewpoint at Ghulmet. Attabad Lake, formed by the 2010 landslide that dammed the Hunza river, is now crossed by tunnels rather than boats. Khunjerab Pass at 4,693 metres, the Chinese border, is roughly three hours beyond Karimabad and is normally open to visitors from about May to October, closing with winter snow. A national park fee applies at the Dhee checkpost.

Three distinct seasons matter here. Late March into April brings apricot and cherry blossom across the terraces, which is the photographers' window and increasingly the busiest. June to August is green, warm in the day and cool at night, with the highest domestic traffic. Late October turns the poplars and apricot trees gold and gives the clearest air of the year. Winter is cold, largely shut, and beautiful; snow can close the Karakoram Highway sections between Gilgit and Hunza for a day at a time.