The Karakoram Highway 

 

The road at the top of the world, a jour­ney across the ancient silk road high­way of the Karako­ram High­way will take you north from Islam­abad across the tow­er­ing moun­tain ranges and peaks of the Karako­ram, Himalayas and Hin­du Kush while pass­ing dia­mond glacial lakes, alpine forests, lush mead­ows, quaint vil­lages, deep val­leys and explor­ing ancient king­doms into the heart of Xin­jiang in Chi­na– on an 800 kilo­me­tre unfor­get­table jour­ney across a wild fron­tier that is undoubt­ed­ly one of the world’s great­est road trips on a spec­tac­u­lar and awe-inspir­ing won­der of the world.  

A route trav­elled for cen­turies, the two-way Karako­ram High­way con­nects Pak­istan and the Indi­an sub-con­ti­nent with Chi­na, tra­vers­ing through the won­der of Kash­mir into the area of Kash­gar, in Xin­jiang province, with the bridge hav­ing tak­en on a mean­ing of friend­ship between the two neigh­bours, whilst also demon­strat­ing the best of each nation’s nat­ur­al beau­ty.  

No more so is this beau­ty evi­dent than along the 15,700-foot-high Khun­jerab Pass – which stands as the worlds high­est paved road – and upon which you will some of the worlds most dra­mat­ic scenery, includ­ing snow capped moun­tain peaks, creak­ing glac­i­ers and shin­ing rivers. It’s also here that you’ll find the leg­end of the Karako­ram High­way, with some of the world’s best walk­ing and nature trails – and some of the world’s most unique adven­ture expe­ri­ences, includ­ing alti­tude polo, tru­ly high tea and a series of exhil­a­rat­ing bridge cross­ings, all of which com­bine to make the trail across Karako­ram High­way an adven­ture, scenic and tru­ly life-chang­ing jour­ney. 

As well as being blessed with incred­i­ble nat­ur­al beau­ty, the Karako­ram High­way is also a true engi­neer­ing and archi­tec­tur­al feat – with the high­way being home not only to the world’s high­est paved road, but also the world’s high­est bor­der cross­ing (and work­ing case machine and polit­i­cal offices) at an incred­i­ble 16,000 feet – which will tru­ly take your breath away. It is this inge­nu­ity of con­struc­tion that has led to the Karako­ram High­way being crowned as on of the ‘Eighth Won­ders of the World,’ with the high-alti­tude con­di­tions of con­struc­tion com­bined with its length and qual­i­ty see­ing almost a thou­sand work­ers sad­ly lose their lives in the cre­ation of this unmatched archi­tec­tur­al feat.  

Explore & route: Con­struct­ed over a peri­od of twen­ty years from 1959 – 1979 and then opened to the pub­lic ten years lat­er, the Karako­ram High­way has earned its rep­u­ta­tion for a thrilling adven­ture thanks to the twists and turns that guide through incred­i­ble scenery, but it’s also a melt­ing pot for some of the most unique and beau­ti­ful cul­tures on the plan­et – with the best of the cul­tures of the Silk Road found upon it. Because of this, trav­ellers can expect to find essences of Indi­an sub-con­ti­nent, Per­sian and Chi­nese cul­tures, and expe­ri­ences upon it – includ­ing some of the most flavoured food, diverse sports, vibrant enter­tain­ment, and wel­com­ing hos­pi­tal­i­ty any­where on the plan­et.  

A jour­ney that lends itself for explo­ration by car, bike, hik­ing and even hitch­hik­ing, the high­light of the Karako­ram High­way is undoubt­ed­ly found in its beau­ty, with the vast length of the road – and the adven­ture found upon it — allow­ing trav­ellers to define how long they choose to stay upon the incred­i­ble Karako­ram High­way.  

Because of this there’s no set route upon the Karako­ram High­way, which undoubt­ed­ly adds to its mag­ic, yet owing undoubt­ed­ly to the con­straints to time – the estab­lished route for explor­ers see’s them start out in the heart of Islam­abad, and trav­el across the high­way through the val­leys of Kohis­tan, Gilgit and Hun­za val­leys before tak­ing on the alti­tude defy­ing Khun­jerab Pass to enter the Chi­nese side of the high­way and into the regions of Kash­gar and Urumqi in Xin­jang.  

Fol­low­ing this route will gives explor­ers the best of this unique won­der of the world, and gives explor­ers to see the true jew­els of the Karako­ram High­way – includ­ing the quaint mead­ows and base camp of Nan­ga Para­bat – a tru­ly scenic par­adise with sweep­ing mead­ows set against alpine leaks and the stun­ning peak of Nan­ga Par­bat – to whose base camp you can climb for those with extra time.  

The Naga Par­bat rep­re­sents one of the best hikes on the Karako­ram High­way – as too does the stop at the tow­er­ing moun­tain of Raka­poshi found on the edges of the Hun­za val­ley. This great snow cov­ered peak whose approach see’s you twist and turn your way through serene and peace­ful green fields is anoth­er incred­i­ble peak to reach the base camp of, with the views at Raka­poshi being sim­ply stun­ning, but do be warned that the hike to its sum­mit is incred­i­ble steep and requires at least a full day with plen­ty of sup­plies picked up before­hand.  

For those tak­ing on this hike you’ll find the route leaves from the charm­ing town of Gilgit, where you can find the upris­ing memo­r­i­al, which remem­bers the 1947 upris­ing against the mahara­ja and once you’ve explored both Gilgit you can head north into the jew­el of the Karako­ram High­way – the Hun­za val­ley — and the charm­ing town of Gan­ish. 

A town full of rich and pho­to­genic his­to­ry and the two spec­tac­u­lar forts of Baltit and Altit – as well as the queen’s mon­u­ment from where you can watch an incred­i­ble sun­set out over the moun­tains of the Karako­ram and Himalaya moun­tains – the town of Gan­ish makes for a great place to rest for a day or so and then a per­fect place from which to explore the rich Hun­za Val­ley region, with there being a swathe of stun­ning glacial lakes, moun­tain peaks and rich val­leys lying on its doorstep, with the Chanel walk in par­tic­u­lar­ly being a favourite way for hik­ers to explore this stun­ning area. 

After seek­ing out the best of the stun­ning Hun­za val­ley, you can then pro­ceed north fur­ther and stop at the daz­zling turquoise Attabad lake – which was arti­fi­cial­ly cre­at­ed in 2010 and is one of the most pic­turesque spots across the whole of the Karako­ram High­way. Hav­ing enjoyed a nice stop at the lkae fur­ther north lies the most adren­a­line fuelled spot of the whole of the high­way – the Hus­sei­ni Bridge, a jagged­ly sus­pend­ing bridge that con­nects vil­lages on both sides of the riv­er, which requires nerves of steel to cross.  

Hav­ing (hope­ful­ly !) made it over the bridge and back – you’ll need to pause a lit­tle to let your heart rate reset, and you can then pro­ceed onwards to the town of Pas­su, which marks the turn­ing around point for those not enter­ing Chi­na – or you can con­tin­ue north up and over the mighty Khun­jerab Pass. Mean­ing Vale of Blood – the Khun­jerab Pass will leave you breath­less thanks first­ly to its stun­ning scenery of snow capped peaks and beau­ti­ful val­leys below – and thanks to its extreme alti­tude at an incred­i­ble 15,600-feet – with the road wind­ing round to the Chi­nese Bor­der from where, amongst the clouds and moun­tains, you can pass through the high­est bor­der patrol on the plan­et and enter Chi­na.  

Cross­ing through the bor­der, you’ll find that the Karako­ram High­way thank­ful­ly begin to descend and you’ll soon find your­self in the one street town of Tashkurghan as you enter the Xin­jiang region. From here you can then pro­ceed north towards the town of Sub­ashi – pass­ing and stop­ping for pho­tos at the mighty peak of Kongur Tagh at a tow­er­ing 25,325 feet and the emer­ald waters of the lake of Lit­tle Karakul both of which rep­re­sent the grand finale of the stun­ning Karako­ram High­way as you pull your way into the heart of Xin­jiang.  

A tru­ly epic jour­ney – whose route can be defined by the trav­eller, a jour­ney across the Karako­ram High­way is packed with stun­ning and scenic beau­ty and is home to some of the great hikes, adven­tures and cul­tur­al expe­ri­ences on the plan­et – but do be warned that a jour­ney across the Karako­ram High­way will require exten­sive plan­ning. Par­tic­u­lar­ly trav­ellers will need to decide if they go by self-dri­ve car, a guid­ed tour or on a bike, and will need to ensure they pay close atten­tion to Visa require­ments as well as look­ing after their safe­ty in both Pak­istan and Chi­na.  

Yet these con­cerns should not detract or deter explor­ers from under­tak­ing this incred­i­ble adven­ture – with the route of the Karako­ram High­way being both adren­a­line fuelled and tru­ly life-chang­ing. With explor­ers hav­ing the chance to climb and gaze at tow­er­ing snow-capped peaks, cross death-defy­ing sus­pen­sion bridges, won­der through serene mead­ows, mar­vel at glacial lakes and alpine forests, explore ancient king­doms and under­take vast cul­tur­al expe­ri­ences in diverse com­mu­ni­ties – in what is a stun­ning jour­ney at the top of the world across a tru­ly wild fron­tier on the most spec­tac­u­lar, beau­ti­ful and breath-tak­ing won­der of the world of the Karako­ram High­way. 

Where:

The great­est road on the plan­et – the 800 kilo­me­tres of the Karako­ram High­way geo­graph­i­cal­ly stretch­es from the north of Kash­gar in Xin­jiang province across the Karako­ram Moun­tain range and icon­ic and stun­ning­ly beau­ti­ful Khun­jerab Pass and into the heart­lands of Pak­istan and the cap­i­tal of Islam­abad offi­cial­ly enter­ing at the geo­graph­i­cal­ly south town of Has­san Abdal.  

Yet despite run­ning north to south when looked at on a map – the Karako­ram High­way is often dri­ven from Has­san Abdal north through the val­leys of Kohis­tan, Gilgit and Hun­za to the town of paas­su – which marks either the turn­ing back point for those not enter­ing Chi­na – or for those who’ve man­aged to get per­mis­sion to dri­ve in Chi­na (which is no easy feat) – the begin­ning of the Khun­jerab Pass – the worlds high­est bor­der pass – and the road into the Chi­nese side of the high­way which runs through into the regions of Urumqi and Kash­gar in Xin­jiang – which mark the grand finale of this stun­ning road.  

Stretch­ing across both Pak­istan and Chi­na – the Karako­ram High­way is also known as the ‘Friend­ship High­way’ with the road’s con­struc­tion, which took almost twen­ty years to com­plete between 1959 – 1978, sym­bol­is­ing the trust and friend­ship between the two coun­tries – as well as close eco­nom­ic ties.  

It is this sym­bol­ism that adds fur­ther romance to the beau­ti­ful high­way – and whichev­er way trav­ellers choose to explore it, by bike, bus or dri­ve or whichev­er route they opt to take you are guar­an­teed to expe­ri­ence an enthralling and life chang­ing jour­ney. With the Karako­ram High­way pass­ing through some of the most chal­leng­ing ter­rain across Asia – as well as some of the best, with this eighth won­der of the world fea­tur­ing some of the world’s great­est moun­tain ranges in the Karako­ram, Himalayas and Hin­du Kush, pass­ing through alpine forests, quaint mead­ows through ancient king­doms – and to the high­est and most unique bor­der cross­ing on the plan­et. In what will be an unfor­get­table and action-packed jour­ney on this stun­ning won­der of the world. 

Getting There: 

An action packed adven­ture, a jour­ney along the 800 Kilo­me­tres of the Karako­ram High­way will take you through some of the most stun­ning and scenic parts of the plan­et – with this incred­i­ble high­way fea­tur­ing the best of the world’s alpine forests, glacial lakes and the incred­i­ble snow capped peaks of the Karako­ram, Himalayas and Hin­du Kush moun­tain ranges – not to men­tion the worlds high­est pass and bor­der post on the stun­ning Khun­jerab nation­al park pass.  

Yet to see the best of this road, you’ll need to come with a detailed plan – and essen­tial to this is your start­ing point, as while the road winds from the town of Has­san Abdul – just north of Islam­abad all the way through to the area of Kash­gar, in Xin­jiang province – for those self-dri­ving the high­way dri­ving in Chi­na has sad­ly become pro­hib­it­ed since 2019 – so you’ll need to find your­self a tour com­pa­ny / guide who can assist you in dri­ving with­in the region. But do keep an eye on the reg­u­la­tions with­in Chi­na and Xin­jiang as they are known to change sud­den­ly.  

For this rea­son, most explor­ers opts to self-dri­ve from Has­san Abdul to the town of Pas­su close to the Chi­nese Bor­der, or for those head­ing all the way into Chi­na the best option is to nav­i­gate the high­way through a com­bi­na­tion of dri­ving, pub­lic trans­port and hitch­hik­ing – which takes the stress of dri­ving and grant­i­ng approval in Chi­na out of your jour­ney – but again you’ll need to accom­mo­date for the Chi­nese require­ments on gain­ing entry and trans­port.  

For those who aren’t keen on dri­ving– we’d rec­om­mend start­ing your jour­ney either along the high­way direct­ly from Islam­abad if you intend to only head into Pas­su — with their being a series of bus­es and bicy­cle options to make your way north along the high­way. With those who want to expe­ri­ence this incred­i­ble won­der – but who are short on time advised to fly direct­ly into the town of Gilgit deep with­in the Han­za Val­ley – where the best of this stun­ning high­way awaits you.  

For those who want to cross the entire­ty of the Karako­ram High­way from Kash­gar to Has­san Abdul, you’ve got two many options the first is to start at Has­san Abdul and head all the way into Chi­na – accept­ing that dri­ving into the Chi­nese Side will be a bureau­crat­ic night­mare and you’ll need to arrange for a pri­vate trans­port (see sec­tion below).  

So not­ing that any jour­ney upon the Karako­ram High­way is unique and defined and set by the explor­er them­selves, for those tak­ing on the full length of the high­way or head­ing north from Islam­abad, your first port of call will be to get to the Pak­istan Cap­i­tal of Islam­abad itself:  

By Plane to Hassan Abdul / Islamabad & Self Driving:

For trav­el to Islam­abad for those com­ing from out­side Pak­istan, you’ll find that the Pak­istan Inter­na­tion­al Air­port is well served from every region of the globe – with there being reg­u­lar con­nec­tions glob­al­ly through major air­lines such as Emi­rates, Qatar Air­ways and Sau­di Air – all of which that will con­ve­nient­ly drop you deep in the heart of Islam­abad.  

Once at Islam­abad air­port – for those trav­el­ling on a self-guid­ed car jour­ney and start­ing in Islam­abad– we’d advise pick­ing up your car from the air­port and then giv­ing your­self a rest day before tak­ing on the high­way north – with those tak­ing on the high­way from it’s offi­cial start­ing point in Has­san Abdul advised to head along Pakistan’s major N5 high­way – which will take you straight to Has­san Abdul – from where you can soak in the start of this stun­ning won­der before set­ting off on your jour­ney across the Karako­ram High­way.  

By Plane to Gilgit & Exploration of Hunza Valley:

For those short on time, or who don’t fan­cy tak­ing on the long and wind­ing road across the Karako­ram High­way – there is an alter­na­tive option, where you can see the best of this stun­ning won­der by head­ing to the stun­ning town of Gilgit – which lies deep with­in the Hun­za Val­ley and which is acces­si­bly by plane or bus.  

To get to Gilgit by plane, you’ll first need to get to Islam­abad Air­port – and from there you can book a direct flight to Gilgit – with this option being the best for those set on Hun­za and who are short on time. Even though the flights leave at 6am and 9:40am — be sure as well that you stay awake on the flight and book a win­dow seat – as the flight into Gilgit is tru­ly incred­i­ble and packed with scenic views, as you hov­er above and take in the absolute best of K2 and the Karako­ram Moun­tain Range.  

After a short one hour flight, you’ll find your­self with­in the Hun­za Val­ley – and from here you can begin your explo­ration of the best of the stun­ning Karako­ram high­way or use the town as a base to launch your trav­el onwards.  

By bus / Van to Gilgit & Exploring the Karakoram highway by Bus / van / cycle from Islamabad:

While the Karako­ram high­way lends itself to an incred­i­ble self-dri­ving – for those who don’t fan­cy dri­ving in a for­eign coun­try and espe­cial­ly don’t fan­cy the bureau­crat­ic and tough dri­ving in Chi­na but who want to com­plete the whole High­way – then trav­el­ling by a com­bi­na­tion of bus / van and cycle is a fan­tas­tic option – and one packed with Adven­ture ! 

For those trav­el­ling through these meth­ods, we’d advise first fly­ing into Islam­abad air­port and spend­ing a rest day in the heart of Islam­abad. From there you can then pick up one of the many vans and bus­es and make your way to Gilgit – which is like­ly to be 20 hour overnight bus from Islam­abad main bus sta­tion and which will mark your first pas­sage across the Karako­ram high­way – and one that is tru­ly stun­ning with the views on this bus jour­ney being some of the most scenic on the plan­et – so secur­ing a win­dow seat is high­ly advised ! 

 Once in Gilgit – you’ll be faced with a choice as to the next stage of your jour­ney. You can either spend some incred­i­ble days soak­ing in the best of the Hun­za Val­ley – trekking across Alpine Forests and admir­ing the stun­ning views of K2 – before turn­ing back to Islam­abad, with mem­o­ries and pho­tos of the best of the Karako­ram high­way with you – or you can con­tin­ue north­wards towards Chi­na.  

For those who con­tin­ue north­wards – and who aren’t cycling – you’ll find that this is where the adven­ture part of your jour­ney tru­ly begins — as there’s no reg­u­lar trav­el options for­ward. Because of this for those who want to trav­el north you must pick one of the fol­low­ing options based on your intend­ed final des­ti­na­tion: 

North From Gilgit by Bus / Van:

The best option for those trav­el­ling on a bud­get who are con­scious of safe­ty. There are bus­es and Vans that head north along the high­way up towards Pas­su and the Khun­jerab Bor­der – the only prob­lem is that they are not a fixed sched­ule and there are no fixed stops.  

So for those with plen­ty of time and who fan­cy the bus – your route north­wards will depend on either using a bus book­ing web­site (such as Bookaru) for major city stops or depend on you stand­ing in the road and look­ing out for pub­lic bus­es and vans – that will be well marked – and flag­ging them down and pay­ing with cash. From here it’s also essen­tial to ask where the bus / van is head­ing to – and with a bit of luck you’ll be able to head in the right direc­tion and repeat the process again when it comes to your next stop.  

North From Gilgit by hitchhiking:

One of the most com­mon, if risky, ways of head­ing north along the Karako­ram high­way. Hitch­hik­ing see’s you rely on the kind­ness of strangers and is one of the most effi­cient ways of head­ing north on the high­way – as thanks to the road’s pop­u­lar­i­ty and it’s prac­ti­cal pur­pose for locals, chances are you’ll not have to wait more than 90 min­utes for a ride – regard­less of where you are on the road.  

For those hitch­hik­ing – we’d strong­ly advise you to be safe­ty con­scious – par­tic­u­lar­ly for solo females – and ensure that who­ev­er picks you up is head­ing in the right direc­tion (be sure to mon­i­tor google maps using down­loaded maps). But with a bit of luck hitch­hik­ing is both an incred­i­bly effi­cient and cost effec­tive way to explore the stun­ning Karako­ram high­way.   

North From Gilgit by Taxis & private driver:

An option for those with a gen­er­ous bud­get and the best option for those head­ing north from Gilgit along the high­way who are short on time – it’s pos­si­ble to book both Taxi’s and a pri­vate dri­ver to explore the won­der of the world of the Karako­ram high­way.  

For those tak­ing on a Taxi – we’d strong­ly encour­age you to invest in a local Sim Card before­hand, so that you’re able to both book and mon­i­tor your dri­ver, with the hir­ing of a Taxi in the area near Khun­jerab being a great way to approach (and cross if it’s a Chi­nese Vehi­cle) the high­est bor­der in the world at the Khun­jerab pass. With those who opt to hire a Taxi able to do both from the town of Gilgit and in any of the major towns along the high­way – just be sure that each des­ti­na­tion you get dropped off in is a major town – to ensure you’re able to book a taxi fur­ther up the road.  

Private Driver:

For an alter­na­tive option – that let’s you expe­ri­ence the dri­ve across the Karako­ram high­way all the way from Islam­abad or Gilgit through the Hun­za Val­ley to the Khun­jerab pass there’s the option to hire a pri­vate dri­ver.  

Avail­able as a tour pack­age – or sim­ply as a way to cov­er a sec­tion of the high­way, hir­ing a pri­vate dri­ver is undoubt­ed­ly the most expen­sive way of cross­ing the Karako­ram high­way, but is a fan­tas­tic option for those short on time and who don’t feel safe risk­ing hitch­hik­ing, dri­ving or cycling. To hire a pri­vate dri­ver, you’ll first need to know your itin­er­ary and stop off points (we’d advise hir­ing one from either Islam­abad or Gilgit where dri­vers and tours are avail­able) and you can get a dri­ver both through pop­u­lar online book­ing apps, by ask­ing at hotel concierge stops or even at the car rental desks at air­ports.  

Once you’ve secured a dri­ver, be sure to tip well and be firm in the stopovers and breaks you require – and from there it should be a sim­ple mat­ter of tak­ing in the stun­ning sights along the stun­ning Karako­ram high­way as you cruise down the beau­ti­ful won­der of the world with your own pri­vate dri­ver.   

Cycling:

Per­haps the ulti­mate and most chal­leng­ing des­ti­na­tion in the world for cyclists, a ride along the Karako­ram high­way on two wheels will test the resolve and ped­al pow­er of cyclists as they under­take hun­dreds – and poten­tial­ly thou­sands – of road across dirt roads and high­ways which cut and wind their way through mighty moun­tain ranges, alpine lakes and stun­ning forestry on a tru­ly mag­i­cal jour­ney.  

Best under­tak­en as a start­ing point from either the offi­cial start­ing point of Has­san Abdul – after tak­ing an inter­nal flight from Islam­abad – Islam­abad itself, or from Gilgit after tak­ing the overnight bus, those who wish to under­take a cycling route will have the option of either tak­ing on the road inde­pen­dent­ly or through a tour – with con­sid­er­a­tion need­ed on either option to the alti­tude and heat that cycling over the Karako­ram high­way will expose you to.  

For those who opt to go on a tour, you can expect to cycle around 60 kilo­me­tres a day, on a set route, that will take you to the high­lights of the Karako­ram high­way up to the Chi­nese bor­der – and have accom­mo­da­tion and food catered for you, with the secu­ri­ty that comes through the safe­ty in num­bers on a tour being a huge fac­tor in con­sid­er­a­tion for opt­ing for this route.  

For those who opt to ride inde­pen­dent­ly – either from Islam­abad or Gilgit – we’d strong­ly advise you have a set route of the stops you wish to make (as a min­i­mum we’d rec­om­mend hit­ting the best pho­to stops below) and if pos­si­ble trav­el in at least pairs, with it being essen­tial that you fac­tor in a cou­ple of rest days along your way and have the whole of the Karako­ram high­way down­loaded as an offline map so you can track your progress along the high­way.  

Opt­ing for a cycling tour or jour­ney is a tru­ly great way to see the best of the Karako­ram high­way and ensure that you’ll nev­er be with­out trans­port. How­ev­er do note that cycling inde­pen­dent­ly is cur­rent­ly not per­mit­ted once you reach the Khun­jerab pass or into the Chi­nese Side. As such if you intend to reach the offi­cial end of the Karako­ram high­way in Kash­gan, you’ll need to find a way to pack­age your bike before cross­ing the bor­der – with trav­el in the Chi­nese side cur­rent­ly only allowed by tour oper­a­tor (see below) and pri­vate vehi­cle.  

For this rea­son it is essen­tial that any­one who opts to utilise a bike for the Karako­ram High­way under­stands that your jour­ney will like­ly end at the town of Pas­su – and if you intend to trav­el fur­ther then you’ll need to join a licensed tour group in Chi­na to con­tin­ue your jour­ney.  

Crossing the Khunjerab Border 

For those set on tak­ing on the whole of the Karako­ram High­way – then you’re going to have to nav­i­gate one of the tru­ly great expe­ri­ences and unique parts of the High­way – the high­est and most extreme bor­der pass on in the world – the Khun­jerab Bor­der.  

Tak­ing you across the bor­der from Chi­na to Pak­istan (or vice ver­sa) – the Khun­jerab Bor­der stands at a mighty 15,397 feet – and is also home to the world’s high­est ATM – with this stun­ning bor­der cross­ing being set against the beau­ty of the Karako­ram Moun­tain Ranges – mak­ing it, in our view, one of the most stun­ning and tru­ly beau­ti­ful bor­der cross­ings in the world.  

Yet despite it’s beau­ty – do be warned that no pho­tos are per­mit­ted at the bor­der cross­ing, and for those cross­ing from Pak­istan into Chi­na – you will need not only to secure your visa well in advance (allow at least three months) but you’ll also need to be accom­pa­nied from a Chi­nese guide when you cross the bor­der, who will be required to accom­pa­ny you all the way to the town of Tashkur­gan – with each bus tran­sit into Chi­na hav­ing dif­fer­ent rules, so be sure to check that yours includes a guide.  

For those who aren’t able to get the bus, there’s the option of hir­ing a dri­ver to get you across the bor­der into the Chi­nese side of the Karako­ram High­way – but again you’ll need to ensure that you’ve got your­self cov­ered with a Chi­nese guide to take you to Tashkur­gan – which can be a strug­gle.  

Along­side this, there have been reports (par­tic­u­lar­ly for west­ern­ers) of Chi­nese Immi­gra­tion offi­cials demand­ing access to  — and search­ing through – mobile phone, includ­ing check­ing each and every pho­to you’ve tak­en to ensure there’s noth­ing inap­pro­pri­ate or against Chi­nese laws. So we’d advise you to come pre­pared for this and ensure that all your devices are com­pli­ant to guar­an­tee there’s no dif­fi­cul­ties on your cross­ing.  

For an eas­i­er cross­ing – it might be worth con­sid­er­ing head­ing from the Chi­nese side into the Pak­istan side across the Khun­jerab Bor­der. While you will still be required to get from Tashkur­gan to the bor­der cross­ing – which can only be done in a motor vehi­cle and arranged by a tour com­pa­ny – your entry into Pak­istan will seem like a breeze com­pared to enter­ing into Chi­na, as for­tu­nate­ly there’s no guide or require­ments once you make it over the bor­der.  

For those tak­ing on the Khun­jerab Bor­der, you’re guar­an­teed a thrilling – if unnerv­ing and at times uncom­fort­able expe­ri­ence, but do be warned for cross­ing the bor­der that it’s only open between the months of April – Octo­ber and only on week­days – so be sure to plan accord­ing­ly.  

Starting from Kashgar / China & driving in China: 

For those set on tak­ing on the entire­ty of the Karako­ram High­way – from Kash­gar to Has­san Abdul, then your options are to either head north from Has­san Abdul or start from Kash­gar and head south.  

While both routes will give you the best of the Karako­ram High­way – get­ting from Chi­na into Pak­istan is con­sid­er­ably eas­i­er than get­ting into Pak­istan from Chi­na. For this rea­son for those set on tak­ing on the whole of the high­way, we’d strong­ly advise start­ing your route from Kash­gar and head­ing South.  

To do this first off, you’ll need to get your­self to Kash­gar with­in Xin­jiang – and you’ll find a range of flights from across Chi­na into Kash­gar from across the major cities – such as Bei­jing and Shang­hai – which can con­ve­nient­ly drop you with­in the Kash­gar region to begin your jour­ney. Like­wise, Kash­gar is well served by a series of train net­works from across Chi­na which pro­vide a cheap­er – if longer way of reach­ing the city.  

Once with­in Kash­gar, you should be pre­pared for increased sur­veil­lance and scruti­ny, with it being strong­ly encour­aged that you clean and back-up your phones before enter­ing – and have all the nec­es­sary paper­work (includ­ing copies) read­i­ly avail­able at all times for inspec­tion.  

While the area around Kash­gar and Xin­jiang is tru­ly beau­ti­ful, dri­ving and cycling inde­pen­dent­ly are cur­rent­ly not rec­om­mend­ed – as not only can it be incred­i­bly dif­fi­cult to nav­i­gate the roads, but at this moment (despite what you may read online) inde­pen­dent cycling and dri­ving are not per­mit­ted.  

There­fore in order to start your jour­ney on the Karako­ram High­way from Kash­gar, you’ll need to book your­self onto a licensed tour com­pa­ny which heads south towards the Khun­jerab Bor­der through the town of Tashkur­gan. An esti­mat­ed 2‑day dri­ve trips to the bor­der can be booked only at trav­el cen­tre in Kash­gar – and don’t be sur­prised if they tell you it will take at least a week to get approval to book a slot – and expect to pay at least three times the price as a Chi­nese cit­i­zen.  

Still while it can be a chal­lenge to reach the bor­der area and book your trans­port, for those who find them­selves with­in Kash­gar wait­ing for approval there’s some incred­i­ble nature spots to vis­it along the way – includ­ing the stun­ning Sayram Kanas Lakes – and once you’ve got your pas­sage secured, set­ting off from Kash­gar to take on the full length of the Karako­ram High­way is an unri­valed expe­ri­ence – as you begin what is guar­an­teed to be one of the great­est moments of your life on this stun­ning won­der of the world.  

Best time to Visit: 

A jour­ney that will take you to the top of the world – the suc­cess of a trip along the Karako­rum High­way will be decid­ed by both the care­ful plan­ning and prepa­ra­tion you put into your trip – as well as the sea­son and month in which you choose to take on the road.  

While the Karako­rum High­way is billed as an all-weath­er two-way road – the high alti­tude and its prox­im­i­ty to the moun­tain ranges of the Himalayas, the Karako­rams, the Hin­du Kush, the Kun­lun Shan and the Tien Shan – means that cold weath­er, heavy snow­fall, land­slides and even mon­soons are not uncom­mon – which in turn can cre­ate dan­ger­ous dri­ving con­di­tions and tru­ly unen­joy­able hik­ing and cycling weath­er – which can tru­ly take the shine off your trip.  

These dan­ger­ous con­di­tions also mean that one of the true high­lights of the Karako­rum High­way – the Khun­jerab Bor­der — is sad­ly closed between the months of Jan­u­ary to April due to heavy snow – depriv­ing explor­ers of one of the most unique and beau­ti­ful spots along the high­way.  

While the heavy snow­fall and clo­sure of the Khun­jerab Bor­der means that trav­el­ling in the win­ter sea­son between Jan­u­ary and April is not real­is­tic – explor­ers also need to be aware that the mon­soon sea­son takes place between July – Sep­tem­ber – which can see road­blocks occur and cause sig­nif­i­cant delays. For those who opt to trav­el between these months you can also expect extreme heat – with tem­per­a­tures ris­ing as high as 40°C the fur­ther north you go.  

How­ev­er trav­el­ling dur­ing the sum­mer months of July – Sep­tem­ber – does hold one key advan­tage for trav­ellers, as this is peak sea­son on the Karako­ram High­way, so for those trav­el­ling by bus, hitch­hik­ing or cycling trav­el­ling between the months of July – Sep­tem­ber is a great time to trav­el – as they’ll be more traf­fic and vis­i­tors upon the road, which should add to the ease and enjoy­ment of your jour­ney.  

For those dri­ving on the high­way, we would again advise con­sid­er­a­tion for trav­el­ing in the sum­mer months, with those who want to expe­ri­ence the high­way, but don’t fan­cy deal­ing with the intense traf­fic – and who want to miss the worst of the sum­mer heat — also hav­ing the option to trav­el in the extend­ed months of Octo­ber and Novem­ber. With self-dri­ve trav­el in this high­way still giv­ing you the best of the Karako­ram High­way – but skip­ping the worst of the traf­fic and the heat.  

There­fore, for any­one tak­ing on the Karako­ram High­way – it’s essen­tial that you avoid trav­el­ing in the months of Jan­u­ary – April, where the road con­di­tions will be life threat­en­ing and the mighty Khun­jerab Bor­der pass will be closed. Instead, we’d rec­om­mend tim­ing your trav­el between the months of July – Sep­tem­ber for non-self-dri­vers and between July – Novem­ber for self-dri­vers – with these months giv­ing you the most enjoy­able and safest jour­ney upon the Karako­ram High­way. 

How long to stay:

The beau­ty of the Karako­ram High­way is found not just in the stun­ning forestry scenery, tow­er­ing snow-capped moun­tains and adren­a­line pump­ing adven­tures it affords – but also in the unique free­dom that an explo­ration of this incred­i­ble won­der of the world pro­vides.  

Because of the more than 8,000 kilo­me­ters in length and the numer­ous hik­ing trails and peaks found along the Karako­ram High­way – it’s pos­si­ble, for those with a hefty bud­get and unlim­it­ed time, to spend months explor­ing the best of the high­way, whilst sim­i­lar­ly thanks to a com­bi­na­tion of air and bus trav­el – it’s pos­si­ble for those on a strict time and mon­ey bud­get to expe­ri­ence some of the best of the Karako­ram High­way – in the town of Gilgit in the Hun­za Val­ley in just a mat­ter of days.  

For these rea­sons, a jour­ney along the Karako­ram High­way needs to be defined by the explor­er them­selves based on their time and bud­get.  

How­ev­er, as a min­i­mum and for our rec­om­men­da­tion based on our expe­ri­ence and tak­ing into con­sid­er­a­tion the real­i­ties of both work and finance, we’d rec­om­mend putting aside between 10 days to 2 full weeks to explore the high­way going up to the Khun­jerab Bor­der – (then 1–2 days to return) and adding on an extra 5 days if you intend to either start of fin­ish from the town of Kash­gar in Xin­jiang.  

This 10 day to 14 day rec­om­men­da­tion on the Pak­istan Side is suit­able for all meth­ods of trav­el on the Pak­istan Side (self-dri­ve, cycling, van, bus, taxis and hitch­hik­ing) with those who intend to cross into Chi­na or Start from Chi­na cur­rent­ly required to utilise a bus with­in Chi­na that includes a Chi­nese Guide (no self-dri­ving or cycling is allowed).  

For those head­ing into Pak­istan, the 10–14-day option will give you the chance to see the best of the Pak­istan side. For a pos­si­ble itin­er­ary we’d encour­age those with 2 weeks to con­sid­er the fol­low­ing: 

Day 1–2: Has­san Abdul & Islam­abad – where you can see the best of the Pak­istani Cap­i­tal and make your final preper­a­tions: 

Day 3: — Take the road North to Gilgit to explore the Hun­za Val­ley: 

Day 4: Explore Gilgit  

Day 5 – 6: Fairy Mead­ows & hike to Chanel Walk or sum­mit to Nan­ga Par­bat Base Camp. 

Day 7 – 9: Minapin & Raka­poshi Base Camp hike 

Day 10: Explore Karim­bad & the incred­i­ble forts of Baltit and Altit 

 Day 11: Head North to Gan­ish to explore Attabad Lake, Husseni Bridge & Pas­su.  

Day 12: Post & Khun­jerab Nation­al Park  

Day 13: Head to the Khun­jerab Pass – to either turn back after com­plet­ing your epic jour­ney or con­tin­ue over the bor­der.  

For those who opt to con­tin­ue over the bor­der (or who start their jour­ney from Chi­na and opt to do the above itin­er­ary in reverse) real­is­ti­cal­ly you’ll need at most three days to explore and the region of Xin­jiang lead­ing to Kash­gar. With the route through the town of Tashko­r­gan to the fin­ish line tak­ing around 2 days – and the admin, checks explo­ration of either town and arrang­ing for trans­port back tak­ing an extra 2 days at least.  

There­fore while it’s pos­si­ble to spend months explor­ing the peaks of the Karako­ram High­way – and each jour­ney and stop off on this incred­i­ble high­way will be defined by the trav­el­er them­selves. For those on a strict bud­get and timetable – we’d rec­om­mend bud­get­ing between 3–5 days to explore the best of the Hun­za Val­ley and Gilgit from Islam­abad, with the opti­mal and rec­om­mend­ed time frame being between 10–14 days up to the Khun­jerab Pass and turn­ing back – or 15 – 19 days for those who opt to con­tin­ue into Chi­na.  

With each and every option, time­frame and jour­ney upon the stun­ning won­der of the world of the Karako­ram High­way guar­an­teed to leave you breath­less in beau­ty (and thanks to the alti­tude) and sure to be one of the great­est jour­neys and expe­ri­ences of your life.  

Top Tip:

The pin­na­cle of adven­ture trav­el, the Karako­ram High­way is awash with immense stun­ning beau­ty from the turquoise lakes to the quaint charm­ing Alpine Forests and fairy mead­ows, which com­bined with the tow­er­ing snow-capped peaks – which offer some of the world’s great­est ascents – it’s hard not to get lost in the adven­ture par­adise of the Karako­ram High­way when plan­ning a trip to this stun­ning won­der.  

Yet the Karako­ram High­way is also fraught with dan­ger, admin­is­tra­tive chal­lenges galore and chal­leng­ing sea­sons – with any trip requir­ing care­ful advanced plan­ning and prepa­ra­tion to ensure you not only get the best out of your adven­ture on the high­way – but that you make it back safe and sound – with a series of awe-inspir­ing tales to tell.  

Along­side this, you’ll need to account for both the secu­ri­ty ele­ment of vis­it­ing Pak­istan and the admin­is­tra­tive and secu­ri­ty pro­ce­dures cur­rent­ly in place with­in Xin­jiang – as well as ensur­ing you’re ful­ly famil­iar with the dif­fer­ent cul­tures and cus­toms of the peo­ple you’ll encounter on the way.  

Cou­ple this with the chal­leng­ing weath­er con­di­tions – which see’s the Khun­jerab Pass closed between Jan­u­ary and April – and even the pop­u­lar and high sea­son when trav­el is rec­om­mend­ed between July – Sep­tem­ber sub­ject to sear­ing heat and land­slides – and a trip to the Karako­ram High­way has to poten­tial to not only turn soar but put your safe­ty tru­ly at risk.  

So to ensure your jour­ney along the Karako­ram High­way is as safe, enjoy­able and as tru­ly as epic as pos­si­ble we’ve round­ed out our top tips to both help with your prepa­ra­tion and plan­ning and ensure you get the absolute best out of this incred­i­ble won­der of the world: 

- Safety:

First up – and undoubt­ed­ly most impor­tant of all is your safe­ty. With the Karako­ram High­way lying in parts of Pak­istan all trav­ellers should be con­scious at all times of their safe­ty, ensur­ing they secure valu­ables and take care when trav­el­ling – espe­cial­ly at night.  

With the road tak­ing you through Islam­abad – or with Islam­abad being your first port of call, it is a strong rec­om­mend­ed to splash out on a more expen­sive hotel to ensure pro­tec­tion. 

How­ev­er along­side this, Pak­istan has had a major push – fol­low­ing a series of ter­ror­ist inci­dents – to beef up secu­ri­ty, and their secu­ri­ty teams and police are known to patrol major cities to ensure tourists feel as safe and secure as pos­si­ble. With it being a gen­er­al rule that the fur­ther north you head along the high­way – the safer and more secure you will be, with police checks being present upon the high­way towards major cities – mean­ing that for those plan­ning on hitch­hik­ing you should be okay so long as you exer­cise appro­pri­ate cau­tion.  

For those tru­ly con­cerned about safe­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly around the area of Islam­abad we’d advise to con­sid­er fly­ing direct­ly from Islam­abad to Gilgit to start your jour­ney, which will cut out the area around Islam­abad. With it being our fur­ther rec­om­men­da­tion for any­one trav­el­ling across the Karako­ram High­way to ensure you check local news and alerts for any inci­dents or expect­ed protests. 

For those head­ing into Chi­na, safe­ty and secu­ri­ty should also be a con­sid­er­a­tion – but from a slight­ly dif­fer­ent per­spec­tive. With the Karako­ram High­way tak­ing you into / or see­ing you start from —  the Xin­jiang region towards the fin­ish­ing point of Kash­gar, recent require­ments have meant that no trav­eller can enter alone or trav­el by them­selves. Because of this access into or from the Chi­nese side of the Karako­ram High­way is only by motorised vehi­cle and only with an accom­pa­nied guide.  

While this will ensure your safe­ty, any­one who seeks to dis­re­gard these rules will be sub­ject to local laws – and it’s essen­tial that you line up your trans­port before­hand if pass­ing into Chi­na from Pak­istan. For those pass­ing this route into Chi­na and mak­ing your way across the  Khun­jerab Pass you’ll also need to con­sid­er your safe­ty from a secu­ri­ty per­spec­tive, as it’s pos­si­ble that all your per­son­al items – includ­ing your phones – will be searched for any­thing that goes against Chi­nese Laws, so be sure that you’re in full com­pli­ance with these rules before tak­ing on  the Khun­jerab Pass.  

So, while we’d encour­age any­one tak­ing on the Karako­ram High­way to be alert at all times for their safe­ty, espe­cial­ly those trav­el­ling alone or plan­ning on hitch­hik­ing, it’s impor­tant to under­stand the dif­fer­ing lev­els of safe­ty and secu­ri­ty that you’ll need to be aware of to ensure you have the best pos­si­ble trip upon the Karako­ram High­way.  

Road Safety & Conditions:

Along­side look­ing out for your own per­son­al safe­ty, you’ll also need to be ful­ly aware of the road con­di­tions and safe­ty trips for trav­el­ling upon the Karako­ram High­way – with sharp drop-offs, land­slides, harsh weath­er con­di­tions and high alti­tude all com­bin­ing to make the Karako­ram High­way an incred­i­bly dan­ger­ous raod to nav­i­gate – regard­less of the method upon which you trav­el the road.  

First up, it’s essen­tial for all trav­el­ers to avoid trav­el­ling upon the Karako­ram High­way at night. This is due not only due to safe­ty con­sid­er­a­tions, but in con­sid­er­a­tion of the road – par­tic­u­lar­ly in the mid­dle stretch near the Indus Riv­er – where large pot­holes, nar­row lanes, and most wor­ry­ing­ly sud­den sharp drop-offs – that pose a seri­ous risk to life.  

For this rea­son the Karako­ram High­way is a road best trav­elled dur­ing the day – and with extreme cau­tion. With the threat of these drop-offs and pot­holes remain­ing con­stant upon its path. What makes this even more of a threat is that chal­leng­ing patch­es of the road can appear sud­den­ly, with it being essen­tial to know where they may appear for max­i­mum safe­ty.  

For those set­ting off from Has­san Abdul and rout­ing through Islam­abad, you can expect great qual­i­ty roads to begin with, but as the jour­ney goes on and the alti­tude ris­es into the Indus Riv­er and Kohis­tan dis­trict, you’ll encounter death-defy­ing con­di­tions that hug the side of the road – with those who opt to vis­it the Fairy Mead­ows required to have a 4x4 and need­ing to be aware of nar­row, bumpy and cliff­side roads that require care­ful atten­tion.  

This sec­tion of the road – and that lead­ing into the Hun­za val­ley and the towns of Gilgit require extra spe­cial atten­tion – and you should bud­get extra time to pass this sec­tion as you make your way north. Once you pass through the Hun­za val­ley, you’ll notice the road tar­mac con­di­tions pick up con­sid­er­ably and it should be rel­a­tive­ly smooth sail­ing in terms of road tar­mac up to the Khun­jerab Bor­der and into Chi­na, where you’ll need to arrange for pri­vate trans­port and self-dri­ving or cycling is cur­rent­ly pro­hib­it­ed.  

How­ev­er even though the road tar­mac con­di­tions pick up in this sec­tion, whichev­er time you head across the Karako­ram High­way ‑you’ll need to be always wary of weath­er con­di­tions and both their impact on your­self and on the road. For those trav­el­ling in the sum­mer months (dur­ing our rec­om­mend­ed time) tem­per­a­tures across the Karako­ram High­way – and par­tic­u­lar­ly head­ing north towards the Chi­nese side can reach well in the 40°C range.  

This soar­ing heat not only requires not only the explor­er to have vast quan­ti­ties of water to hand, but also to ensure they look after their vehi­cle to pre­vent it from over­heat­ing and pay close atten­tion to the road – ensur­ing that the heat has not with­ered parts of it away and made it unsafe as has been known to hap­pen. Those trav­el­ling dur­ing the sum­mer months will also need to be con­scious of the mon­soon rains as well, with it being essen­tial to dri­ve as slow­ly as pos­si­ble dur­ing these con­di­tions.  

For those trav­el­ling out­side the sum­mer months, the weath­er will be your num­ber one threat and obsta­cle. With the win­ter con­di­tions on the road being incred­i­bly treach­er­ous and pos­ing a series threat to life, with their being not only freez­ing tem­per­a­tures but a height­ened risk of land­slides across the high­way – which can wipe out cars and trav­ellers on the road.  

So treach­er­ous are these win­ter con­di­tions that they are attrib­uted to the death of more than a thou­sand work­ers upon the road, with the Khun­jerab Bor­der pass clos­ing between the months of Jan­u­ary – April in an effort to deter trav­ellers and to ensure the safe­ty of work­ers there.  

There­fore while a jour­ney across the Karako­ram High­way will undoubt­ed­ly be the trip of a life­time – we’d strong­ly encour­age you to check the weath­er fore­cast each day before set­ting off – and ensure you have a sol­id under­stand­ing of the treach­er­ous road con­di­tions that await you ahead, in order to ensure that your trip is as safe and enjoy­able as pos­si­ble.  

 

Crossing the Khunjerab Border:

One of the undoubt­ed high­lights of the Karako­ram High­way the Khun­jerab Bor­der is home to not only the high­est bor­der cross­ing and Atm on the plan­et, but also some incred­i­ble scenery, includ­ing the Karako­ram Moun­tain Range and K2 – and in the sum­mer months dense green forestry where, if you’re incred­i­bly lucky you’ll get a chance to spot the rare snow leop­ard.  

Yet on a more prac­ti­cal front the Khun­jerab Bor­der marks the cross­ing from Pak­istan into Chi­na or vice Ver­sa, and fol­low­ing the re-open­ing of this bor­der cross­ing after COVID-19 restric­tions are lift­ed, it’s essen­tial to know that cross­ing can only be done in an approved van or taxi from both direc­tions.  

This require­ment, which makes it impos­si­ble for cyclists and self-dri­ving explor­ers to pass through the bor­der by them­selves, requires you to make pri­or arrange­ments for the Chi­nese sec­tion of the bor­der, includ­ing arrang­ing Visa’s, trans­port and a local guide.  

While visa’s are sim­ple enough – if bureau­crat­ic (see below), the trans­port option needs to be arranged in advance, and for those trav­el­ling from Chi­na you will be required to go on a gov­ern­ment issued bus with an accom­pa­ny­ing guide to the bor­der of Pak­istan (where noth­ing is required once you enter Pak­istan), while such arrange­ments are required from the Pak­istan side for those intend­ing to reach Kash­gar.  

For those trav­el­ling from Chi­na you can make arrange­ments only at the cen­tral tourist hub in Kash­gar and you’ll need to bud­get at least three days, if not longer for the jour­ney to begin. With those cross­ing in from Pak­istan need­ing to make arrange­ments and have proof of trav­el and accom­pa­ni­ment before head­ing to the bor­der.  

Along­side this, it’s imper­a­tive to know that the bor­der only opens in late April – and clos­es in Decem­ber, with pho­tos strict­ly pro­hib­it­ed on either side of the bor­der. As well as avoid­ing pho­tos, be pre­pared for a thor­ough inves­ti­ga­tion into your­self and your mobile devices by the Chi­nese author­i­ties – regard­less of which side of the bor­der you’re cross­ing, with there being increased reports of pho­to albums being searched for any­thing that might breach Chi­nese law.  

A spec­tac­u­lar bor­der, but one which you’ll need to be wary of both inspec­tions and require­ments for, the Khun­jerab Bor­der is one of the most spec­tac­u­lar stops on the plan­et and a bor­der well worth tra­vers­ing – and one which you’ll need to have a visa in hand to cross.  

Visa and Passport Information:

A fur­ther chal­leng­ing aspect of the Karako­ram High­way prepa­ra­tion – and one of the key things and top tips to know before­hand con­cerns visas.  

From the Pak­istan Side — fol­low­ing the lift­ing of Covid restric­tions – and thanks to an updat­ing in the Pak­istan admin­is­tra­tive sys­tem (which means you no longer need to go to and send by post your doc­u­ments to the near­est Pak­istani Embassy) get­ting a visa and get­ting into Pak­istan has become a lot eas­i­er and stream­lined. With Pak­istan now accept­ing appli­ca­tions for e‑visa’s through their gov­ern­men­tal por­tal at: https://visa.nadra.gov.pk/ — with the rel­e­vant require­ments of 6 months valid­i­ty, pass­port copies all in effect. For those whose nation­al­i­ty requires an invi­ta­tion lat­ter – this is some­thing you can get from either a tour provider or a local hotel. 

Being sure to com­plete your appli­ca­tion two months in advance – as the 10-day appli­ca­tion time­frame pro­vid­ed on the e‑visa web­site can be flex­i­ble, once you’ve obtained the e‑visa you should be cov­ered for all forms of trav­el across Pak­istan and the Karako­ram High­way - but just bear in mind again that for those cycling, you can’t cross the Khun­jerab Bor­der either into or out of Pak­istan on a bike.  

For the Chi­nese Visa – and for those cross­ing into Chi­na or tak­ing on the full length of the Karako­ram High­way, obtain­ing a visa for Chi­na can be immense­ly chal­leng­ing and requires a vol­ume of prepa­ra­tion. 

First-up giv­en the length of time it can take to arrange for trans­port, and giv­en than you’ll need to get to Kash­gar or depart Kash­gar with a guide, you’ll find that the visa free options – which can extend up to 5 days for a vis­it aren’t sad­ly long enough for the required time you’ll need.  

Which leaves the only avail­able option to get a Chi­nese Visa going through an embassy to sub­mit an appli­ca­tion – which will require you to vis­it the embassy with a com­plet­ed appli­ca­tion form, an up to date pass­port pho­to and an invi­ta­tion let­ter – which ide­al­ly should be from the com­pa­ny who will be trans­port­ing you either from or to the bor­der. From there your appli­ca­tion will be con­sid­ered and depend­ing on your coun­try of birth you may be called for an inter­view and be required to show proof of funds and address­es of the places you’re stay­ing with­in Chi­na in order to advance you appli­ca­tion.  

An appli­ca­tion that needs to be sub­mit­ted at least four months in advance and can also take months to be approved, once you’ve got your Chi­nese Visa do again note that it does not great you the abil­i­ty to dri­ve or won­der off with­in Chi­na – and you’ll still be sub­ject to some strict search­es at the bor­der. But for those who want to tra­verse the full length of the incred­i­ble Karako­ram High­way, going through the admin­is­tra­tive process and chal­lenge of get­ting a visa is well worth.   

What to Bring:

As stun­ning­ly beau­ti­ful as the Karako­ram High­way is, it’s also an area sub­ject to extreme – and instant­ly chang­ing weath­er, chal­leng­ing ter­rain and con­di­tions, and local cus­toms, all of which require you to ensure that before you set off on the Karako­ram High­way you come pre­pared with appro­pri­ate cloth­ing and equip­ment that accounts for the con­di­tions and cus­toms that you’ll encounter on the Karako­ram High­way. 

Clothing & Equipment:

Adjustable and depend­able upon the sea­son you take on the Karako­ram High­way, for those trav­el­ling out of sea­son in the win­ter warm cloth­ing is not only essen­tial but also a true life saver, with those trav­el­ing in the sum­mer months required to adjust for the extreme heat and ensure there clothes give them as much sup­port as pos­si­ble for the dry and humid weath­er.  

There­fore as a min­i­mum for those trav­el­ing in win­ter we’d advise tak­ing mul­ti­ple jumpers and a think hood­ie and coat, as well as some strong gloves, a bob­ble hat – and a hot water bot­tle which can be a great com­forter dur­ing the chilly nights. With those trav­el­ling in either sea­son advised to take a good jack­et, jeans, a cou­ple of t‑shirts, and plen­ty of under­wear and socks.  

With these items being a stan­dard for any trip, we’d also advise spe­cial­iz­ing your gear and equip­ment for the Karako­ram High­way – mak­ing sure you bring stur­dy walk­ing shoes – par­tic­u­lar­ly for those tak­ing on any of the peaks of the Karako­ram moun­tain ranges, as well as some light san­dals that will come in handy both at night and when trekking across rivers and lakes.  

We’d also advise bring­ing a sol­id tow­el – and for those who plan on tak­ing on any of the overnight treks or sleep­ing rough, a com­fy sleep­ing bag and yoga mat will be essen­tial. For equip­ment a good and weath­er and alti­tude resis­tant cam­era is a must – not just to ensure you cap­ture the best of the Karako­ram High­way, but also so that your cam­era itself can sur­vive the tough con­di­tions you’ll find on the road – and lend itself to great shots of some of the most extreme scenery that you’ll encounter.  

You’ll also need to account for the high alti­tude as well from a per­son­al per­spec­tive, and for this rea­son we’d strong­ly encour­age you to make sure you bring along alti­tude sick­ness tablets, with those going in the sum­mer months also high­ly rec­om­mend­ed to bring plen­ty of sun­screen. Along­side this all trav­el­ers should ensure they bring with them at least one torch, mos­qui­to repel­lant a cou­ple of pow­er banks to ensure devices remain charges – and per­haps most impor­tant­ly plen­ty of snacks and water to ensure you’re both hydrat­ed and full of ener­gy to tack­le the road of the Karako­ram High­way that lies ahead.  

Observe Local Customs:

Along­side ensur­ing you bring the cor­rect cloth­ing and equip­ment, it’s also essen­tial that you take note of local cus­toms when enter­ing Pak­istan. For starters do note that it is strict­ly for­bid­den to bring alco­hol into Pak­istan – and you’ll find that beer and wine is in short sup­ply across the coun­try, so for those who intend­ed to cel­e­brate dri­ving across the Karako­ram High­way with a drink – we’d advise hav­ing it on the plane on the way home.  

Addi­tion­al­ly for any female trav­el­ers head­ing along the Karako­ram High­way do note that a head scarf is expect­ed along the way, and we’d also advise all trav­el­ers to do their best to ensure they cov­er their shoul­ders and knees along the way – and espe­cial­ly when enter­ing local towns.  

Final­ly it’s also essen­tial across both Pak­istan and Chi­na that good respect for local cus­toms and locals are dis­played – includ­ing a lack of con­fronta­tion and swear­ing. With those who enter the Xin­jiang region of Chi­na also need­ing to accom­mo­date and accept that there will be strict secu­ri­ty prac­tices in places (includ­ing check­ing of phones and CCTV) and that solo trav­el across the region and express­ing polit­i­cal opin­ions is strict­ly pro­hib­it­ed. 

Get a SIM Card within Pakistan:

Final­ly as a cru­cial top tip – and of the most impor­tant prepara­to­ry ele­ments across the whole of the Karako­ram High­way – we’d high­ly rec­om­mend invest­ing in a SIM card when you arrive in Pak­istan.  

Avail­able at the Islam­abad Air­port and across Islam­abad itself, cov­er­age across Pak­istan and along the Karako­ram High­way is excep­tion­al and hav­ing a local SIM card gives you the secu­ri­ty of being able to call for help in an emer­gency – as well as arrange taxi’s, hotels and shut­tles – and keep in touch with your loved ones on your spec­tac­u­lar jour­ney across the stun­ning Karako­ram High­way. 

Cost:  

The flex­i­bil­i­ty and diverse route options avail­able to tra­verse the Karako­ram High­way, opens up this stun­ning won­der to be explored by peo­ple from all bud­gets – with a jour­ney across the Pak­istan sec­tion of the high­way by pub­lic trans­port and hitch­hik­ing being a great option for the bud­get con­scious back­pack­er – where those with a lit­tle bit of a more flex­i­ble bud­get hav­ing the option to trav­el the high­way by both self-dri­ve, in lux­u­ry and even mak­ing the cross­ing along the Khun­jerab Bor­der from either the Chi­nese Side or the Pak­istan side.  

While this is a won­der that can be explored in con­sid­er­a­tion of your own bud­get, all trav­el­ers will face a base­line of expens­es when set­ting off on the Karako­ram High­way. The First of this will like­ly be account­ing for your flights into either Kash­gar or Islam­abad and the flight back. While prices will vary based on your ori­gin point, as a min­i­mum we’d rec­om­mend putting aside at least $750 USD for those com­ing from the MENA or Asian region – and expand­ing this bud­get up to at least $2000 Usd for those com­ing from out­side this region.  

 You’ll then need to account for the cost of Visas – which for those sole­ly enter­ing Pak­istan can cost any­where between $10 — $100 Usd depend­ing on your nation­al­i­ty, with those enter­ing Chi­na cost­ing an aver­age of $120 Usd – but poten­tial­ly going high­er again based on your nation­al­i­ty.  

Hav­ing got your­self to the start­ing point of your jour­ney and got your visa’s – you’ll then need to account for cloth­ing and equip­ment, which will vary based on the sea­son you take on the Karako­ram High­way. For this, we’d encour­age you to set aside at least $100 Usd to ensure you have to bare essen­tials – includ­ing sol­id hik­ing boots, a tent and sleep­ing bag and appro­pri­ate cloth­ing, with it also being our rec­om­men­da­tion that you invest in a cam­era to ensure the mem­o­ries you take home of the tru­ly incred­i­ble scenery along the high­way and the stun­ning moun­tain peaks – par­tic­u­lar­ly of K2 and the Karako­ram Range – are as high qual­i­ty as pos­si­ble.  

Bud­get­ing as well for some good road snacks – which we’d advise to put between $5 — $15 Usd a day aside for, the rest of the bud­get out­side this base­line is tru­ly defined by the trav­el­er. Con­sid­er­ing the bud­get con­scious and back­pack­er trav­el­er first, and we’d advise mak­ing use of the pub­lic trans­port to explore the high­way – with their being an 18 hour bus that leaves Islam­abad 3 times a day and costs just over $10 Usd that can put you right in the heart of the Hun­za Val­ley and the town of Gilgit.  

For those who are con­tent to see one of the main high­lights of the Karako­ram High­way at the Hun­za Val­ley, it will be a sim­ple man­ner of get­ting the bus back to Islam­abad, alter­na­tive­ly for those back­pack­ing and car­ry­ing on north towards the town of Pas­su – then your three main options are hitch­hik­ing (which is cost free), hir­ing a dri­ver (more cost­ly) or book­ing a bus (which can cost up to $20Usd) when sched­ules and routes allow (we’d encour­age you to use Bookaru to check if a route runs) – or for the more adven­tur­ous and for a fur­ther cost man­age­ment option con­sid­er using all three meth­ods to explore the Karako­ram High­way in a tru­ly unique way.  

For those with a health­i­er bud­get and who fan­cy self-dri­ving the Karako­ram High­way on the Pak­istan side, then we’d encour­age you to pick your car up at Islam­abad Air­port – which is usu­al­ly the most reli­able place in the coun­try – and where you’ll find the most rep­utable ven­dors – and be sure to get a 4x4 to deal with the ter­rain. While trav­el­ers’ itin­er­aries and length upon the high­way are like­ly to be dif­fi­cult – those set on self-dri­ving should be advised to set aside at least $75 a day for car rental upon the high­way.  

For those with a health­i­er bud­get and who don’t want to deal with either the stress of self-dri­ving or the has­sle and incon­ve­nience of bud­get trav­el, then a fur­ther option to explore the high­lights and thrill of the Karako­ram High­way is through a guid­ed tour – with their being a range of tour options from 7 – 14 days which cost any­where between $3,000 — $6,000 Usd. While a pricey option, tak­ing on a tour lets you trav­el the high­way in true com­fort and see the absolute best of this stun­ning won­der – with it also being a great option for those who want to com­plete the full jour­ney of the Karako­ram High­way into Kash­gar in Xin­jiang in Chi­na.  

For those head­ing into or start­ing from Chi­na and tak­ing on the Khun­jerab pass, be sure to have your visa in advance – and you’ll also need to account for the trav­el from Kash­gar to the bor­der or vice ver­sa. Due to cur­rent restric­tions on move­ment with­in Xin­jiang, such trav­el can only be achieved with a guid­ed tour – that needs to be arranged in advance if pass­ing through the Khun­jerab bor­der from the Pak­istan side or arranged at the main tourism cen­ter in Kash­gar if trav­el­ling from Chi­na into Pak­istan.  

For those tak­ing on this route expect to pay a for­eign­er pre­mi­um of around $175 for trans­port and the guide, in what is a some­what uncom­fort­able and close­ly mon­i­tored jour­ney.  

Fac­tor­ing in accom­mo­da­tion and meals for those not on a tour – which we’d encour­age you to put aside around $20 Usd a day for those on a bud­get and around $50 Usd for the more afflu­ent trav­el­er – the base­line cost of vis­it­ing and trav­el­ling the Karako­ram High­way comes out to between $1000 Usd — $3000 Usd for flights, visa and essen­tials – and from there depend­ing on your cho­sen method of trav­el and the length of your trip, it can cost any­where between an extra $200 — $7000 Usd to explore this stun­ning won­der of the world.  

Fun Fact: 

An epic jour­ney over 800 kilo­me­tres of adven­ture high­way, the Karako­ram High­way is awash not only with stun­ning sights – from tow­er­ing moun­tain peaks, alpine lakes and quaint his­tor­i­cal vil­lages – but is also one of the most remark­able engi­neer and design feats and fac­tu­al­ly inter­est­ing des­ti­na­tions on the plan­et.  

Top of the list of the fun facts of the Karako­ram High­way is undoubt­ed­ly its title as being both the high­est paved road on the planed – stand­ing at a breath­tak­ing 15,466 feet in its tallest spot – and its title as fea­tur­ing the high­est bor­der cross­ing on the plan­et – the mighty  Khun­jerab bor­der which con­nects Pak­istan to Chi­na – with this bor­der post, which is closed between Jan­u­ary and April – also being home to the worlds high­est (and one of the most expen­sive) ATM’s on the plan­et.  

Along­side its height the Karako­ram High­way also stands as an impor­tant sym­bol of trust and friend­ship between Chi­na and Pak­istan – with the road, which is often abbre­vi­at­ed to the Friend­ship High­way – being con­struct­ed over a peri­od of 20 years between 1959 – 1979 – and opened to the pub­lic in 1986, being one of the few roads on the plan­et that pass­es through the Himalayas – mak­ing it not only a dri­ve that offers stun­ning views but mak­ing it an engi­neer­ing and true feat of archi­tec­tur­al inge­nu­ity.  

Yet despite this stun­ning feat, it is worth not­ing that this incred­i­ble won­der – and those for­tu­nate to trav­el upon it – owe their expe­ri­ence to the thou­sands of work­ers who toiled in chal­leng­ing con­di­tions to con­struct this high­way, par­tic­u­lar­ly the 810 Pak­istan work­ers and more than 200 Chi­nese work­ers who per­ished in its con­struc­tion. With those who want to pay their respects to the heroes who con­struct­ed the true won­der of the world of the Karako­ram High­way able to do so at the grave site for these work­ers in Gilgit.  

Top Sights & Best photo spot: 

An epic jour­ney – that can take you to the high­est bor­der pass, past three dif­fer­ent stun­ning moun­tain ranges for breath-tak­ing scenery of tow­er­ing snowy peaks, past alpine forests and lakes and through stun­ning archi­tec­ture of ancient King­doms, the route across the Karako­ram High­way is guar­an­teed to be filled with adren­a­line pump­ing adven­tures, cul­tur­al­ly enlight­en­ing expe­ri­ences and some of the best nature pho­tog­ra­phy and cul­tur­al pho­tog­ra­phy on the plan­et.  

The unique­ness of the pho­tog­ra­phy oppor­tu­ni­ties avail­able are undoubt­ed­ly enhanced by the fact that no two jour­neys upon the Karako­ram high­way are the same, with both the route and stop off’s under­tak­en on this 800 kilo­me­tre being at the dis­cre­tion of the explor­er – and thanks to the diverse sea­sons cre­at­ing ever-chang­ing scenery on the high­way every jour­ney – and pho­tog­ra­phy mem­o­ries col­lect­ed upon — guar­an­teed to be unique to and belong to the trav­eller.  

Yet despite this, there are undoubt­ed­ly some key high­lights that we’d rec­om­mend snap­ping – includ­ing the jew­el of the Hun­za Val­ley, the fairy mead­ows and the tru­ly stun­ning Khun­jerab Pass – home to an inter­sec­tion of the worlds five high­est moun­tains; the Himalayas, the Karako­rams, the Hin­du Kush, the Kun­lan Shan and the Tien Shan – with the high­way also a pho­tog­ra­phy and scenic par­adise for hik­ers – with the epic trails of K2, the Gon­do­goro Pass, the hikes with­in the Deo­sai Plains Nation­al all being tru­ly mag­i­cal and afford­ing stun­ning pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties.  

Best pho­tographed with a wide-angle lens – and lend­ing itself to high pix­e­lat­ed panoram­ic shots for those shoot­ing with phones – pin­point­ing the loca­tions and know­ing the most scenic spots on this stun­ning high­way can be daunt­ing and over­whelm­ing. So, to make sure the mem­o­ries and pho­tographs you cap­ture on the Karako­ram high­way are as spe­cial as pos­si­ble, and that you take in the absolute best on your epic jour­ney, we’ve round­ed out our top pho­to loca­tions and spots on the incred­i­ble won­der of the world that is the Karako­ram high­way. 

The Hunza Valley:

Our top pick for an unmiss­able pho­to spot on the Karako­ram High­way, the road through and the area of the Hun­za Val­ley is one of the most scenic and pho­tograph­able stops on the plan­et – with the tow­er­ing peaks of Karako­ram Range – includ­ing the Hun­za Peak and the impos­ing Raka­poshi pro­vid­ing a snow-capped stun­ning back­drop to green mead­ows and rolling val­leys – which is tru­ly beau­ti­ful.  

A spot that pro­vides incred­i­ble panoram­ic land­scape shots – the Hun­za val­ley stands at a mighty 8,000 feet and will leave you breath­less – in more ways than one. Along­side the stun­ning scenic beau­ty, the Hun­za Val­ley is also home to the incred­i­ble charm­ing towns of , Gan­ish and Karim­in­bad. With Karim­in­bad in-par­tic­u­lar­ly being a pic­turesque town with­in its own right with charm­ing, cob­bled streets – and it’s here that you’ll be able to take a pho­to­graph­ic trip through his­to­ry as you explore and pho­to­graph the twin forts of Baltit and Altit that stand against the peaks of Karako­ram – for a fur­ther incred­i­ble shot we’d advise head­ing up to the view­points for either fort at sun­set – where the incred­i­ble colours light up both the forts them­selves and the peaks behind them.  

Con­sid­ered the jew­el of the Karako­ram high­way – no trip across the stun­ning high­way should be with­out an explo­ration of the great Hun­za val­ley – and with the stun­ning snow-capped tow­er­ing peaks, the quaint rolling val­leys and the his­tor­i­cal land­marks, this unique val­ley is an incred­i­ble spot to cap­ture the best of this stun­ning won­der of the world.   

Gilgit & Uprising Memorial:

Lying in the shad­ow of the Hun­za val­ley moun­tains, the town of Gilgit offers not only incred­i­ble access to some of the stun­ning hik­ing treks on the Karako­ram High­way – but thanks to its charm­ing bustling streets is also one of our top picks for cap­tur­ing the essence of both the beau­ty and life on the won­der of Karako­ram.  

Best shot, in our view at sun­rise and sun­set, you’ll find some tru­ly pho­to­genic land­marks with­in the city – includ­ing the twin forts of Baltit and Alti­ti – which makes for ide­al loca­tions to snap the beau­ty of this town and out over the hori­zon of the Hun­za Val­ley. It’s also with­in Gilgit that you’ll find the upris­ing memo­r­i­al an invoca­tive and emo­tion­al trib­ute to those who rose against – and lost their life – in an upris­ing against the Mahara­ja in 1947, rep­re­sent­ing a chance to take in and under­stand the deep his­to­ry of this colour­ful and beau­ti­ful region.  

One of the pre­mier spots for city pho­tog­ra­phy and tru­ly under­stand­ing life with­in Karako­ram, for those trav­el­ling into the Hun­za Val­ley as their pre­mier Karako­ram High­way expe­ri­ence snap­ping and cap­tur­ing the beau­ty of Gilgit is an absolute must as you explore this won­der.  

Fairy Meadows & Nanga Parbat:

A fur­ther icon­ic stop along the Karako­ram High­way – and lying on the doorstop of Gilgit, the quaint Fairy Mead­ows are the grass­lands of the tow­er­ing peak ‘King of the Moun­tains peak’ of Nan­ga Par­bat (the world’s ninth high­est, at a tow­er­ing 8126 metres) — with this pho­to­genic spot, which mix­es the soft­ness of green grass, lakes and forests with the impos­ing snow-capped peaks – being reached by a bumpy jeep ride along a one-way nar­row path, that shows off the best of the risk and death-defy­ing road of the Karako­ram High­way – before open­ing up into the scenic won­der­lands of Fair Mead­ows.  

Liv­ing up to its local rep­u­ta­tion as the scenic jew­el of Pak­istan and the most scenic spot in the coun­try, the base scenery is tru­ly stun­ning – and it’s not uncom­mon to find hors­es graz­ing here, which only adds to the beau­ty and pho­to spots avail­able. For those with more time and who want to snap an increi­d­ble pic­ture – we’d advise tak­ing a day to hike to the base camp of Nan­ga Par­bat – where you’ll be treat­ed to stun­ning views of not only the beau­ti­ful Fairy Mead­ows below you but a unique van­tage point of the breath-tak­ing snow-capped Himalayas which stretched into the dis­tance – for what is a tru­ly mag­i­cal and stun­ning pho­to shot.   

Rakaposhi Basecamp:

Along­side tak­ing in the stun­ning beau­ty of the fairy mead­ows, for those with a lit­tle bit more time on their hands – and their trekking boots with them, a trip to the base­camp of the tow­er­ing 25,000 foot tall mighty moun­tain of Raka­poshi is anoth­er incred­i­ble expe­ri­ence that offers not just a stun­ning endurance chal­lenge – but some of the most scenic and pho­to­genic views across the whole of the Karako­ram High­way – as you stare down into the alpine quaint val­leys of the Hun­za Val­ley below.  

With the hike to base camp tak­ing a min­i­mum of three days, the hike to base camp of Raka­poshi begins from the charm­ing vil­lage of Minapin (2 hours east of Gilgit) and you can expect a chal­leng­ing and steep ascent up to the sum­mit that will tru­ly test your car­dio ! – but for those who make it the views at base camp are sim­ply stun­ning – as you find your­self with incred­i­ble views of snow capped peaks along­side you, and look down into stun­ning val­ley of Hun­za – for one of the most scenic and tru­ly gor­geous pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties that lets you cap­ture the absolute best of the scenery on the Karako­ram High­way.  

Deosai Plains National Park 

A short de-tour off from Gilgit and you’ll come to the apt­ly named ‘Land of the Giants’ of the Deo­sai Plains Nation­al Park – an incred­i­ble stun­ning nat­ur­al par­adise that com­bines the best of Himalayan snow-capped peaks, lush green mead­ows and rolling rivers and which gives explor­ers the chance to cap­ture some of the great­est and untouched nature on not just the Karako­ram High­way, but on the plan­et.  

An uncov­ered jew­el, the Deo­sai Plains Nation­al Park is also an incred­i­ble place for camp­ing, and for the wan­der­lust trav­ellers tak­ing on the Karako­ram High­way you’ll find a stun­ning shot of tents pitched by Sheosar Lake with­in the park – which rep­re­sents the true wilder­ness and wild­ness of both this stun­ning park and the jour­ney along the Karako­ram High­way.  

Best pho­tographed – and explored – in ear­ly spring, where the crisp blue skies enhance the beau­ty of the fields and lakes, the Deo­sai Plains is also an incred­i­ble place to pho­to­graph not only wild­flow­ers in full bloom – but also one of the best spots across the whole of the high­way to cap­ture ani­mals, includ­ing but­ter­flies, brown bears, Lynx’s – and best of all the elu­sive Snow Leop­ard.  

So for those with time and who want to expe­ri­ence and cap­ture the best nat­ur­al views and some of the world’s great­est scenic and ani­mal shots on the plan­et – the Deo­sai Plains Nation­al Park is an absolute must vis­it for incred­i­ble pho­tog­ra­phy oppor­tu­ni­ties.  

Gondogoro Pass:

Anoth­er of the stun­ning hikes across the Karako­ram High­way – the Gon­do­goro Pass is, in our view, the most chal­leng­ing yet also most scenic pass across the Baltistan region of Pak­istan – with this stun­ning snow and ice kissed pass – that will take you at least 16 days to cross – see­ing you lace up your snow cram­pons and hike up to an almost 5600 metre sum­mit pass­ing incred­i­ble scenic peaks of K2, Laila and the moun­tain range of Gasher­brums – for a breath­tak­ing expe­ri­ence and one that offers you tru­ly majes­tic pho­to shots of K2 and the Karako­ram Ranges.  

Tru­ly one for those who want stun­ning shots of glo­ri­ous moun­tains, the Gon­do­goro Pass is best under­tak­en in late sum­mer (August) where you’ll find the con­di­tions warmer and the chal­leng­ing ice and glacial sur­face melt­ed away. How­ev­er even in these soft­er con­di­tions, this is a route that car­ries the con­stant threat of land­slides and requires immense phys­i­cal fit­ness. But for those who take on this chal­leng­ing pass – the reward, views and pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties are tru­ly stun­ning and under­line why the great Gon­do­goro Pass is hailed as the ‘throne of the gods.’ 

The Hus­sai­ni Bridge:

Encap­su­lat­ing the adven­ture – and risk of the Karako­ram High­way, the Hus­sai­ni Bridge con­nects Hus­sai­ni with the neigh­bour­ing town of Zar abad – with the bridge – which con­sists of a series of step­ping-stone style planks sus­pend­ed above the waters of the Hun­za riv­er pro­vid­ing a death-defy­ing pas­sage between the two towns.  

While you’ll find locals hap­pi­ly hop­ping their way between the planks to make the jour­ney, the unique­ness of the Hus­sai­ni Bridge, com­bined with its stun­ning set­ting against the peaks of the Hun­za val­ley and the bright turquoise waters, make it alone of our favourite stops. But for the tru­ly adven­tur­ous, the chance to grab a pho­to of video of your­self nevous­ly mak­ing you way from plank to plank is undoubt­ed­ly one of the great – and funnest – stops on the Karako­ram High­way and a tru­ly beau­ti­ful and adven­tur­ous place to grab some unique pho­tos.  

 

Attabad Lake:

One of the most stun­ning arti­fi­cial­ly cre­at­ed lakes on the plan­et, the Attabad Lakes deep turquoise reflec­tive waters – which are set against the stun­ning peaks of the Hun­za Val­ley – make for awe-inspir­ing and beau­ti­ful pho­tos – with this incred­i­ble spot undoubt­ed­ly being one of the most stop pho­to stops across the whole of the Karako­ram High­way.  

A lake born out of tragedy – with the lake being cre­at­ed by the 2010 land­slide in the neigh­bour­ing Attabad Vil­lage that sub­merged huge swaths of the vil­lage, you’ll find not just a scenic beau­ty at this lake, but also the chance to under­take a range of adven­ture activ­i­ties typ­i­cal of the Karako­ram High­way – with fish­ing, jet-ski­ing and high-speed boat­ing all avail­able here.  

A pop­u­lar spot as well for both camp­ing – or for those with a deep bud­get glamp­ing – for an extra spe­cial shot on the Attabad Lake, you’ll need to vis­it out­side our rec­om­mend­ed time to vis­it — dur­ing the win­ter sea­son – where the cold tem­per­a­tures see the lakes water freeze – allow­ing you to grab pho­tos stood on top of this stun­ning lake against the back­drop of the Hun­za Val­ley.  

Passu village:

a small, quaint and charm­ing town, the town of Pas­su – which marks one of the last stops for those tak­ing on the Khun­jerab Pass – lies in the shad­ows of the tow­er­ing Pas­su Cathe­dral, which despite it’s name are not a reli­gious haven, but a series of tow­er­ing gold­en peaks stretch­ing more than 20,000 feet into the clear blue skies – which makes for a stun­ning back­drop for this incred­i­ble town, and gives you one of the great pho­tos along the Karako­ram High­way.  

Best cap­tured at sun­rise, where the peaks them­selves light up, the approach to Pas­su along the high­way is also equal­ly stun­ning – as you slow­ly wind your way around rolling rivers on your left and approach the Cathe­dral ahead of you – which marks your arrival into the pho­to­graph­ic town of Pas­su, where great sleep, com­pa­ny and food await you.  

Karakul Lake:

Enter­ing into the Chi­nese side of the Karako­ram High­way – and what will be your accom­pa­nied jour­ney to the fin­ish point of Kash­gar – or your approach to the Khun­jerab pass – and you’ll find the beau­ti­ful turquoise lake of Karakul that is well worth per­suad­ing your guide to stop off at.  

 The turquoise water of Karakul Lake liein the shad­ow of three stun­ning moun­tains – first­ly the mighty 25,000-foot moun­tain of Kongur Tagh – which is part of the Kongur Shan moun­tain range and whose stun­ning snow-capped peak stands as the high­est in the Xin­jiang region — and the incred­i­ble and tow­er­ing 24,000-foot moun­tains of Muz­ta­ga­ta (whose name trans­lates as Ice father) and Kongur Tiube. — which pro­vide a stun­ning and impos­ing back­drop for this mag­nif­i­cent lake.  

 Best pho­tographed in the ear­ly morn­ing, where your chances of min­i­mal cloud and the ris­ing sun adds to both the mys­tique and reflec­tion of the moun­tains on the green sur­face of the lake allow­ing for tru­ly spe­cial shots. Along­side the beau­ti­ful lake, you’ll also find set­tle­ments and town folk – who call the riv­er home – which can add for a fur­ther edu­ca­tion­al aspect to both your vis­its and your shots, as you cap­ture not only a stun­ning nat­ur­al beau­ty on the high­way, but cap­ture a unique way of life on your jour­ney across the Karako­ram High­way. 

Khunjerab National Park and Pass:

Tru­ly at the top of the world, the mighty Khun­jerab nation­al park and pass is one of the most unique and scenic stops on the plan­et – with this pass being home to the famous – and world’s high­est – inter­na­tion­al bor­der between Pak­istan and Chi­na – with a pho­to at the bor­der – and using the world’s high­est ATM, both of which lie against tow­er­ing snow capped peaks – being two of the must have pho­tos on the Karako­ram high­way. 

Along­side this, the Khun­jerab pass itself is tru­ly stun­ning, with the high ele­va­tion of this pass – which stands at a mighty 15,600 feet tall – see­ing you wind through snow capped moun­tains, and putting the best of the Karako­ram Moun­tain Range – and glimpses of K2, Broad Peak and the Hin­du rush all on dis­play – which pro­vide for stun­ning pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties.  

For the ani­mal pho­tog­ra­phers and nature lovers tak­ing on the Karako­ram High­way – and for those with the free­dom to explore the High­way on their own sched­ule – the Khun­jerab nation­al park also offers the unique chance to see – and pho­to­graph – the incred­i­ble rare wildlife of mar­mots, ibexs and even snow leop­ards – in one of the most unique and privliged sight­ings of these rare ani­mals.  

A majes­tic pass, which has devel­oped from its lit­er­al name of being ‘the Vale of Blood’ — so named because of its past use of ambush by ban­dits – to become one of the most unique spots on the plan­et –the high alti­tude bor­der cross­ing, the stun­ning land­scapes and rare wildlife – offer­ing some of the most awe-inspir­ing and beau­ti­ful pho­tog­ra­phy oppor­tu­ni­ties — that tru­ly encap­su­late the very best and beau­ty of the true won­der of the world that is the Karako­ram high­way.