Hunza Valley

Hunza Valley is in the north of the country, next to Chinese border. It is mountainous with stunning scenery. A popular domestic tourist location it is beginning to open up to foreign market.

It's remote and difficult to get to. There are flights to an airport in Gilgit which has a small landing strip and needs good weather. There is also an air force base at Skardu which takes domestic flights as well. There is talk of Emirates flying direct to Skardu which would start to open up area.

From Skardu it is four hours north to Gilgit and then it's two/three hours north to main Hunza Valley. Our plans changed due to weather we were due to fly in to Gilgit and then out of Skardu but in the end it was reversed. 

Roads are mountainous, narrow, suffer from regular rock falls and require careful navigation. The views can be amazing as you drive but equally scary. When you get to some of the more remote locations you are rewarded with amazing views of some of the highest mountains in the world. You are quite high, we got to just below 3,000 metres at one stage and you start to notice impact of altitude. I was generally ok, some small headaches at times but a few suffered a bit more.

With the tour guide who has been with us throughout being from Hunza we had the benefit of real local knowledge and we benefited hugely. We stopped at some really interested locations and were able to hear about and understand local history/traditions. Trees in autumn colours were perfect.

Overall it is stunning. It's has the opportunity to be a major tourist area for international visitors - how it achieves it whilst keeping the beauty and respecting nature will be the challenge.