After a small yet a memorable trip to Skardu and adjoining areas, I plan to write this mini-travel guide to Skardu, for those who haven’t yet been to this most amazing and wonderful place in the world.

About Skardu:
Skardu is a small town in the Baltistan Region of Pakistan. The popular languages are Balti and Urdu, spoken by the natives, who are very friendly, peaceful and welcoming people. Contrary to what some might think, Skardu (up till now) has been a very safe place and you should feel free to travel with friends and family anytime you want.
Type of tourism you should expect:
The area of Skardu is blessed with some of the most beautiful and unadulterated mountain scenery in the world. If you love natural scenery, this is the place to be. The city and its resorts are calm and quite places so there’s almost no night life in those areas.

Travelling to Skardu:
there are two ways to arrive to Skardu. One is by Road and other is by Air. If you are feeling really really adventurous and want to enjoy a scenic ride, you can take the Pakistan Tourism Buses to Skardu. I should warn you that people who have travelled by Road, do not think it was one the best decisions they made. The ride is around 20 to 24 hours long, mostly on a single track road. In bad weather conditions, it’s definitely not recommended as there have been cases of major accidents, so avoid it.

If you plan to travel by air, there’s a daily flight to Skardu from Islamabad on PIA. You will be required to buy the tickets from a PIA office and confirm them, 24 hours prior to the flight. They require you to get your seats confirmed because flights to Skardu are usually cancelled due to bad weather. The same procedure applies when you wish to travel back to Islamabad. You will have to get your tickets confirmed (stamped) from the PIA office in Skardu. Remember, if you do not get your tickets stamped, you won’t be allowed to board on the flight (at least that’s what I am told by the PIA staff).
If you do not live in Islamabad, this means that you will have be in Islamabad a day earlier than your flight to get it confirmed. In other case, you can send your tickets over to someone you know in Islamabad or Rawalpindi to get your tickets stamped.
More flight information
The PIA flight 451 flies to Skardu from Islamabad daily at 10:00 am (usually). It’s a 45 minutes flight, hich is well worth the price you pay. During the flight, if you are sitting on the right side, you will see some of the most beautiful mountain ranges from Nanga Parbat, Raka Poshi and also a distant view of the K2, the queen of all mountains.

The flight lands around 10:45 am at Skardu airport. The airport is a very basic one with no modern airport facilities. You will have to pull your luggage from a carrier van! From there onwards, you can travel towards your hotel/resort of your choice. This same flight then leaves for Islamabad again at 12:30 pm (approx)
The Shangrila Resort:
We stayed at the Shangrila resort in Skardu. The resort, which is the best available accommodation in the area is built around a lake called Lower Kachura. (our driver told us that kachura means, lots of water). The Shangrila resort, as they call it, is truly heaven on earth. Okay that might be exaggerating, but yes, it is a good place, very scenic, peaceful, and unique. Where else will you find living in a resort, surrounded a mountains, and a natural lake in middle. The manager, Mr. Ishtiaq is a nice friendly guy and so is the other staff. There was this one guy, Shahab, who was a cook/waiter/boat rider told us that he was the under 17 squash champion of Pakistan!

Excursions
Upper Kachura Lake
Upper Kachura lake is a fifteen minutes drive from Shangrila resort. Then there is 10 minutes walk to the lake side. You will be mesmerized by the beauty of what you will find there. A beautiful lake, ice blue in color, surrounded by a range mountains covered with snow. You can have tea and trout fish in a small hotel there. You can also choose to take a boat ride in the lake

Shigar Valley:
Shigar valley is an old establishment. The thing to see there is the Shigar Fort, which is now been operated by Sareena Hotels. You can actually book a room and stay in the rooms , build about 500 years ago. The food is okay and the service is passable.
Satpara Lake:
Satpara Lake is for me, the most amazing, unforgettable, and beautiful place. Similar to Kachura Lakes, it is surrounded by the mountain ranges, but multiply the effect by 10 times and that’s how beautiful Satpara Lake is. When we went there, it was getting cold, so we didn’t went for the boating. Just stood there, and embraced the freezing cold breeze coming straight from the glaciers.

Things to remember when going to Skardu:
1. Check the weather in advance. If it’s cloudy/rainy, expect delayed flights and you could be stuck there for some days.
2. Best months to be there are towards end of March till August
3. Keep warm clothes, it gets really chilly out there even in day time
4. Take a nice cool camera. It’s a heaven for photographers
5. Do not take infants along due to rough weather conditions
6. Take medicine, supplies and also a tea maker if you are a tea addict like me. The hotels close by 10 ish, which is kind of mid-day for most Karachites.