Kashmir Without a Houseboat — Two Nights in Each

Met at the airport and taken to a lakeside hotel, around half an hour. The included hour of shikara in the late afternoon is the day's only fixture — out past the floating gardens and the lotus beds. Staying in a hotel rather than aboard means the boat is an excursion rather than the accommodation, which some travellers much prefer and which is the organising choice of this whole itinerary.

A full day in the city. The Mughal gardens along the eastern shore in the morning — Chashme Shahi of 1632, Nishat of 1633 in its twelve terraces, Shalimar of 1619 — and Pari Mahal on the ridge behind. The afternoon crosses to the old city for Jama Masjid on its three hundred deodar columns and Shah-e-Hamdan's painted nail-free woodwork, finishing at Shankaracharya on Takht-e-Suleiman for the whole lake system from above.

Two and a half hours south-east through the Pampore saffron karewas and past the ninth-century Awantipora ruins on the Jhelum. Pahalgam at about 2,200 m by early afternoon, where the Lidder runs through the middle of the town and the walk upstream along it is the best possible way to spend a first afternoon — pine, fast water, and the valley closing in above.

The full day above Pahalgam by local union taxi, the only vehicles permitted up there and paid directly at the stand. Betaab is the nearest and most photographed, Aru higher and a working village with the Kolahoi trails leading off it, and Chandanwari at about 2,900 m the Amarnath roadhead with its snow bridge. Baisaran in the afternoon, an hour up through pine on foot or by pony, for the meadow above the valley.

The single long transfer of the trip, around four hours across the width of the valley from the Lidder to the western hills and up through Tangmarg. Gulmarg lies at about 2,650 m in a bowl of meadow ringed by fir, wildflower from May, with a golf course among the highest in the world and the small stone church of St Mary built in 1902. The afternoon walks the meadow rather than riding anything.

The Gondola in the morning when the wind is lowest — Kongdoori at about 3,080 m, then Apharwat at nearly 3,980 m, with snow underfoot even in high summer and the Pir Panjal across the valley. Tickets are bought at the corporation counter. The afternoon has options a one-night stay never reaches: the walk or pony ride up to Khilanmarg for the meadow above the treeline, or Strawberry Valley, or simply the church and the golf course. This is the day the second Gulmarg night buys.

Down through Tangmarg to Srinagar, about two hours, which leaves the morning intact for anything at Gulmarg you did not reach. If the flight is late enough there is time for Hazratbal or a last hour on the Dal boulevard on the way through. Then the airport, with three hours in hand — Srinagar's multiple security cordons begin on the approach road and cannot be rushed.