Srinagar & Pahalgam — Two Nights on the Lidder

Met at Srinagar and driven to the lakeside, about half an hour. The included hour of shikara fills the late afternoon — out past the floating gardens, the lotus beds and the moored houseboats, with the Zabarwan hills going copper behind. It is a gentle first day by design; the valley's altitude is modest but the flight and the transfer make a full afternoon of sightseeing a poor idea.

The Mughal gardens in the morning — Chashme Shahi of 1632 around its spring, Nishat of 1633 in twelve zodiacal terraces, and Shalimar, made by Jahangir for Nur Jahan in 1619. The afternoon goes into the old city instead of adding another garden: Jama Masjid on its three hundred deodar columns, Shah-e-Hamdan built of painted wood without nails, and the lanes of papier-mâché and walnut workshops between them, which are working premises rather than showrooms.

South-east about two and a half hours, through the Pampore saffron karewas — purple for a fortnight in late October and bare the rest of the year — and past Awantipora, where King Avantivarman's ninth-century temples stand ruined beside the Jhelum. Pahalgam sits at about 2,200 m where the Lidder comes out of the mountains. The afternoon is deliberately free: the riverside walk upstream from the town is the best introduction to the place and costs nothing.

The day the four-night route cannot fit. The upper valleys are served only by the local taxi union, hired at the stand and paid directly, and with a full day all three are reachable: Betaab, closest and greenest, named after a film shot there; Aru, higher, quieter and the trailhead for longer walks; and Chandanwari at about 2,900 m, where the Amarnath pilgrimage starts and a snow bridge crosses the Lidder into summer. The afternoon is Baisaran, an hour's walk up through pine or a pony ride, with meadow and the valley below.

A last morning by the Lidder — the river holds brown trout and the fisheries department issues day permits with a beat allocation if you want to fish, which is arranged locally the day before. Then back to Srinagar in the afternoon, around two and a half hours, and aboard a houseboat for the final night: panelled cedar, a carpeted sitting room and a verandah over the water, with dinner served on board.

The floating vegetable market before dawn if you are willing — growers trading boat to boat from around half past four, finished by seven, and unchanged in generations. Breakfast aboard afterwards. Then the airport, allowing three hours: security at Srinagar begins with vehicle checks well outside the terminal and every bag is screened more than once before boarding.