Srinagar & Pahalgam with Gulmarg and Sonamarg Day Trips — Five Nights

Your driver meets you at Srinagar airport and takes you to your hotel in the city, your base for the first three nights. Nothing is scheduled for today. The rest of the day is free for you to rest after the flight or look around on your own, and dinner is at the hotel.

The car leaves Srinagar for Gulmarg, a hill resort set in a broad meadow in the Pir Panjal range. The day here is on foot: a walk across the golf course that fills the centre of the meadow, a stop at St Mary’s Church, a small stone-and-timber church from the colonial period, and the Children’s Park. The gondola and pony rides are optional and paid for there. You return to Srinagar for the night.

A second day out, this time along the Sindh valley, where the road runs beside the river and past rice fields before it climbs to Sonamarg, the "meadow of gold". From the meadow, the Thajiwas Glacier is reached on foot or by pony, hired and paid for on the spot. The road carries on up the valley towards Baltal, a base camp for the Amarnath pilgrimage, which is not part of this trip. Back to Srinagar by evening.

After breakfast you check out and the car takes you from Srinagar to Pahalgam, the town on the Lidder river that is your second and last base. Today is the transfer only: no sightseeing is scheduled on the way or on arrival. Check in, take the afternoon as it comes, and have dinner at the hotel.

This day is deliberately left open. No excursion is planned and nothing is pre-booked, so you can spend it by the river, in the town, or simply at the hotel. If you would like an outing, local taxis and ponies are hired in Pahalgam and paid for directly; your hotel can point you to the stand. Breakfast and dinner are at the hotel as usual.

You leave Pahalgam after breakfast and drive back to Srinagar airport for your flight. Because the road journey and the departure fall on the same day, we confirm a suitable flight time with you when we quote, so that the morning is not rushed. The trip ends when you are dropped at the airport.