Skardu

Ask five Pakistanis how to spell Skardu and you might get five answers. Sakardu, Iskardu, Askardu, Skurdu, they all point to the same place: Baltistan's high-altitude capital, a wide valley at 2,200 metres where the Indus river slows down, spreads out and winds between sand dunes and snow mountains. It looks like several countries stitched together, which is roughly what a week here feels like.

Skardu is where expeditions to K2, Broad Peak and the Gasherbrums begin, and that heritage sets the tone of the town. The bazaar sells rope and down jackets next to dried apricots. Hotel walls carry photographs of climbers from the 1950s. You do not need to be a mountaineer to visit, but you will feel the pull of what sits beyond those ridgelines.

Getting there is half the story. We drive up the Jaglot road along the Indus gorge, a route carved into cliff faces high above grey water. It is slow, dramatic and completely worth doing at least once in your life. If you would rather skip the road days entirely, we run a separate Skardu by Air package with return flights, but the overlanders get bragging rights.

Once you are in, the valley opens up its icons one by one. Shangrila Resort, the famous 'Heart of Lakes' with its red-roofed cottages ringing a heart-shaped lake, is every bit the postcard. Ten minutes further up, Upper Kachura Lake (locals say Kachora) is its wilder sibling, deep blue and ringed by orchards, with trout lunches served on the water's edge.

Then the landscape does something absurd. Twenty minutes from those lakes you are standing in the Sarfaranga Cold Desert, white dunes at 2,300 metres, officially among the highest deserts on Earth. Jeeps race across the sand with the Karakoram stacked up behind them. People sandboard. In the same afternoon you can touch a glacier-fed river and get sand in your shoes, and that contrast never stops being funny.

Shigar Valley is the culture day. The 400-year-old Shigar Fort has been restored into one of Pakistan's finest heritage buildings, all carved wood and stone passages, and you can walk it with a guide who knows every story. Nearby, Blind Lake sits so still that the mountains double themselves in the surface. Paddle out if you like; most people just go quiet for a while.

We keep room for the green places too. Basho Valley is alpine meadow and pine forest with ice-cold streams running through it, the kind of spot where the group lunch stretches to two hours because nobody wants to leave. In blossom season, Chunda Valley turns pink and white for a few short weeks and photographers lose their minds.

Evenings in Skardu run the Karawaan way: bonfires, BBQ, tea that keeps coming, and skies with no light pollution worth mentioning. If the group is keen and the season allows, we point the jeeps at the Deosai Plains, the 'Land of Giants', a 4,000-metre plateau of wildflowers and brown bears that deserves its own trip entirely.

Seven days, one valley system, and more distinct landscapes than most countries manage. Download the brochure for the full day-by-day plan, and if you are weighing Skardu against Hunza, message us. We will give you a straight answer based on your dates, your group and how much driving you can stomach.