Skardu is the one destination in Gilgit-Baltistan where the choice genuinely matters. Hunza is a road trip whatever you do. Skardu has an airport, and the flight into it is one of the great scenic approaches in aviation — when it operates.
The flight: one hour, and a real chance of cancellation
PIA runs Islamabad–Skardu, and the flight takes about an hour. The approach descends the Indus gorge with Nanga Parbat off the wingtip, and on a clear day it is worth the ticket on its own.
The problem is reliability. The route is flown under visual rules through mountain terrain, and it cancels for cloud with very little notice — sometimes after you have already checked in. Cancellations cluster in winter and during unsettled spells, but they happen in every month.
Practical consequence: never plan a Skardu trip where the flight is the only way the schedule works. Build the itinerary so that a cancellation costs you a day of comfort, not the whole trip. Every fly-in package we run has a road contingency written into it before you book.
The road: eighteen to twenty-two hours, usually split over two days
The drive goes up the Karakoram Highway to Jaglot and then turns east onto the Skardu road, which follows the Indus for about 160 km. That second stretch used to be the worst road most travellers had ever been on; it has since been rebuilt and metalled, and it is now a properly surfaced mountain road with the gorge falling away beside it.
Nobody sensible does it in one go. The standard split is a night at Chilas — hot, unremarkable, and purely functional — then five to seven hours on to Skardu the next morning.
What you get for the extra day is the Indus gorge itself, the Three Ranges junction where the Karakoram, Himalaya and Hindu Kush meet, and the Nanga Parbat viewpoints along the way. Travellers who fly in both directions miss all of it.
Cost
A return Islamabad–Skardu flight runs roughly PKR 28,000–35,000 per person depending on season and how early you book. Road transport as part of a group tour is already inside the package price.
For a group of four or more, the road is substantially cheaper. For a couple on a short trip, flying one way and driving the other is often the best value — you see the gorge once and save a day.
What we recommend
Fly in, drive out. You arrive fresh and get straight into the valley, and the return drive is the one you can afford to lose a few hours on. If the inbound flight cancels you drive both ways and lose a day at the end rather than the start.
If you only have five days, fly both ways and accept the risk. If you have eight or more, drive at least one leg — the road is a large part of what people remember.
Frequently asked
Eighteen to twenty-two hours of driving, normally split across two days with a night at Chilas.
Often enough that no itinerary should depend on it. Cancellations are weather-driven and can happen at any time of year, most frequently in winter.
It is a metalled mountain road with drops, driven daily by local transport. With a local driver in daylight it is a normal mountain journey. We do not drive the gorge sections after dark.
