Hunza Valley

Why go to Hunza Valley

The valley everyone means when they say they want to see the north. Karimabad sits on a shelf above the Hunza river with Rakaposhi at 7,788 m filling the window, two forts above the bazaar and apricot terraces stepping down to the water.

Hunza is the easiest of the great valleys to fall for and the hardest to leave. Karimabad is the base: a bazaar street of walnut-wood shopfronts, Baltit Fort on the rise behind it and Altit Fort a kilometre downhill, both restored by the Aga Khan Trust and both worth a guided hour. From Duikar, twenty minutes above the town, you get the whole valley at sunrise with Rakaposhi, Diran and Ultar Sar on three sides. The valley runs on apricots — fresh in July, dried on every rooftop by September — and on a literacy rate that has been the highest in Pakistan for decades. Spring brings blossom through April; autumn turns the poplars gold through the second half of October.

Don’t miss

• Baltit Fort and Altit Fort with a local historian
• Sunrise from Duikar over the whole valley
• Rakaposhi View Point at Ghulmet on the way in
• Apricot and walnut orchards at Altit
• Hunza cuisine: chapshuro, diram fitti, hoi garma

Common questions