Karakoram Highway Road Trip

The Karakoram Highway is the reason a lot of people come to Pakistan without being able to name a single town on it. It is a road with a reputation — built through the Karakoram at a cost in lives that is still commemorated along it, following the old Silk Road trading corridor, and topping out at a border post higher than any other paved crossing on earth. It earns the reputation.

The road, stage by stage

We have not put driving times in that table on purpose. They depend on the road's condition on the day, on where construction is active, and — mostly — on how often you stop, which on this road is constantly. Any itinerary that promises you an exact number of hours on the KKH is guessing.

How long you actually need

Eight to ten days from Islamabad gets you to Khunjerab and back without the trip becoming a commute. Under a week and you are driving past the things you came to see; people do it, and they arrive home with photographs of the road out of a car window.

The single most common regret we hear is not giving Hunza enough time. Karimabad, Altit and Baltit forts, Duikar for sunrise, Passu and Hussaini — that is three days on its own, and it is the part of the road everyone remembers. If something has to give, cut the far end rather than Hunza. Our Hunza tour packages are built around that pacing.

Should you drive it yourself?

You are allowed to, and we will still tell you not to on a first visit. The KKH is narrow and exposed in sections, shares its lanes with cargo trucks whose conventions take time to read, and has landslide-prone stretches where the right decision is knowing when not to proceed. Almost every foreign visitor travels it with a driver.

The cost objection is smaller than people expect, because a vehicle with a driver is priced for the vehicle, not per seat — four people share the same figure two people would pay. There is also a practical dividend: a local driver gets you through checkposts in minutes rather than in a long conversation, and knows which side of a landslide to wait on. If you would rather have the wheel for part of it, our car rental options include self-drive on the easier lower sections.

Permits, checkposts and the border

Good news, and it surprises people: the whole highway including Khunjerab Pass is open to foreign tourists on a standard tourist visa. No No Objection Certificate, no special permission. What you will meet is checkposts recording foreign passports, which is registration and takes a few minutes — carry a printed copy and it is faster. The NOC system applies to glacier trekking routes, not to this road.

At the top, the pass is the border. Actually crossing into China needs a Chinese visa arranged well in advance, and the crossing is seasonal. Essentially everyone drives up, stands at the marker at 4,693 m, feels the altitude, and drives back down. Which is worth the day.

Season, and the honest warning about July

The highway runs year-round as far as Hunza, but Khunjerab closes for the winter and opens somewhere in late spring depending on the snow. July and August are the busiest months and also the ones carrying landslide risk from monsoon rain and snowmelt — the road is cleared rather than shut for a season, but it can cost you a day, and an itinerary with no slack in it breaks when that happens.

September is the best combination: the passes still open, the holiday traffic gone, and the summer haze cleared so the mountains are actually visible. See best time to visit Pakistan for the full month by month picture.

Planning it

Start with your dates and how many of you there are, because both change the shape of the trip more than the route does. Then read the visa page, since that is the longest lead time on a KKH trip that involves no trekking permits.

Send us the window you can travel in on WhatsApp at +92 371 5303587 and we will tell you what is open in it and what a realistic day-by-day looks like — including when the answer is that your dates are too tight for the far end and Hunza would be the better trip.