North Pakistan tour
Description of North Pakistan tour
From the bustling streets of Islamabad to the high valleys of Gilgit-Baltistan, this north Pakistan tour is an epic journey through some of the most dramatic landscapes in Asia. Travelling by road through mountain passes and river valleys, you explore a side of Pakistan shaped over centuries by ancient trade routes, remarkable scenery and a rich mosaic of cultures.
Your adventure begins with the heritage sites of Taxila before continuing to Naran, the beautiful Fairy Meadows and the foot of Nanga Parbat. Hikes, viewpoints and scenic drives reveal changing landscapes, from alpine pastures and glacial valleys to the vast expanse of Deosai National Park. Time in Skardu, Khaplu and along the Indus River showcases the beauty of Baltistan.
Hunza provides a different perspective, with walks through Karimabad, visits to Baltit and Altit forts, and time at Attabad Lake, Gulmit and Passu. The journey continues through Ghizer, the Phander Valley and over the Shandur Pass before reaching Chitral and the Kalash Valley, where animist and ancestral worship traditions endure. Swat and Peshawar complete the route with archaeological sites, museums and historic bazaars to roam to your heart's content.
Travelling as part of a small group means you'll be accompanied by a local guide. And throughout this tour, you'll use a succession of family-run businesses and community projects. Visits to women-led workshops and women-owned cafes help to spread the benefits of tourism, while contributions from the trip also help to support charitable work in Sindh. This is a rewarding and beguiling exploration of northern Pakistan in all its diversity.
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Responsible Travel
Planet
For transportation we use local transport companies and guides to minimise their travel thus avoiding unnecessary use of carbon emissions.We also advise our guests to take short showers so that the wastage of water is minimised.
All of our guides take bin bags with them to ensure that rubbish is disposed off in an appropriate manner and no pollution is caused or left behind. In Pakistan this is particularly vital because a bin isn't always readily available for our guests to throw rubbish in.
We are promoting the ancient heritage and natural landscape of Pakistan by visiting Baltit Fort, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Sites are chosen by the UNESCO committee and must "bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to civilisation", "an important interchange of human values" or be outstanding examples of major stages of Earth's history or ecological and biological processes in evolution. The entry ticket to this site enables the Agha Khani group to reinvest in the Fort and to ensure it is preserved.
We deliberately keep the group size to a maximum of 6 on this Pakistan tour, to ensure we minimise the human impact on the fragile sites and ecosystems that we visit.
Carbon Emissions: We've kept the group small so that we can use transportation that isn't as harmful to the environment as the use of a larger vehicle would be. Where possible we also try and use public transport such as rickshaws or walking on foot as we think this is the best way to enjoy a country and to get an authentic experience.
People
Community: We work with the local community to ensure that the tourism we bring in has a direct impact on the locals, with a particular focus on females and promoting entrepreneurship among them. Females who cook day in and day out have been provided with some entrepreneurial skills so that they can make a living from this, in some cases they supply to local kitchens and in other cases they have managed to get funding and supply local cafes. For the majority of the itinerary the places that we take our guests to eat at are locally run cafes and restaurants to ensure they get the most authentic flavours and to ensure that local businesses benefit.All the suppliers that we work with are local to ensure that we are creating job opportunities amongst them, hence all our ground staff are Pakistani. They know the country best and are the best brand ambassadors for the country. We encourage our teams to particularly focus on smaller business and home chefs because they are most in need from the income that would be generated from the tours.
Charity: We support the Yasmeen Lari Dosti Project, in which she is helping the people in Sindh to rebuild their communities so they can earn a livelihood for themselves, by donating £25 from every transaction towards the charity. The money is being raised to build water pump & solar panels so the villages have the infrastructure they need to grow crops again.
For the purpose of shopping and workshops we take you to local markets and handicraft workshops, so that these people can sell directly to you and get the bigger chunk of the profit margin.
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