An Expedition to Shangri-la: The Mythical Karakoram Highway
A 1,300-kilometre ride to the Khunjerab Pass, the highest road border crossing in the world, past Attabad Lake’s turquoise water formed by a 2010 landslide – twelve nights along the Karakoram Highway.
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An Expedition to Shangri-la: The Mythical Karakoram Highway
Tell us your trip details and we'll put together a complimentary Stradora Expedition Pack for the journey.
12 nights through Pakistan
Twelve nights from Islamabad along the Karakoram Highway, guided, 1,300 kilometres on a CFMoto 450.
The road is the reason. The Karakoram Highway took twenty years to build, cost the lives of hundreds of workers and runs through the collision zone where three of the world’s great ranges meet, which is the most concentrated high mountain scenery on any public road anywhere.
A flight carries the group to Skardu, then the Nomal Valley and Attabad Lake, which did not exist before a landslide dammed the river in 2010 and is now a stretch of turquoise water with the old road underneath it. Hunza follows, with the Baltit and Altit forts above the valley, both of them around a thousand years old and restored rather than ruined, and apricot orchards under seven-thousand-metre peaks. Khunjerab comes next at 4,714 metres, the highest paved border crossing in the world, on the Chinese frontier, then Upper Hunza and Nalta on the way back down to Skardu and Islamabad.
Accommodation in inns and hotels in single or double rooms, the airport transfers, the CFMoto 450, all the meals, two professional guides, first aid, a chase vehicle with a driver, mechanic, tools and spares, all the fees and permits and the drinking water are all included; the Pakistan visa, flights, medical insurance, gratuities, alcohol and any damage to the motorcycle are not, and a five-hundred-dollar bike deposit is required. The full day-by-day itinerary sits behind an enquiry form on the operator’s site. May to October is the season, since Khunjerab is closed by snow outside it, and travel advice for the region is worth checking before booking.
Images selected by Stradora to represent the journey.
What's included
- Single or double occupancy luxury accommodation in inns and hotels
- airport transfers
- a CFMoto 450 motorcycle
- all meals
- two professional guides
- first aid
- chase vehicle with driver
- mechanic
- tools and spare parts
- all fees and permits
- all drinking water
Not included
- Pakistan visa
- flights to Islamabad
- medical insurance
- phone/internet charges
- driver/guide/mechanic gratuities
- motorcycle damage (USD500 bike security deposit required)
- alcohol
Ready to drive it?
12 days, from £5,133pp
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