Overview

This safari pairs three very different sides of the Hunza region into one trip: the historic, fort-studded valley around Karimabad; the world’s highest paved international border at Khunjerab Pass; and the colorful, lake-filled side valley of Naltar. Together they cover history, geography, and natural scenery in a way that a single-destination trip can’t.

Khunjerab Pass sits at 4,693m on the Pakistan-China border, in the Karakoram range at the northern edge of Gilgit-Baltistan’s Gojal region — the highest point on the entire Karakoram Highway, and by most measures the highest paved international border crossing anywhere in the world. The drive up through Khunjerab National Park, Pakistan’s largest national park, is as much a part of the experience as the border marker itself: high-altitude grassland and rock give way to alpine terrain that’s home to Marco Polo sheep, Himalayan ibex, and — rarely, but not never — the elusive snow leopard. Naltar, by contrast, is a pine-forested valley reached by a rugged jeep track off the Karakoram Highway near Gilgit, known for its vividly colored Bashkiri Lakes and Pakistan’s oldest ski resort.

Because Khunjerab’s high altitude and border-post hours make it a full-day undertaking on its own, and Naltar’s jeep track requires a separate detour from Gilgit, this safari treats each as its own dedicated day from a Karimabad base — giving each destination proper time rather than rushing between them.