How to Get to Gilgit from Islamabad

By Plane

This is obviously the easiest and less troublesome way to travel to Gilgit, given that the flight doesn't get canceled. They are quite notorious for canceling flights due to the unpredictable weather in the mountains, so I do not consider this option to be reliable.

I had a flight from Skardu to Islamabad cancelled on me, and I had to scramble my way back to Islamabad by road (32 hours!). I still missed my flight out of the country, so if you are planning to fly, please leave at least 3-4 days in your schedule in case you have to find other alternatives.

Pakistan International Airways flies from Islamabad to Gilgit twice a day in the morning at around $113 USD. You might be able to find it cheaper through Expedia or Skyscanner as they may have some third-party discounts for you.

If the flight is canceled, another way you can travel from Islamabad to Gilgit is by bus.

By Bus

NATCO is a government-owned bus company that connects northern Pakistan to the rest of the country, and you can board one from Islamabad to Gilgit. It is probably the most reliable mode of transportation for independent travelers planning to go up north from Islamabad.

The bus will cost you 2,500 PKR and it will take around 18 hours to reach Gilgit. It runs 3 times a day, all overnight, starting from 5 PM, 7 PM, and 9 PM, but they will recommend tourists to take the 9 PM one as there are certain parts of the Karakoram Highway that the government does not feel comfortable having tourists passing through at night, namely Chilas. You can read more about my experience under safety concerns.

I would recommend that you buy the bus ticket a day before. However, if you do not have time, you can also come to the terminal a few hours earlier and get your ticket then. The bus terminal is located at Pirwadhai Bus Terminal in Rawalpindi. You can take an Uber there.

Once you've got the ticket, be at the terminal 30 minutes before and wait in the room next to the ticket kiosks. The driver will call you when the bus arrives.

Due to previous incidents, the government is not taking any chances with tourists traveling through the Karakoram Highway, and there are certain things you need to prepare before you get on the bus.

Things do change a lot in Pakistan, may it be the bus schedule, documentation required, etc., if before your trip, be sure to consult NATCO official website, just in case.

Things to Prepare Before Your Trip

• Prepare at least 10 copies of your passport. This is very important as there are many checkpoints along the Karakoram Highway, and the driver is obligated to report a foreigner traveling on his/her bus to every single one of them. So, if you want a good uninterrupted sleep, prepare the copies and give them to the driver or his assistant beforehand, and they will manage it for you. In my experience, they took 7 copies, and I had to go out of the bus once to register and get my photos taken.
• They do stop for meals and toilets but do prepare some snacks and water in case you are stuck somewhere due to roadblocks or landslides. It's not uncommon to be stuck, as the first part of the Karakoram Highway is still under construction.
• Prepare a good noise-canceling earbud and an eye mask if you want a good night's sleep. They tend to stop a lot, either for toilets or police checkpoints, and they will not hesitate to turn the lights on in your face.

Safety Concerns

Overnight buses in Pakistan are pretty safe, and, like in most Muslim countries, men and women are seated separately unless they know each other. So, if you are a solo woman traveler, you will likely have the whole two seats for yourself and are unlikely to be seated with creepy men.

The presence of all these police checkpoints may seem a little excessive, but they are there to protect us. So, if there are any incidents, you can always report them to the police at one of these checkpoints.

As mentioned previously, there are certain areas where the government does not feel comfortable letting tourists roam freely at night, and one of those places is Chilas.

From my personal experience, I was traveling in the opposite direction with a shared taxi, and since I was the only non-Pakistani in the car, we were stopped at a checkpoint after Jaglot. It was around 11 PM, and they told us that we had to turn back and wait until sunrise because we had a foreigner in the car.

For security reasons, they wouldn't allow us to travel through Chilas at night. We tried to persuade them for half an hour, but they wouldn't budge. So, we had to sleep in Jaglot until 5 AM before they let us through.

I missed my flight because of these stupid rules, but at least I made a few new friends coming out of it. Many rules in Pakistan don't make sense, but the best you can do is accept them and go with the flow. The last thing you need is a problem with the police in a country like Pakistan.

Further Reading for Pakistan

I hope this guide will help you plan your trip to Pakistan. I have written a ton of more articles about Pakistan, and here's a selection of them to further assist you in planning your trip to Pakistan.

• Looking for a complete itinerary and travel guide for Pakistan? One Month Travel Itinerary for Pakistan.
• If you do not have one month to spare, you can spend 2 weeks traveling the Karakoram Highway from Islamabad to Sost. Here's a complete travel guide and a 2-week itinerary for traveling the Karakoram Highway.
• Lahore is a beautiful city full of stunning Mughal and British architectures that have stood the test of time. If you are looking for things to do in Lahore, here’s 7 amazing things to do in Lahore.
• Islamabad is the new capital city of Pakistan, built with a modern mindset in mind, and it shows. Here’s 6 best things to do in Islamabad.
• Fairy Meadows and Nanga Parbat, the 8th highest mountain in the world, are probably the most accessible 8000+ mountains out there. Here's a complete hiking guide to Fairy Meadows and Nanga Parbat Base Camp.
• Another great hike you can do is the Rakaposhi Base Camp hike that will take you up atop the Nagar Valley with an unbeatable view of the Minapin Glacier. Here's a complete hiking guide to Rakaposhi Base Camp in one day.
• The Hunza Valley is one of the most beautiful valleys in Pakistan. The capital city of the Hunza Valley is Karimabad, which is a perfect base for you to explore the Valley. Here's 5 awesome things to do in Karimabad, Hunza Valley.
• You can also watch my travel videos about South Asia here: Sri Lanka travel video, Nepal travel video, and Pakistan travel video.
• Want to know where to go after Pakistan? How about exploring the Golden Triangle in India, doing some trekking in Nepal, or going off-the-beaten-path to explore Sri Lanka by train?
• For all articles about Pakistan, visit Pakistan Travel Guide page.
• Looking for more travel guides for South Asia? You can find more on my South Asia Travel Guide page.
• For more of my travel guides, visit my Destinations page.