Skardu

Skardu is the staging post for Baltistan and, for climbers, for the Karakoram itself. Four of the world's fourteen eight-thousand-metre peaks — including K2 — are reached from here. For everyone else, the appeal is the extraordinary landscape you can see without a technical climb.

The Katpana cold desert sits at over 2,200 metres, the highest sand dunes many travellers will ever walk on. Upper Kachura and Shangrila lakes are a short drive from town, and the valley road to Shigar and on to Khaplu passes forts that have been restored as heritage hotels.

Deosai National Park — the "land of giants" — opens roughly from late June once the snow clears, a rolling plateau above 4,000 metres where Himalayan brown bears range and wildflowers cover the plains in July.