The north
Rent a Car from Lahore to the Northern Areas
Naran, Swat, Gilgit, Hunza and Skardu. Long roads, real mountains, and the trip where the wrong vehicle is a genuine problem rather than an inconvenience.
These are multi day trips quoted individually, not fixed one way fares, because the cost is driven by the number of days rather than the distance. Naran is about 525 kilometres from Lahore, Swat about 506, Gilgit about 758, Hunza about 846 and Skardu about 923. All of them need an SUV, an experienced mountain driver and an itinerary planned around daylight rather than distance.
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How far these places actually are
These are road distances from Lahore, taken from routing engines rather than from straight lines on a map. The drive times are the honest part of this page, which is to say we are telling you where they cannot be trusted.
Why there are no drive times in that table. Routing engines calculate these roads at free flowing speeds. For the Karakoram Highway, the Kaghan Valley and the Skardu road that produces figures that are wrong by hours, because they ignore gradient, single carriageway sections, checkposts, landslide delays and weather. For Skardu we could not find a single routed source giving a real world time at all. We would rather leave the column empty than fill it with a number that gets someone driving a mountain road after dark.
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Where an SUV stops being a preference
On a motorway an SUV mostly buys fuel consumption. On these roads it buys clearance, traction, cooling under sustained load and a chassis that survives a surface the designers of a Corolla did not have in mind.
The daily rates for all of these are on the price page. Northern trips are quoted by the day plus the PKR 2,000 a night driver allowance, plus fuel and tolls at cost, and the whole figure is agreed in writing before you leave Lahore.
Four things that decide whether the trip works
- Plan around daylight, not distance. The right question is not how many kilometres today, it is where are we when it gets dark. Mountain roads at night are a different risk entirely.
- Two days each way to Hunza and Skardu. Anyone quoting these as a single day drive is quoting a routing engine, not a journey.
- Check the season before you book the hotel. Babusar closes. Roads close. We will tell you what we know about a date honestly, including when the answer is that you should go a month later.
- Tell us the full itinerary. A vehicle prepared for 2,000 kilometres of mountain road is a different vehicle from one prepared for a week in Lahore, and the difference is made before you leave, not on the hard shoulder.
What happens if something goes wrong up there
A replacement vehicle in Gilgit is not an hour away. What we commit to is that we get you moving and we get you home, that recovery is our cost, and that you are not charged for time lost to a mechanical failure. The full position is on the breakdown page, and it is worth reading before a trip like this rather than after one.
Questions
Asked before booking
How far is Hunza from Lahore?
About 846 kilometres by road, via the M2, the Hazara Motorway and the Karakoram Highway. Routing engines give around eleven hours, which is a free flowing estimate and not a realistic single day. It is two days each way with a night in between.
How far is Skardu from Lahore?
About 923 kilometres. We could not find any routed source giving a usable real world drive time, and we will not invent one. Plan it as a multi day journey, not a long day.
Do I need a 4x4 for the northern areas?
For Naran and Babusar, for Skardu, and for anything off the Karakoram Highway, yes. A Fortuner, Prado or Land Cruiser. For Swat on the M16 Expressway a sedan reaches Mingora comfortably, but not the valleys above it.
How much does a northern trip cost?
It is priced by the day rather than by the kilometre, with the daily rate for the vehicle plus the PKR 2,000 a night driver allowance, plus fuel and tolls. Tell us the itinerary and we will quote the whole thing in writing before you commit.
When is the season?
Naran and Babusar are usually open roughly from summer into early autumn and closed by snow outside that. Hunza and Gilgit are reachable year round on the Karakoram Highway, weather permitting. We will tell you honestly what a date looks like rather than taking the booking.
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