Airport pickup and drop
Sixty minutes of free waiting after the aircraft lands, and a fixed fare to your area.
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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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16Vehicles, every rate published
24/7Booking and pickup, every day
FreeDelivery anywhere in Lahore
12 hrsDuty hours inside every daily rate
The distances
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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The vehicle
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.
Planning
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.
Tell us the dates and we will send the full price.
The rate, the duty hours, the overtime and every extra, in one message, before you commit to anything.
Questions
Asked and answered
The questions people actually put to us on this subject, with the figures rather than a promise to discuss them.
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.
How it works
Booking a car in Lahore, start to finish
Four steps, and the price is settled at step two rather than at the kerb.
1
Send the dates
Message or call with the dates, the pick-up area and roughly what you need the car for. No account, no form to fill in.
2
We send the whole price
The daily rate, the duty hours, the overtime rate, the fuel rule and anything else that applies, in writing, before you agree to it.
3
The car comes to you
Delivered free to your address anywhere in Lahore, with the driver, at the hour you asked for. We confirm the model year and the registration before dispatch.
4
Pay at the end
Settle when the car goes back, against the figures you were quoted. No security deposit is held, and nothing is added afterwards.
What we do
Our car rental services in Lahore
Chauffeur driven in every case. Each of these has a page that states the rate and the rules rather than inviting you to enquire.
Weddings and events
Hours agreed in writing before the day, so the overtime is never a surprise at midnight.
Read the answerMonthly and corporate
The same car and the same driver month after month, billed on one figure.
Read the answerJourneys outside Lahore
Fuel and motorway tolls are inside the fare we quote, both ways, for every route we publish.
Read the answerVans and coasters
Hiace and Coaster with a driver, for families, tour parties and office movements.
Read the answerWhich car you actually need
Group size, luggage and the road you are driving, with the cheaper option named where it fits.
Read the answerCoverage
Where we deliver, and how far we drive
Delivery inside Lahore is free, at any hour. Out of city fares carry the fuel and the motorway tolls inside them.
Keep reading
More places we drive
Every page on this site answers one question completely and shows the date it was last checked.
- Airport pickup and dropFixed fares by area, waiting time published
- Lahore to IslamabadOne way and return, with the M2 toll named
- Lahore to MurreeThe hill road, the season and the day length
- Lahore to MultanM4 south, one way and return
- Lahore to FaisalabadThe short M3 run, there and back in a day
- Lahore to SialkotAirport runs and factory visits
- Toyota Land Cruiser V8The one people book to be seen in
- Audi A6The executive saloon, and what it is not