Assalam o Alaikum Pakwheelers!
I visited Neelam valley last week with my wife and bro. I went through lots of posts related to Neelam valley trips to gather as much information as i can in order to plan this trip and make it hassle free. Now i feel obligated to post the details of my trip to help other who wants to visit the heaven on earth in winters.
Trip details:
Day 1
- Took flight from Karachi to Islamabad.
- Hired a Corolla Xli 2013 from Airport for the whole trip. Car driver was very humble person and that was one of the best part of our trip. I can provide his contact details if anyone is interested.
- Traveled to Muzaffarabad. Reached there at around 4 PM.
Day 2
- Visited Pir Chinasi. Wasn't able to get all the way to the top as road was closed due to frozen ice or 'Kora'. Found a nice spot to spend some time in snow.
- Traveled back to Muzaffarabad and decided to travel to Karen same day.
- Muzaffarabad to Karen took around 4 hours due to difficult travelling conditions.
- Stayed overnight in Karen.
Day 3
- Hired a Jeep to visit Sharda and Upper Neelam
- Took around 2 hours to get to Sharda. It started snowing after half an hour of leaving Karen. When we reached Sharda, everything was wearing white blanket of snow. It was an out of the world experience, white snow melting on our hand. That was the best moment of our trip.
- Spend some time at Sharda, had a hot cup of tea and left for Upper Neelam.
- Took about 2 hours to get back towards Keran to the diversion to Upper Neelam, as road condition became worse due to frosted ice. From there it was about 20 mins drive to Upper Neelam. It was a fascinating place with the view of whole Neelam valley. It was snowing heavily with strong winds, and very chill, when we got there. Stayed there for a little while and got back to Keran.
- We decided to travel back to Muzaffarabad from Keran as weather was getting worse and we didn't want to stuck there in extremely cold conditions.
- Reached Muzaffarabad at about 9 PM.
Day 4
- Traveled to Rawalakot. Took us around 4 hours to get there, due to land sliding and bad road conditions in lots of small patches.
- Heavy snow reached there before us to welcome us
- We postponed our plan of going to Banjosa lake and stayed at hotel overnight.
Day 5
- Sun was out with full shine to make our road to Banjosa lake easier.
- We started our drive to Banjosa lake little late to give the frosted ice time to melt.
- We still faced some difficulties on the was to Banjosa lake due to frosted ice. Our car was slipping on the ascend and we decided to take Jeep to avoid any inconvenience.
- I asked a couple of Jeep drivers to take us to the lake and drop back to our car. One jeep driver gave me the number of a person at Banjosa lake who can ride me to the lake and drop back.
- Jeep came to us in about half an hour and dropped us to the lake safely.
- Lake's surface was frozen due to cold weather.
- Returned back to Rawalakot and continued our journey back to Islamabad.
Day 6
- Reached Islamabad in about 3 hours from Rawalakot.
- Took some rest at hotel for an hour or so
- Went out to explore Islamabad in winter.
- Visited Pakistan Monument, Centaurus mall and completed our day with dinner at Monal.
Day 7
- Visited Faisal Mosque and Lake view park
- Birds aviary in Lake view park was an unexpected and pleasant experience. Spent more than 2 hours in there.
- Took our flight back to Karachi.
The trip was awesome. Best part was the Snow fall at Sharda. It was mesmerizing and over whelming at the same time. After visiting Northern area few times in summers, I must say that I like this winter trip more than any of them. Pics will be uploaded soon InshaAllah.