Banjosa Lake situated in Poonch district of Azad Kashmir is a beautiful spot for family vacations. It's also very convenient and approachable from Rawalpindi/Islamabad. In fact from Rawalpindi (2 - 2.5 hour drive) you have to take the route towards Kahota and from there you have to go to Rawalakot in AJK. Rawalakot is 65 Kms from Rawalpindi and from Rawalakot Banjosa is 12 Kms.
I took the route from Mangla towards Kotli and then Rawalakot which was quite good as far as road condition is concerned one track which i took my way back home was (Mirpur - Islamgarh - Chakswari - Rajhdani - Gulpur - Sensa - Sarsawa - Baloch - Tararkhal - Banjosa) whereas i went there using the route (Mirpur - Islamgarh - Chakswari - Gulpur - Kotli - Tatapani - Hajira - Khaigala - Banjosa).
If you have any links you can reserve your stay at PWD resthouses at Banjosa which will make your trip memorable. Otherwise you can also find reasonable staying options in normal hotel (5-6 rooms) or a Hut.
In my opinion this is the best spot to enjoy your vacations with family if you have 2-3 days leave only. You can travel from Lahore and reach there in 6-7 hours drive on friday enjoy next full day and then come back on Sunday.
By the way i used Suzuki - Cultus in this trip and feel that it's enough and you don,t need SUVs in this trip. You can easily reach at banjosa using whatever vehicle you want to chose, the only thing is good wheels/breaking due to heights near Baloch.
