The purpose of writing this thread is to share my share my experience on the recent trip that I had to Naran this year. This would definitely help those families who are eager to visit Naran while having limited budgets. They would get an idea of how to wisely budget their visit and enjoy more in less money.
It was a 5D/4N family trip. My family consists of myself, my wife and one little daughter age 18 months. We left on Saturday morning from Rawalpindi to Naran and return on Wednesday evening. I will first give my itinerary day by day and then compile all the expenses in the summary that I will include in last of this thread.
Day 1 (Departure from Rawalpindi and arrival to Naran):We had an advance booking (three days earlier) of PTDC bus service which runs from Flashman Hotel Rawalpindi directly to Naran. It leaves Rwp at 9:00 morning and reach Naran at 6:00 evening. It runs only for three months i.e. Jun-Jul-Aug. The ticket cost is 1300 per seat. It stop at one station in the way at PTDC Balakot for lunch. It is advisable to have your own arrangements for lunch which you should take from home as the lunch at PTDC Balakot is too expensive and not good in taste and quantity. After arriving at Naran at 6:00 pm begins the toughest part of the tour i.e. to find a hotel for stay. As the floods of tourists begin to arrive Naran at that time of day, and because of the weekend, it is difficult to find a good room at affordable price. ( I tried to book room on phone one day before but its not effective to book on phone as you cant see the room physically and judge if the demanded rent is justifiable or not.) I left my family at the PTDC hotel reception and then left alone to find the room. I took me around 2 hours and in between I visit almost 15 hotels of different categories in quest of a good affordable room. In most of the hotels the room was not available. Where there was available either the room was not good or the rent was too high. My range was 3000 but I was willing to pay as much as 3500 if the room was good. At last I was able to bargain a room for 3000 per night. It was a good room and the only reason I get it for low price was it was not situated on the main road besides it was slightly in a street adjacent to main road. I donāt know the hotel name. After settling in the room, we left for dinner. There were many restaurants on the street and it was difficult to chose one. But in quest of affordable food I was not looking for some fancy restaurant. Then I decide to step in a restaurant called Punjab Inn or something like that. It was sort of a chappar hotel but of enormous size and there was so much crowd in that restaurant that most of the large families were waiting for their turn. Perceiving long queues of waiting people as a sign of good taste we entered and manage to grab a table. We ordered one Chicken Biryani and one Chicken Qourma. When the dish arrives in front of us and we had the first bite, we were regretting our decision to step in here and to order this specially the Biryani. It was merely be titled as biryani, as it was simply a plate of boiled-half cooked rice (toota chawal-could you believe it) with a small piece of tasteless chicken sitting on top. Anyways we manage to eat some of it and then rush out of there. The bill was around 450 (biryani-170, qourma-200, 2 roti-40, service charges-40). The day ends.
Day 2 (Day trip to Saiful Malook): I had a plan to visit on that day. I talk to many jeep drivers and the rent which they were demanding was 2000. There was no bargaining in that. Being a small family I could not afford to hire a full jeep. There were other small families looking for jeeps too. I talk to one family and they agree to share the half rent with us. Therefore I paid just 1000 to jeep driver for Saif-ul-Mulook. We left at 10:15 am and it took us around 1.25 hour to reach there. The road to lake (if you call it road, otherwise it is a dirt-track) is way too bumpy and pretty dangerous. Most of the drivers tend to park their jeep uphill and one has to walk down to the lake, arguing that it is not accessible to drive down or it is not allowed to park the jeep down, but if your driver is cooperative and you insist then he will take the jeep and park it down the hill. The driver allowed us two hours to stay at the lake. Although this little amount of time is not enough to justify with the beauty of the lake and to explore it fully but its fixed by all the drivers. There were many food stall at the lake. We had Kashmiri daal chawal at the lake which were far better then the chicken biryani we had last night. It cost us 300 for that. After coming back to hotel we decided to change the hotel and most of the tourists were leaving naran at day time and many rooms were getting vacant. We manage to find a very good room in a much better hotel. Initially he was demanding the same 3000 for this but after much argument he agreed to charge us at 2500 per night. We were happy to arrive in that hotel as its room was much bigger, newly furnished and it had a garden outside the hotel. The hotel name was Park Hotel. For dinner we had chicken boti, chapli kabab with naan and soup, at food stall (not restaurant) which all cost us around 500. The day ends.
Day 3 (Day Trip to Lalazar & Lulusar Lake): Today we were planning to visit Lalazar and then Lake Lulusar. The jeep rent for this trip is whooping 4500. So again we were in search of some family that can accommodate with us for this trip. As more and more people are attracted towards Saiful Malook and very few people are interested to visit lulusar due to tiring long distance and high jeep rent, it was difficult to find another family interested to go there. Anyhow after one hour searching on the road interviewing people where they are going, we were successful to find a nice and friendly family from Multan that also wanted to go there. It was a large family of 12 persons but they were willing to accommodate us with them. They already had hired two jeeps so we sit in one jeep with four more people. This way the trip cost us only 2200. The way to lalazar is quiet dangerous, I would say far more dangerous than the saiful malook road. Although it is less bumpy, the road is made up of what we call āchikni mittiā with less concentration of rocks. That makes the jeep to slip and lose control if the road becomes wet. Therefore most of the drivers ask tourists to come back before rain. Our jeep also got slip at one spot on way back as water coming from some nearby stream made the road wet and slippery. But the driver was expert enough to control the jeep at right moment. It takes almost three hours from Naran to Lulusar. On our way, we stopped at one ādhabaā restaurant at Jalkhad for lunch. It was a typical āpathan hotelā where everything was cooking on firewood. We ordered Chicken Karhai and Lobia. It was extremely delicious, which we were not expecting as the experience we had earlier at Naran. But the food was really tasty with typical smokey flavor that we had by cooking on wood. Then we ordered doodh patti that was equally good. It was the most yummy tea that we ever had during our stay at Naran. After reaching Lulusar, we spend almost two hours there. It was really very cold there. Some of our jeep fellows who did not had their lunch at Jalkhad were feeling hungry. But there was not much to offer in terms of snacks and food at Lulusar. One man at a camp was selling pakoras and Chana Chawal. Our fellows having no choice had to order pakoras and chawal. To their surprise, tasteless pakoras with no chatni or masala were selling at 100 per 250 gm, the same that you can eat at Naran at 60 per 250 gram. Also a āthandiā plate of chana chawal cost 120. It is advisable to have your own arrangement for lunch from Naran or have a stop at Jalkhad for lunch otherwise you have to rely on expensive pakoras and chana chawal at Lulusar. For dinner we decide to explore some more restaurants. Keeping in view of costly food of a āchapparā hotel, we decide why not try food of a standard restaurant. There we find a very good and well maintained restaurant of Gateway Hotel. It was offering a very good atmosphere with outdoor seating arrangement on charpai and rides and jhoolas for kids. The menu card was offering lots of variety at standard (neither too expensive nor too cheap) cost. We ordered peshawari namkeen karhai this time. It was 400 per half karhai and proved more then enough for two persons. The total bill we had to pay in last including cold drinks, roti and service charges was around 500, and this time it was not a regretting experience. The day ends.
Day 4 ( Exploring Naran): After our tiring day long visit to Lulusar, we were not willing to take another jeep ride. So we decide to stay at Naran and explore the nearby places. After breakfast we were out on naran bazaar on foot. Then we spend some quiet time sitting on stones at River Kunhar. The Naran is totally empty at day time as most of the tourists went outside naran on different site expeditions. Very few stays at Naran during the day. Therefore all of the restaurants are empty and they offer very limited variety of food. For lunch we had daal mash and murgh cholay at a small restaurant at a mere cost of 250. It was good. At evening we return to our hotel and spend the rest of the evening sitting in the hotel park. For dinner, we visited the same Gateway Hotel again. This time we order Chicken Biryani. It was good and again enough for two persons. It cost 300 for a serving of two persons. So the bill we got in the end was less then 400. The day ends.
Day 5 (Back to Rawalpindi): We get up early in the morning and get our packing done. We set on foot to PTDC motel from where we could get our return bus. It is better to get the advance booking done some days earlier. I prefer to buy the return tickets on the same day as you purchase the arrival tickets. This way you are assured of getting the return tickets on the day you wanted without getting into trouble of not getting seats on desired dates. The bus left exactly at 9:00 am. It was a comfortable a/c coaster but the driver do not turn on the a/c until it arrives at Mansehra because of the road that requires continuous uphill and downhill driving. During its way back, it stopped at Mansehra for lunch at a small local restaurant. It was not a PTDC motel neither a standard restaurant. The reason for stopping here might be the driverās settlement with the restaurant owner in terms of commission/free lunch. Here we had one biryani which was average and one lassi which was not good at all. The return trip took one hour less as most of the journey was downhill and also there was not much traffic on the road as we had earlier. We arrived at Flashman Hotel at 5:00 pm in the evening. The temperature at pindi on that day was whooping 46C. my daughter developed cough and cold due to this weather change from hot to cold and then from cold to extreme hot weather. We also felt that our complexion becomes darker due to exposing ourselves for all days long in direct sunlight in Naran. Anyways it was an extremely great and relaxing trip and for me it also proves to be economical as I had estimated the budget for this trip of around 25,000 and I was able to complete the whole trip in around 22,000 (i.e. 11,000 per head). Below is the summary of my trip expenses in different major heads.[U]
Expenses Summary:[/U]
PTDC Bus Tickets => 1300x2+1300x2=5200
Hotel Room Rent => 3000+2500x3 =10500
Jeep Hire => 1000+2200 =3200
Breakfast => 100x4 =400
Lunch => 200x4 =800
Dinner => 400x4 =1600
Total => 21700
Note: I could not be able to share the pictures due to personal reasons. Sorry in advance.
