Aoa dear friends, this June, we (some family members) planned for a 4 day trip to swat valley from Islamabad.
We planned this in the last week of June.
1- Day 1: Travel from Islamabad to Malam Jabba, night stay there
2- Day 2: Mallam Jabba to Kalam
3- Day 3: Kalam to Mahodand Lake
4- Day 4: Kalam to Islamabad back
Vehicle Used: As it was a family trip hence to make it more enjoyable we rented a high roof hiace and all travelled in it.
Hotels : In Malam Jabba, there are in general very few hotel options, I guess 2-3 are good hotels, and 2-3 kind of "ok". The good hotels (Falak Ser, baghdadi) were all booked hence we had to select a 2nd category hotel.
Where as in kalam, there are number of options, we opted for "West view", a newly built one, and 2 queen rooms costed 4500 per night.
Road Condition: Islamabad till Mangora it is fine, the route to Malam Jabba is also fine. The road from Mangora to kalam is about 100km long, abt 50 km of this is fine but the rest abt 50km is bad. The actual road is damaged by flood, the makeshift road is gravel and uneven, it took us about 4-5 hrs to cover this 50-55km. Then from Kalam to Maho dand is a 4x4 track, we tried going their on hiace which can only cover the half of it. And then we have to shfit to a surf. We should have taken a 4x4 from Kalam, which should have been the right decision, hence do not take your car on this Maho Dand road.
Time taken:
ISB to Mangora : 5 hrs
Mangora to Malam Jabba : 2.5 hrs
Mangora to Kalam : abt 6 hrs
Kalam to Maho dand lake : 2.5 hrs
Note: This pictures being shared are taken by my brother in law, M. Usman.
Following are some from the pics lot, SubhanAllah:
