Tour to Chitral and Kalash from Karachi

[waqas.ansari]

We are group of 3 to 5 friends and want to travel to Kalash Valley for the upcoming festival Utcha. We need to leave on Aug 12 from Karachi and have to reach Karachi back on 21st Aug (due to some unavoidable reason). Which is the best plan to do so?
What my plan is:

12 August (Night) or 13th August (Morning) - Karachi to Islamabad
14 - 15 August - Islamabad stay
15 August (Night) - Islamabad to Dir
16 August to 17 August - Dir stay (camping trekking)
17 August - Dir to Chitral then Kalash
18 August - Kalash stay (festival)
19 August - Kalash to Islamabad
20 - 21 August - Islamabad to Karachi

Are there more places where we can camp or stay? What are travel options and fares? Is it necessary to have permit to enter Kalash Valley? In which of Kalash's Valley does Utcha take place and when? Is Dir safe to stay or camp? Or other advises\suggestions from elders?
It's my 2nd trip and this time I want to go with public transport. I'll really appreciate your answer. Thank you

[mianmars]

If budget allows take flights to Chitral.

We recently went to kalash for the chillum joshi festival. Couple of us went by air from Peshawar n the rest of team by road from Psh.

Psh to Chitral by road is around 10-11hrs. Dir is right in the middle so around 5-6hrs from psh. The road team had hired a gli car till Dir which cost 6k with fuel. After Dir they had to hire a jeep to bamburet kalash which was around 8k with fuel. Kalash turn comes before chitral main city which is at Ayun. Ayun to bambueret is around 1 hour n the road is really bad.

You don't need any permissions to enter kalash valley. Hope that helped in some capacity.

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[zain15]

Just visited kalash,road conditions from Ayun to kalash is extremely bad,almost unreachable for small vehicles..road towards chitral from lawari top is also in very bad condition(from top to some km one can say satisfactory),then towards the beneath,one can't see any type of road,road from chitral to Gilgit via shandur top is also extremely bad,almost unreachable for cars...
In the end I concluded that may be chitral is not part of Pakistan,so govt. is not in the mode to spend a pinny upon chitral...
20 km+ tunnel of KKH (Hunza atta abad lack)road is fully functional within 2 years,while lawari tunnel 8.5 km is under construction from 1974..so chitral is not part of Pakistan..

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