Trip to Swat Valley - Mini Switzerland

[mudasernaeem]

In August 2012 Hotel "New honey moon" charged 2500/- Per night

Zabardast deatil waiting for more + pics

[IIIM5]

14th May: 4 Hours drive from Islamabad to Saidu Shareef/Mingora & checked in PTDC Motel
15th May: 1 Hour drive to White Palace hotel & after spending an hour left from White Palace Hotel to Malam Jabba which is 2.5 hours drive. Later left from Malam Jabba to Miandam which is 3.5 hours drive and checked in hotel Imperial.
16th May: Left early morning from Miandam to Malam Jabba and reached there in 3.5 hours. The distance is 100KM only but the road condition is extremely bad and you will get tired quickly. If you have kids then i won't suggest to go on that road and if you still want to go then ensure you have pickup or 4 wheeler. Checked in the hotel new honey moon(found it best in Kalam as PTDC was close). Later went to Mataltan area which is 35 minutes drive and returned to hotel.
17th May: Left from Kalam to Saidu Shareef and reached there in 5 hours. Checked in PTDC Motel.
18th May: Back to Islamabad.

PTDC Motel in Saidu Shareef: 2000 Rs.
Imperial Hotel in Miandam: 1500 Rs. (It is behind PTDC)
New Honey Moon Hotel: 1000 Rs.(It's the last hotel in Kalam across the river Swat)

This was off season so probably the hotel rates were little low. After seeing actual Switzerland i can confirm that Swat is mini Switzerland but the only lacking stuff over is transportation resources such as roads, trains & chair lifts. Also they need to focus on hotel conditions. There was a lot of greenery and the snow was on mountains peak only.

The area was safe and there was no issue at all & we enjoyed our trip.

You missed the major part of Switzerland,if you have managed to stay one more day at Kalam and one day round trip to Lake Mahudand via Oshu and Aabshar.Trust me you can't even imagine what you missed.

[haseeb_eng]

You missed the major part of Switzerland,if you have managed to stay one more day at Kalam and one day round trip to Lake Mahudand via Oshu and Aabshar.Trust me you can't even imagine what you missed.

There was glacier on the way to the lake and we couldn't proceed further. No problem we can go next time hopefully when the motorway will reach till Kalam Inshallah

[haseeb_eng]

Trip Pictures

[asifcae]

great...

waiting for more pics

[cool2033]

Waiting for more pics brother

[Xoofi]

Beautiful pics

[BILAL3538]

Beautiful Pics Dear

[zahid135]

Beautiful pics.
waiting for more...........

[greatusama]

good bayee good

[aesiege]

Zabardast details and pics !!!

[haseeb_eng]

The road to lake will be open sometime in June.

Also i would advise, that on the very first day instead of checking in Saidu Shareef PTDC Motel it's better to go directly to White Palace hotel and stay there. That will give you two benefits.. first one is that you will save some time for the next day & the second benefit is that the views in White palace are good. Their hotel rate per night was 3000 Rs.

[Raheeln]

any contact numbers ??

[hassangr8]

Good Details..... nice pics bro....

[nazli.nizami]

14th May: 4 Hours drive from Islamabad to Saidu Shareef/Mingora & checked in PTDC Motel
15th May: 1 Hour drive to White Palace hotel & after spending an hour left from White Palace Hotel to Malam Jabba which is 2.5 hours drive. Later left from Malam Jabba to Miandam which is 3.5 hours drive and checked in hotel Imperial.
16th May: Left early morning from Miandam to Malam Jabba and reached there in 3.5 hours. The distance is 100KM only but the road condition is extremely bad and you will get tired quickly. If you have kids then i won't suggest to go on that road and if you still want to go then ensure you have pickup or 4 wheeler. Checked in the hotel new honey moon(found it best in Kalam as PTDC was close). Later went to Mataltan area which is 35 minutes drive and returned to hotel.
17th May: Left from Kalam to Saidu Shareef and reached there in 5 hours. Checked in PTDC Motel.
18th May: Back to Islamabad.

PTDC Motel in Saidu Shareef: 2000 Rs.
Imperial Hotel in Miandam: 1500 Rs. (It is behind PTDC)
New Honey Moon Hotel: 1000 Rs.(It's the last hotel in Kalam across the river Swat)

This was off season so probably the hotel rates were little low. After seeing actual Switzerland i can confirm that Swat is mini Switzerland but the only lacking stuff over is transportation resources such as roads, trains & chair lifts. Also they need to focus on hotel conditions. There was a lot of greenery and the snow was on mountains peak only.

The area was safe and there was no issue at all & we enjoyed our trip.

Salam,
Me n my husband with 2 small kids are going to swat by 19th June 2013.......can u give me tips for road travel....we also want to be back in 3 to 4 days .....how do we cut the trip short but see as much as possible. We will then go to naran Kalgan as well. Pls advise whether we should go directly or take 2 days rest in Islamabad n then go to naran.thanks for Ur advise.jazakallah

[ranasherdil]

Salam,
Me n my husband with 2 small kids are going to swat by 19th June 2013.......can u give me tips for road travel....we also want to be back in 3 to 4 days .....how do we cut the trip short but see as much as possible. We will then go to naran Kalgan as well. Pls advise whether we should go directly or take 2 days rest in Islamabad n then go to naran.thanks for Ur advise.jazakallah

What your mode of transport.

Swat and Naran Kaghan are different valleys.

If coming via train. Get a one day rest at isb or Murree

[faisal_here]

haseeb thanks for the usefull info, one question I m having is about the road conditions, from your narrative it seems that road segment from Islamabad to Mangora is good, but from Mangora to kalam (100 km) is very bad, is this assumption correct ? I am asking this as I have heard from some one that this route is good (or may be there is some alternate road available) ? please comment

[waseem14pk]

Nice trip buddy !!!
Road condition of Kalam ??
Which ride you were using ??

[akkhan56]

Salam,
Do you contact numbers of new honey moon hotel and imperial hotel? How was your experience with these hotels? Do you recommend these for a family stay?

Sent from my HTC Desire C using PW Forums mobile app

[haseeb_eng]

I just want to make a correction over here in my earlier thread.

On 16th May: We left from Miandam to Kalam(not Malam Jabba)

The road till Miandam is fine. After that the road from Miandam to Kalam is in very bad situation. We were using 4x4 pickup. Even though the drive till Kalam was very bad and tiring but i would call it a worthy experience. May be by now the glacier after Mataltan might have gone and the roads might be open till the lakes.

There is only one way to reach Kalam which runs parallel by river Swat, there is no alternate route. Unfortunately i don't have contact numbers of these hotels. The hotel names i had mentioned are all family hotels.

One thing is for sure without Kalam your Swat valley tour won't be completed & personally all of us liked Kalam the most.