Your First Trip Together

You land at Srinagar Airport and your personal host is waiting outside with a name card. No crowds, no confusion. The drive to Dal Lake takes about twenty minutes, and your host uses that time to tell you about the city, answer your questions, and let you know what to expect over the next seven days. Your houseboat is moored on the quieter side of the lake. The wood is hand-carved cedar. The rooms smell like walnut oil and old roses. You board from a small jetty and the houseboat staff greet you with kahwa tea and a plate of dry fruits. Take the afternoon to settle in. Sit on the deck. Watch the shikaras drift past. The Zabarwan mountains catch the last light and turn from green to gold to grey. Dinner is served on the houseboat. The cook has been told it is your honeymoon. He will make sure you know it.

If you wake up early, and you should, the sunrise on Dal Lake is one of the most romantic things you will ever see. The water is perfectly still. The sky turns from black to purple to rose. Your shikara arrives at the houseboat at sunrise. The boatman rows you through the floating gardens, past vegetable sellers starting their morning rounds, past lotus pads the size of dinner plates. There is no sound except the oar. After breakfast on the houseboat, your car takes you to the Mughal Gardens. Shalimar Bagh was built by Emperor Jahangir for his wife Nur Jahan. The story goes that she looked at the terraces, the fountains, the chinar trees reflected in the water channels, and said nothing. She did not need to. Nishat Bagh is next, twelve terraces stepping down toward the lake. Chashme Shahi, the smallest of the three, has a natural spring. The water is cold and clear and people say it aids digestion. After the gardens, the rest of the day is yours. Explore the old city, or return to the houseboat and do nothing at all.

Gulmarg is about ninety minutes from Srinagar. The drive climbs through apple orchards and pine forests, and the road narrows as you gain altitude. When the trees open up, you see the meadow: a vast green bowl ringed by the Pir Panjal range. In winter, this is Asia's best ski destination. In summer, it is a meadow of wildflowers. The Gulmarg Gondola takes you to 3,980 metres in Phase 1. The cabin seats eight but feels like it is just the two of you. The view unfolds slowly: the meadow below, the tree line, and then the peaks. At the top, the air is thin and cold and the silence is enormous. If snow conditions allow, you can go up to Phase 2 at 4,267 metres. The Himalayan panorama from there is hard to describe. You stand at the edge of India, looking at peaks that stretch into Pakistan and China. Coming down, you stop for lunch at a local restaurant our team recommends. The drive back to Srinagar arrives just in time for a candlelit dinner on the houseboat.

The drive to Pahalgam takes about two and a half hours. This is the stretch of Kashmir that film directors have been using for decades. The road follows the Lidder River through forests of pine and deodar, past saffron fields and walnut orchards. Pahalgam itself is a small town at the meeting point of two rivers, surrounded by mountains. We visit Betaab Valley first. It was named after a Bollywood film, but the place itself predates any movie by a few million years. The meadow sits at the base of a valley so green it seems artificial. Then Aru Valley, smaller and quieter. Nomadic Gujjar herders camp here in summer with their horses. The grass is soft and the river runs clean and cold. Your hotel in Pahalgam sits among the pine trees. The sound at night is the river. Nothing else. Dinner is at the hotel, and the staff knows you are honeymooners. They will take care of the details.

This is the day we deliberately leave empty. No packed schedule. No early morning wake-up call. A honeymoon needs at least one day where nothing is planned and everything is possible. If you want to walk along the Lidder River, the path from your hotel follows the water for about three kilometres through pine forest. If you want a pony ride up to Baisaran meadow, we can arrange it. The meadow is sometimes called "mini Switzerland," which undersells it considerably. If you want to visit Chandanwari, the glacier point about sixteen kilometres up the valley, your driver is available. The road climbs through dense forest and ends at a snowfield even in summer. Or you can stay at the hotel, order room service, sit on your balcony, and watch the clouds move across the valley. That is also a perfectly good day. In the afternoon, if you feel like it, the local market has handmade shawls, wooden carvings, and saffron at good prices. Dinner is at the hotel.

The morning drive back to Srinagar takes about two hours. The scenery on this road never gets old. Back in the city, we take you to the places where locals actually shop. The Boulevard stretch near Dal Lake has some of the best Pashmina stores in Kashmir. Our guide knows which shops sell genuine products and which ones mark up for tourists. If you want saffron, the price is better here than anywhere else in India. Kashmiri walnut-wood carvings, papier-mache boxes, copper samovars, and hand-embroidered shawls all make excellent things to bring home. After shopping, you return to your houseboat for the final night. We arrange a special farewell dinner. The houseboat cook prepares a multi-course Kashmiri meal. Candles on the deck. The mountains reflected in the water. This is the evening you will talk about years from now.

Breakfast on the houseboat. Your last morning on Dal Lake. The kitchen makes whatever you want, but the Kashmiri bread and honey is worth trying if you have not already. Check-out is relaxed. There is no rush. Your driver takes you to the airport whenever you need to leave. The flight home always feels shorter than the flight in. Most couples we host tell us the same thing: they did not expect Kashmir to feel this way. Some of them come back for their first anniversary. We will be here.