Handpicked by Our Team

Twelve experiences we would do ourselves.

Not a bucket list assembled from other websites. These are the trails our guides hike on weekends, the meals our families cook, and the mornings our team wakes up early for — even when no guests are watching.

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Choose what excites you.

Adventure
7 daysBest in July–September

Great Lakes Trek

Vishansar, Krishansar, Gangabal, Nundkol — each lake a different shade of blue, each pass a different altitude. You camp beside glacial lakes at 4,000 metres with no other humans in sight. The water is so clear you can see the bottom at twenty feet. You cross passes where the world drops away on both sides. Most trekkers say it is the most beautiful trail they have ever walked. We believe them.

From Aamir India's finest multi-day trail. Our trek lead Bilal has done this route fourteen times and still finds new things on it.
Offbeat
Full dayBest in April–October

Lolab Valley — The Unknown Corridor

Tucked in Kupwara district near the Line of Control, Lolab sees fewer visitors in an entire year than Gulmarg does on a busy Friday. Dense apple orchards, poplar-lined streams, mustard fields in spring, and a stillness that feels almost forgotten. Our guide Mushtaq grew up a few villages from here. He knows a meadow above the treeline that no map has named.

Cuisine
An eveningBest in Year round

Wazwan Dinner — The Full Ceremony

Roganjosh, Rista, Gushtaba, Tabak Maaz — cooked overnight on a wood fire by a hereditary Waza chef, served on a copper trami shared between four guests. The host washes your hands before the meal begins. Each dish arrives in a specific order. The meal can last three hours. It is not dinner. It is one of the oldest living culinary ceremonies in South Asia.

From Aamir This must be arranged at least 3 days in advance. We work with hereditary Waza families in Srinagar.
Culture
Half dayBest in May–October

Naranag — 8th-Century Temple Ruins

Ancient stone temples at 7,000 feet in the Sind Valley, built by the Karkota dynasty at a time when Kashmir was one of the great centres of Sanskrit learning in the world. Scholars came from across Asia. The carved stonework is over 1,200 years old. Most visitors drive past without knowing they exist. The mountain view from the temple compound is one of the finest in all of Kashmir.

Offbeat
2 daysBest in June–September

Bangus Valley

At 9,000 feet in Kupwara with no infrastructure whatsoever — no power, no connectivity, no other tourists. The meadow is wide enough that the far edge disappears. Horses graze freely without fences. Gujjar families move through with their herds in late July. At night, the Milky Way is a solid band of light. Our team member Bilal camps here every July and calls it the closest thing to another planet he has found in Kashmir.

From Aamir Camping only. No phone signal. No guesthouses. No shops. That is entirely the point.
Culture
Half dayBest in Late October to early November

Saffron Harvest at Pampore

The world's finest saffron grows in fields 10km from Srinagar. Purple crocus flowers bloom before dawn and must be picked by hand within hours or they wilt. It takes 75,000 flowers to produce a single pound of saffron. We take guests to family-owned fields in Pampore where you can walk the rows and pick alongside the farmers as the sun rises over the mountains. There is nothing else quite like it in India.

From Aamir The harvest window is only two weeks long. We plan trips specifically around this — it fills up fast.
Offbeat
Full dayBest in May–September

Tosamaidan Meadow

Used as an artillery firing range for nearly fifty years, Tosamaidan was handed back to local communities in 2014. Today it is a vast, wild, un-commercialised meadow near Budgam with almost no visitors. No stalls, no ponies-for-hire, no vendors, no infrastructure at all — just kilometres of open meadow, wildflowers in every direction, and the sound of wind moving through grass.

Culture
2 hoursBest in Year round

Naqshband Sahib Shrine at Sunrise

Arrive before the city wakes at this sixteenth-century Sufi shrine in the old city of Srinagar. Devotional music fills the cold morning air. Wooden lattice carvings filter the early light into patterns on the stone floor. This is the spiritual and emotional heart of Srinagar — a living centre of prayer and community that most tourists visiting the Dal Lake houseboats never find.

Winter
1–3 daysBest in December–March

Skiing at Gulmarg

Long, wide runs through deep powder with Nanga Parbat — the ninth highest mountain on earth and one of the most dramatic peaks in the Himalayas — in direct view from the slopes. Still far less crowded than anything comparable in Europe or Japan. The gondola has two phases: Phase 1 to 2,600m, Phase 2 to 3,980m — the highest accessible ski terrain in Asia. Our team member Waseem has been skiing Gulmarg for fifteen winters.

From Aamir Asia's highest gondola climbs to 3,980 metres. Our team arranges ski equipment, instructors, and accommodation. First-timers welcome.
Nature
Full dayBest in May–September

Doodhpathri Meadows

A high-altitude meadow at 8,900 feet in Budgam covered in wildflowers from May through August — solid banks of pink, violet and yellow across rolling hillside. The streams are glacial, so cold they numb your hand in thirty seconds. Silver birch line the slopes. We arrange a picnic lunch by the water. No hotels, no cafés, no shops — just mountain meadow, clean air, and the sound of running water.

Culture
2 hoursBest in Year round

Kashmir Willow Bat Workshop, Halmulla

Kashmir produces the vast majority of the world's cricket bats — the raw willow is grown here and the craft of shaping it has been refined over generations. Visit a workshop in Halmulla village where master craftsmen split, press, shape and oil the wood entirely by hand. Each bat takes eight hours from raw block to finished product. The craftsmen test quality by the sound a bat makes when tapped — a dull thud versus a clear ring.

Nature
Full dayBest in April–October

Yusmarg — Pine Forest and River Meadow

A pine-ringed clearing west of Srinagar at 7,800 feet, far less visited than Gulmarg despite being just as beautiful. Horse rides through dense stands of fir and pine. Picnics by the Doodhganga river in a meadow so quiet you hear the water from three hundred metres away. A stillness genuinely rare anywhere in the Kashmir valley. Our driver Jamsheed says it is his favourite place in all of Kashmir and he has been to all of them.

Interested in any of these? Tell us and we will build it into your itinerary.

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Explore More of Kashmir

Food

The Wazwan & Kashmiri Cuisine

Every dish, explained — from the 36-course feast to everyday home cooking.

Offbeat

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Beyond Gulmarg and Pahalgam — valleys that see almost no tourists.

Culture

5,000 Years of Civilisation

Sufi tradition, Mughal craft, music, poetry and architecture.

Planning

Kashmir Through the Year

What each season actually offers, month by month.

Ready to Experience Kashmir?

Tell us what excites you. We will build a trip around it.

We are a Srinagar-based team. We know these places personally — not from a desk. Every itinerary is planned by someone who has been there.