What to do and see at the Gilgit Serena Hotel
The hotel stands at the foot of the Karakorum mountain range commanding breathtaking vistas of its snow-capper peaks and rugged landscape.
- Rose and Organic Fruit and Vegetable Gardens: This 8 acres garden is famous for its roses, Cherry and apples. It has 100 different varieties of roses.
- Water Channel Walk: There is a water cannel walk to Kargh Buddha, just follow the water channel of Jutial to Barmas and Baseen. It will take three hours trek from the hotel to Kargh Buddha.
- Victory Monument of Taj Mughal was built about 700 years ago and it takes about 30 minutes walk form the hotel to get there. The monument is a reminder of Taj-Ud-Din Mughal, an Ismaili ruler from Badakhshan who came to Gilgit Baltistan during the midst of 13th century AD. A memorial tower (14'-4" width and 21'-10" height) was built by his soldiers on the south mountain of Khomar and Jutial at an altitude of 1,000 ft above Gilgit town. Government of Pakistan, Department of Archaeology is the legal owner of monument.
- Kargah Buddha: The Kargah Buddha a rock carving beside the Kargah Nala 14 Kilometer from the Gilgit Serena Hotel west of Gilgit along the road to Punial is the most popular short outing from the hotel. The Buddha was carved in the seventh century a monastery and three stupas about 400 meters upriver from the Buddha, were excavated in 1938-39, fallowing the discovery of so-called Gilgit manuscripts in 1931. The local legend about the Buddha tells of a man devouring ogress called Yakhshini who lived at Kargha.
- Jutial Nala: is behind the hotel, like most valleys in the Gilgit Baltistan Jutial Nala has a very narrow mouth, but a 6 Kilometers walk along the stream through the steep side gorge takes you to coniferous forest and pastureland. Follow the irrigation channel behind the hotel to the left cliff face, than take the goat path into the gorge keeping to the right of the stream. It takes you upward 1 – 45 hours and back to the Hotel 30 minutes.
- Chinar Bagh: there you can find memorial of the heroes who died in the independent of Gilgit and nearby Gilgit river provides a pleasant walk, while you could view and walk across two hanging bridges over the Gilgit River.
- Danyore: The Danyore rock inscriptions are in a private garden in the village. The inscriptions are dated AD 731 and give the names of the kings who ruled in Gilgit during this period. A rock in Danyore lists the Tibetan kings who ruled in the seventh and eight centuries. In 725, according to the Danyore rock, the Kingdom of Great and Little Bolor merged under Tibetan suzerainty.
- Naltar Valley: Hidden in the mountains up a dramatic barren gorge 19 Kilometers is the green and lush valley. The valley heavily wooded with pine, spruces, brich, rowan and juniper, the valley is most highly recommended for day outing from Gilgit. Naltar village at 2,880 meters has a Pakistan Air force Ski training base and good walk about for energetic tourist. Ski Tournament is organized by Pakistan Ski Federation at Naltar in February. It is also the starting point for two longer treks; one across the Naltar Pass (about 4,600 meters) to Ishkoman and the other across the Daintar Pass (4,636 meters) to Chalt. Naltar is two hours drive and 47 Kilometers from Gilgit via the west back of the Hunza River to Nomal village and from there northwest up the Naltar Nala to the green meadows of Naltar.
- Naltar (Kuti) Lake about 12 kilometers. This takes four hours if you walk all the way, or one hour by jeep. From Bangla to Naltar Lake you pass through more forest and see more Gujar settlements. The first lake is startlingly green pond about 200 meters in diameter, surrounded by birch, ash and pine trees. The water is still and clear, its color rising from bright green algae on the bottom. There are two more lakes, one a Brilliant Cobalt blue and the other Turquoise at a higher level about ten minutes to the west. It is very stony round the edge of these lakes, with no obvious campsite. A fourth larger lake is still higher, about 40 minutes away to the west.
- Bagrot Valley: Two hours drive from Gilgit to Bagrot Valley. You can get from Gilgit to Sinakkar, the main village in the Bagrot valley. The trek follows the river through Gasunar summer settlement, and then turns due south to the end of the jeep road at the first permanent village of Chirah.
- Haramosh Valley: An hour south of Gilgit the Skardu road leaves the KKH and heads up the Indus River. The Haramosh valley circles north and west around 7,209 m Haramosh peak, descending to the road just where the Indus turns south. Through the alpine meadows and the glaciers at the feet of Haramosh, 6,986 m Laila 7,458m Malubiting.
- Where Three World Famous Mountain Ranges Meet Wonderful, romantic, rugged, magnificent, majestic, mysterious, magical, mystical, mercurial, monstrous, marvelous, all these adjectives just do not hold good for the mightiest mountains of Pakistan, which are considered, as a dreamland by millions. It is one-hour drive from Gilgit to Juglot, there is a monument built showing map and direction. Mountains the great masses that stand high against the skies and take up a quarter of all the land are nature’s most spectacular work upon earth, but nowhere more so than in the northern regions of Pakistan, where the three world famous mountain ranges, The Himalayas (means the “Home of Snow”), The Karakoram and The Hindu Kush (means the “Killer of Hindus”) meet.
- Mayoon Valley: The first valley in the old Kingdom of Hunza, Mayoon and Hussainabad descends from the north to join the Hunza River at Khizarabad about ten kilometers upriver of Chalt, opposite Nilt and the KKH. There are several small settlements and pasture up the valley.
- Chalt (Where the two continents collided) about 60 kilometers north of Gilgit, Chalt is the southernmost settlement of the old Nagar Kingdom. The British arrived in 1891 with a force of 1,000 men, strengthened Chalt Fort and used it as their base to over throw Hunza and Nagar in a fierce battle at Nilt, nine kilometer upriver. Chalt lies on the line of collision between two geological plates. The Indian subcontinent is still pushing northwards into the Asian land mass and a small Island plate is being crushed between them. The deepest, oldest layer of this Island plates are at Paten, further south on the KKH and the top layer appears at Chalt. A sign on the cliff beside the KKH before Chalt reads: Here continents collided.
- Rakaposhi Base Camp: You catch intermittent glimpses of gleaming snowy peaks, glaciers and precipices, kilometers of smooth snow surmounted by triangles and ridges. At 7,788 meters (25,550 feet), Rakaposhi is the 27th highest mountain in the world. It soars magnificently, changing color according to the time of day. Two of the best views are at the turning to Khizerabad and Skindarabad, where you come round a corner to find the great mass of Rakaposhi straight ahead of you, and nine kilometers further on your right side is Rakaposhi Mount. There are three possible short treks up to various Rakaposhi Base camp.
- Diamar Valley: south of Gilgit, here the Skardu road branches east to Baltistan following the upper Indus River, the dividing line between the Himalaya and Karakoram ranges. On they way to Chilas you look south to magnificent views of the Nanga Perbat Massif, the western end of the Himalayan Range. Chilas is the main town of Diamar valley, it is three and half hours drive from Gilgit. There are more than 20,000 pieces of rock art and petro glyphs all along the Karakoram Highway. Chilas was an important junction on the ancient trade route. From here the roda leads over the Babusar pass covering distance 200 km to the Kaghan valley and Mansehra via Islamabad. Babusar is located at a distance of 35 Kilometers from KKH near Chilas, which takes two hours drive onward journey to Babusar. The Babusar Pass is 4173 meters (13,812 feet) high with lush green mountains, covered with thin forest, have beautiful lakes. Babusar pass remained the gateway between Gilgit Baltistan and other parts of Pakistan till the construction of KKH
- Fairy Meadows: Fairy Meadows are idyllic alpine pastures surrounded by pine forest on the Northern slopes of Nanga Parbat, with breathtaking view of the snow-clad mountains. The meadows are 19 kilometers from the Raikot bridge way up a track leaves the KKH on the right side it is a steep walk of 4 hours. About 10 Kilometers from the Raikot bridge towards Gilgit you can finally see the massive bulk of Nanga Parbat behind you. Ahead is a clear view of the triangular point of Rakaposhi and Dumani.
- Astor Valley: The valley is a starting point to the Deosai Plateau. From Gilgit it is 112 Kilometer away and access able by jeep. The Astore road leaves the Karakorum Highway at Jaglot 75 Kilometers south of Gilgit. The Astor gorge is 30 Kilometers long with sheer sides. Six kilometers up a steep jeep track west of Astore is Rama, a beautiful site at 3,150 meters. The steep jeep track continues for about another 4 kilometers. Rama Lake is at 3,482 meters; from here you can track up the Siachen Glacier.
- Ghizer Valley: Ghizer, the name for the western end of the Gilgit valley above Gakuch. The road continues west from Gakuch, through Gupis and along the Ghizer River for about 100 kilometers to the Shandur Pass, then enters Chitral District in NWFP. On the way about 5 kilometers west beyond Gupis there is Khalti Lake, which is famous for its trout fish. On the way Phundar a small village to Shandur passes 61 Kilometers from Gupis. This place called little Kashmir. A couple of kilometers beyond the village is a good campsite in a meadow beside the river, where one can swim, fish (trout) and enjoy the serene place.
- Ishkoman Valley: The valley, running north to south to join the Gilgit valley, divides the Karakoram Range from the Hindu Kush. Incorporated into Pakistan in 1972, it is about 100 kilometers to Chatorkhand and Phakora to the road head at Imit. There are five possible treks from the Ishkoman River through Phakora across the 4,600-meter Naltar Pass, 55 kilometers long, restricted-zone trek to the Chipursan valley, Koz Sar 6,677 meters, Chillinji Pass 5,291 meters and Karumber Pass 4,343 meters. The Ishkoman Pass is well used by locals going to Darkot or upper Chitral, but the route is narrower, higher, less scenic and less populated than the Asumbar Pass.
- Yasin valley runs north to south, joining the valley at Gupis. It lies to the east of Ishkoman, at an altitude of 2,100 to 2,750 meters; the valley is wide, flat and well watered, making it comparatively fertile, with irrigated fields on either side the river. There are no rocky defiles, so communication along the valley is easy, with roads on both sides of the river, where a side road branches north up the Yasin River for the remaining 25 kilometers to Yasin village
- Polo: The favorite sport in Gilgit Baltistan is polo, which organized here; it is more rugged, free-style version than the sedate variety known in the plains. A polo tournament is held in Gilgit from November. However, passion for Polo remains the highest on the world highest polo ground. Every year, Shandur (3700 meters) invites visitors to experience a traditional polo tournament between Chitral and Gilgit form 7th to 9th July and Babusar on August 14th. The festival also includes folk music, folk dance, traditional sports and a camping village is be set up on the Pass.
