Kashmir is more than a houseboat photo. We have sent 400 travellers there over 20 years, and the trips that return as stories — the ones guests tell us about years later — rarely have much to do with Dal Lake.
They are about Gulmarg in the second week of October, when the chinars turn and the gondola is empty. About saffron fields in Pampore at harvest, purple to the horizon, women bent at the waist. About the drive up to Sonamarg on a clear morning, the Sind river sharp as cut glass. About the wazwan a family in Anantnag cooked for our guests last winter, seven courses, six hours, and a cousin who sang ghazals until the candles burnt down.
If you go to Kashmir and only see Srinagar and Gulmarg, you have done a tour. If you go slowly, pick one valley (Pahalgam or Gurez), and let a local curator guide you, you have been to Kashmir. Our favourite month is October — pre-snow, post-tourists, the valley at its prettiest. Second choice is late April, when the almond blossoms come in.
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