Skardu in Spring: What March, April and May Actually Give You

March is the hinge. The first fortnight still behaves like February — hard frosts, a wood-burner lit in the common room by five in the afternoon, and a town that has not yet switched back on. Daytime highs average 12.4 °C but the nights sit close to freezing, and our heaters run every night of the month without exception.

What March gives you is emptiness and price. This is low season, and a room that goes for its full rate in July can be had for well under half of it. If what you want is the Karakoram without a single coach in the frame, the first three weeks of March are the cheapest version of that you will find anywhere in Baltistan.

What it takes away is range. The high side valleys are still snowed in, the jeep tracks above the bridges are not worth attempting, and the only reliable days out are the flat ones: the Katpana dunes at our gate, Kharpocho Fort above the bazaar, and the lower Shigar road. By the last week of the month the orchards begin, which is where April starts.

May is, for our money, the strongest spring month and the least appreciated. Highs average 23.4 °C and nights settle near 10 °C, which makes it the first month of the year you can sit outside after dinner without a jacket. Rain is at its spring low, and the air has not yet picked up the summer haze that flattens photographs from late June onwards.

Almost everything in the valley is open by May except the plateau. The Shigar and Khaplu roads are clear, the Basho road is metalled as far as the bridge, the Satpara road is fine for a sedan, and the road south-east into Kharmang towards Manthoka is driveable. Flights are more reliable than in March or April, though never guaranteed — the approach into Skardu is flown visually and cloud closes it without notice.

And May is shoulder-season pricing. The blossom crowd has gone, the summer families have not arrived, and rooms sit meaningfully below their July rate. Guests who come in May almost always tell us they would come in May again.

Day one — arrive and do nothing. Skardu is at 2,230 metres and a flight from the plains gains almost all of it in under two hours. Check in, eat, drink more water than feels sensible, walk to the bazaar if you have the energy, and sleep early. Guests who drive out somewhere on arrival afternoon generally lose day two to a headache.

Day two — Katpana at first light, then the town. The cold desert is a ten-minute walk from our gate and the only twenty minutes worth photographing are the ones just after the sun clears the eastern ridge. Breakfast at six. Kharpocho Fort mid-morning, fifteen to twenty minutes away. Satpara Lake in the afternoon, twenty-five minutes out on the Deosai road — you can reach the lake even while the plateau above it is shut.

Day three — the Shigar valley. An hour north on metalled road to Shigar Fort and the old wooden mosques, with the Sarfaranga cold desert on the way back in the last of the light. In April this is also the densest orchard country within reach.

Day four — Kachura, slowly. Thirty minutes west to Lower and Upper Kachura, walking between them rather than driving. Back for a late lunch, and keep the afternoon free in case your flight out moves.

Rates in Skardu swing harder by season than almost anywhere else in Pakistan, and spring manages to sit at both ends of the swing: March is low season, the April blossom fortnight prices like July, and May is shoulder.

At Arcadian, the Deluxe Double Room — private balcony, lake view, heating, bath and shower — is currently PKR 10,800 a night plus PKR 1,080 tax, against a standard rate of PKR 13,500. The Economy Single is PKR 9,180 plus PKR 918, from PKR 11,475. Both include cooked breakfast from six in the morning, heating, hot water, WiFi and tea in the common room. Lunch, dinner, laundry and airport transfers are charged separately, and jeep hire for Sarfaranga or Manthoka is billed at the drivers' own rates.

Budget beyond the room for a driver on the Shigar and Kachura days, meals outside the hotel, and the fuel surcharge that creeps into every quoted jeep rate in spring, when the roads are still rough from the winter.