Best Road Trips in Pakistan: Scenic Routes Ranked

The best road trips in Pakistan depend entirely on what car you're driving and how much rough road you're willing to take. The Karakoram Highway is paved almost its whole length and manageable in a normal car in summer. The Makran Coastal Highway is a smooth six-to-seven-hour run beside the Arabian Sea. Babusar Pass and Shandur Pass are a different proposition: high, seasonal, and better suited to a 4x4 or an experienced driver.

Here is how the leading routes compare, and what kind of car and trip each one actually needs.

The Karakoram Highway: the classic

The Karakoram Highway runs 887 kilometres inside Pakistan, from Hasan Abdal in Punjab up through Besham, Chilas, Gilgit and Hunza to Khunjerab Pass on the Chinese border. It's paved for essentially its entire length and is the route our Gilgit, Hunza and Khunjerab tour follows.

It is also, in one stretch, the route with the clearest current safety advisory: the UK government advises against all travel on the section between Mansehra and Chilas, via Battagram, Besham, Dasu and Sazin. This is the same stretch that carries almost all road traffic to Gilgit-Baltistan, and Pakistani travellers drive it in large numbers every summer. If you're planning this route, check current advice and local conditions before you set out, particularly if you're travelling from abroad, since a foreign government's advisory can also affect your travel insurance.

North of Gilgit, into Hunza and up to Khunjerab, none of that advisory applies, and the road there is some of the most scenic paved driving anywhere in the country. Our Karakoram Highway road status guide has more on current conditions along the whole route.

Babusar Pass: Naran into Gilgit-Baltistan

Babusar Pass, at around 4,173 metres, is the high link between Naran in Kaghan Valley and Chilas on the Karakoram Highway. It typically opens from late May or June through October, closed the rest of the year by snow, and even in season it's for daylight driving only.

The pass road is paved but narrow, with switchbacks and drop-offs that reward a careful, experienced driver more than a powerful car. A 4x4 isn't always essential in peak summer, but it's the safer choice, and it's the only sensible option if you're travelling early or late in the season when snow can still sit on the verges. Our Babusar Pass guide covers current opening dates and road notes.

Shandur Pass: the road to the world's highest polo ground

Shandur, at around 3,700 to 3,800 metres, links Gilgit-Baltistan's Ghizer district to Chitral over a pass that's home to the world's highest polo ground, the venue for the annual Shandur Polo Festival. The road is unpaved for a meaningful stretch at the top and only reliably open from June to September.

This is a genuine 4x4 route, not a scenic detour for a normal car. It suits travellers who want a proper high-altitude crossing and don't mind a long, rough day to get one, ideally timed around the festival itself if that's part of the draw. See our Shandur Pass guide for more on the route and the festival dates.

Makran Coastal Highway: Karachi to Gwadar

The N10, Pakistan's Makran Coastal Highway, runs 653 kilometres from Karachi to Gwadar along the Arabian Sea, and is fully paved, cutting the journey to roughly six to seven hours. It passes Kund Malir beach and Hingol National Park, and is the easiest genuine road trip on this list for a normal car.

The entire route lies within Balochistan once it leaves Karachi, and the UK government currently advises against all travel to Balochistan. Pakistani travellers, including families from Karachi, still make this drive regularly, especially to Kund Malir and Hingol, but check current security advice before you go, travel in daylight, and don't treat this stretch the way you would a routine motorway drive.

Neelum Valley road: Muzaffarabad to Kel

The road up Neelum Valley is paved and straightforward as far as Keran and largely fine to Dawarian, then rougher toward Kel, with the final stretch to Taobat unpaved and needing a proper 4x4. The upper section, around Sharda and Kel, is typically closed from November to March by snow.

Most of Neelum Valley also falls within the area the UK currently advises against travelling to, given its position close to the Line of Control, and Azad Kashmir saw serious unrest and long internet shutdowns during 2026. This is one to plan with current information in hand rather than an old guidebook. Our Neelum Valley road condition guide has the latest on each stretch.

Which road trip should you pick?

For a first northern road trip in a normal car, the Karakoram Highway north of Gilgit is unmatched: paved, dramatic and genuinely drivable without special equipment, provided you've checked the Mansehra–Chilas advisory beforehand. For a high-altitude crossing that most visitors never attempt, Babusar or Shandur deliver something the paved routes can't, at the cost of needing the right vehicle and season. For scenery with none of the altitude, the Makran Coastal Highway is the easiest big drive in the country, security picture aside.

Whichever route you choose, build in a spare day. Weather, road closures and landslides are normal on Pakistan's mountain roads, and a schedule with no slack turns a minor delay into a missed flight home. Fill the tank at every proper town you pass through rather than waiting until the gauge is low; fuel stations thin out fast once you're past Chilas, Gupis or Dawarian, and running low on a mountain road with no signal is a bad place to find out the next station is further than you thought.

Frequently asked questions