Ziarat

The old British hill station of Ziarat was founded as a retreat from Quetta’s summer heat. It nestles in its eponymous valley, surround by ancient juniper forests at an altitude of 2600m, about 130km northeast of Quetta. With a residency, offices and even a sanatorium, it served as the administration’s summer capital, and now carries a slightly worn (though attractive) ‘end of empire’ feel.
Refreshingly cool in summer and almost invariably snow-clad in winter, Ziarat is a relaxing destination and a handy base for exploring the surrounding gorges and balding hills of juniper. Don’t get your hopes up too high, though – this may be lush for stark Balochistan, especially in spring, but northern Pakistan it isn’t.

Wagah

The border between Pakistan and India is located 30km east of Lahore at Wagah.

Whether or not you’re going to India it’s worth making a special trip to the border to watch the amazing closing-of-the-border (flag-lowering) ceremony that takes place each day. If you’ve got time, see it from both sides of the fence, as the objective of each side’s soldiers is to out-march, out-salute and out-shout each other (if you’re crossing the border you’ll only get to see it from the Indian side).

If you’ve got any questions once at the Wagah border, don’t hesitate to ask Mr Latif, the friendly owner of the Latif Old Book Shop.

Taxila

One of South Asia’s richest archaeologicalsites, Taxila is a must-see trip from Islamabad, particularly if you have an interest in Buddhism and the art of Gandhara. The city excavations, most of which are found around the museum, are open to the public, along with dozens of smaller sites over a 25-sq-km area.

Gandhara is the historical name for the Peshawar Plain, and Taxila has always been one of Gandhara’s more important cities. In the 6th century BC, the Achaemenians made Takshasila (Taxila) the Gandharan capital, at a site now called Bhir Mound. In 326 BC Alexander the Great paused here en route to India. The Mauryan emperor Ashoka, a patron of Buddhism, built a university here, to which pilgrims and scholars came from all over Asia. In about 180 BC, Bactrian Greeks developed a ‘new’ Taxila, at the site called Sirkap.

In the 1st century AD came the Kushans, building their own city at the Sirsukh site. Until the 3rd century Taxila was the cultured capital of an empire stretching across the subcontinent and into Central Asia. It was the birthplace of a striking fusion of Greek and Indian art, and also the place from which Buddhism spread into China. The city fell into obscurity after it was destroyed by White Huns in the 5th century. The modern-era excavation of the site was led by Sir John Marshall between the years of 1913 and 1934.

Swat

In a region full of dramatic scenery, Swat stands out as a particularly beautiful corner of northern Pakistan. A broad fertile valley just touched by the monsoon, it stretches nearly 200km from the Malakand Pass to the high reaches of Swat Kohistan. A magnet for hippies in the 1970s (‘the Switzerland of the East’), it’s often overlooked by today’s travellers, although not by domestic tourists who flock here every summer for the clean air and fine landscapes.

Rich farmland fans out along the wide Swat River basin, centred on the twin towns of Mingora and Saidu Sharif that together form Swat’s urban hub. It’s hardly the first big town in Swat, as the valley was the site of many previous civilisations, including the Kushan kingdom of Gandhara and the Hindu Shahis, each of whom left behind a ­multitude of historical sites to be discovered. North of here, the mountains start to close in past Madyan, squeezing the river into a leaping torrent, and forcing villages down to the banks or up the valley walls. The deodar-forested, snowcapped northern peaks are dominated by 5918m Falaksair. The Pashtuns of the valley floor become replaced by Kohistanis (literally ‘people of the mountains’) and nomadic Gujars who tend flocks on the high pastures. It’s a popular area for hiking, and its streams are thickly stocked with trout.

Swat is accessible year-round, although it is snowbound from Bahrain northwards between the months of November and March (even then transportation is occasionally possible and some hotels are open). Summer is mostly fine and hot with some rain in July and August.

Skardu

The Indus barely seems to move across the immense, flat Skardu Valley, 40km long, 10km wide and carpeted with silvery grey sand dunes. In between dust storms the land seems cleansed and freeze-dried, and the light is intense. The brown mountains give no hint of the white giants beyond. Skardu, at 2290m, is on a ledge at the foot of Karpochu, a rock sticking 300m out of the plain.
The town has been a mountaineers’ haunt for over 150 years, and a military headquarters since Partition, but it’s also the base for many classic Karakoram treks and even some good day trips. Midsummer is prime mountaineering season, when jeeps and hotel space may be hard to find. Walking and trekking can be pleasant even in October, when prices start to fall and the weather is clear and cold. From November to March, temperatures drop to freezing.

Hotels get booked out in the second week of August, when Skardu hosts a big tournament of Baltistan’s polo teams to celebrate Pakistan’s Independence Day.

Rohtas Fort

Some 16km northwest of Jhelum, colossal Rohtas Fort is an extraordinary example of military architecture. It was started in 1543 by the Pashtun ruler Sher Shah Suri, to protect the strategic Peshawar to Calcutta (now Kolkata) road from the Mughals and their allies. He never lived to see its completion and work was carried on by succeeding rulers. However, it was soon made redundant when Akbar moved his frontier to Attock and built a new fort there.
The vast fort is now in ruins except for the crenulated outer walls and most of its 12 gates and 68 bastions. The best-preserved remains are to the west; walk through the town to the westernSohal Gate to start your explorations. Built to an irregular plan on hilly ground, its 12m-thick terraced ramparts have a perimeter of more than 4km and vary in height from 10m to 18m. You can still walk along some of them but they are crumbling, so watch your step. An internal wall separates the inner fort (or citadel for the elite) at the northwest from the outer fort of soldiers and citizens, where the sleepy town still exists.

Little remains of the interior, but there are two pavilions of the haveli of Man Singh(governor of Lahore and a general in the time of his son-in-law Akbar the Great), which you can climb for a view over the whole fort. To the west, at the pinnacle of the outer wall, a high stone platform marks the burj (execution tower); victims would be thrown from here into the ditch below. Two gates in the northern wall lead down to freshwater wells and the Kahan River. You could spend two or three hours exploring the grounds. Bring a hat, and although drinks can be bought in the town, it’s wise to carry your own.

Quetta

The provincial capital of Balochistan, Quetta has a quite different air from almost anywhere else in Pakistan. It’s an atmosphere borne of its relative geographic isolation. Set in a mountainous amphitheatre and surrounded by stony deserts, the city seems to have its face turned away from the rest of the country, appearing more interested in nearby Afghanistan than the affairs of faraway Islamabad. This is a frontier town, pure and simple.

As befits its location, Quetta’s inhabitants are a diverse and fascinating mix. Around 70% are Pashtuns, with the balance made up by ethnic Balochis and Brahuis. Mohajirs and Punjabis are also surprisingly well represented, while since the 1980s the city has hosted a sizable Afghan refugee population (most notably the Shiite Hazaras, with their near-Mongolian features).

Quetta’s isolation means that it attracts relatively few travellers, and the majority of those use it as a staging post on the overland trail between Iran and India. Travelling in either direction, the city is an eye-opener. From relatively urbane Iran, Quetta abruptly announces the arrival of the subcontinent, with its turbaned Pashtun tribesmen, women in burkas, and honking rickshaws. Travelling in the other direction,Balochistan can seem a wild and dusty place after the humidity and greenery ofPunjab.

At an altitude of almost 1700m, Quetta is cooler than most parts of Pakistan in summer but the road southwest to Taftan and Zahedan can still be hot and heavy going. In the thick of winter it’s bone-chillingly cold and it can snow in January.