Travel that leaves the valleys stronger

Gilgit-Baltistan is one of the most fragile places on earth to run a tour company. Villages depend on glacier meltwater carried along hand-built channels, pastures take decades to recover from damage, and the valleys have limited ways to deal with waste. At the same time, tourism has grown very fast, especially around Hunza and Skardu, and the pressure shows in plastic along roadsides, traffic jams at viewpoints and hotels built where orchards used to be.

We grew up here, so this is personal. Our father guided treks to K2 and the Baltoro from 1980 to 2000, and his photographs from those years remind us how much these valleys have given visitors. The glaciers that feed our fields are retreating and flooding in ways our grandparents never saw, even though this region has done almost nothing to cause it. You can read more about that on our climate change in Gilgit-Baltistan page. The least we can do is make sure the way we bring visitors helps these valleys rather than wearing them down.

Sustainable travel starts long before the first day. We plan fewer places and longer stays, because two nights in one village puts more money into local hands and burns less fuel than a new hotel every night. A classic itinerary like our 7-day Hunza itinerary is built this way on purpose: base yourself in Karimabad, explore on foot and by short drives, and let the valley come to you.

Groups are small. Most of our trips are private, and group departures stay at around a dozen guests at most. Everyone travels in shared vehicles, and we match the vehicle to the group so we are never running two half-empty jeeps. Where flying to Skardu saves two long days on the road we will suggest it, but we will also tell you when the drive over the Babusar Pass or along the Karakoram Highway is worth it for its own sake.

We also pay attention to timing. Summer weekends and Eid holidays bring huge crowds of domestic visitors to Attabad Lake, Naltar and Fairy Meadows. Travelling in spring blossom or in autumn, or simply shifting a busy stop to a weekday, spreads the pressure out and gives you a far better experience. Our best time to visit guide explains the seasons.

Every guide, driver, cook and porter we work with comes from Gilgit-Baltistan, usually from the valley you are visiting. We book family-run guesthouses and heritage stays over chain hotels, eat in local restaurants, and build in time for places that return money to the community, from women-run cafés and craft workshops to village-run homestays in Shimshal and Hushe.

On treks, porters are the backbone of every trip, and many come from the same mountaineering villages whose sons and daughters have carried loads on K2 for generations. We follow the standard porter load limits, provide proper footwear, warm clothing and shelter, insure them, and pay the agreed rates in full. If you want to understand who carries the Karakoram, read our guide to the mountaineers of Baltistan.

On every trek our crews carry out everything we carry in. Cans, packaging and plastic go back down to Skardu or Hunza in marked bags; organic waste is handled away from water sources; toilet tents and pits are sited well back from streams. At popular camps we pick up litter that others left behind, because the mountain doesn't care whose it was.

Our kitchens cook on gas or kerosene, never on firewood. Juniper and scrub at altitude grow so slowly that a single season of campfires can strip a slope that took a century to grow. We treat and filter drinking water instead of buying crates of plastic bottles, and we ask every guest to bring a refillable bottle. Our packing list suggests what to bring.

The same principles apply on famous routes like the K2 Base Camp trek and on quiet ones. We stay on established trails, camp only on established sites and keep noise, lights and drones away from wildlife and grazing herds.

Some of the best conservation stories in Asia come from our valleys. Village conservancies in Hunza and Baltistan protected their ibex and markhor when numbers were falling, and the fees paid by carefully limited hunting permits now go largely to the communities that guard the herds. The result is more wildlife on the slopes today than a generation ago. Our guide to conservation and trophy hunting in Gilgit-Baltistan explains how it works.

When we visit national parks and conservancies such as Khunjerab and Deosai we pay the entry fees that fund rangers, keep vehicles on the tracks, never feed animals and keep a respectful distance for photographs. Sightings of snow leopards, brown bears and marmots are a privilege, not a right.

Sustainable tourism is about people too. Our guides brief every guest on local customs: modest dress, asking before photographing people, especially women and children, and how to accept hospitality gracefully. Villages are homes, not film sets, and a polite question opens doors that a camera pointed through a window closes.

We also keep our marketing honest. We don't stage scenes, pay people to pose or promise experiences that exploit anyone's privacy or beliefs. When we share travelers' photos and videos, as on our solo female travel page, we credit the people who made them.

Bring a refillable bottle and a small bag for your own rubbish. Say no to plastic bags in bazaars. Stay longer in fewer places, eat local food and buy crafts directly from the people who made them. Ask before you photograph. Keep to the trail, keep your distance from wildlife and never fly a drone near herds or villages without permission.

And tell people what you saw. The villages of Gilgit-Baltistan are dealing with climate impacts they did nothing to cause, and one of the most useful things a visitor can do is go home and share the story.

We won't pretend a trip to the Karakoram is carbon neutral. International flights, domestic flights and 4x4 jeeps all burn fuel, and we are not going to hide that behind a certificate. What we can do is keep groups small, keep vehicles full, keep trips longer and slower, and put as much of your spending as possible into the communities that live with the consequences of a warming world.

If you have ideas for how we can do better, we genuinely want to hear them. Write to us any time.