Places · 6 min read · 12 December 2025
Getting to Gurez, and whether it is worth the drive
What the road over the Razdan pass is really like, what you will find when you get there, and who should skip it.
Gurez comes up a lot now in conversations about "offbeat Kashmir". Before you commit a week to it, here is a straight account of what it takes and what you get.
The drive
Gurez sits north of the main valley, along the Kishanganga river, close to the Line of Control. To reach it you drive to Bandipora on the edge of Wular lake, then climb the Razdan pass at around 3,300 metres, then drop into the Gurez valley on the far side. From Srinagar it is a long day: five to six hours in good conditions, more if the weather turns or there is roadwork on the pass.
We usually break it with a night in Bandipora on the way in. The drive back out in one go, on the last day, is the hardest part of the trip. Nobody enjoys that leg. Plan for it and keep the following day light.
The road is paved in stretches and rough in others. It is done routinely through the summer by local drivers in normal vehicles, but a higher-clearance car is more comfortable.
When it is open
The pass is generally clear from late May to early October. Outside that, Gurez is cut off by snow. Summer storms can close the Razdan for a day or two even in the open season, so the end of a Gurez trip should always have some slack in it.
Permits and who can go
Indian nationals do not need a permit for Gurez and have not for years. There are army checkposts along the way where you show ID and your vehicle is logged. Foreign nationals currently cannot visit. This does change, so check the current position before planning.
What you will find
Dawar is the main village, with a bazaar, a few guesthouses, and Habba Khatoon peak standing over it. Further up, the Tulail valley has villages of stacked log houses that are lived in, not preserved for visitors. The Kishanganga runs green and loud through all of it.
Stays are simple. Clean beds, home-cooked food, shared or basic bathrooms, patchy electricity. Mobile signal is unreliable past Bandipora and card payments do not work, so carry cash for the whole trip.
Who should go, and who should not
Go if you have already seen the main valleys, or if what you want from Kashmir is somewhere genuinely quiet and you are relaxed about comfort. The reward is a valley with very few other travellers, a strong sense of distance from the rest of Kashmir, and villages that feel unposed.
Skip it if this is your first trip to Kashmir and you have a week, if long drives wear you down, or if you need a full programme of activities each day. Gurez is a place to walk, sit by the river, and read. That is the trip, and it is not for everyone.
