Getting from Srinagar airport to Harwan
An hour, most of the time. Rather more if you land at the wrong moment.
The distance, and the honest time
Sheikh ul-Alam airport sits south-west of Srinagar, and Harwan is on the far north-eastern edge of the city. You are crossing Srinagar to get here, which is why the distance is modest and the time is not.
Allow about an hour. Early morning or mid-afternoon it can be less. Through the middle of the day, or in the weeks when the valley is busiest, it can be ninety minutes. Nobody will tell you that when you book a flight.
The route, roughly
Out of the airport, around or through the city depending on traffic that day, past the Dal and up the eastern shore through Nishat and Shalimar, then the last few minutes to Harwan. The final stretch is the pleasant one — the lake on one side, the Zabarwan rising on the other.
The road is good. This is not a mountain drive and nothing about it requires a four-wheel drive or a strong stomach.
Arranging a car
There are prepaid taxis at the airport and they are perfectly reliable. The reason we suggest arranging a car in advance anyway is simpler: after a flight into an unfamiliar city, having someone standing there with your name on a board is worth the small premium, and your driver will know where Harwan is without a conversation.
Send us your flight number and arrival time when you book and we will have a car waiting. Transfers are charged separately, and we will tell you what before you arrive rather than after.
If your flight is delayed or cancelled
Flights into Srinagar are weather-dependent in winter and occasionally in monsoon, and cancellations do happen. If yours moves, message us — a car can be rebooked, and we would rather know than have a driver waiting for a flight that is not coming.
It is also worth not booking a tight onward connection on your departure day. The afternoon flights out are the ones most often affected.
Arriving late
Check-in is from two in the afternoon, but a late arrival is not a problem if you tell us. Someone will be up, and the kitchen can leave something out. What is unhelpful is arriving at eleven at night unannounced, in a valley where things close early.
Come and see for yourself
Seven private cottages and four suites on the river at Harwan, a few minutes from the Mughal gardens. Tell us your dates and we'll come back the same day.
Or let us put the whole trip together — see our Kashmir packages.
Also worth reading
Which month to come to Kashmir
Every month in the valley gives you a different place. An honest month-by-month account of what you actually get, including the ones most people are told to avoid.
Trout fishing in Kashmir, and how the permits actually work
The beats, the season, and the part nobody explains: Kashmir's trout water is licensed by the day and the good stretches are spoken for long before you arrive.