Which month to come to Kashmir

The short answer

If you want the valley at its most photographed, come in April for the blossom or late October for the chinars. If you want it at its warmest and busiest, come between May and August. If you want snow, come in January. If you want it empty, come in February or November and bring a coat.

Most people are shown a photograph taken in one of two weeks of the year and arrive expecting it in the other fifty. That is the only real mistake you can make here.

March and April — blossom, and the tulips

The almond blossom comes first, usually in March, and the tulip garden below the Zabarwan opens for a few weeks from late March. It is the largest in Asia and it is genuinely worth the crowd it draws, but it is open for a short window and the dates move with the season — if the tulips are the reason you are coming, ask before you book rather than after.

April is the valley waking up. The gardens are green rather than brown, the days are mild, the evenings still want a fire lit. Fewer people than summer, and the light is better.

May to August — the season

This is when most people come, and for good reason: warm days, long evenings, everything open, the high meadows accessible. Gulmarg, Pahalgam and Sonamarg are all at their best, and the Mughal gardens are fully in flower.

The cost is company. July and August are the busiest weeks of the year, the gardens fill by mid-morning, and the roads to the hill stations are slow. If you are coming then, go to the gardens before nine and leave the day trips for an early start.

September to November — the one we would pick

September keeps most of the summer's weather and loses most of its crowds. October brings the clearest skies of the year, and from late October into November the chinars turn — first copper, then deep red, and the whole valley changes colour for about three weeks.

This is the valley at its best photographed and its least crowded, and it is the window most people miss because they have been told Kashmir means summer. By late November the trees are bare and the cold has arrived properly.

December to February — snow, and quiet

Chillai Kalan, the forty hardest days of winter, runs from late December to the end of January. It is cold in a way that is genuinely memorable, the Dal sometimes freezes at its edges, and Gulmarg is under several feet of snow with the gondola running.

Srinagar in winter is quiet in a way it never is otherwise. Fewer visitors, the gardens empty, the light low and long. Some high roads close without notice, so build a spare day into any plan that depends on reaching Sonamarg or crossing a pass.

What we would tell you on the phone

Tell us what you are hoping to see and we will tell you honestly whether your dates will give it to you. We would rather talk someone out of a week than have them arrive expecting blossom in September.