Jammu & Kashmir

Kashmir is small and centred on Srinagar. Almost everything is within a few hours of the city, so you can travel it slowly, from one base, and see more than people who keep moving. The Mughal gardens — Nishat, Shalimar, Chashma Shahi — are terraced into the hills above Dal Lake and have sat on India's UNESCO tentative list since 2010. The standard route adds Gulmarg, Pahalgam and Sonamarg. Doing all three as day trips from Srinagar in a week is the usual mistake: each is a few hours out, and the day becomes the road. Take two and sleep there. At Gulmarg the gondola climbs to just under four thousand metres on Apharwat, which is the reason to go. Gurez in the north is the part almost nobody sees, and it is reachable by road only from roughly May to October — Razdan Pass takes snow from November. The Kashmir Great Lakes trek runs on a narrower window still, July to early September. March and April for blossom, May and June for the meadows, October for saffron and chinar, December to February for snow. Check current travel advice before booking.