Skardu is the one destination in Pakistan where the choice of how you get there is a bigger decision than where you stay. The flight takes about an hour. The drive takes the better part of two days. Both are reasonable choices, and the reasons to pick one over the other are not the obvious ones.
The distances
Skardu is roughly 318 km from Islamabad in a straight line. By road it is about 630 to 700 km, depending on the route and your exact start and end points, and a private car takes something in the region of 16 to 18 hours of driving (route guide). That gap between the straight line and the road is the whole story: this is a mountain corridor, not a highway run.
The road route, stage by stage
The year-round route is Islamabad to Thakot on the motorway, then the Karakoram Highway through Besham to Chilas, then Jaglot, then east along the Skardu road (route guide).
Islamabad to Thakot. The M-15 Hazara Motorway covers 180 km from the Burhan interchange to Thakot. Worth knowing that it narrows: the Mansehra to Thakot section is two lanes, not four (M-15)). The first three hours are the easiest of the trip.
Thakot to Chilas via Besham. This is the slow, tiring middle. Narrow sections, construction and the natural pace of the Karakoram Highway make Besham to Chilas the bottleneck on the whole route (route guide). Nothing about this stage rewards hurrying.
Jaglot to Skardu. This part has genuinely improved. The 167 km Juglot–Skardu road was upgraded and paved by the Frontier Works Organization and inaugurated in December 2021. Gilgit to Skardu, which used to take around ten hours, now takes about four (S-1). It is still a mountain road above a river, and landslides close it from time to time (road conditions), but it is no longer the ordeal it was a decade ago.
The Babusar alternative. In summer you can cut across from Naran over Babusar Pass to Chilas. It is shorter and better looking. It is also only a seasonal option: the pass sits at 13,700 feet and was shut for seven months before reopening on 23 May in 2025 (Dawn), and in 2026 the authorities closed it again until 6 June for full snow clearance, sending traffic round via Dasu (APP). Plan on the Besham route and treat Babusar as a bonus if it is open when you travel.
Doing it honestly: two days, not one
One long day is technically possible. We do not recommend it and neither does anyone who has driven it. Sixteen hours behind the wheel, most of it on single-carriageway mountain road, is not a safety margin — it is the absence of one. The standard advice is to plan an overnight stop (route guide).
A sane split is Islamabad to Chilas or Besham on day one, then on to Skardu on day two, arriving in the early afternoon. That gives you daylight for the whole of the mountain section in both stages, and it leaves slack for the thing that always happens: a landslide clearance, a convoy, a road works queue.
If you would rather not drive it yourself, that is what our car with driver in Skardu service is for — a driver who has done the corridor before, and a vehicle chosen for it rather than for the city.
The flights, and what actually goes wrong
Skardu Airport is 9.2 km from the city centre, has two 11,944-foot asphalt runways, and was re-inaugurated as an international airport in December 2021. PIA connects it to Islamabad and several other Pakistani cities, and frequency rose to roughly eight to ten flights after the upgrade (Skardu Airport).
That all sounds settled. In practice, flights into the northern airports are weather-dependent to a degree that catches first-time travellers out. Some examples from the record:
- On 30 April 2025, PIA cancelled six round-trip flights between Islamabad, Gilgit and Skardu in a single day, including PK-451 to Skardu (ARY News).
- Around the same period, eight flights were grounded at Skardu International Airport in one day, affecting hundreds of passengers, while unstable weather in the upper reaches continued to disrupt operations (Daily Ausaf).
- A Skardu-bound flight has been cancelled for weather after more than a hundred passengers had already waited hours at the airport (Pakistan Observer).
The pattern matters more than any single incident. Cancellations here are not rare mishaps; they are a normal feature of the route, they often come late, and they cluster — when the weather closes in, several days can go the same way.
What that means for how you plan
Do not put a Skardu flight on the last day of a trip. If it is the leg that gets you to an international connection out of Islamabad, you need a buffer day, not a tight transfer. Overseas visitors with a fixed return date should build in at least one spare day at the Islamabad end.
Have a road plan before you need one. The useful question is not “will my flight go?” but “what do I do if it does not?” Knowing that the drive out is two days, and knowing roughly where you would break it, turns a cancellation into an inconvenience rather than a crisis.
Book the ground side to be flexible. We quote in writing and the price is fixed once quoted, but a fixed price is not the same as a fixed plan. Tell us the flight is weather-exposed at the time of booking and we will structure the arrangement around that rather than around an optimistic timetable.
Why many people fly one way and drive the other
It is the most sensible pattern on this route, and for good reasons.
Flying in and driving out gets you to the mountains on day one instead of day three, which matters if your trip is a week rather than a fortnight. It also puts the weather risk at the start, where you still have time to absorb it, rather than at the end where a cancellation costs you a connecting flight.
Driving in and flying out is the better choice if the Karakoram Highway is itself part of what you came for. You see the corridor properly, in daylight, at the right pace — and you are not depending on an aircraft to begin your holiday.
Either way, one leg is a scheduled flight and one is a two-day road journey, so half your ground transport is a short hop. Arrivals at Skardu are covered by our Skardu airport transfer, with meet and greet at arrivals and a driver carrying photo ID and vehicle registration.
On flight prices
We are not going to publish an Islamabad to Skardu fare here. Airline pricing on this sector moves with season, demand and how far ahead you book, and a number printed on a travel page and left there for a year is worse than no number at all. Check directly with the airline for the day you want to travel. Our own quotes are for ground transport only, given in writing, and fixed once issued.
Common questions
What is the distance from Islamabad to Skardu?
About 318 km in a straight line, and roughly 630 to 700 km by road depending on the route taken.
How long does the drive take?
In the region of 16 to 18 hours of driving in a private car, spread sensibly over two days with an overnight stop around Besham or Chilas.
Can I drive it in one day?
It is possible and it is not advisable. Most of the route is single-carriageway mountain road where a delay for landslide clearance or road works can add hours you cannot make back. Two days is the honest plan.
How often are Skardu flights cancelled?
Often enough to plan around. There are documented cases of six round-trip flights between Islamabad, Gilgit and Skardu being cancelled in one day, and of eight flights grounded at Skardu on another. Weather in the upper reaches is the usual reason. Never make a Skardu flight the leg that connects to an international departure.
Is the Babusar Pass route an option?
Only in summer. The pass is at 13,700 feet, is shut for roughly seven months of the year, and has reopened in late May in recent seasons — sometimes only to close again for further clearance work. Plan on the Besham route and take Babusar as a bonus.
How much is a flight ticket from Islamabad to Skardu?
We do not publish airline fares, because they change constantly and a stale figure is misleading. Check with the airline for your travel date. We quote our ground transport in writing, and that price is fixed once quoted.
