Travel to Ladakh

To travel to Ladakh overland from India’s Kashmir Valley via Kargil, slightly less than 435 kilometers of road remains open to traffic from the early part of June through to November each year and includes an ascent of more than three thousand meters up Zoji-La - the gateway to Ladakh that is actually a pass in the Great Himalayan Wall.

Regular deluxe and ordinary bus services operate between Srinagar and Leh on this route, involving an overnight halt at Kargil. You can travel to Ladakh via this bus. Travel to Ladakh is comfortable as now the roads are in place. Still travel to Ladakh can be difficult when the roads are affected by landslides.

Cars and jeeps are available at Srinagar, in the form of taxis willing to make the journey, and groups can also charter buses to travel to Ladakh in the heart of India’s northern desert and mountain ranges.

The Manali-Leh road, just under 475 kilometers, has been considered the second most important overland approach since 1989, and opens at the same time as the main road but closes up to a month earlier at the end of the season. The world's second-highest drivable pass,

known as Taklan-La, at 5,235 meters is on this route and you can travel it by bus - breaking the nineteen-hour journey with an overnight stay at a camp or travel into Ladakh by taxi if you prefer, including one of the jeeps that are so popular on these routes through the awesome scenery of northern India.

There are regular flights to Leh, Ladakh's capital, daily from Delhi, four times weekly from Jammu, once a week from Chandigarh and twice from Srinagar. There are modest entry fees to be paid at Leh airport. You can travel to Ladakh by air.

Within Ladakh travel by public transport is inexpensive and sticks to fixed routes on fixed schedules but taxis are a lot more comfortable and operate on fixed tariffs. In some areas one is not permitted to undertake independent transport arrangements and must use a recognized agency for this purpose - this is not as complicated as it may sound and a local tourist office will help you to recover the situation if your travel arrangements were not organized by your own travel agent.

Of course the intrepid out-of-town traveler will want to have a go at getting around in ways that are less common – a two-hump camel safari, for instance – and although rafting can hardly be described as an ordinary form of travel, some people will get down the river faster this way than they might otherwise have done! Whatever method of travel you use to get to Ladakh’s Tso Moriri salt-water lake, you will almost certainly want to walk once you get there and enjoy the natural beauty of your surroundings as in so many other places to which you can travel in Ladakh, India’s northern treasure.