Gulmarg and Srinagar- March trip

I've always wanted to visit Gulmarg (3 years pending), finally booked my tickets in dec 2021 for March 2022 trip, i booked my hotel for Gulmarg Heeven retreat from Agoda and Heritage houseboat Dal Lake from Booking.com (both in dec).

Keep in mind Kashmir is a little tricky, still a little disorganized when it comes to tourism, so not to be treated like any indian destination where tourism has been open for years- it is still a little haphazard.

Me ranting first:

Early march I got an email from Agoda.com asking me for a credit card to be added on file, they sent me 5 email all with an invalid link (they already have my debit card on record fyi), anyways i call customer care and they said i can ignore and my booking is secure. A week before my trip i login to Agoda and my booking stands cancelled and no information email was sent to me, went on full panic mode.. Gulmarg was sold out for March, anyways the tour company i booked with helped us out. The same happened with the booking.com houseboat, upon arrival they said they are sold out and dont honour booking.com. It was just wow, you should have seen me sitting at the ghat trying to call my agent Kamran to book me a houseboat in 10 mins... but he came to the rescue again. This trip really shook my confidence on Online portals. Being from the travel industry, it's easier for me to deal and handle things, but i cannot imagine if it was my friends or family traveling and having to deal with no reservation even when you have a confirmation. Imagine how clueless booking.com is , they are still sending me emails to rate my stay at the houseboat.. lols such a joke. I sent them an email but they never responded. (booking.com and agoda.com are owned by the same group btw). Okay now end of ranting, lets get to the trip.

Tips for Kashmir:

1. Always book Kashmir hotels with a local travel agent. Mine was handled by Kamran tours and travels - Mr. Kamran was a life saver, his no: 9149778823

2.Tours and tickets were all booked through Gulmarg riders, I found Fiyaz on instagram like 3 years ago, he's a snowboarder and runs adventure tours. He introduced me to kamran tours as they work together. Its easy to have a tour guide, no real lines, no hassle, they took care of everything and treated us like friends. I booked the following ativities with Gulmarg riders

1. Gondola phase 1 and 2,

2. ATV tour,

3. Snow mobile,

4. Jypsy offroading and

5. Snowboarding lessons with Fiyaz.

Link: www.gulmargriders.com. Once you call Fiyaz and he says yes to your booking, you just have to gpay him Rs. 1000 and take his word for it, just remind him 5 days before your trip (he's very busy and always on tours so i realised why he was so slow in responding, but he answers all his calls .. his phone is always ringing). Dont expect a day wise itinerary and plan like other tour companies do, they literally will finalize once you arrive.

Day 1:

Arrive into Srinagar (i took an early morning Vistara flight from Delhi)

Our scorpio transfer picked us up from Srinagar airport and drove us staright to Gulmarg. Just being in Kashmir was so different, suddently the language was so different and people look so different. The drive was beautiful, Not as bad a winding road as I expected. It was a nice 2 hrs drive to Gulmarg.

Check in to Grand Mumtaz hotel (booked through Kamran tours), our package included breakfast and dinner. We had a room on the 3rd floor, nice 4 star with very good service, the staff were so nice. The housekeeping guy was super active, anything we needed he would get it in mins.

I called Fiyaz from Gulmargriders once we arrived and informed him.

We had quick lunch at the restaurant and the ATV guides came to the hotel to pick us and we went for an ATV drive, it was so fun. They drove for a while and then they let us drive most of the way. It was such a fun way to see gulmarg on day 1.

we stopped by the market for kawa tea. Its a small marketplace for food, coffee, snacks etc.

Dinner was buffet at the hotel, Gulmarg shuts early so it's better to have dinner in the hotel. It's not like you'll have dinner before 6 PM.

Day 2:

We had breakfast at the hotel and then walked to the gondola ticket booth, Fiyaz met us there and he already had our tickets. We walked to take the gondola, line is long so better to go early. We went to phase 1 and drove the snowmobile- was so easy and fun (its similar to the atv but easier to drive), we took some amazing pics (the guides are use to taking pics for you). We then had some kawa and rested a bit and then went on to phase 2 which is a higher altitude.

These are taken at phase 2- was quiet and so picturesque.

After Gondola, we had lunch at the market and then we went on a hike up the river.

Day 3:

This was my favourite day, i've always wanted to try snowboarding and Fiyas and Raja gave us lessons. We really enjoyed and had such an amazing time, our pants were all wet but we did'd care, next time we will have waterproof pants. Due to summer hitting early the snow has melted a lot so the weather was hot.

we spent half a day on snowboarding lessons and then went and had lunch at the market. After lunch Fiyaz took me on an offroading drive, nice way to see Tanmarg where the locals live etc. and also to get away from the crowd.

Day 4:

We drove to Srinagar after breakfast enroute Tanmarg village, was such a beautiful drive, we picked pine cones, we got some snacks, we took many pictures with wildflowers and sheeps as well.

Srinagar:

we stayed at the Golden Crown houseboat which Kamran booked for us in 10 mins since booking.com booking was not found by the houseboat i booked.

The Golden Crown was really nice, nice deck and the caretakers Amir and Omar were so hospitable and sweet. Amir is like a younger brother, so active and so happy to serve his customers. Its on dal lake and the location is perfect.

I spent the whole evening from 3 PM to 6 PM looking at boats from the deck and drinking breezer hahah. The Shikaras sell beer and breezer just fyi. It was so relazing and soothing to be on a houseboat. If you go to Srinagar and not stay in a houseboat, you are missing out. We got so lazy to leave the boat we skipped the tulip garden. Ah! Maybe next time.

The flower guy came to chill with me and he gave me such good deals on tulip bulbs and also gave me lots of free seeds and bulbs after i told him am going to send them to my mom in shillong. I can see myself having 100 friends if i move to Kashmir.. lol. If you want to buy flowers, or flower bulbs in dal lake you can contact my flower friend -Dilawar, wonderful flowerman is the name of his flower boat - 9596220263.

Jewellery seller, clothes sellers etc. came to the boat to sell their things so you dont really have to step out. Amir has all the contacts- just let him know.

Dinner was at the houseboat.

Day 5:

5: 30 Am we left for the floating vegetable market, you have to tell your houseboat to pre book a shikara, Amir made all arrangements for us.

Was such a nice serene tour, it was cold so you have to be warm. we stopped at the market and had Kawa chai.

My friend wanted to buy some nuts and chai so our boatguy called the store guy and he opened the store for us. by the way our shikara boatman is a dragonboat racer.. he competes across india and has many medals. If you're in dal lake you can call him for the dal lake shikara ride, his name is Zahoor - 9906747709.

Came back and had chai and breakfast at our houseboat.

Some of the other guests at our houseboat were leaving so our deck was busy for a while. Then they left and we had the whole boat to ourselves.

We left for the airport at 12 noon.

Please be mindful:

I think as travellers we still need to be mindful while travelling, kashmir is beautiful and people are amazing. People are so simple and nice, they are trying to make their ends meet and tourism is so important to them, always support the locals. Please dont be like the aunty that came and asked the flowerguy 'can i sit in your boat and take picture for free?'... If you are nice and respectful, people are even more nicer to you and it makes your trip even more amazing and memorable.

I plan to go back in peak winters... for more snowboarding, Fiyaz has a 7 day snowboarding course he's invited us to join.

You can see my Kashmir trip in the instagram reel. Kashmir is breathtakingly beautiful and so are the people.