Kashmir: Srinagar, Gulmarg and Pahalgam

Met at Srinagar airport and driven to your houseboat on Dal Lake. Srinagar’s houseboats are long, flat-bottomed boats panelled in carved cedar and moored in rows along the lake, each with its sitting room, dining room and bedrooms, and a veranda over the water where tea is brought out in the afternoon.

Later, a shikara ride: the canopied boats, paddled with heart-shaped oars, are the taxis of the lake. Glide past the floating gardens, the lotus beds and the boats of the vegetable and flower sellers, with the Zabarwan hills above the eastern shore, and stay out on the water for the sunset.

A full day up the Sindh valley to Sonamarg (2,740 m), the Meadow of Gold, the last green valley before the road climbs over the Zoji La into Ladakh. The meadows are ringed with forests of pine, fir and birch, and in early summer the slopes are covered in alpine flowers.

From the meadow, walk or ride a pony to the Thajiwas glacier, south of Sonamarg, which feeds the streams running down through the valley. Sonamarg is where many treks into the mountains begin, and pilgrims bound for the Amarnath cave set out from Baltal, a little beyond it. Back to Srinagar and the houseboat in the evening.

Pahalgam sits where the two branches of the Lidder meet, and each has its valley. Up the eastern branch is Betaab Valley, a green floor of meadow and river between steep pine forest, named after the Hindi film shot there in 1983, and beyond it Chandanwari, where the pilgrim trail to the Amarnath cave begins and snow often lies in the gorge well into summer.

Up the western branch is Aru, a village of wooden houses in a wide meadow, where the treks to the Kolahoi glacier start. The side valleys are visited in local vehicles, which we arrange. Back to Pahalgam for the night.

The Gulmarg Gondola climbs in two stages: the first up through the forest to the meadows of Kongdori, the second on towards the summit ridge of Apharwat, at nearly 4,000 m, where the Himalaya lines the horizon in summer and the skiers start their runs in winter.

The rest of the day is yours: walk the meadows and the forest paths round the rim of the bowl, or sit out with a cup of kahwa, the Kashmiri green tea with saffron, cardamom and almonds.