Punjab

Lahore is the reason most people come. The Walled City, the Badshahi Mosque, the Lahore Fort and the Shalimar Gardens are all Mughal work, and the old bazaars between them still sell spices, kites and brass. Beyond Lahore, Punjab's history goes both further back and further out. Harappa was a city of the Indus civilisation more than four thousand years ago, Taxila preserves Buddhist and Greek-influenced ruins, and Rohtas Fort, built by Sher Shah Suri in the 1540s, is one of the largest and least visited forts in South Asia.

Guru Nanak was born at Nankana Sahib, and Punjab holds many of the gurdwaras that Sikh pilgrims travel to Pakistan to visit, including Panja Sahib at Hasan Abdal and Dera Sahib in Lahore. Large pilgrim groups come in April for Vaisakhi and in November around Guru Nanak's birthday.

Punjab is the best place in the country to eat. Lahore is known for its breakfasts of halwa puri and its evening food streets, and the roadside dhabas along the Grand Trunk Road are worth stopping at. It is also flat and easy to drive, which makes it a good first stop before the mountains.

October to March is comfortable. From May to August the plains are very hot. If you travel in summer, plan to be in the hills at Murree or in the north.

Islamabad is administratively a separate territory, not part of Punjab. We list it here because it sits on the Potohar plateau next to Rawalpindi and is the base for most of the Punjab and north-west itineraries.