Pakistan
A land of Greatest Mountains & Colorful Culture

A Complete guide to the best kept secret of Asia. Browse though the cities . You will find here Information on History, Culture, Places to Visit Hotels, Roads, and means of travel.

Pakistan Country profile

General Overview

Official Name : Islami Republic of Pakistan

Capital : Islamabad

Largest City : Karachi

Population : 153 million (UN Estimate)

Total Area : 796,095 km2 (36^th) 307,374 sq miles

Currency : Pakistan Rupee (Rs)

Official language : Urdu

Regional languages Balochi, Pashto, Punjabi, Saraiki, Sindhi

Pakistan tourism had suffered the hardest in 2011. There were some groups from Japan and other countries in the north eastern region of Gilgit Baltistan. An estimate is that about 5000 tourists have visited Pakistan in 2011.

2012 Looks a bit better as the security situation in Pakistan has improved. Comparing to 2010 there were less than half causalities in the country related to terrorist attacks and in 2012 the government has taken good measures to control the threats of security in the country. This has overall impacted positively on the tourism industry of Pakistan.

Arrival Targets for 2012

Governemnt had a major change in the tourism department last year. Now the tourism has become a mater of individual provinces. Till the writing of this report none of the tourism Authorities have announced any targets or expectations.

The only active Private firm “Travel & Culture Services” has set their own target for arrivals which is around 8000 foreign tourist during 2012 an about 10000 local domestic tourists.

Climate

Pakistan mainly is a warm country specially during the main peak tourist season. However it is a country that offer complete four seasons starting with blossom to the change of colors in Autumn

Best time to Visit

Pakistan offers a holiday for any season. The Northern Pakistan, which offer high mountain valleys history and culture, is ideal between March & September while southern Pakistan, which offer history culture and beauty is ideal from September to March.

Distances

Pakistan is fairly a large country the major cities of the country are Karachi Lahore Islamabad Peshawar and Quetta while there are also other places that are located at different distances and are worth visiting. Following is the chart of Distances in Pakistan.

To & From	Distance	To & From	Distance
Karacho to Lahore	1200	Karachi to Sukkur	500
Karachi to Multan	800	Karachi to Hyderabad	170
Multan to Lahore	348	Lahore to Islamabad	288 & 330
Lahore to Murree	338	Lahore to Faisalabad	143
Lahore to Mirpur AJK	211	Lahore to Sargodha	172
Lahore to Sialkot	112	Lahore to Sukkur	802
Islamabad to Peshawar	180	Islamaabd to Abbottabad	120
Islamabad to Besham	275	Islamabad to Muzaffarabad	138
Islamabad to Murree	64	Islamabad to Jehlam	120
Islamaabd to Kohat	185	Islamabad to Saidu Sharief	268
Islamaabd to Gilgit	610	Islamaabd to Skardu	750
Gilgit to Hunza	100	Gilgit to Chilas	130
Gilgit to Skardu	176	Gilgit to Chitral	200

Hotels in Pakistan

With tourism in general hotels have also been hit hard due to the security situation. No new hotels came during the year 2011. The existing star hotels have also remained static and the rates were somewhat unchanged since the beginning of 2011 till the end.

Pakistani hotels offer special rates to touroperators based on the volume they produce. Usually the rates remain unchanged except for any special event when the hotels are fully booked.