The single best way to see both regions: start soft in Kashmir at 1,600 m, drive the Silk Route east over the Zoji La gaining height day by day, and arrive in Ladakh already acclimatised. No flight into thin air, no wasted days.
If you can only make one trip to this part of the Himalaya, make it this one. Driving the Silk Route east from Srinagar rather than flying into Leh solves the altitude problem completely — you gain height over three days instead of three hours — and it turns the transfer days into the best days.
Every guest remembers it. You come over the pass in pine forest and drizzle, and twenty minutes later you are in a bare ochre desert with prayer flags. Nowhere else in the world changes that fast.
Houseboat, dawn shikara, Mughal gardens, the old city's shrines and workshops
Asia's highest gondola and the meadows below Apharwat
The pass that separates green from ochre; Drass, the second-coldest inhabited place on earth
The Suru valley and an 8th-century Maitreya carved into a cliff
Thiksey dawn prayers, Hemis, Alchi's Kashmiri murals, the old town
Khardung La, Hunder's dunes and camels, and the lake at sunrise
Met at the airport and transferred to your hotel.
Morning flight to Srinagar, kahwah welcome, houseboat check-in. Afternoon shikara ride through the floating gardens and the lake's vegetable market.
Nishat, Shalimar and Chashme Shahi in the morning. After lunch the old city — Jamia Masjid, Shah Hamdan, and the papier-mâché and pashmina workshops. Sunset from Shankaracharya Hill.
A day trip to Gulmarg for the gondola and the Khilanmarg meadows, back to Srinagar in the evening.
East up the Sindh valley through Sonamarg, then the Zoji La (3,528 m) — and within twenty minutes the pines end and the mountains turn to bare ochre rock.
On through Drass, the second-coldest inhabited place on earth, to Kargil on the Suru river.
East to Mulbekh's cliff-carved Maitreya, over Namika La and Fotu La, down to Lamayuru's eroded 'moonland' badlands and its ancient gompa. Into Leh by early evening — and you arrive having climbed gradually for three days.
Early start for the morning puja at Thiksey, then Shey and Hemis. Afternoon in Leh's old town and market.
The Indus–Zanskar confluence, Basgo, Likir and Alchi Choskor — painted by Kashmiri artists a thousand years ago, which closes the circle neatly on where your trip began.
Up and over Khardung La (5,359 m), down to the Shyok and west to Hunder for the dunes and Bactrian camels at sunset.
West along the Shyok to Turtuk, walking the apricot orchards and irrigation channels with a local family, then back to camp.
Diskit Monastery in the morning, then the Shyok route east to Pangong for the late-afternoon light.
Dawn on the water, then back over Chang La with stops at Tangtse and Chemrey. Afternoon free in Leh.
Morning flight to Delhi with the whole Himalaya out of the left-hand window, and your onward connection.
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Leh – Kargil – Rangdum – Padum – Phugtal – Zangla – Kargil – Leh
Srinagar – Sonamarg – Gulmarg – Pahalgam – Srinagar
Leh – Monasteries – Sham Valley – Nubra Valley – Pangong Lake – Leh
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