This was a fairly relaxed plan, and the last two days in Sonmarg were especially relaxing where we got plenty of time to relax in a beautiful hotel enjoying the scenery.
BHPian Dr.AD recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
Photologue from Kashmir: Prologue
Evening Scenes at Dal Lake, Srinagar
The pilot of our flight from Bangalore to Srinagar was quite poetic. In his cabin announcement before landing at Srinagar, he described the weather in Srinagar as “fickle and dishonest” (fickle and dishonest), and also announced that Kashmir is his favorite place by reciting these oft-quoted poetic lines:
Agar paradise bar ru-ye guarantee ast
Hamin ast-o hamin ast-o hamin ast
If there is heaven on earth
It is this, it is this, it is this!
As I and my better half spent the next 5 days in Kashmir, we realized that he was spot on about his description of the weather there, and allowing for a poetic license, many places we visited were apt for those poetic lines he recited too.
In the 5 days we spent there (in the month of September), the first day the weather was cloudy, cool and breezy, and with intermittent showers (the perfect weather for walking around and exploring places), then the next couple of days it became sunny and quite pleasant, and in the last two days (which we spent in Sonmarg which is supposed to be much cooler than Srinagar), it was actually bright sunny and hot.
The September scenes there were the typical autumn scenes. There was no snow anywhere yet (except on the distant glaciers), neither was it too cold. And it was not too hot either. The perfect mix of summer and winter weathers, and so was the case with the landscapes too. We got typical autumn landscapes – mix of green and yellow grass and leaves, plenty of blooming flowers everywhere, and mostly clear blue skies.
In this post, let me give a brief information about our hotels and itinerary, before moving on to the main content – the photographs from Kashmir – in the subsequent posts.
We had a simple itinerary. We spent two days in exploring Srinagar city and visiting various places in and around the city, then spent a day in a day-trip to Gulmarg and Doodhpathri, and then did a two-day trip to Sonmarg, with an overnight stay in Sonmarg. This was a fairly relaxed plan, and the last two days in Sonmarg were especially relaxing where we got plenty of time to relax in a beautiful hotel enjoying the scenery, and also walk around enjoying the views of the glacier. For all this travel there, we used a taxi from a company named “Kashmir Tourism Cabs”, and had a good experience with them.
In Srinagar, we stayed at “Four Points by Sheraton”, and it turned out to be a very nice hotel. We had a spacious and well-appointed room, the hotel itself had great ambiance, the restaurant there was excellent and the staff exhibited extraordinary levels of hospitality and service standards. We loved our stay there of four days. The only negative was that this hotel is a bit away from the scenic parts of Srinagar (Dal lake area), and is situated in rather boring city areas with nothing interesting to see around the hotel.
Our spacious room at Four Points by Sheraton: 
If the location of our Srinagar hotel was not scenic, we compensated for that by staying at a very scenic and iconic hotel in Sonmarg, called “Snowland Sonmarg”.
Snowland Sonmarg is one of the best hotels in Sonmarg, located right next to Sindh river (we had Sindh river views right from our balcony) and the mountains as well. The suite we had was very nice too, and we had river and hill views everywhere as we walked around in the hotel premises.
The scenic hotel located next to the hills and river: 
Our room had a nice traditional Kashmiri decor: 
We we had a separate living room as a part of the suite, with an electric fireplace too: 
River views from our balcony:
The bathroom had this “Jacuzzi with a view”: 
Parting shot of the hotel where we spent two days and enjoyed a relaxed time and great views: 
With that basic travel information out of the way, let me share the photographs from this trip in the subsequent posts below.
Continue reading BHPian Dr.AD’s post for more insights and information.
