Gilgit is rarely the reason anyone travels north. It is the place people pass through on the way to somewhere they have seen photographs of. That is not a criticism of the town so much as a description of its geography. Gilgit sits at the junction of the routes north to Hunza, east towards Skardu, west into Naltar and back down the Karakoram Highway towards Chilas and the Raikot bridge for Fairy Meadows. Almost every northern itinerary touches it at least twice, on the way up and on the way back.

Hunza has a rush, and it is short. School holidays open in June, the valley fills through July and August, and for those weeks the best rooms are gone months in advance, rates sit at their annual high and the restaurant is busy at every sitting. Then it empties. Not gradually, but noticeably, usually within the first couple of weeks of September. The mountains are unchanged.