Srinagar & Kashmir

Srinagar is built around water. Dal Lake carries the houseboats and the shikara traffic; the Jhelum runs through the old city under seven bridges; and the floating vegetable gardens on the lake's western edge still trade at dawn. The Mughal terraces above the shore — Shalimar Bagh, Nishat Bagh, Chashme Shahi — were laid out in the seventeenth century and remain the city's best sense of proportion.

The old city is worth a morning of its own. Jamia Masjid is carried on more than three hundred deodar columns; the shrine at Hazratbal sits on the far shore; and the shawl and papier-mâché workshops in the lanes around Nowhatta are working premises rather than showrooms.

When to go. April and May for the Tulip Garden at Siraj Bagh and the almond blossom. July to early September for the high trekking season, when the Great Lakes and Tarsar–Marsar circuits are snow-free. December to February for Gulmarg, where the gondola runs to 3,980 m.