Pahalgam

Pahalgam is the easiest base for pony rides, river-side walks and day trips to Kashmir's most photographed meadows, all within a short drive of a proper town with hotels and markets. Pahalgam is a riverside town in Anantnag district, set where the East and West Lidder rivers meet at 2,200 metres in a valley of pine and fir forest. Once a shepherds' village, it grew into Kashmir's best-known hill resort and is the traditional starting point for the annual Amarnath cave pilgrimage each July-August. From the town, roads and pony trails branch out to the meadows of Baisaran and Betaab Valley and up the Lidder valley toward Aru.