Cancel that trip to Kashmir if these 6 places aren’t on your winter travel itinerary

Winter in Kashmir is not a mild seasonal shift, it’s a full transformation. You might feel the biting cold, but the scenes surrounding you will mesmerise you in such a way that you will thank your stars for deciding to visit this place during winter. It is that time of the year, when valleys disappear under snow, lakes freeze into glassy expanses, and familiar landscapes turn almost theatrical. If you’re planning a winter trip and these places aren’t on your itinerary, you might want to pause and rethink. Because skipping them means missing the very experiences that define Kashmir in its coldest, most magical season.

If winter in Kashmir had a poster child, it would be this. The Gulmarg Gondola is not simply magnificent, but also the highest cable car in Asia, transporting you from pine forests up to a stark alpine world trapped under snow. In winter, things don’t just become postcard-beautiful; they turn dramatic. Slopes disappear into a zone of white nothingness, clouds float beneath your feet right then, and the quiet at the top seems otherworldly. It’s like going to Agra, and not seeing the Taj Mahal.

Winter Dal Lake is not about shikara selfies leisurely taken near the steps. The magic starts when you tell the shikara boatmen to take you to the quieter sections of the lake, nearer to the hills. This water often releases in thick, frozen sheets; houseboats lie idle there and the air tastes metallic, cold. It’s surreal, silent and like nothing you will see in summer. If you don’t include this frozen patch in your Dal Lake plan, you’re only seeing half of the story.

Located around two hours from Srinagar, Aharbal waterfall goes mostly neglected in winter, but that’s precisely when it should be explored. A tributary of the Jhelum River, the Veshu River feeds it and even as snow collects along its edges, the waterfall simply roars. It’s a 15-minute walk back downhill to viewing points where mist, ice and the sound of thundering water converge. In winter it is rough and untamed, devoid of tourist gilding.

If Sonamarg or the Meadow of Gold is all lush during the summer, it becomes something else entirely in winter. Meadows are buried in snow, rivers slice black lanes through whitened fields, and the Thajiwas Glacier takes over as the star attraction. It’s a cinematic, vast-looking landscape, with soaring peaks closing in all around. In winter, Sonamarg’s size and its silence are of a different level, making it rather less of a picnic spot and more of a high-altitude affair.

If Gulmarg is glamorous and Sonamarg splendid, Daksum is subtly breathtaking. This little-known valley, nestled in the Anantnag district, is bordered by dense forests and snow-frosted peaks that seem to have been barely touched. In winter, Daksum hushes everything. Streets clear up, the air turns crisp and mountains loom in every direction. It is the kind of place that makes you understand why Kashmir has always been referred to as otherworldly.