Babusar Pass Motorcycle Tour

This is the ride most people start with when they want the high north on a motorcycle without committing two weeks to it. Six days from Islamabad, up the Kaghan Valley through Balakot and Mansehra to Naran, then over Babusar Top at 4,173 m and down onto the Karakoram Highway at Chilas. The road follows the Kunhar River most of the way, climbing out of the Hazara plains into pine forest and then into open alpine meadow as the valley narrows toward the pass.

The riding is almost all paved, which is what makes it a good first northern tour. The exception is the climb to Babusar Top: tight hairpins, steep grades, and patches of snowmelt and grit that stay slippery into the morning. You spend only a few minutes at the summit and they are cold ones, even in July, with wind coming straight over the saddle. Then the road drops fast down the drier northern face toward the Indus, a completely different landscape from the green valley you climbed out of.

Babusar Top opens around mid to late May and closes again by late October or early November, so we run this trip June to October, with July and August the most reliable. Along the way the valley gives you Lulusar Lake at 3,410 m sitting roadside below the pass, and Lake Saiful Muluk at 3,224 m, reached by jeep above Naran because the track is too rough to take the bikes up. Naran itself fills with domestic weekend traffic in peak season, which is worth planning around.

We run it as a guided group on rented bikes, with a road captain leading and a support jeep carrying luggage and a mechanic. You ride; we handle the fuel stops, the checkpost paperwork on the Chilas side, and the jeep transfer up to Saiful Muluk. It is a moderate tour, not a beginner one, because of the pass climb.

The Kaghan Valley does the scenery in stages. Out of Balakot you climb through forest along the Kunhar River; near Shogran the slopes open into meadow. Gujjar herders bring water buffalo up the valley each summer and their rough hillside camps are part of the view from the saddle. Naran at 2,409 m is the hub, a scruffy resort town that is your base for two nights.

Above Naran the road runs past Lulusar Lake at 3,410 m, then makes the final climb to Babusar Top at 4,173 m. Lake Saiful Muluk at 3,224 m sits above Naran up a steep jeep track; we take you up by 4x4 rather than risk the rental bikes on it. The descent to Chilas swaps green for grey, dropping you onto the Karakoram Highway and the edge of the Indus gorge.

You pick up the bike in the Islamabad and Rawalpindi twin cities before the ride begins. Most riders end up on something in the small-displacement commuter class: a Honda CG125, a Suzuki GS150 or GS150SE, a Honda CB150F, or a Yamaha YBR125. Expect to pay somewhere around 10 to 21 US dollars per day, model depending, and that figure usually folds in a helmet, knee and elbow pads, gloves, and a mount for your phone. For a first northern trip we point first-timers at the GS150 or CB150F rather than the CG125, which spins along happily on flat tarmac alone but runs out of puff once you load it up or carry a pillion onto the Babusar hairpins.

There is a second reason the 150cc wins here: any small workshop between Balakot and Chilas can fix one in an afternoon and the spares sit on shelves in the local bazaars. To rent, bring three documents along: your passport, a current Pakistani visa, and either a home-country or international driving licence. The carnet de passage question comes up a lot, and the short answer is that a rented bike needs none. That document only enters the picture when a rider temporarily imports a personal machine, which is a heavier, slower, separate piece of admin we are happy to walk you through.

The single biggest packing mistake on this trip is dressing for the Islamabad heat you set off in. Babusar Top sits at 4,173 m, where wind cuts across the saddle and the temperature drops hard even in an August afternoon, and in the early-season weeks ice lingers on the climbing hairpins past dawn. Carry a full-face helmet, an armoured jacket, proper gloves, a warm mid-layer, and rain shells you can throw on once the road starts climbing. The rental does come with a lid and basic pads, but kit that actually fits you wins on a cold pass.

Pack light because the support jeep carries the main luggage and you want the bike unladen on the climb. Sunglasses and high-SPF sunblock matter more than people expect at altitude. Sturdy boots and a buff for the dust on the rougher patches near the summit round it out.

This suits a rider with real road experience who wants the north without a two-week expedition. The hazard here is not altitude, which is brief because you do not sleep at the pass, but the mountain road itself: hairpins, drop-offs, weekend tourist traffic around Naran, and ice patches in the shoulder months. If you have ridden mountain roads before and can handle a loaded bike on a steep climb, you will be fine.

Hungry for more once Babusar is behind you? Two longer trips build straight on from it. Our Karakoram Highway expedition keeps this same Babusar climb in its pocket as one of its two routing choices and carries on all the way to the Chinese frontier, while the Shandur adventure starts roughly where the high north begins and swaps tarmac for gravel. Browse the KKH expedition at /tours/kkh-motorcycle/ and the Shandur gravel ride at /tours/shandur-motorcycle/.

We are a Gilgit-Baltistan operator and have run riders over Babusar since 2015. You get a road captain who knows where the ice sits in June, a support jeep with a mechanic and spares for the 150cc bikes everyone rides, and honest scheduling around Naran's weekend crush and the pass opening dates. We handle the Chilas-side foreigner registration so you spend your minutes at the top taking photos, not filling forms.