The Nubra Valley, once on the trading route that connected eastern Tibet with Turkistan via the famous Karakoram Pass, is the most recently opened area of Ladakh. Nubra invites you to a trip back in time into a nearly forgotten ‘Shangri La’. With breathtaking views and delightfully hospitable inhabitants, it is quite an experience.
This region is fed by two rivers, one is Shyok and another one is Nubra. When descending from Khardungla pass, one encounters the Shyok river and continues on its left bank. The river’s entire basin is visible from the road. The river is not full of water so, it has many channels. The basin is filled with sand, stones and occasional green patches of trees, shrubs and sometimes cultivated fields. The same is the case with the Nubra river which originates at Siachen glacier. They both meet near a place called Khalsar.
Turtok village’s fields and orchards occupy a shelf of land above the Shyok River, which winds downstream towards Baltistan in Pakistan. Image by Amar Grover / Lonely Planet.
The easiest way to visit Nubra is to organise an itinerary with an operator in your home country or, almost certainly cheaper, a travel agent in Leh. This usually includes travel by private car. The tourist season runs from about mid-June to late September, peaking in mid-July to the end of August.
