pamir highway

If you are an adventerous traveller you'd like it. If you serach for clean places, nice toilettes, restaurants... the Pamir is not for you although the nature is more than beautiful.

A must visit but plan it carefully, you need 5 days minimum, to see everything, the altitude can affect people on the first day a little but only a slight headache and fast heart rate, you must try the hot springs I tried 3.

Wonderful mountain scenery and beautiful lakes. Lovely hot springs along the way, and yurts to sleep in overnight. Definitely worth a visit.

Our route was: Dushanbe-Kalikum-Khorog-Ishkashim-Langar-Alichor-Murghab-Sary Tash. We chose Pamir Guides/META (Saidali Goibuldaev) - who we highly recommend. It was an unforgettable trip.Thoughts: The altitude is the biggest challenge. It is easier to acclimate going the direction we went rather than the reverse. A significant portion of the road from Dushanbe to Khorog is extremely dangerous due in large part to the many semi trucks from China transporting goods. If you are squeamish about cliffs, fast moving rivers, and ever present threat of head-on collisions it would be better to take the flight from Dushanbe to Khorog and then begin your road trip. On the other hand, the view across the river of Afghanistan from Kalikum to Khorog is interesting/stunning/worth the risk. The Afghan Market across the river from Ishkashim is worth seeing...even to just, have a "taste" of that country. If you are traveling on to Afghanistan that would be the best place to cross the border. Other highlights include: the Museum of Sufi mystic Muabata Kadam at Yamg. We highly recommend staying at his grandson's Homestay in that same town. He is a retired school teacher and curator of the museum...and a really nice guy. Nearby is Bibi Fatima hot spring - the best you will find anywhere (and way better than Garm-e-Chasma). The Wakhan Valley is spectacular. Beyond Yamg (between Ishkashim and Langer) the terrain for the remainder of our journey was bleak and brown high mountain desert. If we did this again, we would try to figure out how to skip Langer to Murghab...though that isn't really logistically possible. During those days of travel, the countryside will be more enjoyable if you take time to trek, horseback or yak ride, and be sure you have enjoyable travel companions that you really want to have a unique experience with! Don't forget to take your guitar and a deck of cards. Overall: this is a challenging trip. If you choose to do it, you will rightfully earn bragging privileges to something few have experienced. Be sure to believe and prepare for the temperature and altitude extremes that you read about. Also, plan that your trip will be very different than you expect...if you enjoy unknowns, adrenaline spikes, and adventure, this is a good trip to create some memories. However, the risks are real...especially altitude sickness and very dangerous driving conditions as noted above. We would agree with a previous reviewer that this is definitely THE reason to visit Tajikistan. If you can't get the GBAO permit, don't waste your time...go to Kyrgyzstan instead.

Absolutely stunning cold desert - in the Eastern part of the High Pamirs - one should visit. Get warm and keep you blood pressure under control - for the rest, your emotions will overwhelm and pay back. Enjoy the road!

This was a once-in-a-liftetime trip, spending 8 days going from Dushanbe to Khorog, the capital of Gorno-Badakshan oblast and thence mostly up the Oxus and Pamir rivers, before turning up to Murghab and then along the Chinese border to Kyrgyzstan where I travelled on to Osh. Our guide Ruslan was especially good, arranging excellent home stays on the way and taking us to see interesting sights along the way. The high point was the Zorastrian/Buddhist temple overlooking the Oxus. The only slight problem was when, in Murghab, instead of staying in the home stay which had been arranged, we stayed in a brand new hotel which had opened that day. The hotel would have been good but it had no water!

In my opinion the main reason for visiting Tajikistan has to be the Pamir's, its an exceptional experience not to be missed, to visit an area of outstanding beauty where not many have been is a rare thing. Get there before the country undoubtedly becomes a tourist hot spot, the accommodation is basic and the infer structure is not developed but when you witness the awesome scenery it wont matter.

It was a rough trip: bad roads, very basic accommodations, monotonous meals, extreme temperature changes, high elevation. Spectacular scenery made up for all the difficulties.

Having spent two weeks travelling in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the Pamir Highway was definitely a highlight. Scenery is stunning and the biggest surprise were all the wild flowers. it was like driving through a garden. High snowy peaks, milky blue glacial rivers and the flowers, .........Heaven

Star rankings make sense for hotels, sites etc but for something as grand as the Pamirs stars just do not reflect the grandeur - this needs 10 stars, not 5. "Very" hard travel even if by car well alone bicycle but totally fantastic. If you have adventure in your spirit this is a key place on the planet to be seen and travelled. The heights, the proximity to Afghanistan, the adventure, all of it is over the top (pun intended). Hindu Kush sighting between the front mountains along the Panj inspiring. Even the moonscapes at the high elevations draw your entire focus. Hired 4x4/driver for Dushanbe-Kalaikum-Khorog-Ishkashim-Langar-Murghab-Kara Kul-Osh. All fantastic. Tried to go Langar-Kargash-Shaymak but even with permit at Khorog the guards at Kargash would not let us pass. So, be prepared as I presume trying to get your money back would be tough even if you could return to Khorog.Road not as bad as I thought it might be actually - rough of course but not worse than back roads in North America well alone places in Asia or Africa. Some pavement and some gravel and not alot of traffic other than groups of trucks hauling from China on the Dush-Khorog-Murghab main route. That route has pavement but huge dips in road that keep you slower. Average speed over 7 days travel was 32 kph so distance short but speed low.We went eastward meaning slow gain in elevation and actually did not have any major height issues - still slows you down of course and takes your appetite away. No need for aggressive action to deal with the heights by acclimatizing. Westward with sudden gain may be tougher tho.

Travelling down the highway can be quite boring for a lot of the route. However, it more than makes up for that by the spectacular scenery in other parts. If you're going to take the highway, I suggest you ride in a car with a good suspension otherwise your back and backside may suffer.

It is an average Mountain Road with some bad patches. From Dushanbe to Darvaz Road is good. New Tunnel Near Wahdat has been recently Opened.

I did the whole Tajik Pamir Highway from Khorog to Murghab. I drove my own car so much nicer to feel the road and enjoy the spectacular sceneries. The mix of high mountains with yaks and Kyrgyz villages are very nice.

The Pamir plateau, which is around 800 km long, with altitudes ranging from 5-7,000m above sea level, is known as the highest region in Central Asia (a part form Tibet). The Pamir region, also known as the "Roof of the World", can be described as a large high-altitude pla¬teau with wide, flat-bottomed, grassy (and sometimes swampy) valleys, with slow rivers and streams.

We took a trip to this amazing part of the world with "The Traveller" - the ex-British Museum travel company now owned by Steppes. We travelled from West to East as recommended in a previous review and benefitted generally from the slow acclimatisation. Unfortunately we were told at the last minute that the route into Tajikistan via Penjikent was not open and that we would have to enter from Tashkent to Khojand and the Dushanbe. This involves some very high passes, inspiring scenery, but hairy bends and drops (not for the faint haearted and not the best introduction!). There is only one current guide to Tajikistan and the Pamirs - a new edition is due shortly. Distances travelled are long. Many sites are remote. A good local guide is essential - particularly for visiting historic sites, Each place we went had some fascinating things to see. In Khojand, preparations were underway for an anniversary - look out for the statue of Lenin being spruced up and surrounded by a beautiful park. The museum in Dushanbe was very rewarding and clear - once we were able to explore it by ourselves. The tour took us to the south with the Amu Daryr River and to the area where the spectacular Oxus treasure (a British Musem highlight) was discovered. Then we travelled east and the scenery got more and more dramatic, the towns and villages smaller and smaller, and the imagination began to run riot on what it must have been like 2000 years ago when camel and donkey trains took goods on one ot the most difficult of the many Silk Routes from China to the west. And then, there we were! On the opposite side of the river was Afghanistan! And a pack horse train taking goods along minute narrow paths cut into the side of 1000ft+ cliffs - just as they had always done! Absolutely the highlight of my trip.We stayed, as previous reviews say, in homestays - pretty basic. Sadly - presumably because we were on a group tour, we got little chance to make contact with the home owners or their families. A pity that, because as we have found in previous countries, it is very interesting and instructive.The High Pamirs were desperately bleak and, even with vast subsidy from the Aga Khan Foundation, very poor and down trodden. But they made up for that with spectacular mountain scenery - snow capped peaks and rushing water wherever one looked. And, as a highlight of a different sort, we moved from 30C heat to minus 5C snow and had to help push the tour bus up the hill!!Getting out of the country towards Osh was a bit of a problem - and if you want to play safe, you will need special travel insurance for the small sliver of Kirghistan in which travel is not advised by the FCO.Over the past 15 years, I have been travelling, with tour companies, across as much of the Silk Roads as is "safely" possible. Sadly, this journey was marred by poor preparation and information from The Traveller and a local guide who provided little background information about his country and its historical sites. But..Go! Tajikistan is an unknown very poor part of the ex-Soviet Union and needs to be better known. Great scenery. Fascinating sites. And an insight into life as it has been led in that part of the world for thousands of years. But do choose your tour company and guide carefully.