Travel warnings and restrictions
This page provides information on travel restrictions within the country during the summer of 2022. While I will be sharing my own experiences and highlighting regions where I faced issues, it is important to note that this list may not be comprehensive. It’s always a good idea to check the areas you intend to visit before you travel.
I traveled through the Gilgit-Baltistan region and did not face any major issues. I did come across a few checkpoints on the way, but they did not cause any significant delays. However, I did not venture far off the main roads and cities. At one checkpoint from Gilgit to Skardu, I was asked for a hotel confirmation. I am unsure of how the situation would have played out if I did not have one. Overall, I found the country to be extremely safe during my month-long journey.
South of Punjab and Northern Sindh provinces!
This area is very tricky! It’s very likely you won’t be allowed to travel without police escort. First strange thing noticed, once booking a hotel online in Faisalabad, the host cancelled it. The real “fun” started once i decided to go directly to Multan. I had reservation, but the hotel told me that they have no rights to accommodate a foreigner! ”Hotel Multan Continental” was the cheapest one (20USD) apart from expensive western chains, which had ”appropriate security standarts” to accommodate foreigners. In order to check-in, it was required to arrive with police escort, so I managed to get it after couple of hours at the local police station. Afterwards, there was no way to move around independently. Hotel would contact police and they would escort me, extremely slow and lengthy response usually. Once they escorted me to the bus, which would take me to Bahawalpur. It seemed ok, but the following they once I was hitchhiking back from Derawar, police noticed me and the same thing happened. I spent over 3h in two different police stations before I could go back to Bahawalpur, where the local police was waiting me. Since my train was following day at night, after check-out time was forced to spend 8 hours at Bahawalapur train station. Arriving early at Sukkur, there was no police, but then later next day at Hyderabad, the police noiced me again, so I went to Karachi in order to get rid of them. Karachi was hassle free, but my day trip to Thatta ended up with another police escort.
Kashmir and Balochistan
These areas require special seperate permits to visit. I had minivan from Mansehra to Muzaffarabad, the border control guys were friendly and really tried to help me, but they had no authority to let me pass the border with Azad Kashmir. From what I’ve heard it takes up to two weeks prior to get these permits. Regards Balochistan, there was an exception which allowed me to do a day-trip from Karachi to Gaddani.
Loco-travel 