North India · Valley
Sand dunes, double-humped camels and monasteries beyond Khardung La
Photo: Addy6697 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Best: May–Sep
Ladakhis call it Ldumra, the valley of flowers, and after the bare Indus it does feel green: sea buckthorn, willow and apricot orchards along rivers that braid across a floor a kilometre wide. Nubra was the last Indian stretch of the caravan route to Yarkand and Kashgar, and the double-humped Bactrian camels grazing the dunes at Hunder are descendants of the pack animals that walked it. The road from Leh climbs to Khardung La at 5,359 m, one of the highest motorable passes in the world, and drops more than 2,000 m in two hours to Diskit at about 3,100 m.
Diskit Monastery, founded in the fourteenth century, hangs off a rock above the village; the 32 m Maitreya Buddha below it, consecrated by the Dalai Lama in 2010, faces down the Shyok towards Pakistan. Hunder's sand dunes are a short drive away, best at sunset when the camels come out and the light goes copper. Across the river, Sumur and the Samstanling gompa sit in orchards, and Panamik's sulphur springs are the last stop before the Siachen base camp road.
Turtuk, 80 km west, only opened to visitors in 2010: a Balti village of stone houses, apricot terraces and a small royal palace, where the language, bread and faces change completely from the rest of Ladakh. Nubra is where Ladakh stops being a plateau and becomes Central Asia.
Best May–Sep
May to September; apricot blossom in April, harvest in July and August.
Give Nubra Valley 3 days and it repays the time; with fewer you are choosing between Khardung La pass at 5,359 m on the road from Leh and Diskit Monastery and the 32 m Maitreya Buddha. We build the hours around the weather — early starts when it is hot, long afternoons when it is not.
On the ground
The days we would actually plan for you, in the order that suits the light.
At the table
Non-vegLadakh
A broth of hand-pulled wheat noodles with mutton or vegetables, spring onion and a little local chilli, ladled out steaming at 3500 metres. Ladakhis eat it as a full meal, often after skyu and before butter tea. The kitchens along Changspa Lane in Leh serve it from late morning until the shops close.
Getting there
Leh airport is 120 km (about 5 hours) via Khardung La; there is no railhead; Turtuk is a further 80 km west of Diskit.
Airport pickups, station transfers and the driver for the days here are all part of what we arrange — including the hour you should leave, which is usually earlier than you think.
Next door
Places that join Nubra Valley without a long drive — the way a real week is built.
CityLadakh
Ladakh's high desert capital of palaces, gompas and prayer flags
LakeLadakh
A 134 km lake that changes colour by the hour
MonasteryLadakh
One of Ladakh's oldest gompas above a valley they call moonland
LakeLadakh
A high blue lake on the Changthang where nomads still graze
2 journeys
8 days · 7 nightsChallenging · Best Jun–Sep
Eight days over 5,000-metre passes to Nubra, Pangong and Tso Moriri
Route: Leh → Nubra Valley → Pangong Tso → Tso Moriri
10 days · 9 nightsChallenging · Best Jun–Sep
Ten days over Zoji La and Khardung La to Pangong Tso
Route: Srinagar → Sonamarg → Lamayuru → Leh +2 more
From the journal
· Itinerary · 5 min
Everything that decides whether a Ladakh drive works: which highway to enter on, how many days to give altitude before Khardung La, what permits cost, when the passes open and close, and a tested twelve-day loop from Leh to Tso Moriri.
Before you ask
Photograph of Nubra Valley: Addy6697 · CC BY-SA 4.0
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