How did a Bhurban visit change this traveller's relationship with Pakistan?
The 45-minute drive from Islamabad to a cedar estate at 6,800 feet revealed that a genuine mountain escape was closer than assumed. The private villa accommodation at Himalaya Villas — a jacuzzi on the terrace, a cedar garden fire pit, in-villa dining — exceeded expectations of Pakistani mountain properties. The forest at dawn, the morning fog over the valley, the specific quality of mountain light — these experiences shifted the perspective from 'I travel internationally because domestic isn't good enough' to 'Bhurban is the better experience for what I'm actually looking for'.
The Mountain Life — How Bhurban Changed My Relationship With Pakistan
I have been to Thailand four times. I have been to the Maldives twice, Turkey three times, and Dubai so many times it barely registers as travel anymore. I have photographed the Bosphorus, walked the ruins of Ephesus, and floated in the Maldives' Indian Ocean with the specific satisfaction of having arranged a good holiday.
I have not, until recently, gone to Bhurban.
This is not unusual for my generation of upper-middle-class Pakistanis from Lahore: we travel internationally with ease and domestic Pakistan with familiarity, which means we travel internationally. Murree was where my parents went. The hill station was in the category of things that were fine, comfortable, known — not the category of things that required effort to arrange.
The first Bhurban visit changed this categorisation.
The Drive
Forty-five minutes from Islamabad on the Murree Expressway, then a turn before the town, then a forest road, then a gate. The drive from the city to the cedar estate takes less time than the taxi from my house to Allama Iqbal International in Lahore. By the time I had processed that I was in a different environment — the air changed, the temperature dropped, the sound of the expressway was replaced by the sound of wind in pine trees — I was already there.
This is the first thing that surprised me: the distance. Not the distance of the journey but its smallness. I had assumed that a genuine mountain escape from Pakistan's cities would require the investment that the north requires — the 10-hour drives to Naran, the 5-hour drives to Swat, the flights to Gilgit. Bhurban is 45 minutes. It is less far than I drive for a good restaurant in Islamabad on a busy Thursday.
The Property
Himalaya Villas & Resorts is not what I expected from a Pakistani mountain property. I had prepared, subconsciously, for the category of accommodation that 'mountain stay in Pakistan' typically implies: a room that is cold, furnishings that are familiar from every mid-range hotel, an outdoor space that is notionally outdoor but practically a car park.
What I found was a private cedar estate at 6,800 feet with a jacuzzi on the terrace of the Presidential Suite, a cedar garden with a fire pit that belonged to our group for the weekend, and in-villa dining at a time of our choosing. The accommodation was good by any standard — not just by the adjusted standard of Pakistani mountain accommodation.
The Forest at Dawn
I woke at 5:30am on the second morning. This is not something I typically do voluntarily. The cedar forest was audible through the window — the wind in the pines, the specific early-morning bird calls of the Bhurban forest. I walked out onto the private terrace.
The temperature was 12°C. The valley below the estate was filled with morning fog — the Islamabad plain completely invisible, as if it didn't exist. The Murree ridge above was catching the first light, the pine canopy visible in silhouette. A pheasant called from somewhere in the forest to the left.
I stood there for a long time. I thought about the fact that this was 45 minutes from Islamabad. That this forest, this air, this temperature, this specific quality of mountain morning had been here all along, and I had been going to the Maldives.
What Changed
I am not a travel writer. I am not going to claim that one weekend in Bhurban rewired my relationship with Pakistan in any profound way. But something did shift.
I booked the next visit before I had finished the coffee on that second morning. I have been back twice since. I have stopped booking the Maldives for the summer and started booking Bhurban instead — not as a sacrifice, not as a compromise, but because the cedar forest at 6,800 feet in October is, for me, the better experience. Not comparable to the Maldives in aesthetic terms — completely different. Better, for what I now understand I am actually looking for.
What I was looking for, it turns out, was not the ocean. It was the private outdoor space, the temperature below 20°C, the absence of the city. Bhurban provides all three, 45 minutes from Islamabad, in a cedar estate with a fire pit and a mountain sunrise. I had been looking for it abroad. It was always here.
Himalaya Villas & Resorts — Bhurban, 47km from Islamabad
Private cedar estate in Bhurban.
Experience the mountain life for yourself.
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