A Gulmarg Snowkings package is a complete ski trip run by one operator, accommodation, airport transfers, equipment, lift access, instruction or guiding, and the people who deliver all of it. We have run this mountain since 2006, we are registered with J&K Tourism as a ski school and backcountry guiding operator under permit no. JKAT00005678, and more than 2,500 skiers and snowboarders from over 40 countries have travelled with us.
This page sets out what packages exist, who each is for, what's in them, what isn't, and how booking works. For what the skiing itself is actually like, the Ski Guides and Ski Lessons sections cover it properly and this page won't repeat them.
Not sure which? The short version: if you cannot yet ski ungroomed snow confidently, you want Beginner. If you can, and you want the best snow available in the week you're here, you want Powder. If you want maximum vertical on unmanaged terrain and you already own or can use avalanche equipment, you want Backcountry.
Or call +91-9596300570 and describe your group. It takes four minutes and it is more reliable than a table.
What's in a package, and what isn't
Standardised across all our packages so you can compare like with like. Individual packages vary and each page states its own.
Normally included
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Accommodation | Nights in Gulmarg, in your chosen tier. Breakfast and dinner. |
| Airport transfers | Srinagar airport to Gulmarg and return |
| Ski or snowboard equipment | Skis or board, boots, poles, helmet, for the duration |
| Lift access | Gondola and chairlift passes for your skiing days |
| Instruction or guiding | Per the package, a qualified instructor or a certified guide |
| Safety equipment | Transceiver, shovel and probe on guided backcountry days |
Normally not included
| Item | Why |
|---|---|
| Flights | To Srinagar, yours to book |
| Travel insurance | Mandatory, yours to arrange, and see the note below |
| Lunch on the mountain | Bought day to day |
| Personal clothing | Jacket, trousers, gloves, goggles, base layers |
| Alcohol and extras | At your accommodation |
| Tips | Discretionary |
| Anything upgraded | Airbag pack rental, single-room supplement, extra guided days |
The insurance note, read it before you book
Standard travel policies frequently exclude off-piste skiing outside resort boundaries, and many exclude it entirely unless you are accompanied by a qualified guide. Essentially all interesting skiing here sits outside any resort boundary as a European insurer would define one.
Check your policy wording for: the off-piste definition, whether a guide is required for cover, helicopter evacuation specifically, any altitude ceiling, repatriation, and any exclusion applying to Jammu & Kashmir. Get ambiguity resolved in writing before you pay.
Full detail is on the Off-Piste Skiing page. We are not insurance advisers; this is a checklist, not advice.
Getting a quote
We quote against your actual trip rather than publishing a shelf price, because almost nobody books the standard version of anything. Group size, ability spread, how many days you want guided, where you want to stay and how long you're staying all move the answer, and a fixed number on a page would be wrong for most of the people reading it.
Tell us five things and we can quote properly:
Your dates, or the window you're working within. If your dates are flexible, say so, it opens options that fixed dates close.
How many of you, and whether you're travelling as one group or as people who happen to be arriving together. It changes the answer more than anything else on this list.
Ability, honestly. Not modestly, not aspirationally. "Two of us ski black runs at home and have never been off-piste; one has skied twice" is a useful sentence. "We're all pretty good" is not, and it produces a plan that has to be rebuilt on arrival.
What you want the week to be. Maximum vertical. Learning to ski. Powder days with rest days. A family trip where half the group skis. All of these produce different packages.
Where you'd like to stay, or that you'd like us to suggest. Accommodation is the widest variable in the whole trip and the easiest to adjust up or down.
What shapes a package, so you know what you're trading when we discuss it:
Accommodation tier is the single largest variable and the easiest to move. The same skiing, a different bed, a materially different trip.
Group size. Instruction and guiding work per group rather than per head, so four people sharing a guide is a very different proposition from two. If you're a pair, bringing two more people is the most effective single change you can make to a trip.
How many days are guided. Not every day of a week needs a guide. Plenty of people take five guided days in a seven-night trip and ski independently or rest on the others.
Season. Mid-January to late February is peak across this whole market. December and late March are materially quieter.
Heli days, if you want them, sit outside the rest of the structure and are arranged separately.
How quickly you'll hear back.
Call or WhatsApp +91-9596300570. One conversation gets you a package built for your group rather than a number for somebody else's.
Accommodation
The general picture. Gulmarg accommodation ranges from simple guesthouses to genuinely comfortable hotels. All of our packages include breakfast and dinner, because eating out in Gulmarg in winter is limited and most people are too tired to look for options. Rooms are heated; the reliability of that heating varies by property and is worth asking about.
Distance to the gondola matters more than you would expect. Walking fifteen minutes in ski boots at -10°C at the start and end of every day changes how a week feels.
Getting here
The logistics are more involved than a European ski trip and worth planning around properly.
Fly to Srinagar (SXR). Direct connections from Delhi and several Indian cities. International visitors connect via Delhi.
Srinagar to Gulmarg by road, roughly 50 km and typically 1.5 to 2 hours in good conditions. Longer in heavy snow, and the road occasionally closes for a period during a major storm. Transfers are included in all our packages and are timed to your flight.
Build a buffer before your outbound flight. A road closure or a Srinagar weather delay on your last morning is a real possibility, and missing an international connection is an expensive way to end a good trip. We schedule the return transfer with margin, and we would recommend not booking a same-day international connection out of Delhi.
Your arrival day is a travel day. Between the flight, the drive and the altitude, nobody skis well on the day they land. All our itineraries treat it as such.
What this means for trip length: seven nights on the ground is five or six skiing days, not seven. This is the most common source of disappointment in Gulmarg trip planning and it is entirely avoidable by counting properly at the booking stage.
Documentation and permits
Indian nationals need standard photo ID.
Foreign nationals need a valid Indian visa.
Backcountry access. J&K Tourism requires registered guides for backcountry access. The registration sits with the operator, not with you, you do not need to apply for anything personally, and you should be sceptical of anyone offering to sell you a personal permit. Ours is permit no. JKAT00005678.
How booking works
Tell us what you want. Dates, group size, ability, and what you're hoping to do. Call or WhatsApp +91-9596300570, or email. A four-minute conversation prevents most of the problems that show up later.
We propose a package. Standard, or adjusted. Most bookings end up adjusted in some way, which is the advantage of not running fixed batches.
A deposit confirms it.
Pre-arrival. We confirm transfer timings against your flights, check equipment sizes, and go through anything outstanding, medical conditions, dietary requirements, ability.
Arrival. Transfer from Srinagar, check in, equipment fitting. Skiing starts the next morning.
Cancellation and changes
What we do not offer refunds for, stated honestly up front: weather, snow conditions, or a guide's decision to ski different terrain than you hoped for. Those are the mountain, not a service failure. What we do instead is change the day, different aspect, different elevation, trees instead of alpine. That is the service and it is explained on the Our Guides page.
Lift closures. Phase 2 goes on wind hold regularly and it is not a lost day. Your guide or instructor has a plan for it.
When to come
Briefly, because Powder Skiing in Gulmarg covers the snow properly and this page is about buying a trip rather than about conditions.
Peak booking period is mid-January to late February. Book early for it.
December, March and April are considerably easier to book, often cheaper, and entirely good trips, March in particular suits beginners and anyone who values long days and warm sun over deep snow.
Book seven nights minimum if you're coming for the skiing rather than for a look at the mountain. Four-night trips are a coin flip on conditions and lose two days to travel.
A seven-night trip, hour by hour at the edges
The shape every package shares, regardless of level. Individual packages set out their own skiing days; this is the frame around them.
Day 0, arrival. Land at Srinagar. Met at the airport, roughly 1.5–2 hours by road to Gulmarg. Check in, equipment fitting in the afternoon, briefing over dinner about the week's plan, the forecast and your group. Nobody skis today, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you a day you won't enjoy.
Days 1–5 or 1–6, skiing. Content depends on the package. What's constant: a morning briefing, a plan with alternatives, and an evening debrief.
Final morning, the buffer. Either a short ski or a slow start, then the transfer to Srinagar, timed with margin for weather and road conditions. We build this deliberately loose. A tight last morning is how people miss flights in Kashmir.
The reason to publish this: it makes visible the thing that catches most first-time visitors, which is that a seven-night booking is not seven days of skiing. Count it properly before you book and the trip meets expectations.
Group bookings and private trips
A significant share of what we run, and the economics work in your favour.
Small groups of four to eight are the sweet spot. Instruction and guiding work per group rather than per head, so each additional person improves the arrangement for everyone. A group of six gets the same quality of day as a couple on far better terms.
Mixed-ability groups are normal and manageable up to a point. Where the spread is wide, a first-timer and an expert in the same party, the answer is usually splitting the skiing days and reuniting in the evenings, not compromising both. We would rather propose that at the quoting stage than have it discovered on day two.
Whole-group private trips. Clubs, university groups, corporate trips, families travelling together.
What we need to put a group trip together accurately: number of people, honest ability spread, dates, how many guided or instructed days you want, and accommodation preference. Vagueness on ability is the single biggest source of a plan that later has to change.
Who runs your trip
The part that distinguishes a package from a booking.
An agency package puts you in a hotel and subcontracts the skiing to whoever is available. You will not be told who, and neither will the agency's website. With us, the instruction, the guiding, the equipment and the mountain knowledge are one operation.
Founded 2006 by Shafat Ahmad Tantray and Bashir Ahmad Mir. Twenty consecutive seasons. J&K Tourism registered ski school and backcountry guiding operator, permit no. JKAT00005678. Backcountry team certified through AIARE, Avalanche Canada and the Kashmir Avalanche Association. 2,500+ clients from 40+ countries. Zero avalanche accidents among our guided clients since 2006, stated with its scope, and not a claim that Gulmarg is safe. See Avalanche Safety.
What to pack
Package-relevant only; your equipment is included.
Bring: waterproof jacket and trousers, warm mid-layers, thermal base layers, two pairs of gloves, goggles including a low-light lens, sunglasses, high-factor sunscreen, lip balm, a warm hat, and warm socks, one pair per day, not two pairs at once.
Bring if you own it: your own boots (fit beats everything), your own transceiver if you have practised with it, and any medication with a copy of the prescription.
Don't bother bringing: skis, unless you're particular. Rental is included and adequate for most people.
Worth knowing: ATMs in Gulmarg are unreliable and card acceptance is patchy. Bring cash for incidentals. Mobile coverage is limited on the mountain and variable in the village. Bring a power bank; power cuts happen.