Kashmir Winter and Snow Tour Packages, December to March

Which Kashmir winter package should you choose?

We chose these four because Gulmarg can be moved earlier in each plan where hotels and vehicles allow, and none depends on crossing the Zojila pass. None of the four published itineraries includes a spare day. Prices are per person on twin sharing, ex-Srinagar, from each package's own price table. The package pages are written for every season, so their general notes on the best months, or on adding Ladakh, may not suit December to March; where they differ from this page on winter, ask us before you rely on either.

What the prices cover, as the package pages state: deluxe rooms as per the hotel list, daily breakfast and dinner, a one-hour shikara ride, Srinagar airport pickup and drop, a private vehicle for transfers and sightseeing, and all taxes. They leave out airfare, lunches, Gulmarg gondola tickets, the Betaab, Aru and Chandanwari trips, pony rides to Thajiwas Glacier and Baisaran (see the Baisaran note under Extras below), guide charges, entry fees, personal expenses and any cost caused by natural calamities such as landslides or strikes.

Three things to know before you compare. First, each package lists three hotel tiers but prints one price per group size, so ask which tier a price assumes. Second, the tables do not split winter from other months, so we confirm the fare for your exact dates, above all for 24 December to 2 January. Third, the lowest figure in the tables is ₹8,100 per person, for the 3N/4D at six travellers; the same package is ₹11,950 per person for two. Pick the row that matches your group, and we confirm the final price before you book.

Which one for whom? Read the full pages: the 3N/4D Quick Getaway is the shortest and the lowest priced and has one Gulmarg day, with no spare day if the road shuts. The 4N/5D Kashmir Classic adds a Sonmarg day trip to the 3N/4D; both 5N/6D routes include Sonmarg as well. All four of the Classic's nights are in Srinagar, so its day trips can be swapped with each other where roads and weather allow. The 5N/6D Explorer's first three nights are in Srinagar before one Pahalgam night, so the Sonmarg and Gulmarg day trips on days 2 and 3 can be swapped with each other where roads and weather allow. Day 1 is arrival. The 5N/6D Gulmarg Stay is the one for people who want a night in Gulmarg itself on the 3 Star Premium or 4 Star Basic tier (the 3 Star Basic tier sleeps in Tangmarg, a short drive below; our Gulmarg hotel guide gives about 15 minutes), so the gondola and meadows are not a same-day rush. Snow is not guaranteed on any night. Couples and families can ask us to re-price any of them: see our pages for couples and family tours.

Which packages we left out of the winter list, and why

You can still ask us about Doodhpathri as a possible snow day out of Srinagar. We would treat it as a same-morning decision with the driver, not as a fixed part of the trip, and the 6N/7D Doodhpathri package is listed for summer.

How likely is snow? What recent winters show

The table below shows how far December-to-February precipitation fell short of normal in each recent winter for Jammu and Kashmir, as reported by ETV Bharat from Meteorological Centre Srinagar data on 3 March 2026. The article's subheadline says “Kashmir valley” and its text says “Jammu and Kashmir”; it gives Srinagar separately, at 84.2 mm against a normal 236.5 mm, 64 per cent below. It is precipitation (rain and melted snow together), not snow depth, so read it as how wet the winter was.

That is seven deficit winters in a row, five of them more than 30 per cent short. ETV Bharat's article lists 2012–13, 2016–17 and 2018–19 as winters that finished above normal (by 14, 29 and 36 per cent). An unnamed senior Met Centre official quoted there said seven deficient winters reflect “not random variability alone”. In 2025–26 the monthly figures were 13.0 mm in December against a normal 59.4 mm, 73.4 mm in January against 95.1 mm, and 14.2 mm in February against 130.4 mm.

A dry winter still produces snow days on the high ground. In 2025–26 the reports we found put fresh snow on Gulmarg on 21 December (up to 5 inches), around 1 January, on 23 January (Skymet; the wider valley's heavy snow began the night of 22 January, per ETV Bharat), on 3 February and again around 19 March. Skymet describes the 23 January snow as Gulmarg's first of the season, which the 21 December report contradicts, so we do not rely on that wording. Snow can also arrive late. Skymet called 23 January 2026 the heaviest snowfall of the season to that date in Srinagar, Banihal and Qazigund, and more snow followed on 27 January (Siasat). On the slopes, the 2025 Khelo India Winter Games at Gulmarg were postponed for inadequate snow (Kashmir Reader, 3 March 2025), while the 2026 edition was scheduled for 23 to 26 February, and the Chief Minister said snowfall during Chillai Kalan had let it be organised better than last year (ETV Bharat, 22 February 2026).

Our reading, and the way we plan: treat snow as a possible bonus on a trip that works without it. IMD's normals for Gulmarg rise from 74 mm of December rainfall to 161 mm in January, 208 mm in February and 216 mm in March, so the wet days cluster after the new year, but IMD's table does not measure snow, and we found no data that ranks one week above another. Anyone who promises you snow on a fixed date is guessing. What we can do is help you pick a package whose day trips can be swapped, and move the Gulmarg day early where hotels and vehicles allow. For the week you travel, the Srinagar MeT office outlook is the thing to check. Our Gulmarg snowfall guide and Kashmir in winter guide cover the wider season.

Month by month: December, January, February and March

Start with the averages. IMD's 1991–2020 normals are thirty-year means, so any single day can sit several degrees either side.

IMD's table gives total rainfall and a count of rainy days; it does not say whether the millimetres include melted snow. Read it as how wet a month is. Now what recent winters did inside each month.

December. The first half is the quiet half. In December 2025 precipitation across Jammu and Kashmir was 78 per cent below normal. Snow came late: on 21 December 2025, the day Chillai Kalan began, Gulmarg got up to 5 inches and Sonmarg 4 inches while Srinagar had rain, and Gulmarg was the only station below zero in the overnight readings, at −1.5 °C (Greater Kashmir, 21 December 2025). Days are short: on 21 December 2026 Srinagar's sunrise is 7:32 am and sunset 5:25 pm, about 9 hours 53 minutes of light (sunrise-sunset.org). Our December guide has the dated readings, the temperature table and the closures.

January. This is the coldest month by IMD's normals, and in 2025–26 it brought the worst road and flight disruption we found. On 8 January 2026, All India Radio reported overnight minimums of −5.1 °C in Srinagar, −9.2 °C in Gulmarg and −9.8 °C in Sonmarg, with the cold wave expected to continue and a largely dry spell forecast to 22 January. Then the weather turned: on 23 January Skymet reported the heaviest snowfall of the season to that date in Srinagar, Banihal and Qazigund, all flights to and from Srinagar cancelled that day and the Jammu–Srinagar highway shut near the Navyug Tunnel. ETV Bharat reported the highway still shut on 24 January and Siasat reported it closed 'till further orders' on 27 January, with eight flights cancelled by then. By 28 January, Gulmarg's hotels were at 100 per cent occupancy and Sonmarg's above 70 per cent, according to Greater Kashmir, which also reported an avalanche on the Tuesday night that officials called minor, with no casualties reported. Our dated January briefing, Kashmir in January, is being written to go deeper.

February. February 2026 shows how variable the month is. On 3 February Gulmarg and Pahalgam had fresh snow while Srinagar had only showers, and Gulmarg's overnight low was −5.3 °C (Greater Kashmir, 4 February 2026). In February 2025 Gulmarg had touched −10.0 °C (Kashmir Reader, 7 February 2025). Yet by the end of February 2026 the valley was record-warm: Skymet reported Srinagar's mean daytime high for the month at 15.6 °C against a normal 10.5 °C and a previous record of 14.9 °C in 2016, and WION reported a 21 °C day. Precipitation for the month across Jammu and Kashmir was 89 per cent below normal (ETV Bharat). The Khelo India Winter Games were scheduled at Gulmarg for 23 to 26 February.

March. March is wetter than it looks. Gulmarg's IMD normal for March is 216 mm of rainfall, the highest of the four months, and the month can swing from snow to spring within days. On 19 March 2026 All India Radio reported fresh snow at Gulmarg, Sonmarg and Pir Ki Gali, continuous rain in Srinagar and a Srinagar daytime high of about 10 °C, well below normal (IMD's March normal is 15.5 °C). The Zojila pass had shut for four days and reopened to light vehicles only on 23 March. Meanwhile the tulip garden opened on 16 March, about ten days earlier than the usual last week of March (Kashmir Observer). For tulips on a fixed week, see our month-by-month guide and plan the bloom separately from the snow.

Gulmarg in winter: the road, the vehicle rules and the gondola

Gulmarg is the main snow stop on all four itineraries. These are the official rules we found for the last stretch of road, in date order. Four of the five orders below were issued by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Gulmarg; the fifth, of 27 December 2024, by the District Magistrate (DM) Baramulla. Each was reported by the news outlet shown. Rules are issued at short notice and may differ on your dates.

The ₹600 chain rate is from the 2024 orders, is not a TDI price and may have changed. None of the five orders we read says tourists must change vehicles at Tangmarg, so we will not tell you that they must. The December 2024 time window (tourist vehicles on the road only between 8 am and 6 pm) matters for evening plans; the December 2025 and January 2026 reports we read do not repeat it, so ask us whether any window applies on your dates. What we can say from our own pages is that our drivers carry chains and that the Srinagar–Gulmarg drive that takes about 1.5 hours on dry roads takes 2 to 3 hours in snow (our Gulmarg snowfall guide). Our Doodhpathri package lists a 'snow jeep at Tangmarg (if heavy snowfall)' as an extra cost. The four packages in this hub do not mention one either way, so ask us before you pay whether a change of vehicle applies on your dates and who pays for it.

The gondola is the second half of the day. It is run by the Jammu and Kashmir Cable Car Corporation, whose site tells visitors to buy tickets online rather than from touts and links to the official booking portal at etickets.jammukashmircablecar.com. Fares are not in any package price. We could not find an official fare table: the corporation's site and the portal pages we could read show no prices. Curly Tales (26 June 2026) printed ₹700 for Phase 1 and ₹900 for Phase 2, while two unofficial booking guides we read, dated July and October 2026, printed ₹800 and ₹1,000, and ₹810 and ₹1,010. Those guides are not official and fares may have changed, so budget roughly ₹1,600 to ₹1,850 per person for both phases (the printed fares add up to between ₹1,600 and ₹1,820, rounded up; unofficial figures, so check the portal before you pay). Our own Gulmarg gondola guide says Phase 2 to Apharwat is weather-dependent and often closed in winter winds, while Phase 1 to Kongdoori runs almost all year, and the gondola is not immune to stoppages: it was suspended on 25 May 2026 after a technical fault and had resumed by 26 June (Curly Tales). Phase 2 depends on the wind that morning and nobody can book the weather, which is why we aim to put the Gulmarg day early where hotels and vehicles allow.

For skiing and snowboarding, see the Gulmarg skiing guide, which puts the season at mid-December to mid-March, snow permitting, and our Gulmarg ski packages page; we do not quote ski prices here because they are not in the package tables. For everyone else, sledging is the common choice: a report on 19 February 2026 (Asianet Newsable) said sledge pullers charge ₹500 to ₹1,500 per tourist. That is a typical market range reported by the pullers, not a TDI price, and TDI confirms what applies before you book. The Gulmarg destination guide covers the rest of the resort.

Sonmarg, Pahalgam and Srinagar: what each day trip is like in winter

Our guides help you plan each stop: Sonmarg, Pahalgam, the Mughal Gardens and shikara rides on Dal Lake. Avalanche warnings are real: Ganderbal Police warned tourists to avoid avalanche-prone areas after an avalanche near Sonamarg on the night of Tuesday 27 January 2026. No casualties were reported, and reports differ on its size: Greater Kashmir quoted officials calling it minor, while Kashmir Life described a massive avalanche (Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Life, 27 and 28 January 2026). Your driver or guide should decide where you walk.

Zojila in winter: why we do not sell Ladakh road trips

The Zojila pass carries the Srinagar–Leh road, and snow can shut it to vehicles for days at a time. The Tribune wrote on 14 January 2026 that the route is generally closed to vehicular traffic from December to April, and that BRO sources said a closure from heavy snow in the coming weeks “cannot be ruled out”. Yet winter 2025–26 was unusual. Greater Kashmir reported on 13 January that the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) had kept the pass open through December and into January, a record duration, and that last winter's closure lasted only about 30 days. On 10 March the Kashmir Horizon, citing the Chief Engineer of BRO's Project Vijay, reported that the pass had stayed open through the winter and the road had been closed for only four days. We found no official BRO notice to check these figures against.

The pass still shut after heavy snow. The dated reports we found: closed to vehicles on 21 December 2025 after fresh snow (Greater Kashmir); closed for four days before a partial reopening reported on 3 January 2026, when passenger vehicles could go from Minamarg towards Sonmarg but Sonmarg to Kargil traffic stayed suspended (The Right News); restored on 17 January after a two-day closure, first from the Kargil side (Greater Kashmir); listed among closed routes with no immediate restoration on 24 January (ETV Bharat); and reopened to light vehicles only on 23 March after a four-day closure (Greater Kashmir). The closures the newspapers reported add up to more than BRO's four days, and we cannot reconcile the two, so we quote no season total. A Srinagar–Leh road leg cannot be promised for any winter date. BRO cleared the pass after each closure we found; in spring 2025 BRO reopened it on 1 April and described 33 days of clearing as a record (Kashmir Reader).

So road trips between Srinagar and Leh or Kargil, such as our Discover Ladakh package, cannot be promised for any winter date, and we do not recommend Ladakh as a winter add-on to the Kashmir packages. We have not researched winter conditions inside Ladakh for this page. To choose between the two regions, read our Kashmir vs Ladakh comparison.

Getting there in winter: flights, highway and rail

We cannot promise any of these will run on your day. Fly in on a changeable fare, keep a spare day at both ends and do not book a same-day onward flight. Our Srinagar airport taxi desk tracks your flight and moves the pickup if it is delayed.

Heating, power and what a winter package includes

A winter package includes what the price table lists and nothing the table does not. This page does not claim heating, hot water or generator backup at any named hotel or houseboat, because the package tables do not list those facilities. What we can point to is on our own pages. Our Gulmarg hotel guide says most mid-range hotels do not have central heating and suggests requesting a room heater in winter. Our skiing guide tells guests to confirm heating and hot water because winter Gulmarg has occasional power fluctuations. The Dal Lake houseboat page says most deluxe and luxury houseboats have power backup while standard ones may have limited electricity during load-shedding.

Power cuts are not hypothetical. The distributor KPDCL's scheduled cuts in December 2024 ran from three to six hours in metered Srinagar to about eight hours in non-metered areas (ETV Bharat, 10 December 2024), and Sonmarg had unscheduled cuts in January 2026 (Greater Kashmir, 28 January 2026). Before you confirm a winter stay, ask the property, or ask us to ask it, what heats the room, whether heating is in the rate, whether a generator or inverter runs it, whether there is hot water in the morning, and, for a houseboat, how you reach the shore if the lake edge is icy. Ask for the answers in writing. If you would rather have hotels throughout, tell us and we re-price it.

Extras that are not in the price: the gondola ticket, ponies at Thajiwas Glacier, the Betaab, Aru and Chandanwari trips, lunches, entry fees and any snow-day vehicle change. Budget for them separately. Baisaran, which the package pages also name for pony rides, is a separate case: ETV Bharat's list of 14 sites reopened on 16 February 2026 includes Thajiwas Glacier but not Baisaran, and we found no official notice reopening it, so we confirm access before you travel and do not include it unless it is open.

Christmas and New Year week

In the 2025–26 New Year week and again in late January, Gulmarg hotels were reported at or near full occupancy. All India Radio reported nearly 100 per cent occupancy there for the New Year week (2 January 2026), Greater Kashmir reported 100 per cent on 28 January, and The Kashmir Horizon reported hotels and guesthouses at nearly full occupancy on 1 January 2026, with the Tourism Department and the Gulmarg Development Authority running a seven-day Winter Carnival of snow sports, music and cultural shows. The Director of Tourism Kashmir told Kashmir Convener on 5 January 2026 that early-January visitor numbers were nearly matching the previous year, and the same report called the gondola exceptionally busy for the first five days of the year. We have seen no dates announced for a 2026–27 carnival, so ask us before you plan around one.

If you are searching for a Kashmir New Year package, we do not have a separate product with its own price. The four itineraries above are where we start, repriced for 24 December to 2 January. Our suggested order is to lock the Gulmarg night or day first, then your flights on a changeable fare, then the rest, with the early days left flexible so a snow day can be swapped. Expect gondola queues; our gondola guide advises booking a slot before 11 am so that Phase 2 is reachable before the afternoon weather changes.

What to pack for a Kashmir winter package

Our Kashmir packing list has the four-season version.

How we would order a winter itinerary

• Gulmarg early. It is the day a shut road or a stopped Phase 2 spoils, so ask for it early, not last, where hotels and vehicles allow, and keep a later day to swap into if your plan has one.
• Sonmarg as the swap day when the road is open. The tunnel helps, but the road has closed after heavy snow, and the package timings give about three hours from Srinagar.
• Hotels over houseboats by default. A houseboat night is still one of the reasons people come, but only once we have confirmed heating for that boat.
• Slack at both ends. A spare day before any onward flight, and no fixed-date events after you leave Srinagar.
• Be indoors by dusk. Sunset is near 5:25 pm in late December and 5:59 pm by the end of January (sunrise-sunset.org).

Our Kashmir in winter guide and month-by-month visiting guide put this in the context of the other seasons, and our safety page sets out the advisories in full. Read them before you book: when we opened the pages on 25 October 2026, the UK advised against all travel to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, naming Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Sonamarg and Srinagar, and warned that travel insurance could be invalidated if you travel against its advice, while Canada advised avoiding all travel to the Union Territory. Our safety page also covers Australia, the United States and India. Ask your insurer in writing whether Jammu and Kashmir is covered.

Next step

Send us your dates, group size and what matters most (snow, a houseboat night, skiing, a New Year week) through our contact page. We will tell you which of the four packages fits and what the fare is for your dates. Weather and road conditions for your dates only become clear close to travel, so check the Srinagar MeT outlook and road advisories in the week you go. Plan with a spare day and decide the snow-dependent days last.