Srinagar

Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, sits at 1,585 m on the banks of the Jhelum river and around the famous Dal Lake.

• The city is shaped by layers of history — the medieval old town and bazaars; the Mughal-era pleasure gardens laid out by Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan on the lake's eastern shore (Shalimar Bagh, Nishat Bagh, Chashme Shahi); and the British-era boulevards and Dal Lake houseboats introduced in the 19th century when the Maharaja banned outsiders from owning land and the British responded by living on water.
• The classic Srinagar experience is a sunrise shikara ride through the floating vegetable market on the lake (the world's only one of its kind), followed by a houseboat-stay night and a Mughal-garden afternoon.
• For vegetarian travellers, the Kashmiri Pandit community's vegetarian tradition is a Persian-influenced revelation — dum aloo (slow-cooked baby potatoes in fennel-yogurt gravy), nadru yakhni (lotus stem in cardamom-yogurt sauce), haakh (the local collard greens), chaman (cottage cheese in turmeric gravy), tamatar paneer, and the fragrant kahwa (saffron-cardamom green tea served all day).
• Travellers should dress modestly throughout the city as a sign of respect for local customs and avoid photographing security personnel.
• The city is reached by direct flights from Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru to Sheikh ul-Alam International Airport (SXR), 14 km south.
• The best season is April to October — April-May for the tulip garden bloom, June-August for alpine meadows of nearby Gulmarg and Sonamarg, and September-October for the celebrated chinar autumn when the city's 700-year-old Mughal-planted chinar trees turn crimson.