Tulip Season in Srinagar: Book Transport Early · ZoonCabs

Tulip season in Srinagar means the three to four weeks from late March into April when the garden below Pari Mahal fills the city, and this is ZoonCabs's guide to what it does to transport: when it falls, why vehicles sell out after the hotels, and how early an agency should book.

For three or four weeks from late March into April, the tulip garden above the Dal is why Srinagar is full. Hotels sell out first, then houseboats, then transport, in that order, and an agency that has sold the package before it has booked the vehicle discovers the third one the hard way. This is what the season means for vehicles and how to book them.

What the season is

The tulip garden on the slope below Pari Mahal opens when the bulbs come up, usually the last week of March or the first of April, and the bloom holds for three to four weeks depending on the weather. The dates move with the spring and are announced close to the time. The garden is a morning: an hour or two, best early before the coaches. It sits with the Mughal gardens, Nishat and Shalimar, on the same side of the lake, and a client does all of them in a day.

The city in bloom

The Boulevard is slow from mid-morning. Parking at the tulip garden and the Mughal gardens fills. A city day that normally runs the lake, the gardens and the old city in eight hours takes longer, and a driver who knows the season starts among the gardens and finishes in the old city rather than the other way round. Airport transfers on the Boulevard side take the longer end of their range.

What it does to transport

Every vehicle in the valley is working. A supplier who quoted a sedan in February may not have a sedan on the day in April, and the swap to whatever is available is how the season's complaints begin. Two consequences for an agency:

• Book the vehicle when the hotel is booked, not when the client pays the balance. A confirmed transport booking holds the vehicle class; a phone quote holds nothing.
• Price for the season. April is not November, and a package priced on a low-season figure is a package that loses its margin to the market.

On ZoonCabs a booking confirmed from the wallet assigns a transporter, a driver and a vehicle class for the dates; it is not a place in a queue. The transport booking page covers the steps.

The season's itinerary

1. Arrival by air, with the Boulevard-side hotels reached in the longer end of the transfer range.
2. The gardens day, early. Tulip garden first, then Nishat and Shalimar, then Pari Mahal for the view, then the old quarter in the afternoon when the gardens are busiest.
3. Gulmarg, which in early April can still have snow on the meadow and is a fine contrast to the tulips. An SUV for the climb if the winter has run late.
4. Pahalgam or Sonamarg, depending on whether the Sonamarg road has reopened; it may not have in early April. The Sonamarg guide covers the closure.

Vehicles

Sedans for couples, which is most of the tulip-season market; SUVs for families and for a late-winter Gulmarg; tempo travellers for the coach-party groups that come in April, with the parking limits in mind. The Kashmir cabs page has the classes and the season notes.

Frequently asked questions from agencies