Pakistan Travel Guide

The e-visa system is opened for citizens of 191 countries. In 2026, Pakistan cancelled the easy and free Electronic Travel Authorization/Visa on Arrival and now all qualified nationalities must apply for a regular Tourist/Visit Visa through the site, which has an associated visa fee and takes 7-10 business days to process (although it may arrive faster or slower than this). Despite confusing proclamations on the application about requiring a sponsor and/or a letter of invitation from a hotel, in most cases the confirmation page from a confirmed hotel booking will suffice (be sure to submit the…

The national currency of Pakistan is the Pakistani rupee, denoted as Rs (ISO code PKR). The rupee is subdivided into 100 paise (singular: paisa). "5 rupees 75 paise" would normally be written as Rs "5.75". It is always good to have a number of small bills on hand, as merchants and drivers sometimes have no change. A useful technique is to keep small denomination notes (Rs 10-100) in your wallet or in a pocket, and to keep larger denomination notes (Rs 500-5,000) separate. Then, it will not be obvious how much money you have. Many small merchants will claim that they don't have change for a Rs…

Getting around Pakistan has become much easier with the completion of some motorways, and an increase in private airlines. Whilst the cities are well covered, roads in rural areas are not, with many minor roads missing - Google Maps in particular has a worrying habit of marking dried up river beds as minor roads, so if you're exploring out in the sticks, it's a good idea to use Google Earth to double check your route.

thumb |right |300px | Languages and ethnic groups of Pakistan At the federal level, Urdu and English are the official languages of Pakistan. Urdu serves as the lingua franca of Pakistan. It is very similar to Hindi, but is written in the Arabic script, and incorporates more loan words from Arabic and Persian than Hindi.

In an emergency, call the police by 15 from any landline phone. To get an ambulance, dial 115 and 1122 from any landline or mobile phone. Several extremist movements are active in the country, including the Pakistan So-called Taliban Movement (TTP), which seeks to destabilise the country's governance through terrorist attacks, most of which target Pakistani authorities, but also civilian targets such as schools, mosques, churches and mass gatherings.

Pakistan has lower hygiene standards than those of Western nations. Visitors are strongly advised to refrain from drinking tap water, which contains many impurities; many Pakistani locals themselves drink boiled or purified water, and you should drink only boiled, filtered or bottled water. Tap water is known to contain many impurities. Ice is usually made from regular tap water, and may be even harder to avoid. Fresh milk from the carrier should be boiled and cooled before consumption. Non-pasteurized dairy can spread tuberculosis, which might be the cause of those hacking coughs you hear on…

The country code for Pakistan is +92 if you are calling from outside the country. Phone numbers are seven digits long with a two-digit city code in larger districts, and six digits long with a three-digit city code in smaller districts, for a total of nine digits as a standard nationwide (except for Azad Kashmir). All mobile numbers, however, are seven digits long and begin with a four digit network code "03XX", where XX indicates the cellular provider. Thus Pakistani mobile numbers are linked t…

Despite sharp political and religious differences, Pakistan and India share a common culture; the various respect tips found in the India article will come in handy during your visit. The culture has a strong tradition of hospitality. Guests are often treated extremely well. Pakistanis pride themselves on their tradition of hospitality to guests (mehmanawazi in Urdu). Nonetheless, Pakistan does not see many foreigners and there is some insularity as well; consequently foreigners may be occasionally regarded with suspicion and attract stares. But in general, Pakistanis are warm, friendly and ge…