Ladakh Travel Guide 2026: Leh, Pangong Tso, Nubra Valley, Khardung La, Hemis Monastery and Tso Moriri
Browse more guides: India travel | Asia destinations TL;DR Ladakh is India's high-altitude Union Territory, separated from Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019. I planned a 10-day loop from Leh (3,500m) covering Pangong Tso, Nubra Valley over Khardung La (5,359m), Hemis Monastery, and the remote Tso Moriri (4,522m). The window is June through September. Indians need Inner Line Permits, foreigners need a Protected Area Permit, and everyone needs two days to acclimatize before climbing higher. Why Visit Ladakh in 2026 I came to Ladakh because the trans-Himalayan plateau felt unlike any landscape I had crossed in India. Brown ridgelines run for hundreds of kilometres without a tree, cobalt lakes appear at 4,500 metres, and Tibetan Buddhist monasteries sit on rock outcrops above barley fields. After the August 5, 2019 bifurcation, Ladakh became a separate Union Territory administered directly from Delhi. The tourist window is narrow. Most road passes open in late May or early June...