Things to do in Islamabad

Landmark · At the foot of the Margalla Hills, north of E-7

Vedat Dalokay's 1986 desert-tent design in white marble, one of the largest mosques in the world and the image of the city.

Local tip: Go at dusk when the marble takes the last light and the hills behind go blue. The courtyard is open to visitors outside prayer times; women should bring a scarf. Parking on the east side is easier.

Nature · Margalla Hills National Park, above F-6

A network of marked hill trails starting inside the city, rising into oak and pine forest with the whole grid laid out below.

Local tip: Trail 5 from the trailhead above F-6 is the one locals actually use — about an hour up to Pir Sohawa, busy at weekends and near-empty on a weekday morning. Trail 3 is steeper and shorter. Leopards are present in the park; go in daylight and not alone.

Culture · In a fold of the hills between F-6 and F-7

A pre-Mughal village absorbed by the city, with a Hindu temple, a Sikh gurdwara and a mosque within a few hundred metres.

Local tip: The restored quarter with the restaurants is pleasant and touristy; the reason to come is the temple complex above it, which is usually empty and is one of the few visible traces of the pre-1947 Potohar in the capital.

Neighborhood · Central Islamabad

The two oldest and most established sector centres — Kohsar Market, Jinnah Super, bookshops, cafés and the closest the city gets to street life.

Local tip: Kohsar Market in F-6 is where the international crowd actually gathers; Jinnah Super in F-7 is the bigger, more local version. Both are genuinely walkable, which almost nothing else in Islamabad is.

Nature · East of the city, off Murree Road

The city's reservoir, with a lakeside park, birdlife and a walking track along the Korang stream feeding it.

Local tip: The lake viewpoint is the usual stop; the better walk is upstream along the Korang toward Bari Imam, which almost no visitors do and which is the quietest green space near the city.

Food · Rawalpindi, 20–40 minutes south

The dense, chaotic old city Islamabad was built to avoid — bazaars, colonial-era buildings and the food the capital does not have.

Local tip: Islamabad has no old city and no street food culture worth the name; Pindi has both, fifteen minutes away. Go to Kalma Chowk and the streets off Raja Bazaar in the evening for the paye and the chapli kebab. Take a taxi and leave the car.