Things to do in Karachi

Nature · Clifton, south Karachi

A long stretch of Arabian Sea beach with a promenade, camel rides and the city's evening escape valve.

Local tip: Go at sunset on a weekday. The water is not for swimming — currents are genuinely dangerous and drownings happen every year — but the walk is the most reliably pleasant hour in Karachi, and the corn and chai sellers along the front are the point.

Culture · Clifton

A 1927 pink Jodhpur-stone palace, later Fatima Jinnah's residence, now the city's best-curated museum.

Local tip: The building alone justifies the trip, but check what's on before going — it runs a small number of serious temporary exhibitions rather than a permanent collection, and between shows there is much less to see.

Food · Saddar, central Karachi

The city's oldest food street, run by families who came from Delhi in 1947 and never changed the recipes.

Local tip: Go for nihari at Waheed's or Sabri's and go late — this street is at its best between ten at night and two in the morning. Order the nalli. Cash only in most places, and the crowd is entirely local.

Landmark · Saddar

An 1889 Gothic-revival market hall with a clock tower, at the centre of the colonial-era commercial district.

Local tip: The market itself sells spices, birds and produce; the reason to come is the surrounding grid of Saddar, which has Karachi's densest concentration of pre-partition architecture — much of it derelict, most of it unmarked, and all of it walkable in a morning.

Nightlife · DHA Phase VIII, on the creek

A strip of seafront restaurants on the water where Karachi does its late-night eating.

Local tip: This is what nightlife means in a city with no bars, and it is genuinely good. Tables fill after eleven and stay full past two. Go on a weeknight if you want to hear anyone; weekends are chaos and the road in backs up badly.

Nature · Across the harbour from Keamari

A spit of land with a lighthouse, an old Hindu temple, a colonial church and a beach nobody photographs.

Local tip: Take the launch from Keamari rather than driving round — it costs almost nothing, takes twenty minutes, and the harbour crossing is the best view of the city there is. The 1889 Varun Dev Mandir and St Paul's Church stand within a few hundred metres of each other, both largely forgotten.