In February 2011, I started planning a vacation plan in May 2011. I was planning this trip for Kaghan-Naran or Murree with my family and cousin. Later after some discussion with my cousin we finalized upon Murree.
We left for Rawalpindi from village Teri, Distt. Karak on 9th May early morning and arrived in Murree by Zuhar time. I had done my booking at Usmania Restaurant(aka Civic Hotel) on main mall road. We had planned to stay for night in the same hotel and visit the surrounding areas in the day.
9th May – The same day after taking some rest, we left for Kashmir point at afternoon. It was a really fun place to be. We enjoyed the pleasant weather and surroundings. I believe one could spend days there with his family 🙂
10th May – Next day we hired a hi-roof and went to Nathiagali and Ayubia. While driving there we stopped at many places and did some trekking, photography and other stuff. Children especially enjoyed the bandar point and monkeys jumping in the Ayubia National Park.
11th May – We went to Bhurban and Neelum River. We especially enjoyed Neelum River. The river Neelum was on its full swing and it was an amazing view. After spending sometime there, we left Neelum Point at afternoon. We went to Patriata and had a ride on chairleft. My cousin and his family were first time riding in chairleft so they were abit afraid but overall enjoyed it.
12th May – We left Murree back for our village. On way back, we had an excellent weather and had some rain on our way at Jhand. It was simply an unforgettable experience.
Overall this short trip was an amazing and great experience. Last time, I visited Swat back in 2007 with my family and now this time again with family and cousin. Murree and surrounding area is an ideal vacation spot for families. It is good, secure and everything is available at reasonable costs there.
As far as my hotel experience at Usmania Restaurant is concerned, it was good except for one issue which was a bit irrating for me 🙁 as I am an early morning person and I enjoy the sun rising in such places. For my breakfast, I had to wait till 8AM which was not good. It wasted quite some of time as doing breakfast and then leaving would take quite sometime. Due to my family and children it was also not possible to do the breakfast easily on our way. When I asked the staff, they couldn’t do anything about it. So if they could improve this, this hotel is highly recommended.
It was the first time for my cousin to go out on vacation and he really enjoyed it. In fact he asked me to arrange for such programs at least in two years 🙂 I do it once a year already.