Rent a car with driver on the Pamir Highway

The Pamir Highway is still a formidable adventure. If you are traveling without your own transport, you will need to join or book a jeep tour to make the most of your trip.

Why?

1. Public transport takes time and doesn’t stop along the way.
2. Hitchhiking is an option only for those young enough to waste precious Pamir time.
3. That’s it. There is no third option.

How it works

There are only so many cars driving the Pamir Highway. The same pool of drivers is used by all agencies and ecotourism associations.

We send off your request to 2 competing providers: Talant in Osh, and Khudik in Khorog/Dushanbe. Together they have been in tourism for more than 15 years, and they account for a significant part of the organised tourist traffic on the Pamir Highway.

They are in touch with a large number of drivers and tourists. This means they can create cost-saving synergies:

• Filling up cars that would otherwise return home empty
• Getting together solo travelers to share rides

When you send a request through the form on this page, it automatically ends up in the inbox of both providers. Based on their replies, you can then compare and select the best offer.

Price and itineraries

All itineraries are fully customizable. The price depends mostly on the number of kilometres travelled. Bartang valley costs extra. A driver with good English is able to charge more. In summer, prices go up, depending on how busy things get.

If you are short on cash, go Osh – Khorog and leave out the final Khorog – Dushanbe bit: take public transport for that. 900$ for 7 days Osh – Khorog is the absolute bare minimum for an independent driver who would otherwise be returning empty. 1000$ for 8 days is a more reasonable aim for budget travelers. You can split the price among your co-travellers.

If you are not a budget traveler, take your time and enjoy the ride.

Other options

The car + driver option is a pared down version of a regular Pamir Highway Jeep Tour, which includes an English-speaking guide and all meals and accommodation.

Drivers and quality of cars

Generally speaking, it pays to book on time, since the most reliable drivers get picked first. There are 3 lists.

1. Experienced, reliable drivers with good cars
2. Inexperienced or unreliable drivers with good cars
3. Inexperienced or unreliable drivers with bad cars

We have instructed Talant and Khudik to only select drivers from list #1 if a request comes from Caravanistan. If that list is empty, they have to decline your request if it comes through us. This is not an issue off-season, but in July-August, it gets busy and list #1 empties out. You can see the driver list here, including English skills, experience level and type of car – let us know if your proposed driver is not on here.

The Pamirs are really something special, and it’s neither easy nor cheap to get here. We’d rather decline than send you on your way to a sub-par experience.

Quality of cars

All cars have to be reliable jeeps with air-conditioning. Some are 5-seaters, some are 7-seaters.

Joining a group

Many people on the Pamir Highway are traveling solo or as a couple. Cars seat 3 to 5 passengers. If you would like to share your trip with others to keep the costs down, just check the form box saying “I would like to join a group”, and our operators will try to match you with other travelers with similar dates.

Additionally, post your details on the Pamir Highway rideshare forum to increase your chances of matching with other like-minded travelers.

We wish you a great travel experience.