Upper Kachura is Skardu's deepest and most beautiful lake — ~70 m of glacial jade ringed by orchards and granite, 30 minutes from town. Wooden-boat rides, cliffside trout lunches and morning mirror-water are the program; Lower Kachura (Shangrila's lake) is the resort postcard nearby.
The colour is the shock: a mineral jade that deepens mid-lake to near-black. Come before nine and the water holds a perfect inversion of the peaks; SafarGB books the first boat so the wake in your photos is your own.
The Shangrila resort on Lower Kachura — red pagoda roofs, the famous grounded aircraft café — is the image most Pakistanis grew up with. See both: Shangrila for the icon, Upper for the water that actually stops conversation.
17 km / ~30 min northwest of Skardu; a short walk drops from the road to the shore. Boat hire at the jetty — our itineraries pre-book the quiet first slot.
Questions, answered
Can you swim in Upper Kachura?
Locals dive from the rocks in high summer, but the water rarely exceeds 12–15 °C — treat any swim as a cold-plunge, and only near the jetty shallows.
Is Shangrila Resort the same lake?
No — Shangrila sits on Lower Kachura, a separate, smaller lake ten minutes away. Upper Kachura is the deep jade one; most 'Shangrila' photos online are actually of the resort's grounds.