Plan to travel in mid April to May (you will get to see tulip garden & sonmarg)
You can book the flight tickets on your own. Go for direct flights (Delhi - Srinagar Non-stop). Most flights stop at Jammu.
Book house boat (5 star) for 3 nights (Rs 2000 per room per day could be costlier). Each room has 2 beds (one double & one single bed).
day 1 - gulmarg (don't use sledge. walk your way to gondola (cable car). some try to fool about the distance & make money. so be careful. no entry fees is charged. cable car costs 300 per person. children Rs 150.
day 2 - local sight seeing (shankaracharya temple, tulip garden, shalimar bagh) & shopping (shop for walnut & saffron & pashmina shawls & chinon sarees, & wood carvings made of walnut)
day 3 - sonmarg. you can go in sumo/alto to this place. buses & mini-buses are not allowed. taxi walas will try to take advantage. renting a sumo should cost you Rs 600 to reach sonmarg & back.
day 4 - Pahalgam (visit avantipur temple on the way towards anantnag). Stop at the Saffron fields. We stayed at Hotel Paristaan at Pahalgam which is a km away from the town. Visit Mini-Swiss (horse costs Rs 300) but is walkable for youngsters. There is a 1Km walkable point called Love Story & another point near Paristaan hotel.
day 5 - leave for katra early morning. stop before nehru tunnel to get a view of the valley. patni-top is also a good stop.
day 6 - vaishnodevi leave early morning at 5:30am. you will get entry tickets at katra market at 6am. (total 6hrs; last 5kms at the top, cable car is available). once you are back down don't miss nau deviya & Baba Dhansar temple which is just around 12 kms from Katra.
If you want to travel by helicopter to vaishnodevi it costs Rs 1200 & it needs to be booked 15 days in advance (your travel agent will do that for you).
We went through saffron travels. They are very good.
Hotel Vaishnodevi at Katra is good.
The entire package for 7 days & 6 nights which consisted of flight tickets, travel, stay, food (breakfast & dinner), road taxes etc cost us Rs. 23,000 per person.
Don't let godha wala (horse owners) & sledge owners fool you. They ask a very high rate. So deal with them on your own & don't let guides interfere.
