Artist & Celebrity Tours in Pakistan
Private tour services / Category seven
Travel built for artists, performers and public figures, and for the productions that move them around the country.
Two kinds of client use this page. The creative who needs weeks rather than days, a studio and nobody knocking on the door. And the public figure or production that needs the opposite: everything moving at once, quietly, with one person holding the schedule. We do both, and we keep our mouths shut about both.
Replies on WhatsApp during working hours, Pakistan time (GMT+5).
The four shapes
What this category covers
Three briefs that look different and fail for the same reasons.
Artist Residencies & Creative Retreats
Two to six weeks somewhere quiet with a studio, materials, food and time. For painters, writers, composers and photographers.
Travel for Public Figures
Performers, athletes and dignitaries who need a schedule that works and a trip that stays out of the feed.
Shoots, Crews & Productions
Film, television, music videos and campaigns: scouting, permissions, convoy, equipment, catering and a fixer who answers at six in the morning.
Subcategory one
Artist Residencies & Creative Retreats
A residency is mostly a logistics problem disguised as a romantic one. You need a room with north light, a table big enough to work on, a place to leave wet canvases, food that arrives without a conversation, and a valley quiet enough to hear yourself think. Hunza, Skardu and the side valleys above Chitral do the last part better than almost anywhere, and the first parts take planning.
We arrange two to six week stays in guesthouses and small hotels that will hold a room off the market, a studio space or a terrace that can be turned into one, and transport for materials. Professional art supplies are limited outside Lahore and Karachi, so either ship ahead or let us source in the city and drive it north. At the end we can arrange an exhibition in a Lahore or Karachi gallery, crating, and the paperwork for taking work home.
What we arrange
A quiet property held for the full stay, studio or terrace space, a cook or a meal plan, a car on call rather than a car every day, materials sourced and delivered, and a translator or local guide for work that needs people in it.
What we do not pretend
There is no formal residency programme with a jury and a stipend here. This is a self-funded working stay with the practical problems solved. We will say so rather than dress it up as something it is not.
Subcategory two
Travel for Public Figures
Performers, athletes, speakers and families of public figures travel with a different set of requirements. The itinerary has to survive a change of plan at short notice, the hotel has to be chosen for its service entrance rather than its view, and nobody on the ground should be able to tell a stranger which room the party is in. That is mostly discipline, and a little planning.
We work with a production code name where the client wants one, keep names off rooming lists and restaurant bookings, stagger arrivals, and brief drivers and hotel contacts on what is not to be discussed. Where security is a real concern, we engage a licensed provider and follow their advice, which sometimes means cancelling a plan we all liked. For athletes we add training access, a physiotherapist where one exists, and a menu that matches a competition calendar.
Discretion in practice
Code names on documents, separate entrances, no location tags, no staff briefings beyond the ones necessary, a confidentiality agreement for drivers and coordinators, and a single point of contact for the client’s team.
Where we stop
We are not a PR agency and not a security company. We do not manage press, do not run social accounts, and do not put untrained staff in a protective role. We book the licensed people who do.
Subcategory three
Shoots, Crews & Productions
Film, television, music videos, brand campaigns and editorial work all start the same way: somebody has a reference image and a date. We scout and hold the location, confirm who owns it and what they want for it, and put the permission in writing before the call sheet depends on it. Heritage sites, forts and national parks have their own departments, fees and rules about tripods, drones and crew size.
Then the moving parts. A convoy that keeps camera, talent and equipment together, 4x4s for the last stretch of jeep track, a generator where there is no power, catering for a crew that has been up since four, and a fixer who knows which office signs which paper. Filming requires no-objection certificates from the district administration, and in Gilgit-Baltistan from the regional government as well. Drone use needs civil aviation clearance and a security check. Those take weeks, not days, and we say so at the outset.
Production support we provide
Location scouting and holds, permissions and NOCs, accommodation blocks for crew, transport and equipment vehicles, catering, local crew and fixers, translators, and a coordinator on set for the days booked.
What the production brings
Its own insurance, its own camera and lighting package, an ATA carnet for professional equipment to avoid import duty delays, and its own director. We do not crew a shoot; we make the country work for the crew.
Where and when
Where this work happens
The valley for the quiet stay, the city for the studio, and the fort or the pass for the frame.
Quiet places to work
Locations for shoots
The money
What is in the quote, and what is not
A residency is quoted per week. A production is quoted on crew days, vehicles and permissions, because those are the things that actually cost money.
Inside the quote
Accommodation, studio or terrace space, meals on the agreed plan, vehicles and drivers including standby days, location fees and permission charges we have agreed to handle, local crew and fixers, and a coordinator for the days booked.
Quoted separately
Airfare, professional equipment and its carnet and duty, insurance for the production, drone clearance fees, talent and casting, post-production, security providers, and any government fee that is charged at the counter.
Inside these trips
What this work looks like
A terrace studio, a courtyard with better acoustics than a hall, and a crew at the river.
Before you ask
Questions artists and productions ask us
Can you get filming permission in Pakistan?
Yes, with time. Location filming needs a no-objection certificate from the district administration, and in Gilgit-Baltistan from the regional government as well. Heritage sites and national parks have their own departments. Expect weeks rather than days, and expect the answer to sometimes be no.
Can we fly a drone for a shoot?
Only with civil aviation clearance and a security check, and not in restricted areas, near airports, checkposts or most national parks. We start that process early because it gates the shot list, and we plan ground alternatives in case it does not come through.
Do you handle equipment import and customs?
We advise on it and coordinate with your freight agent. Professional gear should travel on an ATA carnet so it enters without duty; without one, equipment can be held at the airport while paperwork is sorted.
Can you keep a trip out of the press and social media?
We can remove the obvious ways a trip leaks: code names on documents, staggered arrivals, no hotel or driver briefings beyond what is needed, and confidentiality agreements. We cannot control what a stranger with a phone photographs in a public place.
Do you provide security?
We engage licensed security providers and follow their advice. We do not put our own staff in a protective role, and we will tell you when a location needs a provider rather than a plan.
How long can an artist stay, and can we ship the work home?
Two to six weeks is the usual stay, and longer is possible where the property will hold the room. We arrange crating and the export paperwork for finished work, and can time a small exhibition in Lahore or Karachi before it ships.
Next step
Send the brief, not the details
Tell us who is travelling or what is being shot, the dates, the locations you have in mind and what has to stay private. We will come back with a plan, the permissions that are needed, and an itemised quote.
National Planners of Pakistan, Gulberg II, Lahore. WhatsApp +92 344 7181087.