Trail guides
What to expect on the trail.
Everything below is written by the people who guide these routes, not copied from brochures. If a trek is harder than it looks on paper, we say so here, before you book it.
Trekking guides
What the Annapurna Sanctuary is really like
A week from our office to a glacial amphitheatre ringed by six thousand metres of ice, with notes on the stairs, the weather window and why we start you at Jhinu.
Read the guide →8 min readMardi Himal, the ridge walk that ruins other treks for you
Five days on a high grassy ridge with Machhapuchhre filling the sky. It's newer, quieter and steeper than the classics, and it's the best short trek we run.
Read the guide →7 min readPoon Hill in three days, a good first trek in Nepal
Three thousand stone steps, a village ringed by rhododendron, and a sunrise that has been photographed a million times and still works. Who it suits, and who should skip it.
Read the guide →10 min readWhat the road changed on the Annapurna Circuit, and what it didn't
Thorong La is still 5,416 m and still the best pass day in Nepal. The trek that gets you there has changed, though, and it's not the one your guidebook from 2009 describes.
Read the guide →8 min readTilicho Lake, and the path that scares people
A turquoise sheet of water at 4,919 m in a valley with no trees, no villages and no colour except rock, plus the landslide traverse everyone asks us about.
Read the guide →9 min readUpper Mustang is the one trek that works in the monsoon
A restricted Tibetan kingdom behind the Himalaya, in a rain shadow so complete you can walk it in July, past red cliffs and cave monasteries to Lo Manthang.
Read the guide →Day hikes around Pokhara
Four Pokhara day hikes, ranked by how little effort they need
You don't need a week and a permit to stand in front of the Annapurnas. These are the four walks we send people on when they have one free morning.
Read the guide →5 min readHow to do the Sarangkot sunrise properly
Everyone drives up in the dark and stands on the same tower. There's a better way to spend this morning, and it costs you one afternoon.
Read the guide →5 min readAustralian Camp is the best two hours you can spend near Pokhara
A grassy shoulder at 2,060 m with nothing between you and Annapurna South. And no, it was never Australian.
Read the guide →4 min readThe World Peace Pagoda, a boat and a forest walk to the postcard view
Row across Phewa Lake, walk up for forty minutes, and get the shot of Pokhara that everybody recognises. It's the easiest walk-up viewpoint in the valley.
Read the guide →6 min readPanchase, the quiet forest hill an hour from Lakeside
Five ridges meet at a 2,500 m summit above one of the richest orchid forests in Nepal, and there's a decent chance you won't meet another trekker all day.
Read the guide →7 min readSix more walks around Pokhara, including ones we don't sell
Dhampus, Kalikasthan, Naudanda, the ridge between Begnas and Rupa, Astam and Pumdikot. Most of them need no package and no guide, so just go.
Read the guide →Tours & culture
Chitwan, rhinos and a jungle day without the elephant rides
Nepal's lowland national park is a conservation success story and an easy three days from Pokhara, as long as you know how to avoid paying for the bad version.
Read the guide →6 min readOne day in Pokhara, what to see and what to skip
A lake, a waterfall that disappears into a cave, a mountain museum that's better than it sounds, and a couple of stops we'd quietly skip.
Read the guide →8 min readKathmandu's seven UNESCO sites in two days, without rushing them
The durbar squares, the largest stupa in Nepal, a cremation ghat that asks something of you as a visitor, and a valley still rebuilding after 2015.
Read the guide →5 min readBandipur, the Newari hill town the highway passed by
A bazaar street with no cars, on a ridge halfway between Kathmandu and Pokhara. The Himalaya lines up at the end of it, and one of Nepal's biggest caves lies below.
Read the guide →7 min readTrekking in Nepal with children, what works and what to avoid
Kids handle Himalayan trails better than their parents expect and worse than the brochures suggest. The routes we use, the altitude limits we keep and what tends to go wrong.
Read the guide →7 min readPhotographing the Annapurnas, where to stand and when
Two things decide the light here, the hour and the cloud cycle. Get those right and the gear barely matters.
Read the guide →Adventure & adrenaline
Pokhara's adventure sports, and which ones we'd spend money on
Paragliding, zipline, bungee, ultralight and white water. What each one feels like, what it costs, and which of them are worth your money.
Read the guide →6 min readTandem paragliding in Pokhara, and what to know before you step off
Thirty minutes over Phewa Lake with the Annapurnas on the horizon, from the one place in the world where you can fly alongside a trained bird of prey.
Read the guide →6 min readRafting from Pokhara, half a day on the Seti or two on the Kali Gandaki
One is a two-hour warm-up twenty minutes from Lakeside. The other takes you down a gorge with no road, with a night camped on a sand beach.
Read the guide →6 min readSeeing the Annapurnas from the air by ultralight, mountain flight or helicopter
Three very different ways to get level with an eight-thousander, at three very different prices, and what each one shows you.
Read the guide →5 min readZipFlyer and bungee, two very short and very intense minutes
One is 1.8 km of steel cable and 600 m of vertical drop. The other is a jump off a tower into a gorge. Both are over fast, so we tell you whether they're worth it.
Read the guide →5 min readHow much adrenaline fits into one day in Pokhara, between breakfast and dinner
Sunrise, a flight, a zipline and a river, all before dark. This is the plan that works on the day, with our timings.
Read the guide →Logistics, permits & gear
Permits, gear and getting there, the boring page that saves your trek
What you need to carry, what you can rent in Lakeside for a fraction of the cost of buying it, and how the permit system works in practice.
Read the guide →6 min readWhich trekking gear to bring from home and which to rent in Lakeside
Four things aren't worth buying for one trek, and one thing you should never rent. Then come the small items that quietly ruin trips.
Read the guide →6 min readWhich trekking permits you need in Nepal, region by region
Three categories cover almost every trek: conservation area, national park and restricted area. Once you know which one you're in, every rule you meet makes sense.
Read the guide →5 min readKathmandu to Pokhara by bus, by plane or by private car
Two hundred kilometres, which take twenty-five minutes or eight hours depending on what you book, and what each option is like in practice.
Read the guide →6 min readTravel insurance for Nepal, and the altitude clause that matters
Most policies quietly cap trekking cover at an altitude below the trek you booked. We show you how to check, and why helicopter cover is the line that counts.
Read the guide →7 min readWhat your money buys on a Nepal trek, from budget to luxury
Different companies sell the same trek at four times the price. This is where the extra money goes, and where it doesn't.
Read the guide →