Trail guides
What the trail is actually like.
Everything below is written by the people who guide these routes — no borrowed brochure copy, no promises the mountain cannot keep. If a trek is harder than it looks on paper, we say so here before you book it.
20 guides — tours and culture.
Tours & culture
Chitwan — rhinos, ethics, and what a jungle day actually looks like
Nepal's lowland national park is a genuine conservation success story and an easy three days from Pokhara. Here is how to do it without funding the bad version.
Read the guide →6 min readOne day in Pokhara: what is worth your time and what is not
A lake, a waterfall that disappears into a cave, a mountain museum that is better than it sounds, and a couple of stops we would quietly skip.
Read the guide →8 min readKathmandu in two days: seven UNESCO sites, and how not to rush them
Durbar squares, the largest stupa in Nepal, a cremation ghat that asks something of you as a visitor, and a valley still rebuilding from 2015.
Read the guide →5 min readBandipur, the Newari town that traffic forgot
A car-free bazaar street on a ridge halfway between Kathmandu and Pokhara, with a Himalayan skyline at the end of it and one of Nepal's biggest caves below.
Read the guide →7 min readTrekking in Nepal with children: what works, what to avoid
Kids handle Himalayan trails better than their parents expect and worse than the brochures imply. Realistic routes, altitude limits and the things that actually go wrong.
Read the guide →7 min readPhotographing the Annapurnas: where to stand and when
The light here is decided by two things — the hour and the cloud cycle. Get those right and the gear barely matters.
Read the guide →7 min readTwo weeks in Nepal: the itinerary we actually recommend
Mountains, jungle, a medieval city and a hill town, without spending four of your fourteen days in a vehicle.
Read the guide →8 min readNepal's festivals: which are worth planning around, and which will close the banks
Dashain, Tihar, Holi, Tiji and Mani Rimdu. What each one actually looks like for a visitor, and the two that will disrupt your trip if you ignore them.
Read the guide →7 min readWhat to eat in Nepal, and what to order on the trail
Dal bhat twice a day sounds like a sentence until you understand it. Plus Newari food, Thakali food, and the things worth going out of your way for.
Read the guide →6 min readMuktinath: 108 spouts, an eternal flame, and two religions
One of the most important pilgrimage sites in the Himalaya, sacred to Hindus and Buddhists alike, and now reachable by jeep in a day from Jomsom.
Read the guide →6 min readA honeymoon in Nepal that is not just a trek with better sheets
Mountains, a lake, a medieval town and a jungle, at a pace that leaves room for doing nothing. Plus the two mistakes couples make.
Read the guide →6 min readLumbini: the Buddha's birthplace, and whether it is worth the detour
A marker stone, a pillar from 249 BC and a monastic park in the hot plains. Genuinely significant, and not for everyone.
Read the guide →6 min readStaying in someone's house: how homestays actually work here
Simpler than a lodge, warmer than a hotel, and the version of Nepal most visitors say afterwards they wish they had had more of.
Read the guide →7 min readGurung, Tamang, Thakali, Newar: who lives where, and why it matters on a trek
Nepal has well over a hundred ethnic groups. You will meet four of them on the routes we run, and knowing which changes what you notice.
Read the guide →6 min readYoga, meditation and doing very little: what is actually here
Retreats, courses and quiet places, in a town full of signs offering all three. We do not run any of it — here is how to tell the good from the packaged.
Read the guide →6 min readOne week in Nepal: three itineraries that actually fit
Seven days is enough for one thing done properly and two things done briefly. Here are the three combinations that work, and the one everybody tries that does not.
Read the guide →6 min readLuxury in Nepal: what the money buys and where it stops
There are genuinely excellent hotels here and a ceiling above the road head that no budget can raise. Knowing where the line falls is the whole trick.
Read the guide →6 min readEating your way through Kathmandu
Newari food is a separate cuisine from anything else in Nepal, most visitors never try it, and the best of it is in courtyards you would walk past.
Read the guide →5 min readNepal with teenagers: the one trip they will not be bored on
Adrenaline they cannot get at home, a trek short enough to stay fun, and enough wifi to keep the peace. What actually works.
Read the guide →6 min readComing back: what to do on a second visit to Nepal
You have done Annapurna Base Camp or Everest and the classics are behind you. Here is where the people who live here would send you next.
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