Your suitcase does not come on the trek
What goes in the duffel, what stays in Pokhara, and how to organise it so you are not repacking on a lodge floor at six in the morning.
By Sabina Adhikari · 5 min read · Updated 1 August 2026
Every trek starts with a repack, and it goes better if you have thought about it before you are sitting on a hotel bed at ten at night with everything you own on the floor.
The structure is simple: a suitcase that stays, a duffel that a porter carries, and a daypack you carry yourself. The mistake is nearly always putting the wrong things in the daypack or the wrong things in the duffel. Here is how we tell people to split it.
The three bags
The suitcase stays in Pokhara for the whole trek. City clothes, the return flight outfit, anything valuable, anything electronic you do not need, and the things you brought because you thought you might.
The duffel goes with the porter and you will not see it between breakfast and arriving at the evening's lodge. Sleeping bag, spare clothes, wash kit, evening layers, book. Under 9 kg — that is the cap per trekker, two trekkers to a porter.
The daypack you carry. Water, waterproof, warm layer, sun cream, hat, sunglasses, camera, snacks, medication, documents, money, headtorch.
What goes in the daypack, specifically
Anything you would need within five minutes of needing it: layers, rain shell, water, sun protection, blister plasters, your own painkiller, and any medication you take.
Passport, permits, insurance details and cash. Not in the duffel — duffels occasionally take a different route, and a permit at a checkpost in a bag that is two hours behind you is a real delay.
A dry bag or a liner inside the pack. Nepali rain arrives fast and daypacks are not waterproof whatever the label says.
Storing the suitcase
Almost every Lakeside hotel stores guests' luggage free while they trek — it is completely standard and they have a room for it. Ask when you check in rather than on the morning you leave.
If yours will not, tell us and we will sort something out. Take a photograph of your bag and get a receipt or a tag. Not because anything goes missing, but because a room of forty identical black duffels in October is genuinely confusing.
Packing the duffel so it works
Dry bags or packing cubes, one per category. Finding socks in an unlit room at five in the morning is otherwise a small daily ordeal.
Sleeping bag at the bottom, evening layers on top — that is the order you will want them in.
Nothing fragile and nothing loose. The duffel gets thrown onto a roof rack, strapped to a doko and set down hard about twenty times a day.
A rain cover or a heavy-duty liner bag. Porters carry through rain and the duffel is not waterproof.
What most people over-pack
Clothes. You will wear two shirts for a fortnight and stop caring by day four.
Toiletries. Small bottles, and remember there is no shower for the top few days of most routes anyway.
Books and electronics. Charging is expensive above 3,000 m and you will be asleep by eight-thirty.
Food from home. Bring the snacks you actually like and skip the rest — lodges sell chocolate and biscuits the whole way up.
Walk it with us
Private departures on your dates, guided by the people who wrote this page.
Questions we get asked
Do you provide the duffel?
Yes, with the trek, along with the rest of the rental kit if you want it. Reserve it with your booking and it is waiting at the office.
How strict is the 9 kg limit?
Real rather than nominal. It is a person's back, and over-filling a duffel is the most common way visitors unknowingly treat a porter badly.
Can I access my duffel during the day?
No — assume you will not see it until evening. That is why the daypack list above matters.
Is storing luggage secure?
Hotel store rooms are locked and it is entirely routine. Keep passports, cards and anything irreplaceable with you or in a hotel safe rather than in the stored bag.
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Still deciding?
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