Six more walks around Pokhara, including ones we do not sell

Dhampus — twenty minutes past the famous view

Almost everyone who walks up to Australian Camp turns around there. Carry on for another twenty to thirty minutes and you reach Dhampus, a long Gurung village strung along the ridge at around 1,650 m with the same Annapurna South and Machhapuchhre wall in front of it.

Dhampus is a working village rather than a viewpoint, with lodges, a school and a lot of buffalo. It is the more interesting of the two places and it is a rounding error of extra effort. Descend to Phedi rather than back to Kande and you get a completely different route down through farmland — about an hour and a half, and a taxi will meet you at the bottom.

Kalikasthan — the Begnas side

East of Pokhara, above Begnas Lake, a ridge runs up to Kalikasthan at around 1,370 m. It is gentle, green, largely unvisited by foreigners, and the view takes in both Begnas and Rupa lakes with the Annapurnas behind.

It is also the first day of our Royal Trek, so if you walk it and enjoy it, you already know whether you want the four-day version.

Start from Begnas, allow four to five hours return, and finish with lunch by the lake. Begnas is the quiet counterweight to Lakeside and worth the trip on its own.

The Begnas–Rupa ridge loop

Between Begnas and Rupa lakes there is a long wooded ridge, and the loop over it and back around the water is five to six hours of easy walking with almost nobody on it.

Rupa is the smaller, shallower and greener of the two lakes and sees very few visitors. The farmland between them is some of the prettiest low country around Pokhara. This is the walk we suggest when someone wants a full day out that is not uphill. No altitude, no stairs, and boats and fish at the end of it.

Naudanda and the Sarangkot ridge

Sarangkot is not an isolated hill — it is the eastern end of a long ridge that runs west through Kaskikot to Naudanda at about 1,500 m on the Baglung highway.

Walking that ridge line is one of the better half-days in the region: continuous views north to the Annapurnas and south over Phewa, through hill villages that see traffic but almost no walkers.

The efficient version is a taxi up to Sarangkot for sunrise, then walk west along the ridge for three or four hours and pick up transport at Naudanda. It converts the standard sunrise trip into a proper day.

Astam and Pumdikot

Astam sits northwest of the lake on the way toward Machhapuchhre's foothills — terraced, quiet, with a couple of eco-lodges and a very good view. It works as a gentle overnight if you want village air without a trek.

Pumdikot is on the ridge south of Phewa, past the World Peace Pagoda, and has a large Shiva statue and a viewpoint that has become popular with Nepali visitors and is still largely unknown to foreign ones.

Combining the Peace Pagoda and Pumdikot along the ridge makes a good half-day with two very different kinds of religious site at either end.

Why we do not sell most of these

Honestly? Because there has never been enough demand to build a package, and because most of them do not need a guide. Sending you off with directions costs us nothing and you will come back and book something else.

Where a guide earns their fee is Panchase, where the junctions are unclear, and any of these in monsoon when paths get slick and overgrown. If you want any of these guided, ask. We will quote it as a custom day rather than pretending it is a package.

Walk it with us

Private departures on your dates, guided by the people who wrote this page.

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