Treks from Pokhara, sorted by how many days you have
Most trekking sites sort their trips by mountain. You arrive with a number of free days, so we have sorted ours by days and said what each length buys you.
By the Lakeshore team · 8 min read · Updated 5 October 2026
Almost every trekking website in Nepal is organised by destination, which is the wrong way round. Hardly anyone lands having already decided on the Modi Khola valley. People arrive with four days, or nine, or two weeks, and a loose wish to see some big mountains.
So this page is sorted by days, which is the part you can control. Find your number and read that entry. You can skip the rest.
One rule before the list. The days below are days on the trail, so add a day either side for arriving in Pokhara and getting organised. If your trek needs a flight, add two more for the weather.
One day
Australian Camp. We drive you to Kande, you walk ninety minutes uphill through forest, and you come out on a grass shoulder at 2,060 m with Annapurna South and Machhapuchhre filling the sky. You're back in Lakeside for lunch.
No walk in Nepal gives you more view per hour, and you're on the first stretch of a trekking route people follow for days. If someone has one free morning, this is what we suggest every time. Other options for a single day are Sarangkot for sunrise, or the World Peace Pagoda by boat if someone in the group doesn't want to climb.
Two to three days
Ghandruk. A Gurung village of slate and stone at 2,012 m, with Annapurna South at the end of the main lane. You have time to sleep there and see the place after the day-trippers go home.
Or Poon Hill, if the sunrise photograph is why you came. It's three days to 3,210 m for the famous panorama, which you share with several hundred people in October.
Both routes stay low and warm, the lodges are good and a road is never far away. This is the right length for a first Himalayan trek, and for anyone travelling with children.
Four to five days
This is the sweet spot for Pokhara. It's also where our local routes beat anything a Kathmandu operator will sell you.
Mardi Himal has the best ridge walking within a week of Lakeside, up through forest and then along a high grass spine with Machhapuchhre straight above you. Khumai Danda is the same country with hardly anyone on it. Choose Kapuche if a glacier lake at 2,546 m with no acclimatisation sounds better than a ridge, and Kori Danda if you want 3,800 m and an empty horizon.
Sikles or the Royal Trek, if the villages matter more than the altitude. Both are gentle and warm, and you go for village life more than scenery.
Six to eight days
Annapurna Base Camp. Seven days on the trail, with a night at Deurali on the way up, into a glacial bowl at 4,130 m ringed by six thousand metres of ice. Most people picture this trek when they think of Nepal, and it lives up to that.
Khopra Ridge is the quieter choice at 3,660 m, looking across a gorge at Dhaulagiri and staying in community-owned lodges. Mohare Danda is the same idea, greener and better for birds. Jomsom and Muktinath suit anyone who wants the landscape to change completely, from subtropical valley to Tibetan high desert in a couple of days, and it's the one route here that works through the monsoon.
Ten days to two weeks
The Annapurna Circuit. Twelve days over Thorong La at 5,416 m, and the best pass day in Nepal. Add three more for Tilicho Lake. We can't think of a finer use of an extra three days anywhere in the country.
Everest Base Camp is fourteen days, plus a buffer for the Lukla flight. It's the one trek where we'll tell you straight out that you're sharing it with everybody, because every operator in Nepal sells it and October is busy. It's still an extraordinary walk.
Go for Upper Mustang or Nar Phu if you'd rather have culture and empty trails than a famous name. Both need restricted-area permits, and for our money both are better trips.
More than two weeks
The Dhaulagiri Circuit takes sixteen days and crosses two passes above 5,200 m, with full camping support and no teahouses at all. It's the hardest thing we run, and apart from the name it has very little in common with the Annapurna Circuit.
Or combine routes. Nar Phu into the Annapurna Circuit over Kang La is around seventeen days, and we'd put it among the finest itineraries in Nepal. Mardi into Annapurna Base Camp via Siding makes a superb two weeks. At this length, don't pick one off a list. Tell us what you want. The good long trips are almost always built around the group.
If you have the days but not the legs
Length and difficulty are separate things, and people mix them up all the time. Sikles, the Royal Trek and Ghandruk are all gentle. Kapuche is only four days, yet it has the roughest ground of any short trek we run.
If you have two free weeks and limited hill fitness, a hard trek done slowly is the wrong answer. A gentle trek plus Chitwan or Bandipur works much better, and so does a week of day hikes from a comfortable bed in Lakeside.
Tell us what you've walked recently, not what you hope to walk. We'd much rather build you a trip you enjoy than sell you the one with the best name on it.
Walk it with us
Private departures on your dates, guided by the people who wrote this page.
Questions we get asked
What is the shortest trip that still counts as a trek?
Three days to Ghandruk or Poon Hill. You sleep in teahouses, walk from village to village and wake up in the mountains. Anything shorter is a very good day walk, not a trek, and we don't mean that as a criticism.
I only have four days. Is Annapurna Base Camp possible?
Compressed versions exist and we don't recommend them, because the day you save comes out of your acclimatisation. With four days, take Mardi, Kapuche or Kori and enjoy them. Rushing ABC means enjoying none of it.
How many spare days should I build in?
One either side of any trek, and two extra if there's a domestic flight. Flights to Lukla and Jomsom are cancelled routinely. Never book your international flight for the day after the trek ends.
Can I decide when I get here?
Yes, and plenty of people do. Come to the office in Lakeside, tell us your days and how fit you are, and we'll usually have you walking within twenty-four hours. Permits are the only thing that takes time.
Still deciding?
Tell us your dates and how much walking you've done, and we'll tell you whether Australian Camp Sunrise Hike is right for you. If it isn't, we'll say so.
Nothing to pay online. We confirm your dates first.
Or call the office +977 61-457830