Royal Trek

The gentle ridge east of Pokhara that Prince Charles walked in 1980 — four days of villages, no crowds and no altitude.

Named for the royal party that walked it in 1980, this is the trek almost nobody books — which is exactly the point. It runs along the low ridges northeast of Pokhara above the Begnas and Rupa lakes, topping out at 1,730 m, through Brahmin, Gurung and Chhetri villages that see a handful of trekkers a week rather than a hundred a day. Because it never goes high it works in December and January when the Annapurna teahouses are shut and the passes are under snow, and the winter air is the clearest of the year. You get the whole Annapurna range, Machhapuchhre and Manaslu laid out to the north, and you walk back down to the lakes.

Why you'll love it

• ✓Annapurna, Machhapuchhre and Manaslu from Kalikasthan and Syaklung ridge
• ✓Genuinely quiet — this is not a trail with a queue on it
• ✓Works in midwinter, when the high routes are closed
• ✓Finishes at Begnas Lake, 30 minutes from Lakeside

Day by day