Nepal trekking, compared on the same terms
Trekking in Nepal: Routes, Costs and How to Choose
Thirteen routes set side by side — days, altitude, difficulty, cost and season — by an independent guide that sells no treks and has kept dated trail records since 2015.
Every route, one table
How to read this table →13 of 13 routes ·
| Route | Cost band | Best months | Permits | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Everest Base CampKhumbu · Teahouse | 12–14 | 5,545 mKala Patthar | Demanding | USD 1,195–2,999guided, per person | Oct · Nov · Mar · Apr · May | Sagarmatha National Park entry; Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality permit |
| Annapurna CircuitAnnapurna · Teahouse | 12–18 | 5,416 mThorong La | Demanding | USD 820–3,160guided, per person | Oct · Nov · Mar · Apr | ACAP entry; TIMS card |
| Manaslu CircuitManaslu · Teahouse | 14–18 | 5,106 mLarkya La | Hard | USD 745–2,800guided, per person | Oct · Nov · Mar · Apr | Manaslu Restricted Area Permit; MCAP entry; ACAP entry |
| Annapurna Base CampAnnapurna · Teahouse | 7–11 | 4,130 mAnnapurna Base Camp | Moderate | USD 714–2,499guided, per person | Oct · Nov · Mar · Apr | ACAP entry; TIMS card |
| Langtang ValleyLangtang · Teahouse | 7–10 | 4,773 mKyanjin Ri | Moderate | USD 549–1,990guided, per person | Oct · Nov · Mar · Apr · May | Langtang National Park entry; TIMS card |
| Ghorepani Poon HillAnnapurna · Teahouse | 3–5 | 3,210 mPoon Hill | Easy | USD 271–2,099guided, per person | Oct · Nov · Dec · Mar · Apr | ACAP entry; TIMS card |
| Mardi HimalAnnapurna · Teahouse | 5–7 | 4,500 mMardi Himal Base Camp | Moderate | USD 300–1,945guided, per person | Oct · Nov · Mar · Apr | ACAP entry; TIMS card |
| Gokyo LakesKhumbu · Teahouse | 11–13 | 5,357 mGokyo Ri | Demanding | USD 1,100–3,299guided, per person | Oct · Nov · Mar · Apr · May | Sagarmatha National Park entry; Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality permit |
| Everest Three PassesKhumbu · Teahouse | 17–20 | 5,535 mKongma La | Very hard | USD 1,250–3,890guided, per person | Oct · Nov · Apr · May | Sagarmatha National Park entry; Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality permit |
| KanchenjungaKanchenjunga · Teahouse, basic | 20–26 | 5,143 mPangpema | Hard | USD 999–4,200guided, per person | Oct · Nov · Apr · May | Kanchenjunga Restricted Area Permit; KCAP entry |
| DolpoDolpo · Camping / basic lodges | 16–28 | 5,360 mKang La | Very hard | USD 2,350–5,500guided, per person | May · Jun · Sep · Oct | Dolpo Restricted Area Permit (Lower or Upper); Shey Phoksundo National Park entry |
| Rara LakeKarnali · Basic lodges / camping | 7–10 | 3,710 mChuchemara Danda | Moderate | USD 1,199–1,899guided, per person | Apr · May · Sep · Oct · Nov | Rara National Park entry; TIMS card |
| Upper MustangMustang · Teahouse | 12–16 | 4,200 mPasses above Lo Manthang | Demanding | USD 1,350–4,540guided, per person | Mar · Apr · May · Jun · Sep · Oct · Nov | Upper Mustang Restricted Area Permit; ACAP entry |
Which one is yours
Three honest shortcuts. The full method, with the questions to ask yourself first, is in the choosing guide.
- ≤ 10 days
First time in the Himalaya, under a week
Poon Hill, Mardi Himal or Langtang Valley. Teahouses every night, no pass, under 4,800 m.
- 12–18 days
Two weeks and the name you know
Everest Base Camp or the Annapurna Circuit. Over 5,000 m, so the schedule is built around acclimatisation.
- 14–28 days
Been before, want fewer people
Manaslu, Upper Mustang, Kanchenjunga, Dolpo or the Three Passes. Restricted permits, a licensed guide, thinner lodge cover.
From the record
20 trail status reports · 165 trek diaries · unedited, at their original addresses
Everest Base Camp Cycling in “Fastest Known Time”
“The alarm went off early at 12:45 am on May 20th in Lukla, Nepal, the Gateway to Mount Everest (8,848 m). After a few weeks training out of the Chiwong Monastery (2,950 m) with…
Recorded
Our Adventure into Dhorpatan Valley
our adventure into dhorpatan valley during pandemic time, starting from Burtibang, encounters with people and mountains (part 1/2)
Recorded
Hello and Namaste from the Himalayan capital as we enter the cool and colorful season of festivities. Autumn is a beautiful time in Kathmandu and throughout Nepal. It is the…
Recorded· Archana
Memories of My Trek to Kyanjin Ri, Langtang
Imagine, how it feels to walk for 6 days continuously, yet never get tired. Imagine, how it feels when your company is the white-water river on a trail that has a mountain on its…
Recorded
Ang Tshering is a mountaineer, trainer and a very very experienced mountain guide. Utilising the downtime due to COVID, he went into the mountains to train women in advanced…
Recorded
Covid Preparedness Check: Helambu Circuit Trek Revisited
Professionals from the tourism industry in Nepal go into the Helambu region to do a pre-season COVID preparedness check to learn and work with stakeholders to find solutions to…
Recorded
Guides
The decisions every trekker makes, in the order they come up: which route, which month, what it costs, which permits, how hard, who to go with.
- coming
The questions to answer in order — time, altitude, fitness, budget, month — and a filter that narrows 13 routes to two or three.
- coming
How to Choose a Trekking Operator in Nepal
A 12-point vetting checklist: licence, staff insurance, altitude-abort policy, inclusions in writing. Then ask vetted operators.
- coming
Nepal Trekking Permits and Fees
Every permit by route, where you buy it, what it cost when we last checked, and which rules changed and when.
- coming
Nepal Trek Cost: What You Actually Pay
What a trek actually costs once you add permits, flights, staff, lodging, food and tips — with the dated quotes behind each line.
- coming
Month by month: clear-sky odds, cold, crowds, flight delays and which routes work outside the two main seasons.
- coming
Nepal Trek Difficulty Compared
All 13 routes on one difficulty scale, with what makes each one hard: days, altitude, passes, remoteness.
- coming
Guide, Porter or Porter-Guide in Nepal
Guide, porter or porter-guide: what each does, what each costs, and when going without one is allowed.
- coming
Solo Trekking in Nepal: The Rules
Where solo trekking is banned, where it is allowed, and what the April 2023 guide rule changed.
- coming
Altitude Sickness on Nepal Treks
How altitude sickness starts, the rest-day rules that prevent it, and what to do when it does not go away.
We sell no treks
Almost every page about trekking in Nepal is written by a company that wants to sell you its own trip. Nepal Now is not one. It began in 2015 as a joint project of Nepal Tourism Board and CBI Netherlands, and since then it has published what trekkers, guides and engineers actually report from the trails: reconstruction counts after the 2015 earthquake, lodge-by-lodge status checks, named diaries with dates.
Every one of those records is still here, unedited, at its original address. The current guides are built on them. When you are ready to book, we pass your enquiry to operators we have vetted for licence, insurance and how they treat their staff. They pay a fee for that. The fee never changes what we write.
Cited by
The Guardian · Deutsche Welle · Dagbladet · de Volkskrant
Live links from those newsrooms still point at pages in this archive.