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15 days
Daily Tour
10 people
English
Annapurna Circuit Trek is both adventurous and leisurely trekking around the Annapurna mountain ranges. As such the Annapurna Circuit is a must visit long-distance trekking route. The Annapurna Circuit trek begins in the lush green valley of Besisahar and ends in Nayapool of the Himalayan foothills. It takes about 15 days to complete this popular trek.
The route follows the popular trail via Thorong La Pass (5416m), which is the highest point of the trek. Thorong La Pass is also the world’s widest Himalayan pass. The trek also takes us to the popular hill station Poon Hill as the additional destination.
The trail’s namesake mountain is amongst the tallest in the world, standing at some 8091m in height. This beautiful and majestic peak looms large over numerous sections of the trail. The extreme and yet diverse landscapes including the deepest gorge of Kali Gandaki to Thorong La pass makes it among the top choice. The trek takes us through the Tibetan plateau, from the Hindu culture in the low lands to the Buddhist influence in the higher Himalayas. As such the journey through the circuit embarks on a huge geographical and cultural diversity. The entire trail has a variety of rich natural and cultural heritages that stimulates trekkers to explore more.
Although the trail is accessible throughout the year, the spring and autumn are two preferred seasons for trekking in Nepal. To avoid altitude sickness, we trek the Annapurna Circuit in an anti-clockwise direction making sure that we gradually acclimatize to the increased heights.
Upon arrival, you will meet our staff and transfer to Hotel. After short rest, we will visit the Swayambhunath Temple, said to be 2500 years old stupa on a hillock, which offers a breath-taking view of Kathmandu City and the Sunset view. This Stupa is the oldest of its kind in Nepal, listed in the UNESCO World Heritage Monument List in 1979. Next; we will visit historical Kathmandu Durbar Square (Hanuman Dhoka) if you are lucky, you will be able to have a glance of the famous living Goddess Kumari. Set aside late afternoon for final preparation and briefing about our Annapurna Circuit Trek, followed by Welcome dinner with Nepalese traditional cultural show at Nepalese restaurant. After dinner, you may want to stroll along the busy street of Thamel. Overnight in Kathmandu.
After breakfast, we leave Kathmandu for our journey to Annapurna region by bus to Beshishahar through the beautiful countryside. Beshishahar is the major town before hitting the trail and district headquarters of Lamjung District. Explore the surrounding area, and overnight at the hotel.
After breakfast, we set on our trek of the Annapurna Circuit Trek. En route, we would trek along the steep and slippery trail running through paddy fields; trail ascends through the rhododendron forests to Bagarchhap, the first village on the trek with typical Tibetan architecture. After a pleasant walk from Bagarchhap, the altitude slowly gains as we continue our journey to Danaque and to the alpine region passing through farm, orchards and beautiful pine forest with views of towering peaks of Lamjung and Annapurna II, the trail follows the river Marshyangdi upstream passing by the villages of Latamanang and Koto before further half an hour brings you at Chame for overnight at the hotel.
After breakfast, we begin our trek. The trails leads from the other side of the river on the northern bank passes through pine woods and small villages with few ups and downs till you reach the orchard village of Bhartang with apple garden. We continue on the gradual path up to a bridge, and climb through a short steep trail to the pine forest that brings you at the top of the ridge of Dhukur Pokhari for the lunch. After walking out of the tree line a great view of Pisang peak on the north and the Chulu peak can be seen with Pisang village below you, from this top a gentle descend of an hour brings you to windswept village of Pisang for overnight.
The trek starts with pleasant walk through pine forest and the scenic view. The walk climbs gently up for half an hour and reaching the top, stop at a ridge to get our first view of the Manang valley. This grand spot offers a spectacular views of the valleys, Humde village with it’s short air-strip and the great peaks of Gangapurna, Annapurna II & III, Tilicho and on the right Chulu east, on the back Pisang peak. The walk forward to Humde and pleasant walk up to the Braga village for traditionally built up Tibetans style of houses. If it is open, we can visit the Monastery, which has an outstanding display of statues, Thanka paintings and the religious manuscripts. From here it is only an hour walk to Manang for the overnight stay.
Today is free and easy day, time to acclimatize and explore Ice lake, near Manang. The village of about 500 flat-roofed houses is the picturesque set amongst some spectacular scenery of Annapurna II, Annapurna III (7,555 meters), Gangapurna (7,454 meters) to the South – Tilicho (7,132 meters) and the Grand Barrier to the West – Chulu West (6,583 meters) and Chulu East (6,059 meters) to the North. After explore and relaxing day at Manang, visit Himalayan Rescue Association and go for movie show (optional).
After a wonderful time at Manang, we resume our trek with the trail leading to a slow climb up for an hour to Tenki Manang, which offers an enclose view of the Annapurna, Gangapurna and Tilicho peak. The track gently winds up offering inspiring views and through terrains with juniper bushes as the only surviving vegetation around this region and bring you to Yak-Kharka, your destination for the overnight stay.
We start our trek with slow and own pace to get to Phedi. We still have same amazing view of mountains and landscapes. After an hour walk we'll reach at Ledar and continue to climb along the east bank of Jorsang Khola, then descend and cross the stream on a wooden bridge to get to a small tea shop. We stop for wonderful view and tea break, we follow a narrow path across a high, unstable slope before heading to Thorong Phedi for the overnight. Phedi, which means ‘foot of the hill’, is a common Nepali name for any settlement at the bottom of a long climb.
Today is the longest and probably most challenging day of the whole trip. We start our walk early in the wee hours with packed lunch and the trail becomes steep initially and reaches at high camp. Walk on your own pace viewing with sunrise and glimpse of the mountains. We continuing walk to the top that takes 3-4 hrs to reach the Throng top and with a great feeling of victory take a short break for picturesque scenery and down to the Mustang part of mountains and the Kali Gandaki valley far below to the West. Thorang La (5,416m) is the highest point of this trek. After a short stroll on top, and we make descend to Muktinath. The entire journey takes about 7-8 hrs walk and overnight at lodge.
After breakfast, we'll make short trip to Muktinath Temple, a sacred shrine for both Hindus and Buddhists. The temple is built in the pagoda style dedicated to Lord Vishnu or Avalokiteshwara as the Buddhists call him. For Hindus, Muktinath is one of the most important places of pilgrimage. Then, we drive will overland to Tatapani ‘Natural hot spring’, passing through Kagbeni, Jomsom and beautiful villages of Mustang along Kali Gandaki river. We drive through Dana village (the deepest gorge of the world) and after lunch onwards couple of hour drive will take us to Tatopani. Explore the local place and overnight at guest house.
After natural hot spring experience, we resume our trek. First, we'll cross suspension bridge over the Kali Gandaki river, and then the path leads by the river for a while just arriving at the junction of the two trails, the other wide path follows the river all the way to Beni. We take the left trail uphill, the first part of the trail is quite steep climb to the top. It continue with farms and villages and a gradual climb leads to the dense rhododendron forests and finally at Ghorepani for the overnight at teahouse. This is a great place for mountain scenery.
We start very early morning, hike up for 1 hour to Poon Hill (3210m/10530ft). This brilliant viewpoint provides us an unobstructed sunrise over the high Himalayas and the wide range of panoramic mountain scenery from the far western Himalaya of Dolpo, Mt. Dhaulagiri, and Annapurna including Mt. Machhapuchre (Fish Tail) and all the way to Manasalu. After a great time return back to Ghorepani for breakfast and continue 5-6 hrs walk to Hile village for overnight.
After breakfast, we'll trek the last bit of our Annapurna Circuit Trek to Nayapool and drive to Pokhara. Upon arrival, we'll check in to Hotel. Afternoon is free and easy, and time to explore around the lake side area. Overnight at Pokhara.
After breakfast, we'll drive to Kathmandu. Free and relaxing time in the afternoon, or you may want to stroll around Kathmandu for final shopping. Overnight in Kathmandu
After breakfast, our staff will take you to the Airport. Its time to say goodbye and fly back home.
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