Annapurna Circuit Group Trek

Our airport team meets every flight into Kathmandu and drives you straight to the hotel in Thamel, the old quarter where prayer flags string across the alleys above trekking-gear shops and rooftop cafes. There's no itinerary today beyond settling in - nap off the jet lag, wander Thamel's backstreets, or sit with a coffee and watch the city. In the evening, your guide leads a welcome briefing over tea: who's on the trip, what tomorrow's permit paperwork involves, and what to expect crossing Thorong La in ten days. Anything missing from your kit - poles, a down jacket, a headlamp - is a five-minute walk from the hotel, and we'll point you to the right shop.

A full day in Kathmandu to get the paperwork done before the road. Your guide walks you through TIMS registration and the Annapurna Conservation Area Permit at the Nepal Tourism Board office - both mandatory since April 2023, when Nepal closed the circuit to unguided trekkers, and both included in your trip cost. Afternoons are free: browse Thamel's gear shops, visit Swayambhunath's hilltop stupa, or simply rest. Your guide runs a final kit check before dinner, weighing duffels and checking that everyone has the layers, sleeping bag liner and blister kit the pass day will demand. We confirm tomorrow's 7am jeep departure and answer any last questions over the meal.

This is where our Annapurna Circuit Group Trek breaks from how most companies run this route: instead of two or three days walking or bus-hopping the dusty Besisahar-to-Chame road, we drive it in one push - about 205 km and nine hours in a private jeep, leaving Kathmandu at 7am. The road climbs the Marsyangdi valley through Besisahar, Bhulbhule and Jagat, crosses waterfalls swollen with meltwater, and gives the first real view of Lamjung Himal by early afternoon. It's a long day in the vehicle, with a lunch stop in Dumre and short leg-stretch breaks, but it buys back two full trekking days for the mountains that matter. We reach Chame, the district headquarters, by early evening.

The trail finally takes over from the road today. We leave Chame along the Marsyangdi, cross to its true right bank on a long suspension bridge, and climb through pine and fir forest to Bhratang, where an old apple orchard still produces the valley's best apple brandy. Beyond Bhratang, the valley narrows into a curved rock corridor before opening again beneath the vast granite slab of Swargadwari - one of the most striking rock faces on the whole circuit. Upper Pisang sits on a ridge above the main trail, a huddle of flat-roofed Tibetan-style houses around a small gompa, with Annapurna II filling the window at breakfast. It's a shorter day, useful acclimatisation before Manang.

Two routes split at Pisang: the low trail through Humde's airstrip, or the high route we take, climbing steeply to Ghyaru and Ngawal for the best mountain views anywhere on the circuit. It's a hard hour of switchbacks out of Pisang, but Ghyaru's ridge delivers an uninterrupted wall of Annapurna II, Annapurna III, Gangapurna and Tilicho Peak, with the Manang valley laid out below. From Ngawal the trail drops through juniper scrub to Braga, whose 900-year-old gompa is one of the oldest in the district, before the last easy hour into Manang. Manang itself is the biggest village on the circuit - bakeries, a cinema showing mountain films, and the last real shops before the pass.

A mandatory rest day built into every itinerary at this altitude, not an optional extra - this is where the guaranteed group size earns its keep, because a full day resting together means nobody feels pressure to push on before they're ready. Fitter walkers can climb to the Ice Lake, Kicho Tal, at roughly 4,600 m - a demanding five-hour round trip that's really a second acclimatisation climb disguised as a side-trip. Anyone happier resting can walk the easier trail to the Gangapurna glacier viewpoint, or sit in on the free afternoon talk the Himalayan Rescue Association post runs on altitude sickness, staffed by volunteer doctors through the trekking season. Either way, you sleep another night at 3,540 m before the harder days above.

The trail leaves Manang's bakeries behind and climbs steadily up the Jarsang Khola valley, the trees thinning to juniper scrub and then to open pasture. This is the first day the altitude really starts to bite, so the pace slows and water breaks come often. We pass Tenki, Gunsang and a scatter of yak pastures before Yak Kharka itself - a handful of lodges on a high shelf above the river, named for the yak herds that graze here through summer. Watch for blue sheep on the scree slopes above the village in the late afternoon light. It's a short day by distance but altitude does the work.

A short, careful day that puts us in position for the pass. The trail undulates along the true left bank of the valley, crossing a landslide-prone stretch below Ledar where our guides time the crossing to avoid the loose scree above - usually a mid-morning window before the sun loosens the slope further. A long suspension bridge takes the trail across to Thorong Phedi, meaning literally 'the foot of the pass', where the lodges sit directly under the wall we'll climb before dawn tomorrow. Afternoons here are for resting, drinking water and eating as much as you can manage; appetite drops fast above 4,500 m and your guide will check on everyone individually before dinner.

Pass day. We're up at 4am for tea and a light breakfast, and on the trail by 5, headlamps on, climbing the steep switchbacks to High Camp in the first hour before the gradient eases into a long, cold plod across the summit plateau. Thorong La sits at 5,416 m, marked by prayer flags and a small stone cairn, usually reached by mid-morning with Dhaulagiri and the Mustang peaks opening up to the west. The descent is the harder half - over 1,600 m down loose scree and switchbacks to the Muktinath valley - and knees feel it by the bottom. Muktinath itself, at 3,800 m, is a major Hindu-Buddhist pilgrimage site with 108 water spouts and an eternal flame; most of the group is glad to arrive by early afternoon.

A short, easy jeep transfer down the Kali Gandaki valley into Mustang's high desert, a deliberately gentle day after yesterday's pass crossing. The road drops through Jharkot and Kagbeni, a walled medieval village at the mouth of Upper Mustang where the landscape turns properly barren - ochre cliffs, wind-carved gullies, and a valley wind that picks up hard by late morning, which is why local jeep traffic always moves before noon. Jomsom is the administrative centre for the district, with an airstrip, a scatter of hotels and, for anyone who wants it, a chance to browse apple products from the valley's orchards. The afternoon is free to rest ankles and knees after the pass.

An early flight - planes leave Jomsom before the wind picks up, so we're at the airstrip by 6:30am for a 20 to 25 minute flight down the Kali Gandaki gorge, the deepest gorge on Earth, with Dhaulagiri and Annapurna framing both sides of the aircraft. It's one of the most dramatic short flights in Nepal, weather and wind permitting - mountain flights here run on morning schedules and can be delayed by cloud, which is why we build no onward connection the same day. By mid-morning you're in Pokhara, a different world entirely: lakeside cafes, warm air and Phewa Lake reflecting the Annapurna range. The rest of the day is free to recover.

A full free day by Phewa Lake to let fifteen days of trekking settle before the drive back to Kathmandu. Most of the group spends it lakeside - hire a paddleboat out to the Tal Barahi temple on its little island, get a proper massage for legs that have earned one, or just sit with a coffee and watch paragliders drift down from Sarangkot. If you want one more view, the World Peace Pagoda is a half-hour walk or a short boat-and-climb combination above the lake, with the Annapurna range laid out behind it. Your guide is around for anything you need, but nothing is scheduled - this day belongs to you.

Back to Kathmandu by tourist bus along the Prithvi Highway, roughly six to seven hours including lunch and photo stops above the Trishuli valley - the same paved highway used for the outbound journey on most standard circuit itineraries, but by now a comfortable, scenic formality rather than an obstacle. Traffic on the approach into the Kathmandu valley can add an hour in the afternoon, so we treat this as a travel day rather than schedule anything after arrival. Back at the hotel in Thamel, there's time to shower, repack and, for anyone who wants it, a farewell dinner with the group and guides to mark the end of the trek proper.

A deliberate buffer built into every departure after twelve demanding days - no same-day connections after a circuit like this. The morning is free: Bhaktapur's medieval Durbar Square is worth the forty-minute taxi ride for anyone who hasn't seen it, with wood-carved temple facades and a pottery square that largely escaped the 2015 earthquake's damage elsewhere in the valley. Others use the day for last-minute souvenir shopping in Thamel, a proper spa treatment, or simply sitting still after two weeks of packing and unpacking. Your guide is on hand for a debrief if you want one, and to help with the trip completion paperwork. It's also the day to reconfirm your onward flight details with our office before you fly out tomorrow.

Your international flight is the only fixed point today, and our airport team builds your transfer time backwards from it - typically leaving the hotel around three hours before departure given Kathmandu's traffic. If your flight isn't until the evening, the hotel holds your luggage so you're free for the morning: a last coffee in Thamel, a visit to Boudhanath's stupa, or simply resting. We say goodbye at the hotel lobby, though your guide stays reachable by phone until you're through security. It's a quiet end to a trip that started with the same drive from the airport fifteen days ago - Thorong La already feels like someone else's holiday.