Annapurna Luxury Trek, Lodge to Lodge

Pokhara, and why this itinerary is not fragile

The flight from Kathmandu is twenty-five minutes into a proper airport on flat ground at 830 m. It is not Lukla. Weather delays happen and they are measured in hours rather than days, and if the flight goes at all it goes. On the Everest treks a single closed airstrip can eat three days of an itinerary; here the worst case is that you drive instead and arrive the same evening.

The drive is a real alternative

Kathmandu to Pokhara is six to seven hours on the Prithvi Highway along the Trishuli river. Some people would rather see the country than skip it, and on a trip where nothing depends on the timing it is a legitimate choice rather than a compromise. It also saves the flight cost, which we pass back. Tell us which you want when you book.

The road keeps moving the trailhead

Nayapul used to be where everybody started and the jeep track now runs well past it, which shortens the first afternoon and lengthens the argument about where this trek really begins. We drive to where the road is passable on your dates and walk from there. In practice day 3 is between ninety minutes and two hours of walking whatever the road has done, and it is uphill.

And the mountain flight, which is a separate thing

The scenic flight some itineraries put on day 3 is an Annapurna range flight out of Pokhara, not the Kathmandu to Pokhara transfer. It is an hour, it is weather-dependent, and it is listed under add-ons below rather than folded into the price, because in a clear October week the view from Dhampus on day 6 is better and free.

9 nights, and what each one is

Heat, hot water, power and signal

Heating

The lodges sit between 1,000 m and 1,950 m, where the nights are cool rather than cold, so rooms have blankets and a heater on request rather than the stove-in-the-dining-room arrangement of a high teahouse. In December and January ask for the heater.

Hot shower

Private, en suite and included at every single stop. This is the one trek on the site where that sentence has no exceptions attached to it.

Charging

Free, in your room, at every stop. Bring the adapter rather than the power bank.

Wifi

Included at all four lodges and in both cities, and generally good enough for a video call. Ghandruk is the weakest of them.

Phone signal

Ncell and NTC cover the whole route. Buy the SIM at Kathmandu airport.

Water

Filtered water provided free at every lodge. We would rather you refilled than bought plastic, and on this route there is no reason to do anything else.

Bedding

Proper beds, duvets and mattresses throughout. No sleeping bag is needed on this trek and we do not issue one.

Laundry

Same-day in Pokhara and next-day at the lodges, included. On a five-day walk it matters less than it does on a fortnight, but it is there.

If you eat differently

Twelve weeks, and what to do in each of them

Written for somebody who walks a bit and does not train. If you already run or cycle regularly, start at the eight-week block. Nothing here needs a gym.

1. 1

   Six weeks out

   Walk, on hills

   Two or three walks a week of an hour or more, and make at least one of them hilly. If you already walk for pleasure at weekends you have done this step and can stop reading.

2. 2

   Four weeks out

   Stairs, specifically

   The Annapurna foothills are built out of stone staircases and there is no substitute for practising on them. Find a long flight and go up and down it. Twenty minutes twice a week is enough, and it is the single most useful thing on this list.

3. 3

   Two weeks out

   One long day

   A single four-hour walk with a day pack, so that the length is familiar rather than theoretical. Wear the boots you are bringing, on the ground you will be on: down as well as up.

4. 4

   The week before

   Nothing new

   Do not break in boots, start a training plan or change anything. Walk gently, sleep, and arrive rested. On a trek this gentle, turning up tired is the only way to make it hard.

Who walks with you

A senior government-licensed guide leads every departure and stays with you for all ten days, in the cities as well as on the trail, which is not true of the cheaper Annapurna trips where a city driver hands you over at Nayapul. There is one porter per traveller. On a trek this gentle the porters matter less for the weight than for the fact that you walk unencumbered and can actually look up.

What a porter carries, and what they do not

Twenty kilos, which is your duffel and one other. That is below the 25 kg the trekking association permits and well below what you will see on the trail. If your bag is over, it is split rather than piled on. Porters carry loads, not daypacks: your water, camera, jacket and the day's snacks stay with you.

How they are paid and insured

Salary, insurance, food and lodging for every guide and porter are inside the price you pay, not something raised on the trail. Every one of them is insured for altitude and for helicopter evacuation on the same terms we ask of you. There is a long history in this industry of porters carrying too much in the wrong boots for money nobody would take at home, and the only way not to be part of it is to pay for it in the package price.

Tipping

Customary, not compulsory, and never a substitute for the wage. What is usual for this trip is $100 to $150 per traveller for the whole team, handed over together on the last evening rather than daily. Your guide will not ask and will be embarrassed if you do it in front of the group.

Water, and the bottles we do not sell you

A traveller drinking bottled water gets through around 20 plastic bottles on this trip, every one of which was carried in and has to be carried out again. Boiled water is available at every lodge for a dollar or two a litre and we would rather you bought that. Take purification as a backup, not as your plan.

What we carry out

Everything we carry in that is not food. The Annapurna foothills, and the Gurung villages of Ghandruk and Dhampus has a rubbish problem it did not create and cannot solve on its own, and the least any operator can do is not add to it.

Where the money stays

The lodges are family businesses in the villages you pass through. The guides and porters live in this district. The ACAP fee funds the Annapurna Conservation Area Project, which is a conservation trust rather than a government department and which runs the micro-hydro, the waste schemes and the lodge standards on this route. Almost all of what you pay is spent within a few days' walk of the trail, which is the argument for using a Nepali operator rather than a foreign one that subcontracts to us anyway.

It is a place people live

Ask before photographing anybody. Walk on the mountain side of a mule train, not the drop side, and let it pass. Monasteries welcome visitors and they are not attractions; take your hat off and your shoes off, and if a service is happening, wait.

How to start

Write to us or send a message on WhatsApp with your dates. Tell us your party size in the first message: this trip runs from four people and the lodges are small, so on an October date the answer is about beds rather than about price.

The deposit

Thirty per cent to hold your dates, and the balance when you arrive in Kathmandu, in cash or by card. We ask for a passport copy, your insurance certificate and any dietary or medical notes at the same time.

Paying

Bank transfer, or card through a secure link. Card payments carry the bank's fee of about 4 per cent, which we show you before you pay rather than after. The balance in Kathmandu can be US dollars, pounds, euros or Nepali rupees.

If you cancel

More than 30 days out, the deposit transfers to any other date or trip we run, with no time limit. Inside 30 days the deposit is retained, because the permits, the flights and the crew are booked by then. If we cancel for any reason other than weather, you get everything back.

Private, or with a group

Both cost the same for a party of five or more. A private departure runs on your dates at your pace and can be arranged for one person; a group departure runs on the dates in the table above. Most people book privately and are surprised it costs no more.

Booking late

Three weeks is comfortable for most of the year. October and early November are the exception and the constraint is the lodges rather than the flights, because there are only four of them and each has a couple of dozen rooms. For an October departure we want three months.