Earthbound Expeditions

Nepal Soft Adventure

4.827 reviews
Duration
12 days, 5 of them trekking
Grade
Easy to moderate, 2 of 5
Max altitude
3,210 m (10,530 ft) at Poon Hill
Start and end
Kathmandu to Kathmandu, via the Trishuli and Pokhara
On the trail
4 to 7 hours a day, for five days
Best season
Oct to Apr
Accommodation
Hotels, one river camp, four teahouses
Meals
All of them from day 3 to day 9
Group size
Private, from 2 people
Getting around
Private vehicle, a raft, and one flight

Overview

Two days in the valley cities, a day on the Trishuli with a night on the sand, and five days on the Ghorepani trail with sunrise at 3,210 m over ten peaks.

What the trip is

Twelve days that put three different kinds of Nepal next to each other: two days in the medieval cities of the valley, two on the Trishuli with a night on a sand beach, and five on the Ghorepani and Ghandruk teahouse trail with a sunrise at 3,210 m in the middle. None of it needs experience and all of it needs a reasonable pair of legs.

Why the order works

Most people arrive tired and start walking too soon. Here the cities come first, the river is a day of being carried rather than carrying, and by the time you reach the trailhead on day 5 you have been in the country for four days and have stopped noticing the jet lag. The trek is better for it.

Why this trail

Ghorepani and Ghandruk is the friendliest trail in Nepal. A teahouse every hour, a view of the Annapurnas from half of them, rhododendron forest for two days, hot springs at the end and nothing high enough to make anybody ill. It has been the first Himalayan trek for more people than any other route in the country.

Who it suits

First visits, couples, families with teenagers, and anybody who wants to walk in Nepal without committing three weeks to it. If you have never trekked at all, this is the trip we would steer you to, and we would still tell you honestly about day 6.

Trip highlights

  • A day of grade three water on the Trishuli, and a night camped on a river beach
  • Five days on the Ghorepani and Ghandruk teahouse trail, which is the friendliest in Nepal
  • Sunrise from Poon Hill at 3,210 m, with Dhaulagiri and the whole Annapurna wall in one view
  • The hot springs at Jhinu Danda on the last afternoon of the trek, in the river gorge
  • The valley cities at the start, so that you arrive at the trail knowing where you are

Twelve days, three different kinds of day

Cities, a river and a teahouse trail, in the order that makes the trek feel like an arrival rather than an ordeal.

  • Day 1
    Route
    Arrive Kathmandu
    Walking
    -
    Altitude
    1,400 m (4,590 ft)
  • Day 2
    Route
    The valley: three squares and Boudhanath
    Walking
    4
    Altitude
    1,400 m (4,590 ft)
  • Day 3
    Route
    Raft the Trishuli to the river camp
    Walking
    4 to 5, 27 km
    Altitude
    300 m (980 ft)
  • Day 4
    Route
    River to Kurintar, drive to Pokhara
    Walking
    4, 125 km
    Altitude
    820 m (2,690 ft)
  • Day 5
    Route
    Nayapul to Tikhedhunga
    Walking
    4, 9 km
    Altitude
    1,540 m (5,050 ft)
  • Day 6
    Route
    Tikhedhunga to Ghorepani
    Walking
    6 to 7, 12 km
    Altitude
    2,850 m (9,350 ft)
  • Day 7
    Route
    Poon Hill, then Tadapani
    Walking
    6, 13 km
    Altitude
    2,630 m (8,630 ft)
  • Day 8
    Route
    Tadapani to Jhinu Danda
    Walking
    6, 14 km
    Altitude
    1,780 m (5,840 ft)
  • Day 9
    Route
    Jhinu to Nayapul, drive to Pokhara
    Walking
    4 to 5, 13 km
    Altitude
    820 m (2,690 ft)
  • Day 10
    Route
    Pokhara, the lake and the pagoda
    Walking
    2
    Altitude
    820 m (2,690 ft)
  • Day 11
    Route
    Fly to Kathmandu, afternoon in Bhaktapur
    Walking
    25 min
    Altitude
    1,400 m (4,590 ft)
  • Day 12
    Route
    Fly home
    Walking
    -
    Altitude
    1,400 m (4,590 ft)

How the trek climbs

One hard day and four easy ones. The high point is a viewpoint at 3,210 m that you stand on for an hour and then come down from.

2,000 m3,000 m4,000 m5,000 m
  1. D5
  2. D6
  3. D7
  4. D8
  5. D9
Trail starts at NayapulThe Ulleri stepsPoon Hill 3,210 mHot springsOff the trail
Where you sleepHighest point of the dayAcclimatisation day

Itinerary

Day by day, with where you sleep and how far you walk.

  1. We meet you at the airport and take you to your hotel. Nothing is asked of you today. In the evening we go through the trip over dinner and look at your kit, because the trekking half needs boots and a warm layer and the rafting half needs neither.

    Altitude
    1,400 m (4,590 ft)
    On foot
    —
    Night in
    Hotel, Kathmandu
    Meals
    Dinner

  2. Swayambhunath early while the pilgrims are going round, Kathmandu Durbar Square in the late morning, and Patan in the afternoon, which is the finest of the three squares and the least crowded. Boudhanath at lamp lighting to finish, when several thousand people walk the kora at once.

    Altitude
    1,400 m (4,590 ft)
    On foot
    4 hours on foot
    Night in
    Hotel, Kathmandu
    Meals
    Breakfast

  3. Three hours west out of the valley to the put in at Charaudi, a safety briefing that is taken seriously, and then four or five hours of grade two and three water with names like Upset and Ladies' Delight. We pull off onto a beach in the late afternoon, pitch tents on the sand, and eat round a fire.

    Altitude
    300 m (980 ft)−1,100 m
    On foot
    —
    Night in
    River camp, Trishuli
    Meals
    Breakfast, lunch, dinner

  4. A shorter morning on the water to the take out at Kurintar, then four hours north west by road to Pokhara along the Seti. The afternoon is free by the lake, and the first thing everybody does is walk to the water's edge to see whether the mountains are out.

    Altitude
    820 m (2,690 ft)+520 m
    On foot
    —
    Night in
    Hotel by the lake, Pokhara
    Meals
    Breakfast, lunch

  5. An hour and a half by road to the trailhead at Nayapul, the permit check at Birethanti, and then an easy first afternoon up the Bhurungdi Khola through rice terraces and villages. Four hours, no great climb, and the first teahouse of the trip with a view up the valley.

    Altitude
    1,540 m (5,050 ft)+720 m
    On foot
    4 hours
    Night in
    Teahouse, Tikhedhunga
    Meals
    Breakfast, lunch, dinner

  6. The hardest day of the trek and it comes early. Three thousand three hundred stone steps up to Ulleri in the first two hours, taken slowly, and then a much kinder afternoon through rhododendron forest to Ghorepani at 2,850 m. Cold at night, wood stove in the dining room, and everybody in bed by half past eight.

    Altitude
    2,850 m (9,350 ft)+1,310 m
    On foot
    6 to 7 hours
    Night in
    Teahouse, Ghorepani
    Meals
    Breakfast, lunch, dinner

  7. Up at half past four for the forty five minute climb to Poon Hill at 3,210 m, which is the most photographed sunrise in Nepal for a reason: Dhaulagiri, Annapurna South, Hiunchuli, Machhapuchhre and the rest, in one two hundred degree sweep. Back for breakfast, then east along the ridge through moss forest to Tadapani.

    Altitude
    2,630 m (8,630 ft)−220 m
    On foot
    6 hours
    Night in
    Teahouse, Tadapani
    Meals
    Breakfast, lunch, dinner

  8. A long descent through Gurung country to Chhomrong, with Machhapuchhre close on your left the whole morning, and then down to Jhinu. Twenty minutes further down the gorge are three stone pools of hot water beside the Modi Khola, which after four days of walking is the best thing on this itinerary.

    Altitude
    1,780 m (5,840 ft)−850 m
    On foot
    6 hours
    Night in
    Teahouse, Jhinu Danda
    Meals
    Breakfast, lunch, dinner

  9. An easy last morning down the Modi Khola to the road, mostly flat, past Ghandruk's terraces on the far bank. The jeep meets us at Nayapul and we are back at the lake by mid afternoon, which leaves time for a shower, a boat and a meal that is not dal bhat.

    Altitude
    820 m (2,690 ft)−960 m
    On foot
    4 to 5 hours
    Night in
    Hotel by the lake, Pokhara
    Meals
    Breakfast, lunch

  10. Sarangkot at sunrise if you want one more mountain morning, or a lie in if you do not. A boat across Phewa Tal to the World Peace Pagoda, the Tibetan settlement at Tashiling, Devi's Fall, or nothing at all on a terrace. Paragliding off Sarangkot is the popular extra and we book it the day before.

    Altitude
    820 m (2,690 ft)
    On foot
    2 hours
    Night in
    Hotel by the lake, Pokhara
    Meals
    Breakfast

  11. Twenty five minutes with the range out of the left hand windows. Rather than going back into Thamel we spend the afternoon in Bhaktapur, which is the best preserved of the three cities and the one most visitors see in a hurry. A last dinner in Kathmandu in the evening.

    Altitude
    1,400 m (4,590 ft)+580 m
    On foot
    2 hours on foot
    Night in
    Hotel, Kathmandu
    Meals
    Breakfast, dinner

  12. A free morning for anything you did not get round to, and a transfer to the airport three hours before your flight. If you are staying on, this is the day we would put the Everest scenic flight or a Chitwan extension into.

    Altitude
    1,400 m (4,590 ft)
    On foot
    —
    Night in
    —
    Meals
    Breakfast

What's included

Included in the price

  • Airport transfers and all land transport in a private vehicle with a driver
  • The Pokhara to Kathmandu flight on day 11, with road as the fallback
  • Eleven nights: three in Kathmandu, one at the Trishuli river camp, three in Pokhara, four in teahouses
  • The Trishuli rafting day with a licensed river guide, safety kayaker and all equipment
  • All meals from day 3 to day 9, and breakfast on every other day
  • A licensed trekking guide for the five trail days, and a porter for every two trekkers
  • ACAP permit and TIMS card for the trek
  • A licensed cultural guide and all monument entry fees for the valley days
  • The Phewa Tal boat, and the Jhinu hot spring fee

Not included

  • International flights and the Nepal visa
  • Lunch and dinner in Kathmandu and Pokhara
  • Drinks, hot showers and wifi charges in the teahouses, and battery charging
  • Travel insurance, which should cover trekking to 4,000 m
  • Sleeping bag, hireable in Kathmandu or Pokhara for about $2 a day
  • Tips for the guide, the porters and the river crew
  • Optional extras: paragliding, the Everest scenic flight, a Chitwan extension

What to bring

You are packing for a river and a ridge

Two half trips in one bag. The Trishuli wants quick drying clothes, a dry bag and something you do not mind getting wet; Ghorepani in January wants a down jacket and a sleeping bag. Whatever you do not need on the trail stays at the Pokhara hotel, so bring both and split the bag there.

On your head

  • A warm hat for the Poon Hill morning, which is the coldest hour of the trip
  • A sun hat with a brim, for the river and the lower trail
  • Sunglasses, and a strap for them on the raft
  • A head torch, for the half past four start on day 7

On your body

  • A down or synthetic jacket for Ghorepani and Poon Hill
  • A waterproof shell, jacket and trousers
  • Two base layers and a fleece
  • Trekking trousers, and shorts and a quick drying top for the river
  • Swimming things, for the raft and the Jhinu hot springs

On your hands and feet

  • Boots broken in over at least 60 km, with ankle support for the stone steps
  • Four pairs of trekking socks
  • Gloves, thin ones, for the Poon Hill morning
  • Two trekking poles, which save your knees on the Ulleri descent
  • Sandals or trainers for the camp, the teahouse evenings and the hot springs

For the night

  • A sleeping bag rated to minus 5 Celsius, hired in Kathmandu or Pokhara if you would rather not fly with one
  • A silk liner, which the teahouse blankets make worth having
  • Earplugs. Teahouse walls are plywood
  • A power bank, because charging on the trail costs money and there is none at the river camp

Health

  • Blister kit, and start using it before the blister appears
  • Sun cream, factor 30 or above, and lip balm
  • Rehydration salts and whatever you personally take for a bad stomach
  • Insect repellent for the river camp
  • Your own prescriptions in their original boxes

Bags

  • One duffel of up to 15 kg for the porter
  • A 25 to 30 litre daypack with a rain cover
  • A dry bag for anything that must stay dry on the raft, including your phone
  • A refillable water bottle, two litres of capacity between bottle and bladder

Papers

  • Passport with six months left on it, and four passport photographs for the permits
  • Travel insurance with trekking cover to 4,000 m, and the policy number on paper
  • Dollars in clean notes for the visa counter
  • Enough rupees drawn in Pokhara for the trail, where there is no cash machine

Getting there and back

The flights and the long drives this itinerary is built around, and what happens when one of them does not go.

Getting to Kathmandu

Tribhuvan International, via Delhi, Doha, Dubai, Istanbul, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur or Singapore. There is no direct flight from Europe or North America. Day 1 asks nothing of you, so a late arrival is fine.

The visa on arrival

Fill the form at the kiosk, pay $30 cash for 15 days at the bank counter, then join immigration. Clean dollar notes. Indian nationals need no visa. Allow forty minutes to two hours.

The Pokhara flight on day 11

Twenty five minutes with the range out of the left hand windows, which is worth asking for at check in. A small aircraft with 15 kg of checked baggage. If cloud grounds it we drive, which takes most of the day and costs us the Bhaktapur afternoon.

Leaving

Day 12 has a free morning and a transfer three hours before your flight. If you are flying home overnight and want the day, take a day room rather than sitting in the terminal, and we will arrange it.

Hotels, a beach and four teahouses

Comfortable rooms at either end, a tent on the sand in the middle, and simple twin rooms with a wood stove downstairs on the trail.

11 nights, and what each one is

  • Kathmandu
    Nights
    3
    Type
    Three star hotel, in or near Thamel
    Room
    Twin or double
    Bathroom
    Private, hot water
  • Trishuli river camp
    Nights
    1
    Type
    Two person tent on a sand beach
    Room
    Twin
    Bathroom
    A toilet tent, and the river
  • Pokhara
    Nights
    3
    Type
    Hotel by Phewa Tal
    Room
    Twin or double, lake facing where we can
    Bathroom
    Private, hot water
  • On the trail
    Nights
    4
    Type
    Teahouse
    Room
    Twin, with blankets
    Bathroom
    Private at Tikhedhunga and Jhinu, shared at Ghorepani and Tadapani

Heat, hot water, power and signal

Hot shower
Every night except the river camp. On the trail it is solar or gas and costs $2 to $4. At Ghorepani in January it is worth paying for and worth doing before dark.
Hot springs
Three stone pools beside the Modi Khola at Jhinu, twenty minutes below the village. NPR 150 and the best money you will spend on the trail.
Charging
Mains power in the cities and at most teahouses, where it costs $2 to $3 a device. Nothing at the river camp. Bring a power bank.
Wifi
In the cities and at every teahouse on this trail, where it costs a couple of dollars and works about half the time.
Heating
A wood or dung stove in the teahouse dining room, lit at about five, and nothing at all in the bedrooms. Ghorepani is the cold one.
Drinking water
Boiled water sold by the litre at every teahouse, which is cheaper and better than bottled. Bring two litres of capacity and a purification backup.
Luggage
A porter carries one duffel of up to 15 kg between every two trekkers. Everything you do not need on the trail stays at the Pokhara hotel.
Cash
Machines in Kathmandu and Pokhara and none at all on the trail. Draw enough in Pokhara for the showers, the wifi, the drinks and the tips.

What you eat

  • Breakfast
    Time
    7:00–8:00
    Usually
    Porridge, eggs, Tibetan bread and tea on the trail. Earlier on the Poon Hill morning, when it is tea first and breakfast after
  • Lunch
    Time
    12:00–13:30
    Usually
    At a teahouse on the way, which takes forty minutes to cook and is worth the wait. Dal bhat, noodles or fried rice
  • Dinner
    Time
    18:30
    Usually
    Ordered at four so the kitchen can cook it once. Dal bhat comes with refills and is the only meal on the menu that does
  • Tea
    Time
    16:00
    Usually
    Milk tea or ginger lemon honey when you reach the teahouse, in front of a stove that has just been lit

If you eat differently

  • Vegetarian
    On this route
    Easy everywhere. Most of what the teahouses cook is vegetarian and dal bhat is the best thing on the menu anyway.
  • Vegan
    On this route
    Manageable. Dal bhat without ghee, vegetable curry and noodles. Tell the guide on day 1 and they will say it in Nepali at each teahouse, which works better than you saying it in English.
  • Gluten free
    On this route
    Rice, dal, potato and eggs are safe. Bread, noodles and momo are not. Possible on this trail, and narrow.
  • Nut allergy
    On this route
    Tell us at booking. Teahouse kitchens are small and cross contamination is real, so the guide will speak to each one and we would rather over communicate it.
  • Halal
    On this route
    Straightforward in Kathmandu and Pokhara. On the trail we would suggest eating vegetarian, which is the honest answer.

What a day is like

A day on the trail

  1. 6:30Tea, and a bag packed before breakfast rather than after
  2. 7:30Breakfast in the dining room, usually the warmest it will be all morning
  3. 8:00Walking, at a pace set by the slowest person rather than the fastest
  4. 12:00Lunch at a teahouse, and forty minutes for the kitchen to cook it
  5. 13:30Walking again, the shorter half
  6. 15:30Arrive, tea, and a shower before the sun goes off the valley
  7. 16:00Order dinner, which the kitchen needs to know about early
  8. 18:30Dinner, and the next day explained over the map
  9. 20:30Bed. The stove goes out and the dining room empties

Fit enough for one big staircase

Day 6 climbs 1,300 m and starts with three thousand three hundred stone steps. Nothing else on this trip asks anything like as much.

Easy to moderate, with one hard morning. Four of the five trail days are four to six hours on a good path with a bed and a hot meal at the end. Day 6 climbs 1,300 m, beginning with three thousand three hundred stone steps, and it is the day people remember.

2 of 5
  • Five trekking days, of four to seven hours each
  • One climb of 1,300 m on day 6, on stone steps for the first two hours
  • A high point of 3,210 m, reached on a forty five minute walk before dawn
  • A day on grade two and three water, which needs no experience at all
  • A porter for every two trekkers, so you carry only a daypack

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

    Three months before

    Build to six hours

    Two or three walks a week, with one long one at the weekend. Work up to five or six hours on hills carrying a 6 kg daypack. That is enough for four of the five trail days.

  2. 2

    Two months before

    Stairs, specifically

    Day 6 is three thousand three hundred stone steps followed by a long climb. Nothing prepares you for that except steps. Find a staircase or a steep hill and go up it repeatedly, twice a week, and you will find day 6 merely tiring rather than memorable.

  3. 3

    One month before

    Break the boots in

    Sixty kilometres in the boots you are bringing, minimum. The Ghorepani trail is stone steps for much of its length and new boots will take the skin off your heels on day 6 of 12.

Altitude, and what we do about it

Not really an altitude trip. You sleep at 2,850 m at the highest and stand at 3,210 m for an hour at sunrise, which is below the level where most people feel anything at all. The breathlessness on the Ulleri steps is fitness rather than thin air, and it goes away by the top.

Tell your guide if you have any of these

  • Headache that does not lift after water and food
  • Nausea or loss of appetite at Ghorepani
  • Sleeping badly on the first night above 2,500 m, which is common and usually harmless

What actually prevents it

  • A gentle first day to 1,540 m, so that the height comes on gradually
  • Three litres of fluid a day, which the guide will keep asking about
  • Walking the Ulleri steps slowly. There is no prize and the day is long enough

What we do about it, in order

  1. 1

    Say it

    Tell the guide about a headache at Ghorepani. It is almost always dehydration and it is easy to fix, and nobody is going to make a fuss.

  2. 2

    Go down

    Ghorepani to Tikhedhunga is a morning's walk and loses 1,300 m. On this trail descent is always easy, which is a large part of why it suits people new to Nepal.

Fitness and altitude are unrelated

This is the thing people get wrong most often. Training makes the walking easier and does nothing for how your body handles thin air. Strong young trekkers get altitude sickness and unfit older ones frequently do not. Go up slowly, and say something the first time your head hurts.

Month by month

The trail figures are for Ghorepani at 2,850 m, which is the cold night of the trip. The valley and the river are both a good deal warmer.

  • January
    Day at Ghorepani
    +9°C
    Night at Ghorepani
    -4°C
    Dawn on Poon Hill
    -6°C
    What it is like
    The clearest views of the year from Poon Hill and the coldest nights at Ghorepani. Snow on the ridge is possible and pretty. The river is cold.
    Good
  • February
    Day at Ghorepani
    +11°C
    Night at Ghorepani
    -2°C
    Dawn on Poon Hill
    -4°C
    What it is like
    Warming, still clear, and quiet on the trail. A good month if you do not mind a cold night.
    Good
  • March
    Day at Ghorepani
    +15°C
    Night at Ghorepani
    +2°C
    Dawn on Poon Hill
    0°C
    What it is like
    Rhododendron begins on the Ghorepani ridge, which is the best forest in Nepal in flower. Warm on the river.
    Best
  • April
    Day at Ghorepani
    +18°C
    Night at Ghorepani
    +5°C
    Dawn on Poon Hill
    +3°C
    What it is like
    Peak rhododendron and warm walking. Hazier than autumn, so Poon Hill is a little less sharp. The busiest spring month.
    Best
  • May
    Day at Ghorepani
    +20°C
    Night at Ghorepani
    +8°C
    Dawn on Poon Hill
    +6°C
    What it is like
    Hot at the bottom of the trail and hazy at the top, with afternoon storms. Good on the river, poorer for the view.
    Good
  • June
    Day at Ghorepani
    +20°C
    Night at Ghorepani
    +10°C
    Dawn on Poon Hill
    +8°C
    What it is like
    The monsoon arrives, the forest turns to leeches and the mountains go. The Trishuli runs high and the rafting stops being gentle.
    Hard
  • July
    Day at Ghorepani
    +19°C
    Night at Ghorepani
    +11°C
    Dawn on Poon Hill
    +9°C
    What it is like
    The wettest month. The river is at flood grade and we would not put you on it.
    Hard
  • August
    Day at Ghorepani
    +19°C
    Night at Ghorepani
    +11°C
    Dawn on Poon Hill
    +9°C
    What it is like
    The same. Green, cheap and empty, and you will see nothing from Poon Hill.
    Hard
  • September
    Day at Ghorepani
    +18°C
    Night at Ghorepani
    +8°C
    Dawn on Poon Hill
    +6°C
    What it is like
    The monsoon clears through the month and the last ten days are often the cleanest air of the year.
    Good
  • October
    Day at Ghorepani
    +16°C
    Night at Ghorepani
    +4°C
    Dawn on Poon Hill
    +2°C
    What it is like
    The best month and the busiest. Washed air, warm days, a crowded Poon Hill at dawn and a river at a perfect level.
    Best
  • November
    Day at Ghorepani
    +13°C
    Night at Ghorepani
    0°C
    Dawn on Poon Hill
    -2°C
    What it is like
    Our favourite. Clear, cool, quieter than October, and the trail at its most comfortable.
    Best
  • December
    Day at Ghorepani
    +10°C
    Night at Ghorepani
    -3°C
    Dawn on Poon Hill
    -5°C
    What it is like
    Very clear and very cold at Ghorepani. Short days, empty teahouses and a proper winter feel.
    Good

Figures for 2,850 m, which is the cold night of the trip, with the Poon Hill dawn alongside. Kathmandu, Pokhara and the river all run ten to fifteen degrees warmer.

Who walks with you

Who walks with you

A licensed trekking guide for the five trail days and a porter for every two trekkers. From ten trekkers a second guide joins. On the valley days a licensed cultural guide, who is a different person with a different skill, and a driver throughout.

On the river

A licensed river guide steering each raft, a safety kayaker on the water, and a kitchen crew who go ahead to the beach and have the fire going before you arrive. Helmets and buoyancy aids for everybody, and a briefing before you get in that is worth listening to.

How the porters are treated

Fifteen kilos of your luggage between two of you, which is a load rather than a punishment, and boots and a jacket supplied by us rather than bought out of their wages. Everybody is insured. If you want to know what they are paid, ask and we will tell you.

Walking it responsibly

Boiled water, not bottled

Every teahouse on this trail sells boiled water by the litre for less than a bottle costs, and the ACAP has been trying to end plastic bottles here for years. Across five days that is fifteen fewer bottles carried up a hill by somebody and left at the top.

Eat where you sleep

Teahouse rooms are almost free because the family makes its money on the meals. Eating dinner somewhere else after taking a room is the one thing that genuinely costs them, and we will not do it.

The river company matters

The Trishuli has operators with a permit, a safety kayaker and insured guides, and operators with none of those. We use the first kind, and it is most of the reason the rafting day costs what it does.

The beach is left as it was found

Everything that goes onto the sand comes off it in the rafts, including the fire. The Trishuli beaches are used by a different group most nights of the season and they only stay usable because most companies do this.

Booking and paying

How to start

Write to us or send a message on WhatsApp with your arrival date and how many of you there are. We reply within a day with a confirmed itinerary and a price.

The deposit

Twenty per cent to hold the hotels, the rafting and the flight, the balance two weeks before you arrive or on arrival in Kathmandu.

If you cancel

More than thirty days out, the deposit transfers to another date within a year. Inside thirty days the flight and the river booking are paid and we retain the deposit. Inside seven days, half the total.

If you want to change the balance

Some people want more river and less trail, or the reverse. Both are easy and we would rather build the trip you want than sell the one on this page. Say so at booking and the price moves with it.

Insurance

Trekking cover to 4,000 m and, if you can get it, helicopter evacuation. Nothing on this route is high or remote, and a helicopter from Ghorepani is still expensive if you have to pay for it yourself.

Things you can add

Priced per person, arranged before you travel, and none of them included in the price above.

  • Chitwan National Park, two nights

    $290
    2 extra days

    The addition that fits best, because the Trishuli take out is already on the road south. A jungle lodge, a dugout canoe at first light, a guided walk and a jeep drive into the grassland where the rhino are.

  • Paragliding from Sarangkot

    $90
    1 morning

    Tandem, twenty to thirty minutes, launching from the ridge above Pokhara and landing by the lake. Added to the morning of day 10. Refunded if it does not fly.

  • Everest scenic flight

    $220
    1 morning

    An hour along the range from Kathmandu with a guaranteed window seat, back before eight. Slots onto day 2 or day 12 without moving anything.

  • Two more days on the trail, to Annapurna Base Camp

    $340
    adds 3 days

    Instead of turning down the gorge at Chhomrong, go up it. Three more days, a night at 4,130 m in the sanctuary, and a completely different order of mountain. It changes the grade of the trip and we will say so honestly.

  • A second night at the river camp

    $110
    1 extra day

    A full second day on the water down to Mugling rather than getting out at Kurintar. More rapids, another beach, and the part of the trip people say they wish had been longer.

  • Upgrade the hotels to four star

    from $260
    same length

    Better rooms in Kathmandu and a lakeside resort in Pokhara. The teahouses and the river camp are what they are, and no money changes them.

Other ways to mix walking and everything else

4 versions of this journey. They use the same guides and the same lodges; what changes is the length, the comfort and how much of it you walk.

Photos

A look at the trail, the villages and the mountains.

Reviews

4.8 27 reviews
The trip of a lifetime

Everything was handled for us from the moment we landed. Our guide read the group perfectly, slowed the pace when we needed it, and knew every village along the way. I never once worried about logistics.

Sarah M. AustraliaOctober 2025
Felt looked after the whole way

We travelled as a couple and the small group made all the difference. Comfortable lodges, honest advice about the altitude, and a team who clearly loved the mountains. Booking on our own dates was easy.

James & Kate United KingdomMay 2025
Well organised and genuinely local

You can tell this is run by people from here, not a call centre abroad. The itinerary had proper rest days built in, the food was better than I expected, and the whole thing ran to time.

Daniel R. CanadaMarch 2025

Common questions

12 of them, and they are the ones people actually send us. If yours is not here, ask and we will answer it and add it.

Moderate rather than easy, and one day of it is genuinely hard. Day 6 climbs 1,300 m, and the first two hours are three thousand three hundred stone steps up to Ulleri. Everything else is four to six hours on a good path with a teahouse at the end. If you walk for a few hours at weekends you will be fine.

None. The Trishuli in autumn and spring is grade two and three, which means lively water and no real technical difficulty, and every raft has a licensed guide steering it. There is a safety briefing before you get in, a safety kayaker on the water, and you wear a helmet and a buoyancy aid.

It helps and it is not required. You will be in a buoyancy aid that will hold you up whether or not you can. If you are nervous of water, say so before you book, because a day on the Trishuli is a poor place to discover it.

Very unlikely. You sleep at 2,850 m at the highest and stand at 3,210 m for an hour, which is below the level where most people notice anything. A few feel breathless on the Ulleri steps, which is fitness rather than altitude.

Simple and clean. A twin room with two beds and a blanket, a shared bathroom in the older places and a private one in most of the newer, and a dining room with a stove that gets lit at five. Ghorepani is the coldest night and the beds there have real blankets on them.

Yes, for Ghorepani and Tadapani. The teahouses give you blankets and they are not enough in December and January. A bag rated to minus five is plenty and you can hire one in Kathmandu or Pokhara for about $2 a day rather than flying with one.

Two person tents on a sand beach, a kitchen the crew carry in the rafts, a fire and a great many stars. There is a toilet tent. There is no shower, which after a day on the river matters less than you would think because you have been in the water all afternoon.

Yes. We drive you to Pokhara instead and you get a day by the lake. Tell us at booking and the price comes down. It is the part of the trip people are most often nervous about and least often regret doing.

A daypack, about six kilos, with water, a warm layer, a waterproof and your camera. A porter carries up to fifteen kilos of your duffel between every two trekkers. On the rafting day everything goes in a waterproof barrel in the raft.

October and November for the clearest air and the warmest trail, March and April for rhododendron on the Ghorepani ridge, which is the best forest in Nepal when it is in flower. December and January are clear, very cold at Ghorepani, and the river is cold enough to be bracing. May gets hazy.

Private, on your own dates, unless you ask to join a set one. Two travellers is the usual booking and the price per head falls with numbers because the vehicle, the guide and the raft cost the same either way.

Yes, and it fits neatly because the Trishuli take out is on the road south. Two extra days and a night at a jungle lodge, added between day 4 and Pokhara or on the end. Tell us at booking and we will build it as one itinerary.

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12 days

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