The Royal Trek

None whatsoever. This is the trek we send people on who have never slept anywhere without a lift. Four days, four to six hours of walking each, on paths that farmers use daily. If you can manage a long day walk at home you can manage all four of these.

Reasonably active is enough. The first afternoon climbs 570 m and the last morning drops 900 m, and between them the ridge is gentle. Eight weeks of walking three times a week covers it comfortably, and plenty of people arrive having done less.

It is easy and it is worth doing, and those are separate questions. What you get is four days living at the pace of the middle hills, which is the part of Nepal most trekkers pass through at speed on the way to something higher. The mountains are in view the entire time.

Yes, and this is the one we recommend for families. Eight or nine upwards manages it, the days are short enough to stop when somebody has had enough, and a jeep can reach every village if a day goes badly. Children are a considerable social advantage in a homestay.

No. We have run this for walkers in their eighties. With no altitude, no exposure and a road to every night's bed, the things that usually rule people out of a Nepal trek do not apply here.

No. The highest point you sleep at is 1,730 m and altitude illness is effectively unknown below 2,500 m. There is no acclimatisation day on this itinerary because there is nothing to acclimatise to.

Yes, and December to February is one of the best times to do it. Days on the ridge sit around 15°C to 17°C in full sun, nights drop to about 3°C to 5°C, there is no snow at this height and the mountain views are the clearest of the year. Very few Nepal treks can say that.

We do not run it in July or August. Pokhara takes over 900 mm of rain in July, the mountains are invisible for weeks, the forest sections have leeches and the access roads slip. June and September are borderline and we will tell you honestly which half of the month you are looking at.

In April and May the ridge reaches about 24°C to 25°C by midday with very little shade, and it feels hotter than that on an open stretch. That is why we start at half past eight and finish by mid afternoon, and why the sun hat matters more than the fleece.

Three nights on the ridge: a small village lodge at Kalikasthan and family homestays at Syaklung and Chisapani, with the occasional swap depending on the month and who is open. Beds, mattresses, quilts, shared bathrooms and a bucket of hot water. Simple is the honest word for it.

Yes, and that is how it was originally walked. We add a cook, kitchen, dining and toilet tents and a camp crew for $195, which lets you sleep on the viewpoints rather than in the villages. It is better for the views and worse for the conversation, and most people choose the houses.

At Kalikasthan and usually at Chisapani there is a plumbed hot shower for nothing or a dollar. At Syaklung it is a bucket of hot water in a stone stall, which after a warm day is entirely adequate. Nobody goes four days without washing on this trek.

Ncell and NTC cover the whole ridge and 4G works at most of it, which is more than you get at 4,000 m in the Khumbu. Wifi exists at Kalikasthan and comes and goes elsewhere. Buy the SIM in Kathmandu or Pokhara, since you cannot register one in a village.

Partly, and we would rather say so here than have you find out on day 4. Dirt roads reach all three villages and two or three short stretches of the route share the roadbed. We use footpaths where they still exist. Traffic is a handful of jeeps and motorbikes a day, not a stream.

Dal bhat twice a day, cooked in the house you are sleeping in, with three or four vegetable sides from the garden and pickle that will surprise you. Breakfast is roti, eggs and curd. It is fresher than trail food at altitude and there is no menu, which most people end up preferring.

Very few. On a good week in November you might pass two or three other parties in four days, and in January you may pass none. The road building that trekkers complain about is the reason this ridge stayed quiet, so it cuts both ways.

An Annapurna Conservation Area permit at NPR 3,000, about $22, issued by the National Trust for Nature Conservation in Kathmandu or at the Damside counter in Pokhara. We also buy you a TIMS card at NPR 2,000, about $15. Both are inside your trip price and we arrange them with your passport copy and two photographs.

Operators disagree and enforcement on this ridge is nothing like the Annapurna checkposts at Birethanti. We buy it because it costs $15 and removes any argument at a desk. If you hear from another company that it is unnecessary, they may well be right and it is not worth the conversation.

$100 to $150 changed into rupees covers drinks, snacks, the boat at Begnas, a shower or two and your tips, with room to spare. There are ATMs all over Pokhara and none on the ridge, so draw what you need before you leave town.

An ordinary travel policy covering trekking, medical treatment and repatriation. You do not need the high-altitude clause or the helicopter cover that the Everest treks require, because you never go above 1,730 m. Check that your policy does not exclude Nepal by default.

No. If you are already in Pokhara we will run it as a six day trip starting and finishing there, which is cheaper. Plenty of people add it to the end of another trek or tack it onto a work trip, and it is easy to shorten to three walking days if you are tight for time.

Ten at most on a set departure, and it runs from one. From eleven a second guide joins. Most people book their own dates privately, which costs the same from five people and is easier to arrange on this trek than on any other we run.

Easily, because it is short and it ends in Pokhara. The usual pairings are Chitwan for three days, a week on the Annapurna Base Camp trail afterwards, or the Panchase ridge on the other side of the lake. Tell us what you have in mind and we will put the dates together.