Annapurna Base Camp Trek

Day 1 is arrival day. We’ll be picking you up from the airport and checking you into the Kathmandu Guest House. Kathmandu airport can be a bit of an experience unto itself. Once you’ve navigated your way out, you’ll be met by your LHO team leader. Depending on what time you arrive you’ll benefit from a tour of Kathmandu which includes Durbar Square, Boudanath Stupa, and Thamel. At Night we’ll have a team dinner and briefing before heading back to the hotel for gear checks and last-minute preparations.

We’ll start our day super early to catch our internal flight to Pokhara. Although we book onto the first flight of the day, we don’t expect to fly out without at least a one hour delay to our flight as is typical for internal flights in Nepal. Upon arrival to Pokhara, we’ll be met by our porter team who will escort us to the Pokhara Batika Hotel for last minute checks and to drop off anything not needed for the trail. From there it’s a two hour and a half drive to Syauli Bazar, the starting point of our trekking experience. We’ll be having lunch at the start of the trail before following the Annapurna river that gradually winds its way up the valley. An hour into the trail, we’ll veer off the main path and start up the steeper trail to Ghandruk. We typically arrive around sundown which means we may walk for about an hour in darkness so do have your headlamps handy. Dinner will be at the tea house accommodation on arrival.

Our second day on the trail takes us from the picturesque town of Ghandruk to Chomrong, the last large village on the trail. The trek starts with a gradual descent to the valley floor and a river crossing before ascending to the mountain pass where we’ll be having a tea break. After the break, we’ll be heading back down into the valley on the opposite side of the pass and have lunch at the lowest point of the day. After lunch, it’s a sustained but manageable ascent to Chomrong. The village itself has a number of coffee shops and is worth exploring before dinner time. Views from the town on Annapurna South and Fishtail mountain are spectacular.

Earlier than usual, we’ll depart the last major village of the trail in the direction of Fishtail mountain. The day starts with the longest descent of the trail down to a suspension bridge. From there we’ll begin a more gradual ascent towards Sinwa, a small collection of tea houses that sits at the entrance of the narrow Annapurna valley. The team will have a tea break at Sinwa before walking along an easy path towards the forest settlement at Bamboo, our second tea stop for the day. The trail then leads us to Dovan where we will have our lunch. We expect to arrive at our tea house in Himalaya in the late afternoon.

The next two days are the real highlights of this experience. The trek to MBC is the first leg of the higher altitude portion of this trip. We’ll be departing from Himalaya early in the direction of Deulari settlement. On the first leg of the day, we’ll witness a dramatic change in scenery from deep forest to alpine highlands. Tea break will be at Deurali before continuing on to MBC at 3,700 meters for lunch. MBC itself sits at the foot of Fishtail mountain and against a deep glacier moraine that starts at the foot of Annapurna itself. On the last leg of our upward journey, we’ll depart MBC in the direction of Annapurna Base Camp (4,150 meters) where we’ll be staying overnight. The trek itself is relatively short and gradual especially as compared to the previous treks and we expect to reach ABC at sunset. ABC sits at the south face of Annapurna and is one of the most spectacular places on the planet.

We will be waking up early and heading straight to the viewpoint to enjoy the sunrise before having breakfast. The larger portion of the day is actually the descent as we’ll be heading all the way down to Bamboo, a full 2,000 meters below the high point of the day.  We’ll be stopping for tea breaks and lunch along the way.

We’ll be departing Bamboo early on our last full day as we make our way up to Sinuwa and back across the valley to Chomrong. Although we have two challenging ascents on this day, they’re the last two ascents of the entire trip. From Chomrong we’ll be descending all the way down to the riverside where the small town of Jinhu and its hot springs sit. After checking in to our tea house, team members who wish can join us at the hot springs. A bathing suit is recommended although many trekkers choose to dip in a pair of shorts.

Our last day is a short one. We’ll be crossing the longest suspension bridge in Nepal before rejoining the road and jumping into our cars. The ride down to Pokhara takes about 3 hours altogether and we expect to arrive at lunch time. It is customary that we have lunch altogether with the porters upon arriving to Pokhara and present the local team with a group tip that will have been collected prior to lunch. After lunch, we’ll check in to the hotel and the afternoon is free to roam around and explore the beautiful town. Dinner will be a la carte at a trendy downtown restaurant.

We’ll be catching an early afternoon flight to Kathmandu. That gives us a free morning to roam around and do some shopping. For those of us interested in paragliding over Pokhara, a very popular activity in the town, it can be arranged. For the rest of us, we’ll be grabbing a late breakfast at the hotel and then given free time. Lunch is available for those who’d like to join but we understand that the team may wish to spend their time exploring instead. Upon arrival to Kathmandu, we’ll check into our hotel rooms and get ready to meet at the hotel restaurant for a communal farewell dinner.