Annapurna Base Camp Trek

Flight time: As per your schedule | Accommodation: 3-star hotel

Day Highlights

• Welcome from the Bold Himalaya staff at Tribhuvan International Airport
• Transfer to a 3-star hotel in Thamel
• Pre-trek briefing with an experienced guide
• Nepali welcome dinner
• Equipment checking and final bout of last-minute equipment shopping

Your Annapurna Base Camp trek tour begins with your arrival in the capital city of Nepal, Kathmandu. We welcome you at Tribhuvan International Airport with a warm Nepalese white scarf greeting of our heartily welcome, Bold Himalaya family members, and take you to your comfortable hotel in Thamel, Kathmandu, a tourist city. Your 30-45-minute ride on a congested road acquaints you with Nepalese culture and way of life.

Late afternoon, your trekking guide comes to your hotel for the official 9-day trek briefing. A briefing on daily routines, emergency procedures, altitude sickness, weather, and road conditions to be expected will be done. It’s also a good time to have your trekking gear inspected and procure additional pieces of equipment, low in stock in Thamel’s virtual outdoor adventure gear shop paradise.

Evening is spent enjoying dinner at a Nepali restaurant, dinner dal bhat-style (lentils and rice) and momos (steamed dumplings), and some Nepali cuisine. Nepali palate spoils your stomach to mountain food in the future, but introduces some rest and acclimatization from the time difference for tomorrow’s visit to Pokhara.

Flight: 25 minutes | Drive: 2-3 hours | Overnight: Tea house lodge

Day Highlights:

• Pokhara mountain flight view of the Himalaya
• Drive through beautiful Nepali countryside to Ghandruk
• Orientation of Annapurna and Machhapuchhre mountains
• Arrival at a typical Gurung village of Ghandruk
• Cultural orientation and walking village tour

Your Himalayan holiday has started well. Early morning flight from Kathmandu to Nepal’s most beautiful resort town, Pokhara. The 25-minute flight is a thrill-chugging panorama if the weather permits viewing far horizons of Annapurna, Manaslu, and even Everest. Pokhara is situated at an altitude of 822 meters and is renowned for its lakes, scenery of the surrounding hills, and relaxing atmosphere.

You will drive out of Pokhara and cover 2-3 hours of Nepali countryside rural landscape to Nayapul, which is the trekking starting point. You will walk through hillside terraced villages and alongside Modi River as it winds down the hills. The road takes you up through subtropical landscapes with a glimpse of country life as farmers plough fields and villagers frolic in the village.

Your night stay is at Ghandruk village at 1,940 meters elevation, and experience local Gurung culture. Village at the hill base with huge numbers of Gurkha soldiers and breathtaking views of Annapurna South, Machhapuchhre, and Hiunchuli mountains. Your tea house offers basic but clean rooms, shared bathroom facilities, an afternoon village tour, a visit to the local museum, and sunset views from various corners of the village.

Walking time: 5-6 hours | Walking distance: 11km | Altitude gained: 400m

Highlight of the day:

• Trek downhill through terraced rice fields and villages
• Cross the roaring Kimrong River on a suspension bridge
• Trek through beautiful oaks and rhododendron forest
• Arrive at Sinuwa with better mountain scenery
• Break in the cover of vegetation and wildlife watching possibility

The day’s hike starts from Ghandruk and a gentle ascent over the millet, maize, and vegetable fields that have been planted by the farmers on well-constructed hillside terracing. The trek goes through some of the remote Gurung villages such as Kimrong with very rural stone-built houses, prayer wheel-waterwheels, and the people busy with the day’s work of cultivation. There are some great shot stops at one or two countryside landscape stops, and you meet friendly locals on the way along the morning hike.

The panorama is of reverse foaming of Kimrong River, steeply dropping down a green-lined, almost-vertical gorge. The route goes on a solid uphill gradient under the canopy cover of bamboo, oak, and rhododendron forests. Spring (March to May) gives the rhododendron trees riotous multi-colored red, pink, and white flowers, and the finest natural Himalayan scenery.

The closer you get to Sinuwa, the more subtropical and temperate the forest is, and it even welcomes you with a view of glistening langur monkeys, pheasants, and other birds. Sinuwa village at 2,340 meters elevation welcomes you with your first taste of high-altitude trek and with still more scenic mountain landscapes all around you. Overnight stay is also available here at the tea house, and a night’s rest will be sufficient to recover as well as acclimatize once again to higher elevations before us.

Trek time: 4-5 hours | Distance: 8km | Altitude gain: 890m

Day Highlights:

• Walk through a bamboo and rhododendron forest
• Enjoy good altitude and cooler climatic conditions
• Cross several small waterfalls and streams
• Access Deurali with surrounding mountains that are scenic

This is a half-day hike today to the Annapurna Sanctuary as you walk up from 2,340m to 3,230m into genuine alpine territory. You walk up first through a closed bamboo forest, where the track becomes rocky and steep. There are creaking leaves of the bamboo and distant howls of disembodied sounds of odd noises from wildlife, forming a surrealist-like environment as you walk up in this surrealist environment.

The walk of the day follows lusciously gorgeous rhododendron forests, seductively gorgeous when blooming. When out of season, standing over you are the conditions above, like cathedrals and mottled conditions in intricate patterns on the forest floor created by them. You’ll need to push through dozens of little streams of glacial meltwater and boulder-hop across dozens of waterfalls cascading mossy, rocky faces.

As you go higher up to Deurali, the vegetation here simply transitions from alpine woodland to alpine scrub, revealing the high Himalayan landscape to you. Deurali, a Nepali word for “pass”, is at 3,230 meters and gives you your first reasonable view of the high walls of the Annapurna Sanctuary. It is cold these days, and you will be feeling your first symptoms of altitude sickness. The tea house is nice with nice sunsets on distant hills in the late afternoon.

Walking distance: 5km | Hiking time: 3-4 hours | Altitude gain: 900m

Day Highlights:

• Enter the holy Annapurna Sanctuary amphitheater
• Reach Annapurna Base Camp at a height of 4,130m
• 360° view of mountains above 6,000m
• Witness the world’s 10th highest peak
• Sunrise and sunset over the Annapurna massif are just breathtaking

This is your highlight of the whole trek – the world’s best natural amphitheater, Annapurna Base Camp. It begins with trekking early from Deurali, after ascending a soft ridge over alpine meadows where vegetation dies back and tough mountain scrub begins to dominate the scene. No time, thinner air with increasing altitude, but eagerness to reach base camp still maintains a high profile.

Here, the ramparts of Annapurna Sanctuary unfold one by one in all their glory. The trek crosses Machhapuchhre Base Camp (3,700m), with terrifying close-up glimpses of the holy Fishtail top. Then the final ascent to Annapurna Base Camp over boulder moraines and through the gate of the sanctuary, when suddenly, the entire vista unfolds before you.

It’s spiritually fulfilling to be at Annapurna Base Camp (4,130m). You’re hemmed in by a complete ring of 6,000-meter-tall mountains like Annapurna I (8,091m), Annapurna South (7,219m), Annapurna III (7,555m), Machhapuchhre (6,993m), Gangapurna (7,455m), and Hiunchuli (6,441m). You’re like within the cathedral of nature, with mountain walls looming above you. These golden and orange-hued hills appear most enchanting at sunset, and one of the finest experiences in store for you in the hills.

Trek time: 6-7 hours | Distance: 13km | Loss of altitude: 1,820m

Day Highlights:

• Final glimpses of sunrise from Annapurna Base Camp
• Precipitous descent on a gentle slope above altered vegetation belts
• Dissolved down from Deurali to the lower plane
• Arrived at Bamboo with welcome relief
• Visualize success at base camp when going down

Your last morning at Annapurna Base Camp was an early pre-dawn one, and your last opportunity to see yet another incredible sunrise over the Annapurna ranges. The biting pre-dawn wind at 4,130 meters is invigorating, but to witness dawn break to illuminate the snow-white ranges in golden and pink colors is all the agony it is worth. This deceptive moment is for a passing few seconds but remains forever etched in one’s memory.

The descent back to base camp is a good, long, scenic one. You descend through the sanctuary and begin to appreciate how much variation there is in the view as altitude is lost. Traveling back from Machhapuchhre Base Camp and Deurali Tract, you get the general view from a whole different angle and get to appreciate nuances that otherwise would have passed unnoticed by climbing. The air becomes heavier and warmer with every step downward, and with every step downward, breathing becomes easier.

Warm. Bamboo village at 2,310 meters is once more in the forest section, with bamboo being the dominant vegetation. The cool climate and denser air are pampering by high-altitude standards. Your tea house room is a cozy haven after the long downhill trek, and the night is spent in reflection of your starry achievement in having reached Annapurna Base Camp and resting for the next trek day.

Trekking time: 4-5 hours | Drive time: 3-4 hours | Overnight: Pokhara hotel

Day Highlights:

• Final day of forest trekking
• Arrival at Jhinu Danda, famous for natural hot springs
• Relax aching muscles in rejuvenating hot springs
• Drive through rolling hills to Pokhara
• Farewell dinner and evening at a quaint hotel

Your final day of trekking begins with breakfast and easy downhill walking in dense jungle to Jhinu Danda village, famous all over Nepal for hot springs. Your path winds through beautiful bamboo and rhododendron forests and across babbling streams to this secret treasure. Weeks of acclimatization to high altitude have prepared you, and the morning trek is a stroll in the park. You can see how your endurance and mountain acclimatization have both been enhanced.

Jhinu Danda natural hot springs are the final pampering to complete your Annapurna Base Camp trek. The geothermally heated hot springs naturally warmed up because of the geothermal action in the deep inner earth; they are warm to the touch all year round and purportedly mend creaking joints and muscles. Natural hot pools surrounded by mountain and forest views, with which to soothe, are the epitome of welcome to civilization after the high-altitude treks.

Ran down to the road where your car is waiting for the 3–4-hour ride back to Pokhara. Your car follows the same road through villages, terracing farms, and rivers that challenged you a few days ago. Back to Pokhara means back to comfort with restaurant food, hot showers, and soft beds. Final farewell dinner tonight is the time to reflect upon your stunning trek to the foot of the world’s 10th highest peak.

Drive duration: 6-7 hours | Overnight: 3-star accommodation in Kathmandu

Day Highlights:

• Scenic drive of Nepal’s diverse landscape
• Final Himalayan peak landscape view from Pokhara
• Drive back home to Kathmandu with sufficient time for last-minute shopping
• Farewell dinner and cultural show

Your journey back to Kathmandu begins with a leisurely morning in Pokhara, your moment to collect your memory photos of the Annapurna range and glinting on Phewa Lake, and some final shopping along lakeside shopping promenades. The car journey from Pokhara to Kathmandu is 6-7 hours on Prithvi Highway, traveling the scenic route across the country from subtropical valleys up to hillside terracing to ascend finally into the Kathmandu valley.

The trek is one long walk of Nepali villagers’ country life in its contemporary form as it winds its way along the hundreds of villages, market townships, and fields of this nation. You trek hundreds of rivers on ancient bridges and cross high mountain passes with vista after vista of rolling hills. You eat on the trail and take time to encounter villagers and glimpse everyday life outside of tourist enclaves.

Back to your journey from remote mountain base camp to the chaotic capital city Kathmandu, you have experienced a cycle of city to base camp and civilization again. A cultural show and farewell dinner are the best conclusion to your Annapurna trek.

Transfer time: 3 hours before flight time

Your 9-day Annapurna Base Camp trek concludes with onward arrangements and a drive back to Tribhuvan International Airport for your home departure international flight. Our Bold Himalaya representative ensures smooth airport transfer, handling all logistics so you can focus on saying goodbye to Nepal and reflecting on your amazing mountain experience.  The thrill of being at the Annapurna Base Camp with 7,000- to 8,000-meter giants around you, witnessing the Gurung culture in these breathtaking villages, and testing your body in one of the planet’s most beautiful mountain playgrounds will be carved into your memory bank forever.