Today is your arrival day. we welcome you upon your arrival at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport. Transfer to Hotel in Kathmandu. Prior to the activities, arrange a meeting with your guide for briefing about the necessary formalities on your tour and trek program. Depending upon your arrival time you may spend free time visiting nearby historic/Countryside areas.

Meet your culture guide for Half day sightseeing in Kathmandu World Heritage sights. Explore UNESCO enlisted Hindu and Buddhist temples, observe age old Newari architectures, friendly people; their culture and lifestyle. Our Trek Leader/Guide meets you in the afternoon for the trek briefing and for the final trek preparation. In the evening sample a delicious traditional Nepali Welcome dinner in authentic Nepali Restaurant with the cultural dances that represents different customs and music instruments of Nepal. Private vehicle is there for you to pick up and drop in Hotel with our staff. Overnight in Kathmandu.

In the early morning, you drive to Besisahar which is situated 165 km west of Kathmandu through the Trading village of Dumre. It is a scenic 6 hour drive which allows you to enjoy the scenes of the sprawling Trishuli River and the lush highways with multi ethnic settlements. The highways wind and go zigzag around the hills as you leave the plain southern semi tropical region. After a 100 km drive from Kathmandu, you cross the Marsyangdi river and another 2 hours would take you to Besisahar and then 4 hours drive to Chame- the starting point of your trek.

You first pass the older part of Chame and climb up to Telekhu at 2480m and continue with a long, pleasant, leveled walk through the forest to Brathang, which lies at 2950m. After the trail bends here, you see the first view of the dramatic Paungda Danda rock face, a tremendous curved slab of rock rising more than 1500m from the river. You cross back to the south bank of the Marsyangdi River and make a gentle climb over a ridge through blue pine forests .After this, the trek will be reasonably leveled as it heads to upper part of Manang valley to Pisang. The town marks the beginning of the Nyesyang region, the upper portion of Manang district.

The trek slowly climbs to the Tibetan style village of Braga at 3500 m following the valley floor. The Gompa, perched on a high crag overlooking the village is the largest in the district and has an outstanding display of statues. Then you come across an arid countryside, dominated by weird cliffs of yellow rock, eroded into dramatic pillars alongside the trail to reach the day’s destination, the village of Manang where you get to refuel on your supplies

This day you will stay in Manang to rest as well as to acclimatize to the higher altitudes and thinning air. You can choose to rest and wash some clothing or take a short hike to slightly higher ground like Khangsar which is a 200 meters ascent.

From Manang you will follow the path down to the river and after crossing it, you continue on the south side of it through coniferous forests through Khangsar. One section is across a steep exposed slope which will make a spectacular walk with stunning sceneries of the Manang valley and beyond. After crossing the Khangsar khola on a bridge, you ascend a slope to the village. You stay for the night to acclimatize. (5hrs)

The path from Khangsar follows a recently constructed path towards a high ridge. At one point is an intersection – one path moves forward maintaining the altitude, traversing slopes towards a place where the valley is narrow while the other path continues to ascend the line of the ridge. You continue along the new path, reach a high crest and descend on switch backs carved through the slopes to a side valley. At the bottom is a brook and to the other side is the Tilicho Base camp. As you head up along moraine ridges and grassy slopes to some large switch backs carved out of the slope you reach a watershed. On the other side is the Tilicho Lake with camp sites on its north eastern shore. The route ahead is a bit complicated and demanding as you have to cross glaciers from the Tilicho Himal which requires ice climbing gear and the competence to use them. There is also the danger of crevasses hidden in the glaciers. An optional route traverses three minor passes in the mountains north of the lake. Tilicho Lake is famous as the lake in the highest altitude in the world and is considered holy as the bathing place of Guru Ringpoche so a large number of pilgrims visit the place during August every year.

You explore around the Lake to experience the rough and wild beauty that the area is. It is also possible to cross the Meso Kanto La pass to Jomsom which is an alternative route to world famous Thorung La pass (5425 m) of Annapurna Circuit.

You follow the same route to reach Khangsar via Tilicho Base camp

Trekking upwards to Thorung la , you will leave the large trees behind and see vegetation, mainly scrub juniper and alpine grass and you pass a few meadows where horses and yaks can be seen grazing. You soon reach yak Kharka where you see herds of blue sheep grazing in the steep slopes.

The trail now turns to the tributary valley of Jargeng Khola where it is sometimes possible to see herds of Blue mountain sheep along the cliffs. You cross a covered cantilevered bridge and ascend to Phedi, the last campsite lodge before Thorung Pass. (6 hrs)

This is the most exciting day of the trek, which starts with an early morning ascent with a steep climb for 2- 3 hrs to a rock ledge and notch at 4605m. Then you move along an undulating trail to the Thorung la itself at 5225m. At the pass you can see the Annapurna Range to the south and the Mukut Himal bordering Bolpo to the west. The peak to the north of the pass is Thorongtse and to the south is an unnamed 6500 m tall peak. The descent to the campsite at Muktinath is long and steep which is compensated by the splendid views of Dhaulagiri. It usually takes 10 -11 hrs for people to complete the day’s trek according to their pace and rate of acclimatization. Muktinath is one of the important pilgrimage sites of the country for Hindus and Buddhists alike and there are many pilgrims bathing in the holy water flowing from the 108 carved spouts surrounding the temple. (10 hrs)

You continue the descent gently through fields and poplar groves and then steeply into the Kali Gandaki river valley finally reaching the valley floor at Eklai bhatti at the height of 2730m. Then you follow the valley southward to Jomsom, headquarter of Mustang district. It is a large settlement with an airstrip, police station and banks. The Kali Gandaki river is called “Thak Khola” by the ethnic Thakali people. The enterprising and ambitious Thakali people dominated the salt trade with Tibet in the former years, but after the collapse of the salt business, they diversified and invested in trekking hotels, construction and other businesses. You finally reach Marpha with white washed houses and apple fields. (7 hrs)

You travel by Jeep from Marpha to Tatopani to avoid the newly constructed dusty roads.

You cross the Kali Gandaki River on this day in the steel suspension and head towards the old suspension bridge after walking for a while alongside the river. You start ascending through the beautiful hillside villages and through some dense forests. The brief respite is over as soon as you tackle a stiff uphill path for some 1200 m to the village of Chitre. (5 hrs)

There is more uphill climb to reach Ghorepani where you stop for lunch. In the afternoon there is a climb to poonhill, which offers a magnificent panoramic view of the mountain ranges like Annapurna and Hiunchuli. Dhaulagiri is prominently towering up front while Machchhapuchhre and others are less distinguished further to the east. If you look past these mountains, the rolling hills diminish in size until you can see the serpentine Chinese road snaking its way through the hills. (5 hrs)

The morning ascent takes you eastwards for about an hour until you come to the crest of the hill. For a brief period, the trail becomes fairly even before it descends through thick forest to Banthati where you stop for lunch. Banthati is a small village with new houses turned into lodges and restaurants. From here you descend for an hour before climbing a steep hill at the top of which lies Tadapani. Tadapani consists of nicely built lodges of the people from Ghandruk who settled here to set up lodging services for the trekkers. The location is ideal for a central and close up view of the Machchhapuchhre. ( 6 hrs)

The Ghandruk trail descends steeply through forests to the village of Ghandruk where you will arrive around noon. You will stay overnight here so you can use the afternoon to visit the Annapurna Conservation office and museum along with the amazing maze like village. (3 hrs)

This is the last day of the trek where you walk down stone paved steps in the middle of the terraces down to Syaulebazaar to see the dramatically changing mountain views. There are many beautiful flowers here so it is the best spot for some superb photography. Then you walk down through a rough trail down to Birethanti and end your trek in Nayapool. From there you take a private car to Pokhara and spend the evening exploring the Lakeside area.

After the breakfast you are driven to the Domestic Airport to take a 25 minute long scenic flight to Kathmandu. You are picked up by your tour officer at Kathmandu airport and transferred to your hotel. You can choose to relax for the rest of the day or take a guided tour of the city.

Your tour officer will meet you at the hotel to make your departure arrangements and drop you off to the Tribhuvan International airport for your scheduled flight. You are always welcome to return back to explore our Himalayan kingdom.