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Walking the Annapurna Circuit, Slowly

Annapurna, NepalArchana Patil@archana11 min readTravelled Solo

Trip notes

If you are going yourself

Everything practical for Annapurna, Nepal in one place — where it actually is, where to sleep, how to move, what to eat, what the weather does, and what to put in the bag. The story itself follows.

Travelled

Solo — Nobody crosses Thorong La alone anyway — you leave at four in a slow constellation of head-torches.

The route

8 stops · 6 slept in · 7 nights

Stayed the nightPassed throughOn foot

Drag to pan, use +/− to zoom, tap a pin for detail.

  1. Besisahar

    Passed through · 760 m

    Road head. Bus from Kathmandu, then start walking the same afternoon.

    Good signal — 4G in town, and the last reliable data until you come down the far side.

  2. Chame

    1 night · 2,710 m

    Pine forest and the first apple orchards. Hot spring by the river.

    Patchy signal — Nepal Telecom 4G around the village centre; nothing on the trail between.

    On foot

  3. Upper Pisang

    1 night · 3,300 m

    Worth the extra climb above the village for the Annapurna II wall at dawn.

    Patchy signal — A bar or two on the ridge. Teahouse wifi is sold by the hour and seldom earns it.

    On foot

  4. Manang

    2 nights · 3,540 m

    Two nights, not one. Bakeries, a clinic, and the daily altitude talk.

    Patchy signal — The best connection on the circuit — 4G plus paid bakery wifi. Slow, but real.

    On foot

  5. Thorong Phedi

    1 night · 4,540 m

    Cold, crowded, and the only sensible base for the pass. Leave at 04:00.

    No signal — Nothing at all, not even paid wifi. Tell someone in Manang when to expect you over.

    On foot

  6. Thorong La

    Passed through · 5,416 m

    The pass. Wind, prayer flags, and the reason for the previous fifteen days.

    No signal — Nothing at the pass. Some walkers catch a flicker on the descent.

    On foot

  7. Muktinath

    1 night · 3,800 m

    Down into Mustang — ochre, dry, Tibetan. A completely different country.

    Good signal — Back in coverage. 4G is decent and the lodges have working wifi.

    On foot

  8. Jomsom

    1 night · 2,720 m

    End of the walk. Flight to Pokhara if the wind allows, jeep if it does not.

    Good signal — Reliable 4G, an ATM, and enough bandwidth to rebook the flight out.

    On foot

Manang — the acclimatisation stop before Thorong La28.6667° N, 84.0167° E

Open route in Google MapsOpen in OpenStreetMap

Weather

Best time to go

Mid-October to late November, or March to April

Oct–Nov (best)15 °C / −5 °C
Clear post-monsoon air, the pass reliably open, busy trails.
Mar–Apr17 °C / −2 °C
Rhododendron in flower lower down, hazier views, fewer walkers.
Dec–Feb8 °C / −15 °C
Thorong La often snowed shut. Lower valleys still walkable.

Ranges are typical daytime high and overnight low.

What to pack

Layers for 800 m to 5,416 m in the same trip

  • One merino base layer, long-sleeved — worn daily, washed rarely
  • Fleece mid-layer plus a down jacket rated for −15 °C
  • Hard-shell waterproof jacket and overtrousers
  • Broken-in boots with ankle support, plus camp sandals
  • Sun hat, warm hat, liner gloves and thick gloves
  • Category 4 sunglasses — snow glare on the pass is brutal

Where to stay

  • Teahouses along the trail

    Family-run lodge

    The default. A twin room and two meals runs roughly £12–20 a night; you rarely need to book more than a day ahead outside peak October.

  • Manang (3,540 m)

    Larger lodges

    Where you spend two nights acclimatising whether you planned to or not. Bakeries, a clinic, and altitude talks each afternoon.

  • Thorong Phedi (4,540 m)

    Basic dormitory

    Cold, crowded, and the only sensible base for the pass. Sleeping bag rated to −15 °C.

Getting around

  • Getting there

    Fly to Kathmandu, then a tourist bus or shared jeep to Besisahar (6–7 hrs). Jeeps continue up the rough road to Chame if you want to skip the first days.

  • On the trail

    On foot. The road now reaches Manang, so jeeps can cut sections — most walkers use them only if ill or short on time.

  • Coming down

    Jomsom to Pokhara by 20-minute flight (weather permitting) or a long jeep day. Book the flight flexibly.

  • Permits

    ACAP permit and TIMS card, bought in Kathmandu or Pokhara before you start. Carry cash for both.

Food stops

  • Dal bhat

    Every teahouse

    Lentils, rice, vegetable curry, and unlimited refills. The only item on the menu cooked in volume, so the only one that arrives hot and fast.

  • Manang bakeries

    Café

    Apple pie, cinnamon rolls and real coffee at 3,540 m. An acclimatisation day well spent.

  • Thukpa and momos

    Teahouse

    Noodle soup and dumplings — better than they sound at altitude, and easier to eat than rice when appetite drops.

  • Water

    Refill points

    Safe-drinking-water stations in most villages charge a little and save a lot of plastic. Bring a filter or tablets as backup.

Day by day

18 days, start to finish · 20 October – 6 November 2025

  1. Days 1–2

    20–21 Oct

    Kathmandu to the road head

    Permits and a duffel sort-out in Thamel, then the tourist bus to Besisahar and the first afternoon of walking through rice terraces.

    Visiting1Besisahar

    Staying Bahundanda

  2. Days 3–5

    22–24 Oct

    Up the Marsyangdi

    Suspension bridges, waterfalls and a steady climb out of the subtropics into pine. The valley narrows a little more each day.

    Visiting2Chame

    Staying Chame

  3. Days 6–7

    25–26 Oct

    Chame to Upper Pisang

    The forest thins and the Annapurna II wall appears. Take the high route through Ghyaru — it costs 400 m and repays it.

    Visiting3Upper Pisang

    Staying Upper Pisang

  4. Days 8–10

    27–29 Oct

    Manang, and two nights of not walking

    Arrive, then stay put. Day-walk to Ice Lake or Gangapurna, drink the bakery coffee, sit through the afternoon altitude talk.

    Visiting4Manang

    Staying Manang

  5. Days 11–12

    30–31 Oct

    Manang to Thorong Phedi

    Two short days via Yak Kharka — deliberately short, because this is where altitude decides whether the pass happens.

    Visiting5Thorong Phedi

    Staying Thorong Phedi

  6. Day 13

    1 Nov

    Thorong La, 5,416 m

    Head-torches at 04:00, the pass by mid-morning, then a punishing 1,600 m descent into Muktinath. The longest day by far.

    Visiting6Thorong La7Muktinath

    Staying Muktinath

  7. Days 14–15

    2–3 Nov

    Down through Mustang

    Ochre, dry and Tibetan — a completely different country from the one you walked up. Wind picks up hard after 11:00.

    Visiting8Jomsom

    Staying Jomsom

  8. Days 16–18

    4–6 Nov

    Jomsom to Pokhara, then home

    The 20-minute flight if the wind allows, a long jeep day if not. Build in a spare day for exactly this.

    Staying Pokhara

The story

Everyone told me to do the circuit in twelve days. I did it in eighteen, and I still think I rushed it. The trail climbs out of terraced rice paddies at eight hundred metres and tops out at Thorong La, a wind-scoured saddle at 5,416 metres where the air holds barely half the oxygen you are used to. That vertical distance is the easy part to describe.

What is harder to explain is how the days rearrange you. You wake when the light hits the tent, walk until you are hungry, eat dal bhat, walk until you are tired, and stop. There is no version of this where you can hurry the mountain.

The first week is a negotiation

Somewhere above Chame the pine forest thins and the valley turns to rock and prayer flags. My knees hurt. My pack was four kilos heavier than it needed to be, mostly in the form of a camera lens I used exactly twice. This is the week where you find out which of your opinions about yourself are real.

The mountain does not care about your itinerary. It only asks whether you can walk again tomorrow.

— A guide in Manang, unimpressed by my schedule

What I would carry again

  • One merino base layer, worn for eighteen days without shame.
  • A down jacket rated colder than you think you need at Thorong Phedi.
  • Electrolyte tablets — the altitude dehydrates you faster than the effort does.
  • A paperback. Teahouse evenings are long and the wifi is a rumour.

On the morning of the pass we left at four, head-torches strung out up the slope like a slow constellation. I cried a little at the top, which I am told is common and which I am choosing to blame on the wind.

Then you walk down into Mustang, and the landscape changes so completely — ochre, dry, Tibetan — that it feels like a different trip entirely. That descent is the part nobody photographs, and it is the part I think about most.

Eighteen days, one pair of boots, and the growing suspicion that the point was never the pass at all.

  • #hiking
  • #himalaya
  • #slow travel

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