Manaslu Circuit Trek

The Annapurna Circuit as it was before the road

People say this often enough that it has become a cliché, and it also happens to be accurate. Manaslu is a single long walk up one river system to a high pass and down into different country on the far side — which is exactly what the Annapurna Circuit was before jeep tracks reached Manang and Muktinath.

The difference you will notice is not scenery, it is traffic. Restricted-area permits are expensive and must be arranged through an agency, and the effect is a 5,106 m pass crossing with a fraction of the people on it.

The trade is comfort. Expect plainer rooms than you would get on the popular trails, four days of hard walking before the views start, and a very short menu once you are past Samagaun.

Twelve days, and what that costs you

Most operators sell this in fourteen or fifteen days. We sell a twelve-day version and we will be straight about the difference, because it is the only thing that really separates the itineraries.

	This 12-day trip	The 14–15 day version
Acclimatisation days	One, at Samagaun	Two — Samagaun and Samdo
Highest sleep before the pass	Dharamsala, 4,460 m	Same
Side trips	One, from Samagaun	Birendra Lake, Manaslu BC and Pungyen Gompa
Suits	Experienced trekkers on a tight schedule	A first trip above 5,000 m

The single acclimatisation day at Samagaun is the one that matters most, and it stays. What the shorter trip loses is the second rest day at Samdo and the time for the other side walks.

If you have never been above 5,000 m, take the longer version — ask us and we will price it. If you have crossed a high pass before and your dates are tight, twelve days works and this is the honest way to do it.

Four permits, all in the price, and one rule that has changed

This trip carries more paperwork than any other we sell outside Dolpo, and all of it is in the quoted figure rather than payable on arrival. You are covered for the restricted-area permit, the conservation area, ACAP for the exit through Dharapani, and a TIMS card.

One thing is worth flagging because a great deal of published advice still gets it wrong. You no longer need a second trekker. Solo travellers used to be refused a restricted-area permit outright and turned back at the Jagat checkpost; that requirement ended in March 2026. We run this trek for single travellers now, and the only conditions still attached are that an agency applies for the permit and that you walk with a licensed guide — both of which are our job rather than yours.

Our permits guide sets out what every region requires.

Larke La is the longest pass day in Nepali teahouse trekking

This deserves its own section because people underestimate it, and because it is not the climb that catches them.

From Dharamsala at 4,460 m you start before dawn and climb four to five hours to the pass at 5,106 m. That part is cold and slow but straightforward. Then you descend more than 1,380 m to Bimthang, much of it on loose moraine, and the whole day runs to eight or nine hours.

It is longer than Thorong La and considerably longer than anything on the Everest trail. Trekking poles matter more here than anywhere else on this route, and so does starting on time.

The pass holds snow into spring and can close after heavy weather. We keep a spare margin in the itinerary for that, because the only alternative to crossing is walking the entire gorge back out.

The first four days are the ones to be ready for

People brace for the pass and are caught out by the approach. Days two to five do more climbing and descending than the profile implies, on trail that is narrow, exposed in places and consistently rougher underfoot than anything on the Annapurna or Everest trails.

There is also a psychological element worth naming: you are four days in before the country opens out and starts to look like the photographs. Until Namrung it is forest, river noise and suspension bridges. Trekkers who booked for mountain views sometimes wonder on day three whether they have made a mistake, and then day five arrives and the question stops.

The practical consequence is that your boots and knees get tested early, before altitude is a factor at all. Poles from day two, not day nine.

What to do with your day at Samagaun

The single acclimatisation day is at 3,530 m, and it is spent climbing rather than resting — several hundred metres up and back down to the same bed, which is the mechanism that gets you over Larke La four days later.

Your guide chooses between three walks on the morning, based on the weather and how the group is moving:

Walk	Effort	Worth picking when
Birendra Lake	2 hrs, easy	Someone in the group is struggling and needs a light day
Manaslu Base Camp	6–7 hrs, hard	Everyone is moving well — far the best acclimatisation
Pungyen Gompa	4–5 hrs, moderate	The middle option, and the best views of the glacier

If you only remember one thing from this page: take the Base Camp walk if you can. The difference it makes on the pass is larger than anything else available to you.

How it compares with the Annapurna Circuit

	Manaslu Circuit	Annapurna Circuit
Pass	Larke La, 5,106 m	Thorong La, 5,416 m
Permits	Restricted — agency and guide required	ACAP and TIMS only
Traffic	Light	Heavy in season
Lodges	Basic above Samagaun	Good throughout
Road intrusion	Minimal	Significant at both ends
Shortening it partway	Not practical	Easy

Choose Manaslu for quiet and a continuous route. Choose the Annapurna Circuit for better lodges, no permit restrictions, and side trips like Tilicho. The Manaslu region guide covers both the circuit and the Tsum branch.

Adding Tsum on the way through

You pass the turning on day three. Tsum heads north where the main trail continues west, so bolting it on costs roughly six days and one more permit, with no ground walked twice.

Whether to do it is a question of what you want from the fortnight rather than of value for money. Tsum is a monastery valley at modest altitude; this is a pass crossing. Joined together they make an unusually complete trip, and separately they are each better than half of a rushed one. Tell us which you are leaning towards and we will say honestly whether the extra week earns its place for you.

When to book it

Two windows, and they are not interchangeable.

Autumn, from late September, is the safer bet for the pass and the busier one on the trail — which on this route still means quiet. Spring, March into May, is emptier and greener low down, with the real possibility that Larke La is still under snow in early April. If your dates fall in that first fortnight of spring, ask us what the pass has been doing before you commit; we will have had people over it that week.

We close bookings in winter, when the pass is impassable, and through the monsoon — and in the monsoon the reason is the lower gorge, not the pass. That stretch takes landslides, and it is four days long with no way around it.

Where this trek goes

• Kathmandu Valley — Seven UNESCO Monument Zones within an hour of each other

Related activities: Trekking in Nepal, Photography Tours in Nepal.

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