Trekking Permits in Nepal: What You Need and Why
Which permit each region requires, which ones an agency has to issue for you, and where the rules stop a solo trekker entirely.
Nepal's permit system looks more complicated than it is. There are only four kinds of document, and which ones you need depends entirely on where you are going. The part that genuinely catches people out is not the cost — it is that some regions cannot legally be trekked alone, at any price.
The four kinds of permit
| Permit | What it is | Who can issue it |
|---|---|---|
| Conservation area or national park entry | ACAP, Langtang, Sagarmatha, Makalu Barun, Shey Phoksundo and others | You, or your agency, in Kathmandu or Pokhara |
| TIMS card | Trekkers' Information Management System — a registration record used for search and rescue | You or your agency |
| Restricted Area Permit | Required for specific border-sensitive regions | Only a registered Nepali trekking agency |
| Local municipality fee | A regional levy collected locally, increasingly replacing TIMS | Collected at the trailhead |
What each region needs
| Region | Permits | Solo? |
|---|---|---|
| Everest / Khumbu | Sagarmatha National Park + Khumbu Pasang Lhamu municipality fee | With a guide |
| Annapurna | ACAP + TIMS | With a guide |
| Langtang | Langtang National Park + TIMS | With a guide |
| Manaslu & Tsum | Restricted Area Permit + MCAP + ACAP | No — minimum two |
| Upper Mustang | Restricted Area Permit + ACAP | No — minimum two |
| Nar Phu | Restricted Area Permit + ACAP | No — minimum two |
| Kanchenjunga | Restricted Area Permit + KCAP | No — minimum two |
| Upper Dolpo | Upper + Lower Dolpo Restricted Area Permits + Shey Phoksundo NP | No — minimum two |
| Makalu | Makalu Barun National Park + rural municipality + TIMS | With a guide |
No TIMS card in the Everest region
Worth stating plainly because most general guides to Nepal still get this wrong. The Khumbu no longer uses TIMS. The Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality replaced it with its own entry fee, collected locally at Lukla or Monjo.
If an operator quoting you an Everest trek lists a TIMS card in the inclusions, they have not updated their page in several years. It is a small thing, but it tells you something about how carefully the rest of the quote was put together.
The restricted-area rules, which are the important part
Seven of Nepal's most interesting regions are restricted, and the conditions are not negotiable:
- The permit is issued only through a registered Nepali trekking agency. You cannot buy one yourself, at any office, for any fee.
- No minimum party size, since March 2026. The Department of Immigration dropped the old two-trekker rule, so a solo traveller can now be issued a restricted-area permit individually. The agency and guide requirements below did not change.
- A licensed guide is a condition of the permit, not a recommendation.
- The permit names your dates. Changing them means re-issuing it.
- Fees are usually seasonal, higher in the September–November window.
This changed in March 2026 and a lot of published advice has not caught up. Until then a restricted-area permit required two trekkers on it, and solo travellers were routinely turned back at checkpoints such as Jagat. The Department of Immigration dropped that requirement, so if you are travelling alone and want Upper Mustang, Manaslu, Tsum, Nar Phu, Kanchenjunga or Dolpo, you can now be permitted on your own — with an agency-issued permit and a licensed guide.
Be sceptical of any operator offering you a solo restricted-area permit. Either they are quietly attaching you to a group, or the permit is not what they say it is.
Why we do not print the prices
Permit fees are revised by the government and by individual municipalities, and a page carrying last year's figures is worse than a page carrying none — it sets an expectation that turns into an argument at the permit desk.
What is stable is the structure: conservation-area entry is a flat per-person fee, TIMS is a modest flat fee, and restricted-area permits are charged per person for a fixed number of days with additional days costing extra on top. Restricted-area fees are an order of magnitude higher than the rest, and for Upper Dolpo they are the highest in the country by a wide margin.
Every trip we sell includes all of its permits in the quoted price, so the figure you are given is the figure you pay.
What you need to bring
- Your passport, valid for the duration, and carried on your person rather than in a duffel
- Two passport photographs — more if you are doing a restricted-area trek
- Your travel insurance policy, including the helicopter evacuation clause
In border regions, checks are made by the armed police rather than by park staff, and they will ask for the passport itself rather than a copy.
Where permits get checked
More often than people expect, and the checkpoints keep a record of who went up and who came back. That register is the mechanism by which anyone would know to look for you. It is worth treating the process as a safety system rather than a tax.
For the permits attached to a specific trip, each trip page lists them under Essential Information, and our quoted prices include them.
Still have questions?
Send us a message and our Kathmandu team will get back to you by email.