Kali Gandaki Valley Trek

After a short meeting with our manager to discuss the trip, you will be free for the rest of the day. To use this free day, you can go on a Kathmandu Cultural Tour for about 5-6 hours to visit four UNESCO Cultural World Heritage Sites: Kathmandu Durbar Square (Ancient Palace), Swayambhunath (Monkey Temple), Pashupatinath (Open Cremation), and Boudhanath. You will learn a lot about ancient Nepalese history, culture, traditions, ethnic groups, lifestyles, religions, art, architecture, and more, including recent political changes, progress, and development, with geographical information from our tour guide. It is worth doing to learn about Nepal as a whole rather than just exploring the country's beautiful nature. Then, overnight at the hotel after preparing essential equipment and packing it.

Today we drive early in the morning on a tourist bus, following the Trisuli, Marsyangdi, Madi, and other valleys. After a 6-7-hour bus ride on the Prithvi Highway, we reach Pokhara and check in first, then walk around the lakeside. Overnight at the hotel.

After breakfast at the hotel, we drive for about an hour and a half by private transport to Birethanti. Here we prepare for our first-day walk, buy water, use sunblock, and start the trek. After passing the ACAP checkpoint in Birethanti, we follow the Bhurungdi River valley and trek along the regular road. After walking for about three hours, we arrive at Tikhedhunga and stop for lunch. After lunch, we walk another 2.5 to 3 hours to Ulleri on a steep, ascending trail with stone steps and stay overnight in a guesthouse.

Starting from Ulleri on a gradual ascent, we walk for about an hour and a half to Banthanti, then enter the dense forest of rhododendron and pine trees. From here, we walk another 1.5 to 2 hours to Nangethanti, stop for lunch, then walk another 2 hours to Ghorepani along a forested trail, and stay overnight with a beautiful sunset view of the mountains.

We hike very early to Poon Hill with a flashlight to see the unobstructed sunrise and the mountains. We see Dhaulagiri and the Annapurna massif from here and walk back to the lodge. We pack everything and have our breakfast, then trek down to Tatopani. Today, we descend all the way from 2850m to 1190m. After checking into the lodge, we walk about 10 minutes to the hot pool for a natural hot bath.

After breakfast at the lodge, we trek along an easy path to Rupse Waterfall and the world's deepest Kali Gandaki River gorge, and cross a bridge to Kopchepani, leaving the road. Then travel to Ghasa and walk along the road again until Kalopani.

After the lovely view of Annapurna 1st and other mountains in the morning, we trek through the Kali Gandaki Valley. Today, we see lots of apple orchards along the trail. The Kali Gandaki Valley is windy. Once we reach Marpha, we can enjoy apple products like apple cider, apple brandy, apple pie, and more. Marpha is known as a delightful apple-growing capital.

Crossing the district headquarters of Mustang (Jomsom), we again walk along the winding Kali Gandaki Valley and arrive at Eklebhatti. We may collect some fossils from the Kali Gandaki River bank along the way and reach Kagbeni, a famous and beautiful village.

We ascend to Muktinath today. We go almost a thousand meters but don't feel like ascending a thousand meters. We see artificial caves around and reach Jharkot. Jharkot is another beautiful settlement. Once we go to Muktinath, visit the famous Hindu and Buddhist temple Muktinath. Here we see a natural gas flame, a monastery, a temple, and the shrines, and then return to the lodge.

Today we need to start our trek early because if we are late, a strong wind from the opposite side of our trail will make walking challenging. It is not necessary to go back to Kagbeni, so we cross Kagbeni via the shortcut trail and arrive at Eklebhatti. We follow the same path from here to Jomsom for another two hours.

We have an early morning flight to Pokhara, which takes around 20 to 25 minutes, with the scenic mountain flight and land at Pokhara airport. After checking into the Hotel, we walk around the lakeside with beautiful trekking memories. We can celebrate our trekking here, visiting some bars and more this evening.

We drive back to Kathmandu by tourist bus again. The tourist bus leaves at 7:30 in the morning and takes 6-7 hours to reach Kathmandu. After reaching the hotel, we will freshen up, have a farewell dinner with the company, and talk about our trek.

The company representative will be at our hotel to say goodbye until our next visit to Nepal, and will transfer us to the international airport by private transport.