Tourism & Travel

The season decides more about a trip to Nepal than the itinerary does. October and November give clear mountain views and stable trails; the monsoon from June to September brings cloud, leeches and landslides; winter closes the high passes. A well-planned trek in the wrong month is worse than an improvised one in the right one.

When to go

Season	Months	What it is like
Autumn	October – November	The best - clear skies, stable weather, busiest trails
Winter	December – February	Cold at altitude, high passes closed, clear and quiet lower down
Spring	March – May	Second best - rhododendron in bloom, hazier views, warm
Monsoon	June – September	Rain, cloud, landslides, flight cancellations

The rain-shadow regions north of the main range - Mustang, Dolpo - stay dry through the monsoon and are the exception that makes a summer trip possible.

The regions

Everest (Khumbu) is the famous one - reached by a flight to Lukla or a long overland approach, with Sherpa villages, monasteries and the base camp trek that most people have heard of.

Annapurna is the most varied and the most accessible from Pokhara, with everything from a three-day hike to the full circuit over a high pass.

Langtang, close to Kathmandu, offers serious mountain scenery on a shorter timescale and sees far fewer people.

Chitwan and the Terai are a different country entirely - jungle, elephants, rhino and birdlife at low altitude, and a good contrast after the hills. Chitwan has the detail.

Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, is a major pilgrimage site in the western Terai with monasteries built by Buddhist nations from around the world.

The Kathmandu valley itself holds a dense concentration of temples, palace squares and UNESCO-listed monument zones across Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur - several days of serious cultural sightseeing without leaving the city.

Permits and rules

Trekking in Nepal requires permits, and the system has several parts: a trekker registration card, conservation area or national park entry permits for the region you enter, and additional restricted-area permits for some zones. Municipalities in certain areas levy their own fees as well.

The rules on trekking without a licensed guide have changed in recent years and vary by region. Do not rely on an older account, including this one - confirm the current requirement for your specific route with a registered agency before booking flights. The travel services directory lists agencies.

Permits are generally arranged in Kathmandu or Pokhara, either directly or through your agency, and checked at posts along the trail. Carry them.

What a trek costs

Costs vary by region, season and how you organise it, but the structure is consistent. Indicative daily figures per person in 2026:

	Per day
Teahouse accommodation	500 – 1,500 NPR
Meals on the trail	1,500 – 3,000 NPR
Licensed guide	Agency rates, quoted daily
Porter	Lower than a guide, quoted daily
Permits	One-off per region, not daily

Prices rise with altitude - everything above a road head is carried in, and a bottle of water at 4,000 metres costs several times what it does in Kathmandu. Budget more for the high sections than the approach, and carry cash: there are no ATMs on the trail, and card payment is rare beyond the larger villages.

Altitude

Altitude illness is the most serious ordinary risk on a Nepali trek, and it is a function of how fast you ascend, not how fit you are. Build acclimatisation days into the itinerary, ascend gradually once above 3,000 metres, and treat headache with nausea as a reason to stop rather than push.

A pre-trip consultation at a travel clinic is cheap and worthwhile - healthcare covers where to find one.

If you are not trekking

Plenty of Nepal is reachable without walking for days. Pokhara's lake and paragliding, white-water rafting on several rivers, jungle safari in the Terai, mountain flights that put you alongside the Himalaya for an hour, and the valley's temples and festivals all stand on their own.

Domestic flights compress the country dramatically - see transportation for what flies where, and the warning about weather cancellations.

Where this goes wrong

• Booking the trek before checking the season. The month matters more than the route.
• Flying to Lukla the day before an international connection. Weather holds flights for days.
• Underestimating acclimatisation. The itinerary that saves two days is the one that ends early.
• Assuming last year's permit rules still apply. They change, and enforcement is real.

Where to go next

Travel for foreigners covers visas, extensions and insurance for the trip itself. For where to stay, the hotel directory, and for the festival calendar that can transform or complicate a visit, events and festivals.

Permits, and planning around the season

Two things that decide whether a trip happens as planned.

Permits. Trekking in most areas requires permits, which are arranged in Kathmandu or Pokhara, and some regions are restricted and need an agency and a licensed guide. The rules on whether a guide is mandatory elsewhere have changed in recent years and vary by region, so confirm the current position with a registered agency before booking flights. Foreign nationals pay more than Nepali citizens for conservation areas and park entry.

Season. October to November and March to April are the clear windows. The monsoon closes mountain views and makes roads and flights unreliable, though the rain-shadow areas stay viable. Winter is clear and cold with high passes closed. Book domestic flights and mountain lodges well ahead in the two good seasons.