Has anyone recently completed the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal? I’ve contacted a tour company in Nepal and they’re telling me that a lot of the hike is now overtaken by dirt roads and hundreds of trucks passing you each day.
I wanted to ask if anyone knows if this is the truth, and what length of the trek is overtaken by roads.
I want to do an active vacation, have already done Everest Base Camp, and really love Nepal. … See more

Intrepid travel is the best

When I hiked the Annapurna circuit many years the road ended at Pokhari about 20kms out of Pokhara. Now the road goes all the way past Kagbeni! That's like 150kms of road. So I would imagine it has changed considerably...

Hi I hiked the circuit this past April. Almost of the hiking is on dirt roads and you will get passed by vehicles. However even though it was on a dirt road it was still a really enjoyable (and still hard) Hike and I’d definitely recommend it. It’s so scenic and lots of fun. But if you’re looking for hiking on a secluded trail this definitely isn’t it.

I just hiked it in oct/November. There are definitely sections (especially west of thorong la pass) that are road, but they have been setting up secondary new trails along the route that take you away from the roads and through smaller villages and forested areas. It makes it longer but it was incredible. I did 200km without a guide or porter and it was the best 2 weeks of travelling that I’ve ever done. Feel free to dm me if you want some more details.

Something bother me with air travel. In Canada there are many charter flights throughout our destinations oneself would like to do. Presently I am a cdn living legally I the usa. My question is as I am a days drive to Vancouver International Airport from Portland Oregon . The states don't offer Charter flights to destinations and are possibly cheaper from Vancouver, B. C. My question as I have friends that I could spend the night to catch the flight the next day would it be cheaper as the US Dollar is pretty good for us to maybe get a better price by purchasing when we fly out of a Canadian airport. My thinking is if the US Dollar is strong in Canada the cost of airfare is in our favor to travel outside the United States . Also charter flights that are not available in the US are a lot cheaper from Canada ?

Try posting this as an independent chat on the yvr page. You probably won’t get responses on this post because it’s about Nepal.

Pete From my experience, Canadians pay top dollar for air travel compared to what Americans pay on US carriers. I understand you aren't finding those same charter flights in Oregon. Ultimately by the time you pay for gas you'd have to weigh out how much cost savings you'd get in the long run to determine if it's worthwhile for you to drive to and fly out of Vancouver.

Pete There are really cheap charters from YVR to China, Phillipines, Singapore and very cheap connections from there- $800 Cdn return non stop to Manila, last fall. $600 Cdn return flash sale with ANA to Japan last October, as well- 2 trips that family took.
At least, by our standard, that is cheap....

Deb so tell how does a flash sale work ? So for example $800.00,cdn would be pretty good deal for us in the states. We would just have to find a place to stay and leave the car at relatives or friends for the duration of the trip. Right.

Pete you just stay on top of the daily specials and grab dates, ahead of time. Flash sales are “loss leaders” that get people onto the website- and sell out fast, but, we have found them. Retired though, so we have time to look. I sign up for emails from the actual airlines.

Pete today, Vancouver to Xiamen was $475 canadian return, The four hour bullet train is $50 from Xiamen to Hong Kong. we were there last October- trickier in today’s climate.

Deb how do find out about these fares as I live in the states Both my wife and I are 65 year young. Presently it is hard to reach out to these companies that oneself can't get onto their websites. Any suggestions would be welcomed .

Pete hmmm, with my IP address, they pop up in google searches. But, I joined the loyalty programs for free, of some airlines. Eg air china , ANA and philippine airlines send me notices.

An example...would have to check about taxes on this site- not sure, but China airlines has return flight, in Feb., after lunar new year, for $645 this morning- vancouver to Beijing- usually a stopover in their hub- Taipei- by the way, Chris Mydon, the travel agent who administers this FB site- just sent an email with sillier flights-ANA- $606 return to Tokyo. They have great customer service, on the flight.

contact Nawa Tamang on fb - awesome guide!

I hiked the Annapurna base camp trek in October (8 days) some overlap w the circuit trek after a certain point, but we didn’t really spend any time on roads pretty much all trail. I would say if you have experience hiking and traveling, a tour company is not needed. The signage is great, if you can carry your own pack for a week you really don’t need a porter or guide. We stayed at tea houses along the way much like everyone else and took a bus from Kathmandu to Pokhara, stayed a day there then took a taxi to the trailhead

I did it in 2017, while there is a lot of road, as others have stated you can bypass a lot of it using trail. There is a lot less traffic as you approach the pass from either side. The side treks are amazing! Tilicho Lake and ice lake are great side treks and will help you with acclimatization. Getting transport to and from the trail heads can be a real challenge especially if you don't want to shell out a ton of $$. We paid about $80 US for a private car to take us from Kathmandu to Besisahar, a 6 hour drive (175km). compare this to a jeep on the trail at about $200. You won't get anywhere fast by road. One leg of our trip took 6 hours to drive 60km. Flights within country will maximize your days of sight seeing vs sitting on a terrifying bus ride. We went unguided and I think it makes for a much more interesting travelling experience.

There is also a 4 dollar bus that you can take from Kathmandu to besisahar every morning. I was with a few people in Kathmandu that got a car to drive them up on the same day and it took exactly the same amount of time to get them up there. Totally agree with the unguided experience. You can be a lot more flexible with timing and where you end up staying. There were days where I doubled my expected kms and bypassed villages because we were enjoying ourselves and had enough energy to power ahead

Thats true but my life is worth more than $4 to me. We took 2 separate buses on the other side out to Pokhara and it felt like one of the most dangerous things I have ever done (my experience, maybe not yours). We also saw a couple of these buses in the ditch on the way to Besisahar. From my personal experience I would recommend not taking the locals bus if you can figure out other options.

I rented a motorcycle from Kathmandu. $5.00/day

Exactly what I would do next time

The bus rides that I took was great for me. They went slowly and I didn’t feel like I was in danger at any point.

Also interested in Annapurna, but the reviews are mixed.
anyone done the Nar / Phu Valley spur, also?

The roads certainly affected it negatively for me. I don't regret doing it, but wouldn't recommend it honestly. I'm sure there are a lot of better treks. Also if you do trek it you really don't need a guide. And don't need a porter unless you want to be one of those assholes carrying nothing while a local guy breaks his back for $5 a day haha....

I highly recommend hiking to the Annapurna base camp. We did it in November 2008. There weren't any roads, only trails. The views were stunning, especially the changing face of Machhapuchhare, the fish tail mountain. We started our hike up to the base camp super early, maybe 4:30ish, the starry sky was breathtaking and the pink glow on the mountains at sunrise will be forever etched in my memory. We went back via Poon Hill, and hiked to the top to watch the sunrise over Dhaulagiri. Along the way we stayed in a couple of villages, usually spending only a night, but we stayed for an extra night in Gandruk and Chomrong. Here's my Flickr set if you are interested https://www.flickr.com/photos/kimshi/sets/72157612763683089
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Himalayan Odyssey

Oh, if there are the dirt roads with trucks passing by, I would be sad..
I did 21 days trekking (circuit and base camp both) in 2005 and didn't see any single vehicle during trekking, but saw tons of donkeys (+poops). It was an amazing experience to live without modern machine products in the nature for a month. My husband wants to go when our 4yr son is older.. hope it won't be not too bad.