There are no tourists here. Three days, or as many as you want, in a rural area full of traditional villages where you can share tea with its shy but friendly inhabitants. Terraced fields, subtropical forests and deep valleys, with the bonus of staying in a small, but very comfortable hotel with locally produced organic food.
The Australian Camp is an idyllic place with easy access, ideal to disconnect for a couple of days and also ideal for those who travel with children. It can be reached from Pokhara by hiking up a trail for an hour and a half and the views over Annapurna South and Machhapuchhre are spectacular. Relax and chill out.
A small tour that runs through a rural environment of small villages, farms and terraced crops, where you can see the typical traditional houses so common throughout the geography of Nepal. Here you will meet no other tourists, almost no phone connection, no bars or restaurants, but you will live a genuine experience that will bring you closer to a part of the reality of the country without filters.
Two weeks touring Nepal off the beaten tourist itineraries. While we didn’t leave out anything that you must see on a trip to Nepal, this itinerary covers less usual, more enriching places that represent an additional experience to the Nepal reality. Here you have it, the highlights but visited in a different way and spaces and experiences that are a great challenge.
Nepal is a very interesting country, but as everywhere, there are many Nepal and many ways to approach it. On this website, you have travel itineraries through Nepal, but maybe they don’t fit exactly what you want, whether it’s a matter of days, objectives, way of travelling or whatever. You want to make a tailor-made trip, but you don’t want to travel on your own. Well, nothing could be easier!
A quiet hike through the northern hills that enclose Kathmandu, with views of the city on one side and the Himalayas on the other. Without hard uphills and descents, it is suitable for anyone who wants to disconnect and walk in a rural and wooded environment far away from the crowds of the city.
The experience of walking through the jungle together with elephants -and not over them in their backs- allows you to feel much closer to the ground, the trees, and to have the animals at your same level. There is a lot of difference in the welfare of the elephants that do not walk tourists all day on their backs and those that have to do it day in and day out as well, that is why at Plan Himalaya we do NOT do jungle safaris on the backs of elephants.
The experience of spending an afternoon with the group of children, girls and boys who live at the Kailash Home is priceless. These children come from families without economic resources from remote mountain areas. In Kailash Home, they have an option to continue studying beyond basic education. Once the first barrier is overcome, the experience is all yours.
Cycling in Kathmandu is not for beginners, but it is less dangerous than it first appears. Riding allows you to see the city from a different angle, at a different pace. While the traffic on the main avenues is heavy, other streets are quieter, off the main tourist areas where you can see the real local life.
Although Kathmandu is easy to visit by taxi, we can also take you on a tour with a private vehicle and a guide. We try to steer clear of the long boring speech, and we like you to ask about what interests you most about each place or what you are most curious about.
While it can also be a one-day option, ideal for a break on the way from Kathmandu to Pokhara, you can sleep in a comfortable camp beside the river, making it a very interesting and fun two-day rafting activity. It remains an ideal extension to do on the way from Kathmandu to Pokhara, to Bandipur, or even to Chitwan.
Sunkoshi and Bhotekoshi rivers are more demanding than Trishuli, so if you really focus in rafting and you need more adrenaline, those are your white-water rivers. With long and powerful water rapids of level 3+/4-, big rocks and among amazing landscape, it can be one or more days activity from Kathmandu.
The Kanchenjunga trek is one of the most impressive in Nepal, located in a remote area in the northeast, right on the border with Sikkim, in the middle of a huge territory and where it is difficult to reach. From the first days we will see the Kanchenjunga in the distance, beyond the line of the many valleys that we will have to cross. Some incredible days await us through all kinds of landscapes and far from the comforts of other treks.
The most famous of all Nepal’s treks, but if seeing the highest peak in the world is its great attraction, it is no less so that any Khumbu tour involves walking surrounded by great mountains and an overwhelming landscape. However, we have changed the classic itinerary to make it more interesting and avoid as much as possible to go and back by the same route.
One of the classics that stands out for the great variation in human, cultural and landscape environment as you advance and gain height to the 5416m Thorung-la first, continuing as you descend through Kali Gandaki. Despite being affected by the construction of rough roads, it is still impressive while now it has more options.
Perhaps the most classic and accessible of all the treks in the southern part of the Annapurna Valley. It is notable for the pretty village of Ghandruk, overlooked by Annapurna South and Machhapuchhre, and for the splendid views of several peaks over 8000m from Poon Hill.
The beginning of this trek is quite close to Kathmandu and progresses towards the north, starting from the area of Helambu between fields, forests, low mountains and Sherpas and Tamang populations, to cross the Laurebina-la pass and enter Gosainkund, with its set of small sacred lakes, and the Langtang valleys, very close to Tibet.
A small but very nice trek, which passes through areas not too crowded and where we can enjoy much more tranquillity than in other itineraries. The itinerary ends with a well-deserved hot spring bath next to the river that flows powerfully down next to us.
The most common itinerary today when talking about the Annapurna Circuit, starting in Besi Sahar surrounded by terraced rice fields and small farms, to change the landscape, entering pine forests and alpine areas to reach the white peaks of the Himalayas while also changing the human and cultural environment to enter fully Tibetan lands until Jomsom where we finish.
If we can make a 4-day trip to New York or Paris, why not Kathmandu? Both the city and its surroundings offer a very different experience. We will find a society of great vitality and at the same time very different from our own, with many spectacular places, a place to travel with our eyes and spirit wide open. Do you dare to think differently?
Right next to Tibet, north of Kathmandu, the Langtang Valley is a good option for those who want to avoid the much-crowded areas of Everest and Annapurna. It is rich in landscape, with rushing rivers, forests and pastures and high mountains around 7000 meters of altitude. There are a good number of different itinerary options, including or not the Gosainkund lakes or linking with Helambu.
The Sagarmatha 3 Passes Trek is one of the most impressive treks that can be done in Nepal, in a circular route through the Solu-Khumbu, literally at the foot of the highest mountains in the world, surrounded by very high peaks covered with perpetual snow and crossing three passes over 5000 meters high. A trek that every mountaineer should do once in life.
A trek to enjoy quietly, first going through the interesting Gurung areas of Ghandruk to enter later into the deep valley that marks our main route, surrounded by thick forest and high walls where long waterfalls fall, to reach the beautiful circus that forms the south face of Annapurna, where we can enjoy its colour change as the sun tint it with the first lights of dawn.
The Makalu Base Camp Trek is a solitary and spectacular trek. It is one of the least frequented routes in Nepal, passing through subtropical forests to the foot of the Makalu pyramid, which appears over us more impressive than other 8000m peaks on other treks. A trek that will demand but also reward you.
This tour takes us culturally to Tibet, amid a first-class landscape and cultural environment, where Tibetan Buddhism keeps still influence from the ancient animist religion Bön. Impressive, hard and arid landscapes with green oases, severe buildings stained with ochre, blood and black colours, and the group of Buddhist and Hindu temples of Muktinath.
A short but different trip proposal through the Kathmandu valley. Short, but with a lot to offer such as the historical buildings and temples of Bhaktapur and Kirtipur, the Buddhist monastery of Namo Buddha, the hidden temples of Chobhar and Teku, the grandeur of the Buddha and Swayambhu stupas, the peaceful city of Patan and the busier Kathmandu. City, nature and culture, spiced up with two bike routes and one hiking route (which can be done by vehicle).
A trek with an undeniable interest, in a very peculiar and special human, cultural and scenic environment, which still enjoys that spirit of discovery, of seeing new things, of participating in the life of its inhabitants and, perhaps, of having to adapt to the conditions of the route. A trek that we especially like because it is clearly much more than just walking.
This is an ideal small itinerary to do from Kathmandu. It runs through the typical low mountain landscape between forest, crops and farms, where people are busy with agricultural work rather than paying attention to the few hikers who walk these paths. A beautiful and interesting experience with the advantage of easy access.
The route that joins the beautiful Gokyo Valley and its lakes with the Everest Base Camp cross through the Cho-la pass, at 5420 meters of altitude. The Cho-la is a demanding but affordable pass, which joins the valleys surrounded by peaks from which impressive glaciers hang. It is a spectacular itinerary and much more interesting than that of the Everest Base Camp.
If any trek runs away from the crowded routes, this is it. Quiet paths, rhododendron forests, terraced fields, small villages and farms here and there, and vast views of the Himalayas, including the Annapurnas and Manaslu. This trek is a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in Nepalese culture, sleeping in homestay, where the people will welcome you with a shy and friendly smile.
This short route runs along the edge of the Mardi Himal, in fact, a shoulder of the beautiful Machhapuchhre, and therefore its views over the Annapurna and other mountains are quite spectacular. Here the lodges are basic and you still find the taste of the old routes, passing through less travelled, more solitary areas. An itinerary that can easily be extended to other routes in the south of Annapurna.
Pikey Peak trek is really different. Here you don’t pass near spectacular mountains, we don’t have glaciers that hang down next to us, here the important thing is the human and cultural environment. The Pikey Peak area represents in a way the paradigm of Nepal, medium mountains, forest, crops, farms and small villages, in the middle of an area with big influence of Tibetan Buddhism.
Of an average duration, the Khopra Ridge trek is one of the most interesting routes in the southern part of the Annapurna, crossing areas of great cultural richness and with unrivalled views of the Himalayan peaks and over the Kali Gandaki valley. It is a relatively new route, so it is still little exploited and much more authentic.
With the wide panorama of Poon Hill in the heart of the Himalayas, its short but interesting trek through Tolka and Ghandruk, and a few days in Kathmandu and Pokhara, this program offers a good immersion for those who are not lucky enough to have many days, but want the most complete experience possible of Nepal and its treks.
The Renjo-La pass is the least visited of the three classic passes that link the Khumbu valleys. Therefore, this route is one of the least crowded and most peaceful in the whole Khumbu area. Climbing up through the beautiful Gokyo Valley and descending through the Thame Valley, we are in the heart of Sherpa land, surrounded by high mountains and overwhelming scenery.
While the entire Khumbu area is spectacular, the Gokyo Valley has always been considered as one of the most beautiful valleys. An itinerary to enjoy quietly and with no hurry, starting among forests in the early stages to move to alpine landscapes and ending among beautiful mountains and lakes beside the moraine of the glacier and climbing to Gokyo-Ri from where we can see the pyramid of Everest.
One of the most isolated regions of Nepal in an overwhelming environment. A land and culture fully Tibetan in one of the most impressive routes of all Nepal, where not only its landscape is spectacular, but the human environment, anchored in livelihoods and traditions of the past, make this trek a unique experience.
Surrounding what would be the boundaries of the Kathmandu Valley on its eastern side, from north to south, by paths and tracks through forests, crops, farms and small villages. The landscape and the human environment are very interesting, besides being able to enjoy good views over the Himalayas. A route with many possible options as all the end stages are accessible by car.
This 9-day itinerary in Bhutan offers a broad approach to a remote and quite unknown country that knew how to enter the 20th century while preserving its traditions and way of life, a country with a spectacular nature at the foot of the Himalayas. Although it is a somewhat exclusive destination, Bhutan leaves no one indifferent in the so-called last Shangri-la.
The Panchase trek is a popular short trek through rural areas near Pokhara. It’s a good option for two or three days to enjoy some gentle exercise in nature, amidst forests, terraced fields, grazing buffalo, and the friendly smiles of locals going to their daily work.
