Route and itinerary for the Annapurna Base Camp Trek
The start of your trek is up to you. Many people do the Annapurna Circuit or Poon Hill treks before and join the Annapurna Base Camp trek in Chomrong. If you are coming from Pokhara there are several options to begin your trek:
Transport from Pokhara to the beginning of the Annapurna trek
1
Take a bus from Pokhara to Kimchi (400 NPR takes aprox 4 hours) and begin trekking from there.
2
Take a taxi or jeep to Nayapul (2000 NPR, 2 hours) and either trek from there or take a jeep further to Gandruk (1500-2500 NPR, 2 hours)
The part of the trek before Kimchi and Gandruk is not very exciting and is mostly along the dusty jeep road. I would recommend going as far as possible by vehicle to save time and energy. You will need to stop in Birethanti twice to register your permit and later on again in Chomrong.
Below is an outline of the trek by day as we did it. The photo is of a very useful map given to us when we applied for our permits. It tells you roughly the distance, time and climb between each of the towns allowing you to plan each day depending on your abilities, energy levels and time. It is best not to have set parts to achieve each day and just see how it goes as you never know what will happen with weather, injuries etc.
Day 1
- Taxi + Jeep to Kimchi
- Kimchi to Ghandruk – 1 hr up steep stairs
- Ghandruk to Komrong – 1 hr mostly flat
- Overnight Komrong (Due to Rain)
Day 2
- Komrong to Kimrong – 1hr steep downhill
- Kimrong to Chomrong – 2.5 hrs steep uphill followed by flat
- Chomrong to Sinuwa – 1.5 hrs steeply down a valley and back up the other side.
- Overnight Sinuwa (due to rain)
- Sometimes it can get quiet steep up towards the summit.
Day 3
- Sinuwa to Bamboo – 1hr 15 min lots of stairs and downhill
- Bamboo to Dovan – 50 mins easy going
- Dovan to Himalaya – 1.5 hrs uphill through lots of dense jungle
- Himalaya to Durali – 1 hr 10 mins steep uphill and then flat, amazing scenery
- Overnight Durali
Day 4
- Durali to MBC – 1.5 hrs mostly flat with some uphill parts
- MBC to ABC – 1hr 20 min easy going up hill but harder at altitude
- Overnight at MBC (we didn’t have clear views so should have stayed at ABC for next morning)
Day 5
- Up to ABC for sunrise
- MBC to Bamboo – 4 hrs
- Overnight in Bamboo
Day 6
- Bamboo to Jhinu to stop at the hot springs – 4.5 hrs
- Overnight Jhinu
Day 7
- Jhinu to the road to get a jeep back to Pokhara – 3 hrs
- Finally reached the Annapurna Base Camp at 4130 meters!
Accommodation on the Annapurna base camp trek
Accommodation along the route is in the form of tea houses. At the start of the trek they are in villages where locals live and work however further up these huts have been specifically built for trekkers. The standards are basic but comfortable (mostly). Rooms have anywhere from 2 beds to a dorm of 7 or 8. Expect a thin mattress, pillow and warm blanket. The sheets were varying levels of clean and we preferred to use our sleeping bag liners (get one here).
If you stay somewhere you need to eat there too and if you speak quietly with the owner many places will let you stay for free if you eat breakfast and dinner. Turning up as a larger group makes this negotiation easier. When we did pay we never paid more than 150 NPR per person for the night.
Hot water was available throughout most of the trek but cost an extra fee, usually around 100 NPR per person. There was cellphone signal as far as Sinwa, past there almost everywhere, including the base camp, had WiFi for an additional fee. We chose to disconnect for a few days.
Always having the summit in sight!
Food on the Annapurna base camp trek
Almost all the huts serve the same menu which is regulated by the authorities and prices are set. The menu is surprisingly good and prices are reasonable, increasing slightly as you get higher up. Dal baht is a standard option it provides great sustenance for trekking, it’s one of the more expensive options on offer but you get unlimited refills so it’s worth it. There are also a range of pasta meals, noodles, rice and egg and toast combinations for breakfast.
Expect to pay 400-700 NPR for a meal and around 60-150 for a tea or coffee.
The menu is very similar at the tea houses along the trek.
Water Plastic bottles are (thankfully) banned after a certain point so make sure you bring a refillable bottle. Tea houses sell 1L of safe drinking water for between 100-170 NPR or you can bring your own sterilising method. We used our Steripen (UV steriliser) and further up drank directly from the streams or taps without any problems.
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