Upper Mustang Trek and Drive, 16 Days

Your Upper Mustang trek begins the moment you land at Tribhuvan International Airport, Nepal’s main international gateway. Our representative will meet you outside the terminal and take care of the transfer to your hotel, which usually takes 30 to 45 minutes depending on Kathmandu’s traffic. The rest of the day is left free so you can rest after your flight or head out to explore Thamel, the city’s lively tourist area filled with gear shops, cafes, and markets. Since Kathmandu sits much lower than most of the trek ahead, this is a good time to hydrate well and let your body settle in before the altitude starts climbing over the coming days.

You will leave after breakfast by taking a journey on a tourist bus which is bound to take you through some picturesque areas on the way to Pokhara, which is known as the entry point for both the Annapurna and Mustang regions. It’s going to take you about 7 to 9 hours to travel to this place, mostly following the Trishuli and Marshyangdi rivers, while you get to see terraced fields and villages, giving you an insight of rural Nepal for the first time in your life. The buses take a stop during lunch or tea, where you can enjoy the Nepali delicacy such as dal bhat.

On Day 3, your journey begins with a brief yet breathtaking flight from Pokhara to Jomsom, passing through the Kali Gandaki Gorge with Dhaulagiri and Annapurna dominating the landscape on either side. This 30-minute flight usually takes place early in the morning, since the wind tends to blow in the gorge throughout the rest of the day. By vehicle, you’ll reach Kagbeni after a 35-45 minute drive. Kagbeni is a small village which serves as the entry point of Upper Mustang, with its narrow streets, whitewashed buildings, and ancient monastery reflecting the Tibetan cultural influence that you’ll find in abundance later on.

This is a day which will have driving as well as walking, making your schedule easier after the last two days of continuous driving. Driving to Samar from Pokhara will take you about 2 to 3 hours. Samar is located in a barren desert environment that characterizes the geography of Upper Mustang. Then, you will walk up to the cave monastery of Chungsi. According to legends, this place is associated with the Guru Rinpoche who has been said to be responsible for spreading Buddhism in the Himalayan region. You will then walk on to Syangboche and drive to Ghami village, famous for its long wall of prayer stones.

Today’s trek brings you to Ghar Gompa, one of the oldest monasteries in Nepal, with parts of it believed to date back over a thousand years. You’ll stop here for lunch and have time to explore its old murals and interior, which offer a direct look into the region’s Tibetan Buddhist roots. From there, the trail continues to Charang, a village known for its cliffside fortress ruins and monastery complex. The terrain becomes noticeably more open and stark as you go, with fewer trees and more of the eroded canyon scenery Mustang is known for, and you’ll spend the night at a guesthouse here.

It is a drive of about 2 to 3 hours that will get you to Lo Manthang, the walled city that comes to mind when thinking of the trekking route through Mustang. Having been the capital city of the Kingdom of Lo once, Lo Manthang has only been opened for foreign tourists since 1992, and the narrow alleys and intact stone wall make it seem like it has never seen changes made by the time. You can spend your day after checking into the guesthouse wandering around the old city and visiting some local shops.

This full day is dedicated to exploring Lo Manthang’s most important sites. You’ll visit the King’s Palace, a nine-cornered building that once housed Mustang’s royal family before the monarchy was dissolved in 2008, along with Thupchen Gompa, known for its large assembly hall and centuries-old murals. You’ll also stop at Chode Gompa, sometimes called Dragkar Thegchen Ling Gompa, and Jampa Monastery, home to a large seated Maitreya Buddha statue and some of the oldest mural work in the city. Spending the full day here rather than rushing through gives you a much better sense of how these spaces are still used in daily religious life today.

After two nights in Lo Manthang, you’ll head back out on foot toward Yara, a small village well off the main Mustang route that most standard itineraries skip. The trek takes about 6 to 7 hours through dramatic high-desert terrain, and the trail here sees far fewer trekkers than the路 up to Lo Manthang, giving the day a quieter, more remote feel. Yara itself is a small farming settlement, and staying here puts you close to one of the region’s most memorable hidden sites, which you’ll visit the following day.

In today’s return journey, you will visit the Luri Gumba which is one of the oldest caves monasteries in Upper Mustang dating back to approximately 800 years old. It will take a brief scrambling up the rock-cut passages leading you to a place that has beautiful mural paintings, and also a stupa chiseled right into the cliff. Total travel time from Yara will be around 6-7 hours; because this place is not often visited, many people consider it the most exciting spot along their trekking route.

Today brings another 6 to 7 hour trekking day, heading toward Tangye through increasingly remote countryside. Villages become smaller and more spread out, and the landscape opens into wide desert valleys with fewer signs of human settlement than earlier in the trek. Tangye itself is an isolated village that highlights just how sparsely populated this part of Mustang is, and this stretch appeals especially to trekkers looking to get away from the more visited areas around Lo Manthang and Kagbeni.

It is the most challenging trekking day in the journey, as it takes 8 to 9 hours for you to trek towards Tetang. The landscape changes throughout the day as you go from the desert plateau to higher mountains with varying landscapes, as the altitude begins to decrease. The distance being long, the trek guides normally plan an early morning start with breaks on the way, such that by the time you get to Tetang, you will have done most of the tough trekking part of the entire journey.

A 5 to 6 hour trek brings you to Muktinath, one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the Himalayas for both Hindus and Buddhists. The temple complex is believed to represent the meeting point of earth, water, fire, and sky, with 108 water spouts that pilgrims traditionally bathe under and an eternal flame that has burned inside for centuries. Even without a religious connection to the site, it’s worth spending time here, since the atmosphere is very different from the quieter monasteries earlier in the trek, and you’ll often see pilgrims who have traveled from across Nepal and India. You’ll spend the night at a guesthouse in town.

The return trek will start in the morning with a 1-2 hour bus ride to Jomsom, taking some portions of the road that was driven during the initial travel to Jomsom. Here, a 30-minute flight will take you back to Pokhara, leaving early in the morning to prevent strong winds later in the day. After returning to Pokhara, the entire day can be spent relaxing, doing laundry or enjoying being in Pokhara at a lower elevation after the Annapurna Circuit Trek, with one more night at the lakeside hotel.

The reserve day has been allotted to cater to the fact that flights in the mountains in Nepal are highly weather dependent and particularly so in the case of the Jomsom-Pokhara flight. If the previous day’s flight was delayed or even cancelled due to poor visibility conditions, then this day is used to absorb such disruption without having to affect your overall travel schedule. If everything goes well, this day becomes an extra day in Pokhara for the trekkers.

Travel by a tourist bus to Kathmandu in about 6-7 hours via the beautiful journey along the river valley that we took on the second day of the trip. You will probably be able to enjoy your evenings once again, and perhaps go shopping and have some dinner in Thamel as well.

On the last day, we will transfer you to Tribhuvan International Airport in time to catch your departure flight. Your Upper Mustang Trek comes to an end, as you have had the opportunity to explore the walled city of Lo Manthang, secluded cave monasteries and villages, and one of the holiest pilgrimage destinations in the Himalayas.