Annapurna trekking: the Poon Hill circuit

Get prepared for the Annapurna Circuit Trek

After having shared our trekking in the Kathmandu Valley, it’s definitely worth telling you about our trekking route on the Annapurna Circuit Trek. More in details, we’ve been through a ring trail that has brought us on a natural balcony to see the Annapurna chain in its whole: Poon Hill.

We’ve been on a 4 days trek as follows:

• Day 1: From Nayapul to Ulleri
• Day 2: From Ulleri to Ghorepani
• Day 3: From Ghorepani to Ghandruk
• Day 4: From Ghandruk to Nayapul

Differently from trekking around the Kathmandu Valley, to trek this trait on the Himalayas you’ll need both the TIMS card and ACAP. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read this.

We decided not to hire a guide nor a porter, and so we’ve been traveling solo (well, the two of us).

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How to get to Nayapul

To get to Nayapul you have to get to Pokhara first. Local buses are not recommended for a long ride from Kathmandu, but we do suggest to book a seat on a private company’s bus instead (such as Greenline) like we did. To know more about the differences between all the available bus options, have a look here.

Departing from Pokhara, you can decide whether to take a taxi (~1,200NPR), a jeep (~4,500-6,500NPR) or a bus to get to Nayapul. We choose the latter option and have taken a bus at the Baglung Bus Park. Be careful cause this station is not so close to Pokhara lakeside (which is the heart of the city). You can walk to get to the Bus Park but make sure it won’t take you too long. Buses depart in the morning following a timetable, at least they should. However, there are several departures starting at early morning til midday so you won’t risk to miss your ride.

See map

Nayapul is around 40km/25mi far from Pokhara, so it would take you 2h more or less to get there by bus. This ride is 200NPR.

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Day 1: Trekking from Nayapul to Ulleri

You’ll have around 10km/6mi in front of you for this very first day onto the Annapurna Circuit Trek. The initial part will be the easiest, while the last mile will be really hard. Anyway, first things first: your bus ride will lead you to Nayapul, which is basically an open-air bazaar.

Just keep following the only roadway towards Birethanti when you’ll have to stop at a TIMS checkpoint. Then pass through the bridge and you’ll find another checkpoint (the ACAP one) on the left. While the first one is mandatory (guards would shout at you if you’d try to pass by without doing that stop), we’re not sure about the latter. However, we did stop there too to get our ACAP doc signed and we also gained some useeful info on the Annapurna Circuit trek conditions from the guy who was checking permits.

Here after, you will walk peacefully until reaching Hile, a small village where we do suggest to stop to have something to eat. At this point, you should’ve walked for around 8km/5mi with an elevation gain of 500m/1,700ft.

Now, the hardest part. Only 2km/1.3mi will be missing til entering Ulleri, but you’ll need to gain another 500m/1,700ft in elevation within this very last trait only. This high slope is all made of steps (more that 3,000 actually), so that you will hate stairs and the end of your journey! Luckily, this is the first day on track, so you’re still fresh and energized.

Ulleri is located at 2.090m/6,800ft. Find a place to rest, have dinner and spend the night in this village. Price for a double room is usually 300NPR, but don’t hold back from negotiation (we got a double room for 200NPR only).

Duration: ~ 4h

Distance: ~ 10km/6mi

Accomodation: Kamala Guest House

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Day 2: Trekking from Ulleri to Ghorepani

Day two is all uphill, but shorter and easier than day one of this trekking on the Annapurna. This day trail is a 8km/5mi one, a basic mountain track Nepalese style, with plenty of villages, little rivers and waterfalls. You can take it slowly, meaning you can get on track later in the morning and enjoy the views. People traveling with a guide usually depart early in the morning (around 8-8:30am), so if you’re traveling solo we do suggest to depart an hour later than them or so, so that your track will be free from crowds.

Once arrived in Ghorepani you can choose whether to:

• go up to Poon Hill to see the sun go down behind the Annapurna mountain chain. In this case, you’d have to add around 1h to your daily track just to get to Poon Hill’s view point.
• find a place to spend the night by asking for an available room at some lodge and trek to Poon Hill the day after, to see the sunrise
• do both :)

We decided to climb up to Poon Hill the day after our arrival in Ghorepani to see the sunrise, even because the sky was not so clear that afternoon at our arrival.

Duration: ~ 4h

Distance: ~ 8km/6mi

Accomodation: Nice View Point Lodge

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Day 3: Trekking from Ghorepani to Ghandruk

Having decide to get to Poon Hill at sunrise, we had to wake up very early. Based on the season, get informed on when the sun would rise, or ask for the right time to someone in your lodge the night before. Other trekkers are always happy to share their expertise! Once you know when the sun will rise, plan your early departure accordingly.

Also, note that reaching Poon Hill at sunrise means having to pay a 100NPR entrance fee, whilst entrance is free at sunsets and during the rest of the day. If you’d decide to go there to see the sunrise, bring a front light with you cause of course it will be dark still. This track at sunrise is really crowded, but we’ve been there in late December and we must tell that we were expecting more people on our same path. So we have to admit we’ve been quite lucky. Of course, there’s plenty of people at the very top but we saw scary pictures of Poon Hill’s balcony when still planning our trek, so finding that place way less busy than we thought has been a positive surprise.

Poon Hill’s view point is at 3,200m/10,500ft and gives you an unbelievable open view on the whole Annapurna mountain chain. There’s no chance for us to be able to describe it. We’re simply speechless in front of the nature majesty.

From there, you’ll see NILGIRI SOUTH(6,839m), ANNAPURNA SOUTH(7,219m), BARAHA SIKHAR (7,647m), HIUNCHULI(6,441m), MACHHAPUCHHRE(6,993m). The latter is the most known one, famous as fishtail due to its summit’s shape. It’s a sacral mountain, so the Nepalese Government gives no permits to trekkers to officially go on a hike there.

Now, go back to Ghorepani, pack your backpacks and go back on track towards Tadapani, not before having had a rich breakfast at your lodge’s. You’ll have to deal with a gentle rise until you’ll reach the Deurali Pass, then you’d start downhill. We’ve been there in winter, so this section of the trail was covered of ice and snow. We were wearing proper trekking shoes so it’s not been a big deal for the two of us, even though we definitely had to pay the max attention. However, it might be useful if you bring hicking sticks and/or removable spikes for ice, especially if you’re not expert trekkers.

Our original plan was to stop in Tadapani for that night, but we were feeling good and it was not late afternoon yet, so we decided to move forward into the wild and get to Ghandruk on that same day. Tadapani-Gandruk is an easy track and you’ll be surrounded by woods and trees; in my humble opinion, it is worth it not to stop in Tadapani and to continue towards Ghandruk. Walking peacefully in total silence, we’ve been lucky enough to see wild white monkeys on the trees right after leaving Tadapani!

Ghandruk is a quite large village, even though many houses and lodges are still under construction: it is clear how this area has suffered damage after the major earthquake that hit Nepal back in 2015.

Duration: ~ 7h

Distance: ~ 16km/10mi

Accomodation: Ghandruk Village Eco Lodge

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Day 4: Trekking from Ghandruk to Nayapul

This last day of trekking the Annapurna circuit trek is not an hard one, indeed it’s basically all downhill so you don’t need such muscles (but solid knees though!). Many people end this ring in Kimche where it is possible to take a bus or a jeep and get to Nayapul, but we wanted to close our ring on our own feet.

While walking this last part of our trekking route it’s when we’ve met children the most, begging us for candies.

Enjoy this easy track back to the starting point, when you’d have to check out in Birethanti, at the TIMS chekpoint, to register you exit from the Annapurna Conservation Area. From there, just walk to get to the same point where your trekking route has started at the bus stop, and wait for your bus to Pokhara. Buses usually depart every ¹⁵⁄₃₀ minutes; during that waiting time you’ll probably be stressed by someone who’d like you to choose their taxi instead of the bus, and pay them to directly take you to Pokhara.

Duration: ~ 4h

Distance: ~ 12km/7.5mi

Accomodation: took a bus to get back to Pokhara

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GPS track

This is the GPS track that we designed and traveled:

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