Ghorepani-Poonhill-Ghandruk

A. Wonderful Mountain View

Poon Hill is one of the best points to view the panoramic view of the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri range. By any means, weather permitting, the views of the mountains from Poonhill will exceed your expectations. For an opinion, it is many fold better than the view that we get from Sarangkot.

B. Rhododendron Forest

If you happen to travel during spring [from March] the surroundings will be Red with booming Rhododendron.

C. Easy trails with good lodging and fooding facilities

Being popular trekking route, there are network of Hotels & Guest houses all along the main trail. The route is easy and chances of getting lost are low. For most of the circuit, settlements can be reached in not more than 2 hours. You will meet fellow trekkers all along the way.

D. Ghandruk Village

Ghandruk [sometimes called Ghandrung locally] is a traditional Gurung village with much of its culture and architecture intact. It is itself a good tourist destination lying at few hours distance from Pokhara and a good place to end your trekking.

We made the journey in March. The best times to visit are springs and autumn. The Rhododendron season starts in March. The trails can get slippery during monsoon or when the snow melts during early spring.

The tour Itinerary is based on the travel done on March 2014. This Itinerary describes how to complete the trek via Tikhe dhunga, Hile route in a short time [4 days including travel from/to Kathmandu ending the trek in the beautiful Gurung village of Ghandruk.

If you have time there are lots of options to extend your stay. You can reach Ghorepani through Tatopani or desend to Tatopani. All the possible routes have been mentioned under 'Tour Options'

All the location name and heights are taken from the Map published by Nepal Map Publisher Pvt. Ltd. All the prices are as of 2014

Day 1

Kathmandu - NayaPul - Tikhedhunga [1480m]

The fastest and cheapest way to reach NayaPul is to take a Micro to Beni/Baglung. The micros are available nearby Gongabu Bus Stop. Start as early as possible because there is bit of trekking to be done from NayaPul. When at Nayapul, take a walk to Birethati. From Birethati, if time permits, it is best to stay at Tikhedhunga which is at about 2 hours walk from Birethati. This enables us to ascend the Ulleri in the next morning. Jeeps are also available but won’t go until it’s full. If you’re late you may stay anywhere at Birethati, Sudame

Day 2

Tikhedhunga - Ulleri [1960m] - Banthanti [2210m] – Ghorepani [2860m]

Start early to ascend to Ulleri settlement through long stone steps. You can have your meal at Banthanti. From here it is a gradual climb to Ghorepani. Overall it is at most 5-6 hours walk from Tikhedhunga and it will pass through Rhododendron forest. There are plenty of lodges at Ghorepani.

Day 3

Ghorepani - Poonhill [3193m] - Tadapani [2630m] - Ghandruk [1940m]

Start as early as possible to Poonhill to get the best view of the mountains. You can leave your luggage at the Hotel but use a torch to find the way which is relatively straight forward. Poonhill can be reached after 1 hours walk from Ghorepani. The view is usually clear in early morning. As the temperature rises the clouds also tend to rise blocking the view. It is said that Poon Hill named after the hill tribe Pun, inhabitants of Ghorepani and surrounding area.

Decend to Ghorepani and after a tea or breakfast we head towards Tadapani. We firstly ascend through ridges to Deurali. After Banthati it is a gradual descend to Tadapani which will take 2-3 hours in all. From Tadapani if time permits the best option is to descend to the village of Ghandruk which takes about 3-4 hours. Bhaisi Kharka is the last settlement before Ghandruk. As there are no lodges on the way make sure you have the time to descend before night falls.

Day 4

Ghandruk - Pokhara - Kathmandu

After roaming around Ghandruk, we descend to the Bus stand where jeeps and buses to Pokhara are available. There is an option to go to Landruk, Pothana and Dhampus or towards north to Jhinudanda hot springs, Chhomrong all the way to Annapurna Base Camp on the way.

From Pokhara, we can take a night bus to Kathmandu hence complete the 4 day short tour of Ghandruk.

Tour Options

If you have time there are lots of options to extend your stay. Here are few of the options

Birethati - Ulleri - Ghorepani - Tatopani

You can reach Ghorepani through Tatopani or desend to Tatopani which has a hot water spring from where you can also take a bus to Mustang.

Birethati - Ulleri - Ghorepani - Tadapani -Jhinudanda - Ghandruk

From Tadapani and Ghandruk you can extend your tour by going to Jhinudanda which also has a hot water spring and return to Ghandruk. This will add at least a day to tour. This route lies on the route to Annapurna Base Camp

You can travel as lightly as possible due to facilities available

• Electricity is available in most places. But you may have to pay to charge your cameras and Mobiles
• The area is covered by NTC mobile network. Signal are sometimes weak so switching to Flight mode will keep the cell running longer
• ATMs are available at Pokhara
• Foods and water are available throughout the way. The meals [Dal, Bhat] costs higher as we go up. It was highest at Ghorepani at Rs 300 per meal. Elsewhere below, it should be lower than that
• We incurred in total about Rs. 7000 per person for the whole tour including bus transportation cost but it depends on how you travel. It is recommended to skip meat. All the costs are of 2014, you may consider 10% inflation rate for estimate
• As mentioned earlier, guides and going through trekking agencies are absolutely not required.

Follow the basic rule of Trekking

"Take nothing but pictures.

Leave nothing but footprints

Kill nothing but time"

Carry all your plastic waste like wrappers, bags and bottles with you and dispose them when you reach a settlement. Where traditional stoves are used they can be used as a fuel.

All the location name and heights are taken from the Map published by Nepal Map Publisher Pvt. Ltd

The attached map was taken from this page

http://www.volunteers.org.np/Nepal_Maps/trekking_index.php?page=ggt

Contact no of Hotels where we stayed

TikheDhunga - Krishna Gurung - Phone No: 9746065933

Ghorepani - Annapurna View Lodge & Restaurant - 9849704831 [Hot Shower available]

Ghandruk - Ghandruk Guest House - 9846051237, 9846201893 [Hot Shower available]

Mind you there are lots of Hotels and Lodges out there to choose from and it is not generally required that you book the hotels beforehand