Tsum Valley Trek

Your arrival in Kathmandu is the first day of the trip. We will welcome you at the arrival gate of Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu and transfer you to the trip hotel. You will have free time mostly on your own today. We will surely offer you necessary guidance on wandering around on your arrival time. We will also brief you about the entire adventure trip and answer your questions if you have any. Feel at comfort; relax and try to acclimate in the Nepalese atmosphere. Things may look and feel completely strange to you but that’s the beauty of a new place so find yourself at easy and slowly soak into the local ambience.

Kathmandu has a history of more than 2,000 years. We will take you for a tour of the historical, cultural and spiritual places in Kathmandu that are enlisted in the cultural heritage list. A guided visit to Swoyambhunath, Patan Durbar Square, Pashupatinath and Boudhanath will give you an understanding of the history, culture, spiritual practice and lifestyle of Kathmandu valley. It will be a good starter of the trip. An insightful day of exploring the cultural and historical wonders of Kathmandu will come to end after returning back to the hotel around late afternoon.

It’s a long day drive to the trek starting point. About 7 hours of drive takes us to Soti Khola today. We set off on this exciting overland journey early in the morning. The drive goes along the Prithvi Highway and runs along the bank of Trishuli River for a few hours and enters Budhi Gandaki River valley crossing the River Trishuli. The day will give us beautiful glimpses of rural life of Nepal. As the drive goes past many different towns along the highway, we can notice the local life style there. We reach Soti Khola, a beautiful settlement in the Budhi Gandaki river valley and settle in a guest house for the overnight stay.

We are all set to start on the adventure trekking part of our trip. As the first day of trekking in the Manaslu region, we feel the excitement within us that takes us forward on hours long walking of the day. The trail follows Budhi Gandaki River valley with exciting sceneries along. The destination of our walk today is Machha Khola. Our first day of trek encounters several wonderful sights of beautiful villages, forest walk, terraced farmlands, and waterfalls along the trail. We walk on a gentle pace and enjoy the day as we advance towards Machha Khola for overnight stay.

We relish the breakfast and get ready for the adventure walk of the day. Our walk today will bring across a place called Tatopani where we can see some natural hot springs. The trail still follows Budhi Gandaki River valley and winds up the hill towards the destination. Suspension bridges that come along the trail make our adventure even more interesting. Our walking adventure of the day goes past Khorlabesi village, Tatopani and several other interesting sights that give us some exciting mixture of culture and nature in the region. We reach Jagat after about six hours of paced walk.

We start the day after breakfast and trek towards Chisopani. The trail winds up and down and gives us a thrilling experience of walking. We walk past Salleri, Philim and Sirdibas villages before reaching Chisopani for the overnight stay. We can enjoy some spectacular view of Sringi Himal from along the trail. About five hours of walking experience on the third day of trekking adventure brings joyful moments along the trail that keep us motivated to go further along the adventure journey.

The adventure walk today has lots of wonderful moments for us as we trek to Chumling after breakfast. We trek towards Ekle Bhatti on a gently flat trail. The trail descends after Ekle Bhatti and reaches the point where the trail splits into two different routes – one leading to Tsum Valley and the other heads to Manaslu circuit journey. We obviously follow the Tsum Valley trail and walk further leaving the second route behind. The walk today brings us the views of mountain peaks like Himalchuli, Boudha Himal and Sringi Himal. Once we reach Chumling, we can visit the village and monastery there.

Our walk for the day starts after savoring the mouthwatering breakfast early morning. The stretch of walk today to Chokhangparo has breathtaking views of mountains. We have to cross a few suspension bridges along the trail that passes through Rainjam, Gho and Tsum before reaching Chokhangparo. Great views of Ganesh Himal, Himalchuli and other spectacular sights make our day full of Himalayan wonders. We are going to be around 3,000 meters above sea level when we reach Chokhangparo.

We trek higher to Nile on our trek today. We tread in a gentle pace along the winding trail up and down the mountain. We see a clear influence of Buddhism in the area that we are trekking in. We stop briefly at a Buddhist nunnery along the trail to explore it a bit. We walk to Lar village and move ahead towards Phurbe, Pangdun and eventually to Nile. Once we reach Nile, we might like to go for a walk around and up to a monastery to explore.

The walk today takes us to Mu Gompa closer to Nepal Tibet border in the Himalaya. Spectacular views of the mountains, as we walk up to the destination today, fill our striving with joy and adventure. Once we reach Mu Gompa after about three hours of walk, we go for an exploration trip to a monastery called Dhepu Doma monastery. Exploration of high altitude surrounding and monastery helps us adjust with the increasing elevation. We stay overnight at Mu Gompa.

It’s an extra day at Mu Gompa for an exploration of the wonders in the area. Visit to the Mu Gompa monastery, the largest Buddhist monastery in Tsum valley region, gives us an insight about the Buddhist traditions practiced there. We might also opt to hike up to Pika Himal base. The day at Mu Gompa is full of adventure thrill and cultural immersion. We stay overnight at Mu Gompa.

After exploring Mu Gompa area and collecting beautiful memories, we are on the way back down on our trek today. We are trekking to Burgi village via several other beautiful villages. About five hours of trekking goes though the villages of Chhule and Phurbe before reaching the destination. Once we reach the destination, we go to explore an ancient cave where the famous Tibetan saint Milarepa is believed to have stayed and meditated. The cave is called Milarepa Cave. We can get beautiful views of mountain peaks and glacier from here.

We enjoy the breakfast and trek all the way back to Chumling. We trek past Chokhangparo and Gho villages on our descent towards Chumling. We enjoy the trail from a very different angle and perspective the see the things around differently. We cross a river and continue trekking to the destination.

It’s about seven hours of trekking today on the way to Philim. The trail we walk along is the same that we took on the way up but it’s a different experience walking on it from the other side. We trek past Lokpa and come across a beautiful waterfall called Samba water fall. We eventually reach Philim and stay overnight.

We trek past Jagat and Tatopani villages on the way to Kholabesi today. The trail descends to Sirdibas, Jagat and Yaruphant. It goes even further down to Dobhan and Tatopani. We continue on the trek to Kholabesi. The stretch of the walk today brings several wonderful views along before reaching the destination.

We have already reached the Budhi Gandaki river valley so our walk today is going along the river valley. We walk back to Soti Khola today. The trail takes us past a beautiful village, Labubesi, which is an ethnic Gurung settlement that we passed along on the trek up towards Tsum Valley. We eventually reach Soti Khola after about six hours of walking along the beautiful trail.

We are setting off on our last day of trekking journey and then drive back to Kathmandu. We trek to Arughat bazar for about four hours along the Budhi Gandaki river valley. We take the opportunity to enjoy every moment of the last day of trekking before we get on the transport back to Kathmandu. Once in Kathmandu, we spend leisurely time back in the chaos of the city after so many days of serene mountain air and incredible adventure.

As the last day on this beautiful adventure trip, we will drive you to the airport for your departure flight as per your flight schedule. If this is not your departure day, the service for this trip ends here. If you have extra days to spend in Nepal and need any other assistance, please do let us know. We will certainly help you in whatever way we can.

The walking adventure to the Tsum Valley goes through the trail that meanders up and down the mountains frequently. Although this is not an extremely difficult trip, you will certainly feel some challenges of walking in the high altitude during the trip. We would rate it as a moderate trip in difficulty level.

Walking hours vary from day to day on this trip. You walk from 5-7 hours every day depending on the distance you cover. You can expect the walking hours to be around 6 hours on average.

Since it is walking adventure trip, you do not need any climbing skills, experience or equipment. However, you will need a high level of determination to traverse the mountain trail in the wilderness for several days. This is just a trekking trip, not a climbing adventure.

The walking route to the Tsum Valley is a well-trodden and popular trail. Although the trip goes into a restricted area, you will find enough teahouses along the trail where you normally spend the overnights. Teahouses along the route are basic lodges with accommodation and dining facilities where the trekkers spend overnight. These teahouses are comfortable but not super luxurious. The overnight places for each day are specified in the itinerary. However, your trip guide can change the overnight places on his/her sole discretion if s/he thinks it necessary for your comfort and better experience.

Dal Bhat is the staple food in the mountains. This combo of rice, lentil soup, vegetables, curry etc. is available everywhere you go. In addition to this Nepali food, you can enjoy momos, noodle soup (Thukpa), chowmein, pizza, sandwitch, bread, soup etc. along the trail. Options of vegetarian and non-vegetarian foods are also available. We highly recommend you to go for vegetarian food during the trek.

When you go for the walking adventure trip, you will pack two different bags – one big backpack that your porter will carry for you and the other, a small daypack for yourself to carry with necessary things that you need for the day. You can refer to our Things to Carry page for a complete guide on what you need to have when you are in the mountains.