Annapurna treks compared: which one fits your days

Every trek in the Annapurnas starts from Pokhara or close to it, and every one of them gives you big mountains. The difference is time, height and how many other people you will share the trail with. The Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal's largest protected area at about 7,600 square km, holds the most walked trails in the country, but also ridges where you can go a whole day without meeting another trekker.

Ask yourself three questions. How many walking days do you have, not counting flights and a spare day? How high do you want to sleep: below 3,000 m, where altitude sickness is rare, or above 4,000 m, where it is a real factor? And do you want villages and people along the way, or open ridges and silence? The answers usually choose the trek for you.

Season matters as much as the trek. October and November are the clearest months on every route. March and April bring rhododendron forests in flower, warmer nights and more afternoon cloud. December to February suits the low treks, while snow can close Thorong La and make the upper ABC trail risky. From June to September the monsoon brings leeches, cloud and slippery stone steps, although the rain-shadow side of the Circuit around Manang and Muktinath stays fairly dry.

Nights below are counted from Pokhara and back, walking at a comfortable pace with a licensed guide. Fit trekkers can shave a day or two from most of them, but we would not cut acclimatisation days on the higher routes.

Add a night in Kathmandu at each end if you are flying in from abroad, and one spare day for weather on the longer treks. Domestic flights to Pokhara and Jomsom are often delayed by cloud, and a landslide on a jeep road can cost half a day in the monsoon months. A trek planned without slack is the one most likely to go wrong.

This is the trek most people mean when they say they did a short trek in Nepal. You climb the stone staircase from Tikhedhunga to Ulleri, walk through rhododendron forest to Ghorepani at 2,860 m, and climb Poon Hill at dawn for a line of peaks from Dhaulagiri I to Annapurna II. The return through Tadapani and the Gurung village of Ghandruk means no backtracking.

It is busy in October, November, March and April, with a few hundred people on the summit some mornings. The lodges are good, the trail is easy to follow and the highest night is low enough that altitude is rarely a problem. If you only have four or five days in the region, choose this.

The walk also shows two peoples. Ulleri and Ghorepani are Magar villages, and Poon Hill is named after the Pun clan of Magars who live around it. Ghandruk is Gurung, with a museum of everyday objects and many families with Gurkha service. A guide who grew up in the area turns the trek from a view into a story.

Mardi Himal follows a single grass ridge from Australian Camp through cloud forest to High Camp at about 3,580 m, then on a dawn walk to an upper viewpoint at about 4,200 m and, for some, to base camp at about 4,500 m. Machhapuchhre's west face is in front of you for two days. Lodges are small and few, especially at High Camp, so book early in season.

It has become popular in the last decade but is still less crowded than ABC. The walk up to the viewpoint is long and exposed to wind, and above 4,000 m it is high enough for headaches. In five or six nights it gives a stronger high-mountain feeling than any other short trek in the region.

ABC is the trek for those who want to stand inside a ring of peaks. You walk through Gurung villages to Chhomrong, then up the Modi Khola gorge through bamboo and rhododendron to Machhapuchhre Base Camp at 3,700 m and Annapurna Base Camp at 4,130 m. Annapurna I, the first 8,000 m peak climbed, in 1950, stands to the north, with Annapurna South, Hiunchuli and Machhapuchhre around you.

Allow eight to ten nights from Pokhara. The steps around Chhomrong are hard, and the sections above Deurali cross old avalanche paths that can close briefly after heavy snow in late winter and spring. Above Chhomrong, by long custom, lodges serve no meat. It is the best value big-mountain trek in Nepal.

The trek can be joined to Poon Hill by crossing from Ghorepani through Tadapani to Chhomrong, which adds two or three days and gives your body nights near 2,800 m before the climb into the sanctuary. On the way down, the natural hot springs at Jhinu Danda, a short walk below the lodges, are the best reward on any Annapurna trail.

The Circuit goes all the way round the Annapurna massif: up the Marsyangdi valley through Hindu and Gurung villages, into the Tibetan Buddhist valley of Manang, over Thorong La at 5,416 m, and down to Muktinath and the Kali Gandaki. No other trek in Nepal shows so many cultures and landscapes in one walk.

Roads now reach Manang and Muktinath, which changed the trek. Walkers who use the side trails, the high route via Ghyaru and Ngawal, and a flight out of Jomsom still get a great trek. You need at least two nights at Manang for acclimatisation and a reserve day for the pass, which can close after snow from December to March.

The rewards are worth the planning. Manang's stone villages, the cliffside monastery at Praken, the pilgrims at Muktinath's 108 water spouts and the mud-brick lanes of Kagbeni are among the most memorable places in Nepal. This is the trek for walkers who have done a shorter route and want something bigger, and who can give it at least two weeks.

If crowds put you off, three routes are worth a look. Khopra ridge leaves the Poon Hill trail at Ghorepani and climbs through forest to a community lodge at 3,660 m facing Dhaulagiri I across the Kali Gandaki gorge; the lodges here bring income to villages in Myagdi. Panchase, the forested hill south-west of Pokhara, lies outside the conservation area and gives a sunrise view from 2,517 m after two easy days. The Royal Trek, named after the Prince of Wales's walk in 1980, stays below 2,000 m in villages above Begnas Lake.

These are simpler trips, with homestays and small lodges rather than big teahouses. They suit travellers who care more about people and quiet than about a famous name.

Facilities are basic on all three. Expect shared toilets, hot water in a bucket in some homes and simple meals of dal bhat, greens and pickles. In return you sit by a family hearth rather than in a lodge dining room, and the money you spend goes straight to the village. Each of these routes can be walked in three to eight nights from Pokhara.

If you are still undecided, these rules of thumb rarely steer anyone wrong.

• Under a week and first time in Nepal: Poon Hill and Ghandruk.
• A week, good fitness, want to feel high: Mardi Himal.
• Ten days or more and one big goal: Annapurna Base Camp.
• Two to three weeks, previous trekking, and keen on culture: the Annapurna Circuit.
• Children under ten or older walkers: Dhampus and Australian Camp, or the Royal Trek.
• December to February: stay below 3,000 m, where Poon Hill, Panchase and the Royal Trek are clear and safe.