Group tours get a bad rap.
They conjure up images of Americans emerging from a bus and descending on a site like a swarm of bees. Or they’re slogging en masse up the Everest Base Camp or Annapurna trails with their Sherpa guides. It doesn’t have to be that way.
First, you don’t have to go on a “group” tour. You can go on a custom trip, a guided tour that’s designed to go where you want to go and stay in accommodations that best meet your needs.
Second, if you do go with a group, you can choose to travel with a small group, not a busload of people!
Third, there are wonderful places to go in Nepal other than Everest Base Camp or around the Annapurna circuit.
For those who want to break away from the main routes, here are five of our most popular “untouristed” tours of Nepal – three trekking trips and two touring trips
Mountains, Monkeys, and Books (12 days Non-Trekking)
Some tourists say they’ve been to Nepal when, in fact, they’ve only been to Kathmandu. This tour begins with sightseeing in Kathmandu and the popular town of Pokhara on the banks of Nepal’s second biggest lake, Phewa Tal, in the shadow of the Annapurna range. From there you travel up the Kali Gandaki River to Jomsom, a government and commercial center on the back end of the Annapurna Trail, one of the oldest trekking trails in the Himalayas.
Mountains, Monkeys, and Books (12 days Non-Trekking)
From here, you can hike, ride horses or even take a taxi (no Uber) to Tukche, once a center for the salt and grain trade in the Thak Khola Valley. Today, Tukche is a prosperous Thakali village with a yummy distillery, some marvelous temples and a thriving school and library.
Mountains, Monkeys, and Books (12 days Non-Trekking)
The trip also takes you to Chitwan and some local areas that few tourists see. So, revel in the options of walking or riding a Tibetan pony, paddling a canoe, taking a local taxi or even hang gliding. Each “slow traveling” option, allows you time to meet the locals, explore READ libraries, bathe elephants or track rhinos in Chitwan National Park.
Nepal: Portrait of a Country (13 days Non-Trekking)
This trekking-free tour takes travelers to important holy places, such as Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha, and Janakpur, birthplace of Sita, the wife of Ram in the Ramayana. (If you travel in spring, you can celebrate the Tibetan New Year festivities with the locals in Lumbini.)
Nepal: Portrait of a Country (13 days Non-Trekking)
Traveling by car from Kathmandu, visitors explore the reconstructed town of Bandipur, once a key stop on the India-Tibet salt trade route, and Pokhara, at the base of Nepal’s famous Machapuchare, Annapurna and Dhaulagiri mountains.
Nepal: Portrait of a Country (13 days Non-Trekking)
The road south from Pokhara leads not only to Chitwan, but to Lumbini, birthplace of Buddha, and Janakpur, with a temple complex unique to Nepal and dedicated to the wife of Ram in the epic Ramayana. Nearby is the famous Women’s Craft Development Center, producing goods sold world-wide.
Monasteries and Mountains – A Solu Explorer (14 days)
Travelers who want to trek in the Himalayas but would like to avoid the crowded Everest Base Camp route will have the experience without so many tourists by setting out from Phaplu, a town in the lower Solu-Khumbu district.
Monasteries and Mountains – A Solu Explorer (14 days)
As you make a circle through Junbesi, up to Dudh Kund and over to Chiwong Monastery, a nine-day trekking journey, there are striking mountain views, including scenes of Mount Everest and Shorung Yu La, the holiest mountain to the Solu Sherpas.
Monasteries and Mountains – A Solu Explorer (14 days)
Among them is Tuptencholing, the most important monastery to all of the Sherpas in this area.
Monasteries and Mountains – A Solu Explorer (14 days)
Three trekking days from Tuptencholing, you arrive at sacred Dudh Kund, a glacial lake that is an important pilgrimage site for Hindus and Buddhists. As you hike the trails, you may see some locals, but there are few tourists.
Lo Manthang at Festival Time
Imagine hiking across the Himalayas onto the Tibetan Plateau and then walking up and down a high-altitude desert to a medieval walled city on the very edge of the Nepal/Tibet border. That is what this trek to Lo Manthang is about.
Lo Manthang at Festival Time
Flying into Jomsom from Pokhara, you hike up the Kali Gandaki river valley and across the Himalayas onto a terrain where arid hills are bathed in pastel hues, forts and palaces protect trails from invaders and isolated villagers live as they have for centuries.
Lo Manthang at Festival Time
Arriving in Lo Manthang you can witness the Tiji Festival in the spring or the Yarlung Horse Festival in the fall, meet the Lobos who inhabit the town, visit pre-historic caves above the city and return via Lo Gekar, the oldest of Buddhist monasteries, pre-dating even Samye in Tibet.
The Manaslu Circuit (19 Days)
Adventurous trekkers in peak condition are in for a memorable experience on one of the most beautiful, challenging and diverse treks in Nepal. The topography is constantly changing as the Manaslu Circuit trail climbs from the tropical area around Aarughat Bazaar (1,870 feet) to the glacial moraines of Larky La (17,175 feet).
The Manaslu Circuit (19 Days)
This two-week trek circles the 8th highest mountain in Nepal–Mount Manaslu (26, 759 feet). The level of difficulty is similar to the Annapurna Circuit, and you can expect to trek four to eight tough hours a day. No, this is not a trek for the faint of heart!
The Manaslu Circuit (19 Days)
The uniqueness of the journey isn’t limited to the physical challenges of trekking over diverse terrain, but also in the multiplicity of people, religions and ethnic groups along the way. Passing through small villages, you encounter Brahmin, Chhetri, Magar, Gurung, Buddhist and others.
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