My Amazing Annapurna Circuit Trek Experience in Nepal

When I booked my ticket to Nepal, I knew that I wanted to do a trek. The Everest Base Camp trek on my bucket list, but I didn’t think I was fit enough to do this. Since I was travelling long term and this was in month 10/11 of my travels, I did no training for a trek. I had never done a long term trek, the longest I had done to date was 3 days. I had done multiple 3 day treks through different countries on my travels so far, and other than those the only “training” I did was just my general daily walking while sightseeing.

I met Curtis in Myanmar who had done a longer trek in Nepal and I remembered him explaining it to me as it was something that I wanted to do. I messaged him and asked him what trek he did, the details about it and who his guide was. He told me that it was the Annapurna Circuit Trek and told me it was totally doable for me and gave me the contact information of his guide.

After I got this information I started doing research on the trek. This is where my anxiety started thinking that I wasn’t going to be able to do it. All the forums and information of people who had done it seemed like they were super fit, had trained for this, and did a lot of hiking and trekking. They would explain the super hard parts, and although most people said it is not an extremely difficult trek, the hard parts took hold of my thoughts.

I contacted the guide and started a conversation with him. Needing to voice my concerns I told him: I am slow, I like to stop to take photos a lot and I am not super fit.

I knew that I didn’t want to do a trek in Nepal as part of a group from my previous experience of the 3 day treks. ALWAYS being the slowest, and most out of shape. I still completed them, but I was always very aware that I was the last person almost all the time and I was one of the few that were huffing and puffing along. It felt like a lot of pressure to keep up, go faster than I wanted to and not always have the time to take the photos I wanted.

I was happy I had those experiences because I then confidently knew I wanted to do this trek solo in Nepal. I hired my friends guide and a porter (I know my physical limits and would not be able to carry my bag).  This way I can go at my own pace, I can stop for photos at any point and not feel bad about myself.

The more I researched this trekking in Nepal, the more I got nervous. I contacted the guide and Curtis multiple times freaking out that I didn’t know if I could even do this trek. They both eased my fears and told me that I could do it no problem. My guide told me that we could go slower and just take extra days if needed.

I then decided to stop researching and not read about it anymore. I booked everything and off I went. Picking up some supplies in Kathmandu, Nepal like thick socks, a fleece, waterproof poncho, a waterproof bag cover, and a few other bits I was as ready as I would ever be. My guide was awesome and loaned me a few things as well like hiking poles and gators. I also made sure to stock up on necessities: peanut butter and chocolate bars! 😀  

We took a bus from Pokhara, Nepal to the trail head. I was nervous, but ready. I had given myself permission to turn around at any point if I couldn’t do it or hated it. This conscience permission I gave myself eased a lot of my hesitations and anxieties about the trek. At 16 days this was the longest trek I had done and I really didn’t know what to expect from trekking that long.

This trek is great in the fact that you almost ease into it with more “long walks” at the beginning. Throughout the trek there are ups and downs and some very steep ups and steep downs. You also go through all sorts of different sceneries, warm lush greens at the beginning, gorgeous mountainscapes all around you, then desert-like dirt and wind and finally back through more green areas.

We kept at a steady pace and I found my groove. Some days were harder than others but I quickly discovered the numerous plus points about hiring a guide. Since this trek can be done as a self guided trek, a lot of people do it without a guide to cut down on costs. But to be honest how much it is for a guide and porter is not a lot in the grand scheme of things.

I think it also depends on what your goals are… if you are planning on staying in some of the towns longer, then it would be more costly to have a guide with you. There are trekking forums that you can find other trekkers to go with, or most people go with people they already know or with groups. I personally can vouch that having a guide with you has some AMAZING perks.

Advantages of hiring a guide:

You get to leave your worries at home

They know the way and you never have to worry if you are going the wrong way.

They set you up for the day

This helps with your mental game. I would be told each morning what we are going to encounter that day, like “it’s going to be relativity flat but there will be about an hour of a very steep incline and then back to flat.” Oh and flat to a Nepalese is “a little bit up and little bit down…so not “flat” like we know it. I can imagine if you didn’t know how long you were going to have that very steep uphill it would be a lot more daunting.

Built in translator

There were times where either the host wanted to ask me questions or vice versa and my guide was able to translate everything for us. Also great when you are sitting near locals and you want to know what they are talking about, my guide would give me the gossip and what others were talking about…just makes for some interesting ease dropping. 😀

Less decisions to make

They know the best tea houses for food and accommodation. The last thing I want to do at the end of a days hike would be to figure out which tea house to stay at. Having someone else to know and do this for you is a great decision that you don’t have to make.

You get to hang out with the locals more

When you are staying in the tea houses along the way, my guide would usually eat in the kitchen and have a good gab with the locals. I would always be invited to join them and watch daily life happen.

They know what is possible and what is not

There was one section of the trek in Nepal where there were a lot of Yaks on the side of the mountain near us with a bunch of baby yaks….the cutest things you will see. I was oohhing and awing over them and he asked if I wanted to go and see them. I said, “well the big yaks will probably charge us if we try and see the babies and plus I don’t want to make more work for myself going down the hill to just have to come back up it.”

He squashed both of those thoughts, and told me that the adults wouldn’t care and that we wouldn’t need to walk back up the hill, we could just walk straight across and hook up with the trail again.

So off we went down the hill and we chased after the babies till he got a hold of one, and we both got to hold it. I wanted to bring it with me, they were that cute. This was an experience you wouldn’t get on your own because of the thoughts I had.

I talked with other trekkers at the next teahouse and we were discussing the baby yaks and I told him my experience and jealousy ensued. They didn’t get to have that experience because they thought like me and didn’t have a guide to tell them otherwise.

You see more

They push you and make you see things in the towns that you stop in. If I was trekking Nepal without a guide, I could have easily just not moved out of the teahouse for the remainder of the day exhausted. This way I got to experience and see things I wouldn’t have known to see or do in Nepal.

When you have questions you get them answered

Even if my guide didn’t know the answer he was able to ask someone else to get the answer. At the time of year I went, in certain areas there were a lot of locals climbing the “hills, very very large hills” I was wondering what they were doing since there were so many.

Ask and you shall receive. They were all hunting for yarsagumba, which is a fungus that grows at that time of year but is very hard to find. This plant sells for a lot of money to China and is dubbed “Himalayan Viagra” and can fetch as much as $100 per gram. So locals come from all over the country to try and find as much as they can of this plant.

Creepy crawler defender

Yes, this is probably more of a girl issue, but it was awesome for me to have someone to kill big spiders and look for things I saw crawling around in my room. My guide knew I hated snakes and was on the look out for any to get rid of them. And yes there was one snake on the trail and he got rid of it for me so I didn’t have to see it.

Attend local events

You get informed of and invited to local events. One of the villages we stopped at was having a religious event and we were invited to attend. I was the only non Nepalese person there.

We were given very strong home made alcohol, like moonshine I guess, I called it fire water since it burned all the way down and tasted terrible. LOL  We were also given food and places to sit and watch the rituals. It was a fascinating unexpected experience.

We went back later in the evening for dancing and comedy. I got proposed marriage by one of the locals that I declined but I did accept to get up and dance in front of everyone with him. I did my best effort of the traditional dance he was doing, but I am sure I looked ridiculous.

Get options when at your wits end

There were two times that I cried on this trek through Nepal and both times I was given options of what we could do. This made it so much easier to make a decision on what to do and then be able to execute the decision.

Get the best seat on the bus

Near the end of the trek, I made the decision (after crying, lol) that we were going to take the bus to the next part. My feet were done, the exhaustion was setting in and I was just frustrated at this portion of the trek. Wind and dust ALL the time in your face, walking on rocks the majority of the time, and nothing really inspiring to look at to keep you going.

Once I decided, he knew what bus to catch, when/where to get it and got me the best seat on the bus. When we were done the whole trek, we had to take another bus back to Pokhara and he argued to get me a seat on the packed bus, which I did get…and was an adventure in itself. I sat on a pull down seat that was in the doorway of the open front door of the bus.

Paperwork relief

Lastly, he took care of all the paperwork and check in points along the route. I didn’t have to figure out where to check in, how to submit my papers at the beginning and worry about any paperwork.

I went in the middle to end of May, which came very close to the start of the rainy season. We had perfect weather, only 1.5 days of rain, where I learned my waterproof gear was not so waterproof. It is also not busy at this time on the trails, so it felt like we had the place to ourselves. We could get in to any teahouse we wanted, and were surrounded by more locals than tourists which was great.

Choose your time carefully, there are plus and minus’s to all the different seasons. Know what type of trek you want to have and what you want to get out of it. This will help determine if you want a guide or not.  You don’t have to be a professional trekker to do this. I discovered there were two types of people you find on the trails.

1. The fit trekker with all the proper gear and abilities.

2. The hippies doing it as inexpensively as they can.

And then there was me…I’m pretty sure I was the only one who wore H&M leggings and linen pants I had made in Vietnam. I looked nothing like either group but I made it all work, using what I had and improvising in other areas. I was up for anything, took one day at a time, and I knew I could keep costs controllable knowing I could spend more if I needed to.

When you get opportunities to do things outside of your comfort zone and adventures you don’t know if you’ll get the chance to do them again, seize the day and do it. What is the worst that can happen, you stop and turn around and end it early? And what is the best…you accomplish something you didn’t know you could do and you come away with amazing adventures and stories to brag about.

Oh and I do like to brag that this trek is actually higher in altitude than the Everest Base Camp at 5,416m compared to 5,380m 😀  So get out there and surprise yourself in what you can do.

Before you take your trip, check out my Travel Checklist to ensure nothing goes wrong. Get your FREE copy here.