The best times to hike the Annapurna Circuit are October-November or April-May. During these intervals, you can expect relatively dry conditions, clear skies, and a more manageable temperature at higher elevations.

A winter trek of the Annapurna Circuit and Sanctuary will be a colder and harder experience due to heavy snowfall. However embarking on a trek over the Christmas period is an exciting prospect and allows you to avoid heavy crowds.

Our Annapurna Circuit and Sanctuary trek’s range from leisurely holidays to tough adventures. For the more challenging treks, a good level of fitness and trekking experience is expected. To show the relative difficulty of our trekking holidays, each trip is graded on a scale of 1 to 12, with 12 being the most challenging.

We have an array of holidays in the Annapurna Circuit and Sanctuary, ranging from 13 - 22 days.

All our holidays are be led by a professional and qualified Nepalese tour leader. On our more challenging treks and climbs, you will be assisted by an experienced team including Sherpa guides and porters.

Treks in the Annapurna Circuit and Sanctuary involves going to high altitude - during your trip you will reach altitudes in excess of 3500 metres. This is not something that you should worry about; the human body is quite capable of adapting to a very wide range of altitudes, but it is important that we follow some simple rules in order to acclimatise successfully. Before embarking on your holiday you should read the advice on trekking at high altitude.

The Annapurna area lodges offer Nepali dishes such as the ever-present and delicious dahl bhat (rice with spicy lentil soup, usually served with vegetable or meat curry and pickles). They will also provide meals with more of an international flavour such as pizza and chips and apple pie. Your Nepali tour leader will arrange your group’s meals with the lodges and will try to achieve a balance of local and international dishes. Breakfast will usually be porridge, eggs, bread, jam and honey and a hot drink, lunch will be a simple cooked meal and dinner will be 3 courses consisting of soup, main meal and a simple pudding. You can pay directly for additional food/snack items; all the lodges sell snacks, chocolate bars, soft drinks and even beer.

Yes it is! You will be able to fill you water bottles several times each day, usually at meal times. Water is boiled by your local team to purify it and then cooled. After dinner, you can fill your bottles with hot water and put them in your sleeping bag to keep your feet warm.

Trekking holidays in Nepal are great for solo travellers. Our groups usually comprise a mix of couples, groups of friends and single travellers. There’s something about the challenge of a trekking holiday that helps to bond people and within a couple of days everyone knows everyone else and the group dynamics start to resemble a happy family outing. If you are a solo traveller you will normally room with another solo group member of the same sex.

We run our treks in Nepal and the Annapurna region either side of the summer monsoon season. From March to May and from October to November it is neither too hot in the foothills nor, usually, too cold at higher elevations. Although there can be rain or even snow at any time during these periods, it is not unreasonable to expect clear, sunny conditions throughout your trek. Daytime temperatures are likely to peak at around 25C in Pokhara, 15C at 3000 metres and 5C at 5000 metres. The ‘real feel’ temperature in the middle of the day will be higher than these figures. Above about 4000 metres the night-time temperature will fall below freezing.

Since we include all meals and services, you could choose to spend absolutely nothing during your time trekking in Nepal. However, snacks, chocolate, soft drinks and beer are available at the lodges on most days and these items become more expensive as you gain altitude. It is also expected, at the end of the holiday, that you pay tips to your trek crew and guide (if they have done a good job). Depending on the length of your holiday, we suggest that you take £200 to £250 to cover these miscellaneous costs.

It is possible to charge your phone (and camera batteries etc.) in most of the lodges in the Annapurna region. The lodge owners usually charge for this and you can expect to pay 300 rupees (£2) for an hour of charging. At the most remote lodges, where solar power provides the electricity, battery charging is less reliable.

Mobile phone connectivity and access to WiFi are both increasingly available on the popular lodge-based treks in the Annapurnas. You may be asked to pay for WiFi at similar rates to battery charging (above) and in the highest and most remote locations the WiFi is likely to be intermittent and slow. Expect to be out of contact for a couple of days during your trip.