If someone asks me, "What's the one trek I should do if I've never been to Nepal?" — I'll tell them Poon Hill every single time. Not because it's the highest or the hardest. Because it gives you everything Nepal is about in just a few days: the mountains, the culture, the food, the people, and a sunrise that'll make you forget every alarm clock you've ever cursed.
If someone asks me, "What's the one trek I should do if I've never been to Nepal?" — I'll tell them Poon Hill every single time. Not because it's the highest or the hardest. Because it gives you everything Nepal is about in just a few days: the mountains, the culture, the food, the people, and a sunrise that'll make you forget every alarm clock you've ever cursed.
Poon Hill sits at 3,210 metres above sea level, on a forested ridge above the village of Ghorepani (2,860m) in the Annapurna region of western Nepal. From the top, you get an unbroken panorama stretching from Dhaulagiri (8,167m) in the west to Annapurna South (7,219m), Machhapuchhre (6,993m — the famous fishtail peak), and the entire Annapurna massif to the east. On a clear morning, you can count more than twenty peaks over 6,000 metres without turning your head.
It's not a technical climb. There's no glacier crossing, no altitude sickness drama, no days of walking through grey moraine. It's a proper Himalayan trek on well-maintained stone steps and dirt trails, through rhododendron forests that explode into red and pink every spring, past terraced rice paddies, and through Gurung and Magar villages where people still live the way their grandparents did.
Most trekkers do the Poon Hill trek in four to five days from Nayapul, near Pokhara. You can also reach Ghorepani as part of the longer Annapurna Base Camp trek or the full Annapurna Circuit — more on that later. Either way, Poon Hill is one of those places that earns its reputation honestly.
Let's talk about the bit everyone comes for.
Your alarm goes off at around 4:00 or 4:30 in the morning, depending on the season. In October, sunrise is roughly 5:45. In March or April, it's closer to 6:00. Your guide will know the exact time — trust them on this.
You'll pull on every layer you've got, grab your headtorch, and step outside into properly cold air. Ghorepani sits at 2,860m, and at that hour the temperature can drop to minus five or lower in autumn and winter. Your breath comes out in clouds. The stars are absurd — more than you've ever seen from any city.
The walk from Ghorepani to the Poon Hill viewpoint takes between 45 minutes and an hour. It's a steady climb of about 350 metres on stone steps. The path is wide and well-trodden, but in the dark you'll want that headtorch. You'll be walking with dozens of other trekkers, so there's a strange sort of camaraderie — everyone stumbling uphill in silence, half-asleep, united by the same mad idea that this will be worth it.
It is.
You arrive at the top while it's still dark. There's a viewing tower, a couple of tea stalls that open absurdly early, and a growing crowd of people wrapped in sleeping bags and down jackets. Grab a cup of tea (NPR 100-150 at the top — expensive by trail standards, but you won't care) and find a spot facing east.
What happens next is hard to put into words without sounding like a greeting card, so I'll just describe it plainly. The sky behind the Annapurna range turns from black to deep blue to pale orange. Then the first light catches the summit of Dhaulagiri — just the tip, a tiny triangle of gold against a dark sky. Over the next twenty minutes, the light slides down the peaks one by one: Annapurna I, Annapurna South, Hiunchuli, Machhapuchhre. The mountains change colour from gold to pink to white as the sun rises higher. The valleys below stay in shadow, so you're looking at these enormous illuminated peaks floating above a sea of darkness.
The whole thing lasts maybe forty-five minutes. People take hundreds of photos. None of them quite capture it. You'll try anyway.
After sunrise, you walk back down to Ghorepani for breakfast. Dal bhat never tastes better than it does after a pre-dawn mountain climb.
You'll need to get to Pokhara first. That's either a 25-minute flight from Tribhuvan International Airport or a six to seven hour drive along the Prithvi Highway. The drive is scenic — it follows the Trisuli River gorge for much of the way — but the road is winding and busy. Tourist buses leave Kathmandu early morning and cost around USD $10-15. If you'd rather fly, tickets run USD $80-130 one way depending on the season.
The classic starting point is Nayapul, about a 90-minute drive from Pokhara Lakeside. Your trekking company will arrange this — it's usually a private jeep or shared vehicle. From Nayapul, you can also drive a bit further to Birethanti (1,025m), which is where you'll register your ACAP (Annapurna Conservation Area Project) permit and TIMS card.
Some trekkers start from Tikhedhunga, which cuts about two hours of flat road walking from the first day. We usually recommend this unless you're keen on walking every metre.
Both can be arranged in Kathmandu at the Nepal Tourism Board office in Bhrikutimandap, or in Pokhara at the Tourism Office near the airport. If you're trekking with us, we sort all of this out before you even think about it.
Here's how the standard four-day Poon Hill trek looks. You can stretch it to five days if you'd rather take it slow, and honestly, there's no shame in that — the villages along the way deserve more than a quick walk-through.
Drive from Pokhara to Nayapul. Walk along the Modi Khola river valley, passing through Birethanti where you'll check your permits. The trail is mostly flat and follows the river, with a gradual climb towards the end. You'll pass through small Magar villages and cross a few suspension bridges. Total walking time: about four to five hours.
Tikhedhunga is a small village with a handful of lodges. Nothing fancy, but the food is good and the setting is quiet.
This is the big day. You'll climb about 1,300 metres in elevation, and the famous stone staircase from Tikhedhunga to Ulleri (2,070m) is the most talked-about section — roughly 3,300 stone steps straight up. It sounds brutal, and it is a proper workout, but the steps are even and well-built. Take it slow. Stop for tea in Ulleri and look back at the valley you've just climbed out of.
From Ulleri, the trail enters dense rhododendron and oak forest. If you're here between late March and mid-April, the forest is genuinely spectacular — massive rhododendron trees covered in red, pink, and white blooms, with shafts of sunlight coming through the canopy. Even outside flower season, the forest is beautiful: mossy, quiet, and full of birds.
You'll pass through Banthanti and Nangethanti before reaching Ghorepani in the late afternoon. Total walking time: six to seven hours. You'll be tired, but the view of Dhaulagiri from Ghorepani's main street as the sun goes down makes up for everything.
Early morning climb to Poon Hill for sunrise (described above). After breakfast back in Ghorepani, you'll head east through more rhododendron forest towards Tadapani. This section of trail is quieter and the forest is particularly dense. You might spot langur monkeys and, if you're very lucky and very quiet, a Himalayan thar (a wild mountain goat).
The trail dips and climbs through Deurali before descending to Tadapani. From Tadapani, you get excellent views of Machhapuchhre and the Annapurna range from a completely different angle than Poon Hill. Total walking time: five to six hours.
Descend through forest to the large Gurung village of Ghandruk — one of the most beautiful settlements in the Annapurna region. Ghandruk has a small museum dedicated to Gurung culture, traditional stone houses with slate roofs, and outstanding views of Annapurna South and Machhapuchhre. It's worth spending an hour here.
From Ghandruk, descend steeply to Kimche, then drive back to Nayapul and on to Pokhara. Total walking time: five to six hours, mostly downhill. Your knees will have opinions about this.
The Poon Hill trek follows a well-established teahouse route, which means you don't need to carry a tent or cooking gear. Every village along the trail has lodges — simple but clean guesthouses with twin rooms, shared bathrooms, and a common dining room warmed by a wood or gas stove in the evenings.
Every lodge has a surprisingly extensive menu. The star of the show is dal bhat — rice, lentil soup, vegetable curry, and pickles — which comes with free refills. You'll eat a lot of it. Other options include fried rice, noodle soup, momos (Nepali dumplings), chapati, porridge, pancakes, and eggs cooked every way imaginable.
Expect to spend NPR 500-800 per meal (USD $4-6). A full day's food typically costs NPR 2,000-3,000 (USD $15-23). Tea and coffee are NPR 80-150 per cup. Prices go up with altitude — everything has to be carried in by porters or mules, so you're paying for transport, not luxury.
The food is fresh and cooked to order. Stick to cooked food and boiled or treated water, and you'll be fine. Bring water purification tablets or a filter bottle — buying plastic water bottles on the trail creates waste, and there are fewer places to buy them than you'd think.
The Poon Hill trek doesn't require any technical gear. Here's what you actually need:
This is when most people come, and for good reason. The monsoon has just ended, the air is washed clean, and visibility is at its absolute best. Temperatures are comfortable during the day (10-20 degrees at Ghorepani) and cold at night (down to minus five). The rhododendrons aren't in bloom, but the skies are consistently clear. The downside: lodges are full, the trail is busy, and you'll share Poon Hill viewpoint with a hundred other people at sunrise.
March and April bring the rhododendron bloom, and the forest between Ulleri and Ghorepani becomes genuinely extraordinary. The flowers are at their peak from late March to mid-April. Temperatures are warmer than autumn, but visibility can be slightly hazier as pre-monsoon moisture builds. Late May gets hot at lower elevations and afternoon clouds are common. If you care about flowers more than perfectly clear peaks, spring is your season.
Cold, quiet, and beautiful. Daytime temperatures at Ghorepani hover around zero, and nights can drop to minus fifteen or lower. The trail is much less crowded, and lodge prices drop. Snow is possible above 2,500m — the trail can be icy, and some lodges close for the season. You'll need serious cold-weather gear, but the views on a clear winter morning are extraordinary. Not recommended for first-time trekkers.
We don't recommend this period. Rain is heavy and daily, the trails are slippery, leeches are everywhere below 2,500m, and the mountains are hidden behind clouds most of the time. If you absolutely must trek during monsoon, the rain shadow areas north of the Annapurna range (Upper Mustang, Dolpo) are better options.
The Poon Hill trek is rated as easy to moderate by most agencies. That's broadly fair, but let's be specific about what "moderate" actually means.
The total elevation gain over the trek is roughly 2,000 metres, and you'll descend about the same. The hardest single section is the stone staircase from Tikhedhunga to Ulleri — about 1,300 steps of continuous climbing that takes one to two hours depending on your fitness. It's not dangerous, but it's tiring if you're not used to sustained uphill walking.
You don't need previous trekking experience. You don't need to be an athlete. But you do need to be comfortable walking five to seven hours a day on uneven terrain with a daypack, and you need to be honest with yourself about your fitness. If you can walk uphill for two hours without stopping, you'll be fine. If you get out of breath climbing three flights of stairs at home, do some training first.
Altitude sickness is not a major concern on this trek. Ghorepani at 2,860m and Poon Hill at 3,210m are well below the altitudes where acute mountain sickness typically becomes a problem (usually above 3,500m). Some people feel mild effects — a slight headache, mild breathlessness — but serious altitude illness is extremely rare on this route. Drink plenty of water, walk at a steady pace, and listen to your guide.
The descents can be harder on your body than the climbs. The stone steps from Ghorepani down to Tadapani and from Ghandruk to Kimche are steep and sustained. Trekking poles make a real difference on these sections.
One of the best things about Ghorepani's location is that it connects to several longer treks in the Annapurna region. If you've got more time, here are your options:
From Tadapani (Day 3 of the standard Poon Hill trek), you can continue east towards Chhomrong and then north into the Annapurna Sanctuary. This adds roughly five to seven days to your trek and takes you to Annapurna Base Camp at 4,130m, surrounded by a complete amphitheatre of peaks. The combination of Poon Hill sunrise followed by the ABC is one of the most popular trekking itineraries in Nepal, and for good reason — you get both the panoramic view and the up-close mountain experience.
Ghorepani sits on the southern portion of the full Annapurna Circuit, which is widely considered one of the greatest long-distance treks in the world. The full circuit takes 12 to 21 days depending on your route and crosses the Thorong La pass at 5,416m. If you're planning the full circuit and have time, adding the Poon Hill side trip from Ghorepani is absolutely worth the extra day.
For trekkers wanting something quieter, the trail from Ghorepani south to Khopra Danda (3,660m) and the sacred Khayer Lake (4,500m) is stunning and sees far fewer visitors. This route offers close views of Dhaulagiri and takes you through remote Magar villages that see perhaps a handful of trekkers per week. It's a hidden gem, and we've been recommending it more and more to experienced trekkers who've already done the classic routes.
We've been running treks to Poon Hill and throughout the Annapurna region since we founded The Everest Holiday in 2016. Our guides know these trails like their own back garden — because for many of them, they are. We keep our groups small (2 to 12 people maximum), we sort all permits and logistics, and a portion of every booking supports the Nagarjun Learning Center, providing free education and meals to 70 children in rural Nepal.
If you're thinking about the Poon Hill trek — whether as a standalone trip, as part of a longer Annapurna adventure, or as your very first Himalayan experience — we'd love to help you plan it.
Chat with Shreejan on WhatsApp: +977 9810351300
Email: info@theeverestholiday.com
Browse our Annapurna treks: www.theeverestholiday.com
