Langtang Trek - 8 Days

In short: the Langtang Valley trek suits first-time trekkers, families and anyone who wants big mountains close to Kathmandu without a flight. It runs 8 days from Kathmandu, reaches Kyanjin Gompa at 3,870 m (with an optional hike to Tserko Ri at about 4,984 m) and is graded moderate. Prices start from USD 365 per person on Budget, USD 650 on Standard and USD 1,000 on Luxury.

Road note: the Rasuwa road to Syabrubesi, where the trek starts, is closed at the moment after the flood of 26 August. We check 48 hours before departure; if it is not open we move your dates free.

Update, 26 August 2026: a large flood came down the Bhote Koshi river on 26 August and damaged the road and the settlements at Timure and Syabrubesi, which is where this trek begins. The good news is that the Langtang Khola, the river this trek actually follows, is a different drainage and was not hit, so the trail itself is very probably fine. What is genuinely in question is the road and the town, not the walking. I have set out what is known so far, and the three things that will decide October, here. Do not cancel anything yet. If you are holding a booking on this trek, message me and I will tell you what I actually know that day.

Trek Highlights

• 8-day private trek to Kyanjin Gompa (3,870m), the highest point on this route. No Lukla flight needed: it is one day’s drive from Kathmandu.
• Under 4,000m altitude throughout. Real reduction in AMS risk compared with EBC, Annapurna Circuit, or Manaslu.
• Family-friendly itinerary: fit teenagers, parents, and grandparents who handle a 5-6 hour walking day all do this trek comfortably.
• Private guide and porter ratio that does not change based on group size. No shared-group surcharge gimmicks.
• 10% deposit to lock dates, balance paid in person in Kathmandu. No full prepayment required to a foreign trekker you have never met.
• Every booking helps fund our Nagarjun Learning Center work at Saldum, where 70 children are taught by one dedicated teacher.

Why I built this trek the way I did

I am Shreejan, the founder of The Everest Holiday. Langtang is the trek I send families with kids and first-time Himalayan walkers on. There is no Lukla flight to worry about. The high point is Kyanjin Gompa at 3,870m, well below the altitude where things get dangerous. The drive from Kathmandu is one long day in a private 4WD, and you are walking the next morning. That single fact opens the trek up to people who could not do EBC.

The valley was destroyed by an earthquake-triggered avalanche in 2015. Langtang Village as it was no longer exists. The village we walk through is rebuilt, and the families running the teahouses now are the survivors and their children. We pay them direct, we eat their food, we sleep in their lodges. The mountains have not changed; the people have rebuilt around them. It is worth knowing this before you walk.

The 8-day itinerary works for fit teenagers, parents, and grandparents who can handle a 5-6 hour walking day. We run it with a senior English-speaking guide, one porter per trekker for groups of three or more, and we make the call on the day for the optional Tserko Ri summit (about 4,984m). In deep winter that summit is sometimes closed for safety. The shorter glacier-viewpoint walk from Kyanjin is just as beautiful when Tserko is iced over.

Every booking on this trip helps us pay the teacher’s salary at our Nagarjun Learning Center in Saldum, where 70 children get free education. The salary is currently funded out of my own pocket. Your trek is what makes that sustainable.

“We had a fabulous time trekking thanks to Shreejan and his family. The 8-day Langtang trek was quite accessible for novice trekkers and absolutely stunning. [...] Highly recommend!”

— Laura P · TripAdvisor, May 2025 · ★★★★★

The trail winds through a forest so dense the canopy blocks the midday sun, and then suddenly the valley opens wide, the glacial river roars below, and the white mass of Langtang Lirung (7,227m) fills the entire sky. This is the Langtang Valley, Nepal's closest Himalayan trek to Kathmandu, and one of its most quietly spectacular.

In eight days, you walk from subtropical bamboo forests through rhododendron woodland into high alpine meadows where yaks graze beneath 7,000-metre peaks. You pass through Syabrubesi, the warm Tamang trailhead village, climb to Lama Hotel at the edge of red panda territory, reach rebuilt Langtang Village with its earthquake memorial, and finally arrive at Kyanjin Gompa (3,870m), a centuries-old monastery settlement where you can taste yak cheese made using Swiss recipes introduced in the 1950s.

What Makes This Trek Special

It is not the biggest trek. It is the most personal one.

On the Langtang Valley Trek, you do not share the trail with hundreds of trekkers. You share it with yak herders, cheese makers, monks who rebuilt their monastery from rubble, and children walking to school past 7,000-metre peaks. The villages here are small enough that your guide knows the teahouse owner by name, and the teahouse owner remembers you from the walk up when you pass through again on the way down.

The 2015 earthquake buried the original Langtang Village under 40 million tonnes of rock and ice. Over 300 people lost their lives. The community rebuilt on higher ground, largely without government help. Today, a grey stone stupa and memorial wall stand at the edge of the new settlement, and every rupee spent by trekkers goes directly into sustaining a community that chose to stay rather than leave. Your visit is not just a trek. It is an act of solidarity.

Then there is the cheese factory at Kyanjin Gompa, where Swiss-trained cheese makers have been producing yak cheese since the 1950s. You will not find this on any other trek in the Himalayas. The rhododendron forests below Lama Hotel are home to red pandas, langur monkeys, and over 250 bird species. And from the summit of Tserko Ri, you look directly at Shishapangma, the only 8,000-metre peak entirely within Tibet, a view available from almost nowhere else in Nepal.

Arrive by 4:00 PM on Day One

Please arrive in Kathmandu by 4:00 PM on Day 1 so our team can complete the welcome briefing, confirm your gear, and ensure a smooth early-morning departure for Syabrubesi the next day. If your flight lands later, please let us know in advance and we will adjust accordingly.

Online Trip Briefing

Before your trek, we arrange a video call to walk through the full itinerary, answer your questions about gear, fitness, and weather, and confirm all logistics. This is included at no extra charge for all tiers.

Note to Hikers

Every trek with The Everest Holiday is a personal trek arranged for your group, whether that is one person or twenty. We never add strangers to your group. Your guide, your pace, your experience.

Kathmandu Accommodation

Accommodation in Kathmandu is not included in the trek package but can be arranged on request. We recommend hotels in Thamel for easy access to restaurants, gear shops, and our office.

8-Day Langtang Valley Trek Overview

The Langtang Valley Trek is a moderate 8-day trek through Langtang National Park, Nepal's first Himalayan national park, established in 1976. The total trekking distance is approximately 70-75 km round trip, with a maximum sleeping altitude of 3,870m at Kyanjin Gompa, well below the threshold where serious altitude sickness typically occurs.

What makes this trek apart from the crowded trails of Everest and Annapurna is its intimacy. Only 2,000-3,000 trekkers visit per season, compared to 15,000 on the Everest Base Camp route. The valley is home to Tamang communities who practise Tibetan Buddhism blended with shamanism, and every settlement has prayer flags, mani walls, and the kind of unhurried hospitality that larger trails lost years ago.

From Kyanjin Gompa, an optional day hike to Tserko Ri (about 4,984m) rewards you with views of Langtang Lirung, Langtang Ri (7,205m), Dorje Lakpa (6,966m), and Shishapangma (8,027m) across the Tibetan border, one of the few places in Nepal where you can see a Tibetan eight-thousander.

No flights are required. The drive from Kathmandu to Syabrubesi takes 7-8 hours by shared tourist vehicle, which means no weather delays at Lukla, no cancelled flights, and a lower overall cost than comparable Everest and Annapurna itineraries.

Highlights

• Walk through prime red panda habitat in bamboo forests between Syabrubesi and Lama Hotel (Langtang is home to 25% of Nepal's red pandas)
• Visit the rebuilt Langtang Village and its earthquake memorial, a stone mani wall inscribed with the names of those lost in the 2015 avalanche
• Taste fresh yak cheese at the Kyanjin Gompa cheese factory, the only cheese factory you can visit on any Himalayan trek
• Optional hike to Tserko Ri (about 4,984m) for panoramic views of four 7,000m+ peaks and Shishapangma (8,027m) in Tibet
• Experience deep Tamang Buddhist culture in small, uncommercialised settlements with centuries-old monasteries
• Trek through four distinct vegetation zones, from subtropical bamboo to alpine meadows, in Nepal's first Himalayan national park
• No flights needed: drive from Kathmandu, saving time, money, and the stress of weather-dependent Lukla flights

Langtang Valley at a glance

Best time to trek the Langtang Valley

Month by month: when to go

The March to May figures are typical temperatures for each stop from our spring guide. They are a guide and not a forecast. For more, read Langtang in autumn, Langtang in spring and Langtang in November and December.

Permits

Langtang is not a restricted area, so there is no special permit. You need the two below, and we arrange both and include them in your trek price.

What the price covers, and what it does not

You need two permits: Langtang National Park (NPR 3,000) and a TIMS card (NPR 2,000), so NPR 5,000 per foreign trekker. Langtang is not a restricted area, so there is no special permit. We arrange both and include them in your price.

Not in the price: your international flights, your Nepal visa (USD 50 for 30 days on arrival), travel insurance bought at home with helicopter cover, your Kathmandu hotel, tips for your team, and on Budget your meals (about USD 15 to 25 a day).

A 10% deposit (about USD 37 on Budget) confirms your dates. You pay it by card through Himalayan Bank's secure gateway, and you pay the balance when you arrive in Kathmandu, in US dollars or euros, in cash or by card (card payments carry a 3.5% bank charge). The deposit is non-refundable, but if your plans change we move your trip to any date within a year, free, with 72 hours' notice. If we cannot run the trip ourselves, we refund what you have paid, less taxes, bank and card charges and any money already spent for you on permits and flights.

Getting there

There are no flights. You drive from Kathmandu to Syabrubesi (1,503 m), usually 7 to 9 hours, and you drive back the same way at the end. Budget travels by local vehicle, Standard by shared tourist vehicle and Luxury by private vehicle. At the moment the Rasuwa road is closed after the flood of 26 August. The Langtang Khola trail is a different river and was not hit, but we will not send you up a closed road. We check 48 hours before departure; if it is not open we move your dates free. The latest is in our Langtang flood status page.

Safety and altitude

The risk is lower than on higher treks, but it is not zero above 3,000 m. You sleep at Lama Hotel (2,470 m), Langtang village (3,430 m) and Kyanjin Gompa (3,870 m), with a full day at Kyanjin Gompa, and day 3 is the big climb of about 960 m. On the rest day you can hike to Kyanjin Ri (4,773 m) or Tserko Ri (about 4,984 m) and come back down to sleep. Your guide carries a pulse oximeter and checks everyone daily, and we decide the Tserko Ri hike on the day. If you get a headache or feel unwell, tell your guide and we do not go higher. Your insurance must cover trekking and helicopter evacuation. More in how difficult the Langtang Valley trek is.

Packing basics

Boots you have already walked in, a fleece, a down jacket and a waterproof jacket, a warm hat and gloves, sunglasses, sun cream and a head torch. Bring a sleeping bag rated to -10 C for November and winter, or tell us at your briefing and we will lend you a sleeping bag and down jacket. Poles help on the steep stretch between Syabrubesi and Lama Hotel. Bring a bottle with a filter or purification tablets, because tap water is not safe. The Langtang packing list has the rest.

Budget, Standard or Luxury: what actually changes

If you are going alone, Luxury still gives you your own dedicated porter. On Standard there is no porter, because porters are shared one between two trekkers, so your guide carries up to 10 kg of your bag instead. Budget never has a porter. You can add a porter of your own on any tier for USD 25 per day, plus 13% VAT and the 3.5% bank charge on top.

Kathmandu hotel nights are not included in any trek tier, so tell us your budget at the online briefing and we will book them for you. We name your guide once you have booked.

Trekking as a group?

Bring your own group — friends, family, a club, a university society, your workplace, or a cause you are raising money for — and any of the three comfort levels can run as a private group on your own dates. Private or group, the price per person is the same; we never put strangers in your group. The more of you there are, the less each person pays:

The organiser travels free. Get fourteen or more paying people together and whoever organised the group joins the trip free. The one thing the organiser still pays is their own flights and permits, since those are fixed costs we pay out for every person and cannot absorb, and we cover the rest. Your departure is guaranteed on your own dates — from a solo traveller up to a group of twenty, and we never merge you into another trip.

Planning a group? Message me on WhatsApp with the trip, roughly when, and how many of you, and I will send you a price and a plan.

Compare Our Three Packages

Difficulty: Moderate

The Langtang Valley Trek reaches a maximum sleeping altitude of 3,870m at Kyanjin Gompa, with an optional day hike to Tserko Ri at about 4,984m. You walk 5-7 hours per day on well-marked trails through forests, alpine meadows, and village paths. No technical climbing, no scrambling, no ropes. The ascent is gradual and the itinerary includes an acclimatisation day at Kyanjin Gompa. Suitable for fit beginners with prior hiking experience. We recommend 4-6 weeks of cardio and hill walking preparation before the trek. Learn more about altitude sickness prevention.

The eight-day trek that sends a child to school

This is the classic Langtang Valley route — Syabrubesi, Lama Hotel, Langtang Village, Kyanjin Gompa. Eight days. A fixed share of every booking is forwarded to the Nagarjun Learning Center, the school we operate in Saldum village. About seventy local children attend free of charge and the school feeds them two warm meals a day. The centre is a registered Nepalese charity and listed on the UN Partner Portal. Each Langtang booking puts a real share toward a child’s school year.

More to read before you book

• Langtang region treks: the complete guide
• Langtang Valley trek distance, day by day
• Langtang Valley trek cost, broken down
• Langtang in 2026: what has been rebuilt