Nepal's original teahouse trek circles the Annapurna massif over three weeks and one genuinely high pass at 5,416 metres.
I started in Besisahar and spent the first week gaining altitude gently through Manang district's pine forests and terraced barley fields, sleeping in teahouses that get simpler and colder the higher you climb. By Manang, at 3,500 metres, most groups take a mandatory acclimatisation day, and I used mine to hike up to the Gangapurna glacier viewpoint rather than rest in the lodge.
Thorong La itself is a long, cold, unglamorous slog — a 3am start from High Camp, crampon-worthy ice in places after fresh snow, and a summit that's really just the start of the knee-jarring descent to Muktinath on the other side. What stayed with me was the change in landscape rather than the pass: the wet, green Marsyangdi valley on the eastern approach gives way completely to the high desert of Mustang on the way down.
Buy a walking pole locally in Besisahar or Kathmandu rather than pack one — it's one less thing to carry on the flight, and every teahouse town sells them. Budget more days than the circuit technically requires; altitude sickness sends more trekkers home early than any other single cause, and Manang's acclimatisation day is not optional no matter how good you feel.
