The quick answer: when to trek the Manaslu Circuit
The best time to trek the Manaslu Circuit is October and November, followed closely by late March to early May. Those two windows give you the most settled weather, the clearest views of Manaslu and the Ganesh Himal, and the highest chance of crossing Larkya La (5,106 m) without drama.
We do not run the circuit during the monsoon (June to mid-September), and we are cautious about mid-winter (December to February), when the pass is usually blocked by snow and the Dharamsala huts close, which removes the only shelter on the near side. Those are not marketing positions. They are what the trail actually does.
There is a second thing the calendar changes here that it does not on other treks: the restricted-area permit is seasonally priced, and September to November costs roughly a third more than the rest of the year. A spring trek is genuinely cheaper, not just quieter. See the permits page.
If you only remember one sentence from this page: the circuit is not a pass crossing with a walk attached. It is a fourteen-day commitment whose one irreversible day sits at 5,106 m, two days from the nearest road. Choose the month that gives that day the best odds, and everything else on the trek follows.
| Best overall | Mid-October to late November |
|---|---|
| Best for flowers and warmth | Late March to early May |
| Quietest trails with the pass usually open | Late March · early December |
| Hardest but emptiest | January and February: experienced parties only |
| We do not run it | Mid-June to mid-September (monsoon) |
| Clearest mountain views | Late October and November |
| Warmest nights at altitude | Late April and May |
| Cheapest restricted-area permit | December to August, so in practice late March to May |
Manaslu Circuit seasons at a glance
Four seasons, four completely different treks. The table below is the short version; the sections beneath it explain what each one is like to walk.
| Season | Months | Weather | Crowds | Larkya La | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Autumn | Late Sep – Nov | Dry, stable, cold nights, exceptional visibility | Busiest of the year | Most reliable window | Best. Book early |
| Spring | Mid-Mar – mid-May | Warming, longer days, hazier afternoons | Busy but less so than October | Normally open from mid-March | Excellent, and prettier low down |
| Winter | Dec – Feb | Cold and clear low down; severe at the pass | Very quiet | Frequently impassable | Experienced parties only |
| Monsoon | Mid-Jun – mid-Sep | Wet, cloudy, landslide-prone in the Budhi Gandaki gorge | Almost empty | Crossable in dry spells, but the approach is the problem | We do not run it |
Notice that the pass column and the weather column do not tell the same story. Larkya La is often crossable in months when the rest of the circuit is miserable, and occasionally shut in the middle of a perfect autumn week. The pass is one day; the trek is fourteen. Plan for both, and remember that on this route the approach is the part that fails first.
Autumn (October and November): the peak season
Autumn is the season the Manaslu Circuit was built for. The monsoon retreats through late September, taking the cloud and the landslides with it, and what is left is weeks of dry, stable, startlingly clear weather. Terraces in the lower Budhi Gandaki are gold with ripening millet, the air above Samagaun is so transparent that the north face of Manaslu looks close enough to touch, and the pass sits under blue sky morning after morning.
Octoberis the most popular month of the Nepali trekking year. Daytime walking is comfortable: shirt-sleeves at Machha Khola and Jagat, a fleece by Namrung, a proper jacket at Samagaun. Nights are cold above 3,000 m and genuinely cold at Samdo and Dharamsala. Dashain and Tihar, the two big Nepali festivals, fall somewhere in October or early November depending on the lunar calendar, which means villages are lively and the jeep to Machha Khola is harder to book.
November is our own favourite. The trail thins out noticeably after the first week, visibility is at its absolute best, and the light on the Manaslu glaciers from Bimthang in the second half of the month is worth the trip on its own. The trade-off is temperature: by late November the dawn on Larkya La is regularly between −9 °C and −16 °C before wind chill, and the huts at Dharamsala are unheated apart from the dining room, with thin blankets. Late-November trekkers need every layer on our packing list, a proper down jacket on top, and a warmer sleeping bag than the Annapurna Circuit asks for.
What autumn costs you
Three things. First, beds: Manaslu in October is still quiet by Nepali standards, but Dharamsala has only a few dozen beds and no alternative within four hours, so the one place that matters genuinely fills. We hold those ahead. Second, the permit: September to November is the expensive band for the restricted-area fee, roughly a third more than the rest of the year, and that is passed through rather than marked up. Third, flight prices: October and November are peak for UK to Kathmandu routings, so a February booking for an October departure typically saves £150–£250 against booking in August. The cost page has the full budget picture.
Spring (mid-March to mid-May): the second peak
Spring is autumn's quieter, warmer, greener, cheaper cousin, and for a lot of UK trekkers it is the better fit. Days lengthen, the gorge turns from brown to green, and from late March through April the rhododendron forest between Deng and Namrung flowers in sequence up the hillside: reds low down, pinks and whites higher. It is the single prettiest thing on the middle circuit and autumn trekkers never see it.
March is a transitional month, and more so here than on the Annapurna Circuit because Larkya La holds snow later. Winter snow is often still lying on the pass through the first three weeks, the Dharamsala huts reopen gradually rather than on a fixed date, and the crossing is a judgement call made the evening before. From roughly the last week of March the pass is normally in condition, though the steep first section of the descent to Bimthang can stay icy into April and is where microspikes earn their place.
April is the strongest spring month: reliably open pass, warm walking below 3,000 m, comfortable nights at Samagaun, and long enough daylight that a ten-hour crossing day feels less compressed. That matters more on Larkya La than it does on shorter pass days. Early Mayis still good, and it is the warmest the high sections ever get: dawn at the pass often only around −3 °C to −9 °C.
The haze problem, stated plainly
Spring's weakness is visibility. As the plains heat up through April and May, dust and agricultural haze drift north and sit in the valleys. Mornings are usually clear, but by early afternoon the far peaks often soften into a milky white. If your priority is photography of Manaslu, autumn beats spring and it is not close. If your priority is comfortable walking, flowers, fewer people and a cheaper permit, spring wins.
By mid-May the pre-monsoon builds: afternoon cloud, occasional thunderstorms in the gorge, and increasing humidity down low. It is still walkable, but the trend is the wrong way and we would rather move you to April.
Winter (December to February): possible, and not for everyone
Winter on the Manaslu Circuit is a genuinely beautiful and genuinely serious proposition, and the two facts are inseparable.
The good part: the air in December and January is the driest of the year, the mountain views on a clear morning are extraordinary, and the trail is empty in a way no other season manages. Teahouses that are full in October will give you the best room in the building and light the stove for you alone. The lower and middle sections, Machha Khola to Samagaun, stay walkable through most winters, and the restricted-area permit is at its cheaper rate.
The hard part is the pass and the top of the route, and it is harder here than on the Annapurna Circuit. Larkya La is usually impassable from late December through February, often for weeks at a time after a snowfall, and there is no authority that opens or closes it: whether it can be crossed on a given morning is a judgement made by guides and lodge keepers at Dharamsala. The Dharamsala huts close for the season, which does not remove an option, it removes the only shelter within four hours of the pass on the near side. The upper villages also thin out as families move down to Samagaun and below. Dawn temperatures at the pass in January can sit between −16 °C and −25 °C before wind chill, and daylight is at its shortest, which matters a great deal on a day that is already 8 to 10 hours long.
Our honest position: early December is a good, underrated fortnight, cold but usually stable, with the pass normally still in condition. January and February are for experienced, properly equipped parties who accept they may not cross, and who have a plan for retracing three or four days down the valley to the roadhead. There is no jeep waiting halfway. If the circuit is your first Himalayan trek, do not make it a winter one.
Monsoon (mid-June to mid-September): we do not run it
We would rather lose the booking than sell you a monsoon circuit, so here is why.
From mid-June the summer monsoon pushes up from the Bay of Bengal and the Budhi Gandaki gorge takes the full force of it. On this route the objection is not really the pass, which is often crossable. It is everything between the road and the pass. The specific problems, in order of how much they will spoil your fortnight:
- You will not see the mountains.Cloud sits in the valley most of the day. Trekkers routinely walk from Machha Khola to Namrung without a single clear view of anything above 5,000 m, and Manaslu itself only appears for a few minutes at a time.
- Landslides close the road and the trail. The jeep track up the Budhi Gandaki is cut by slips several times each monsoon, and so is the footpath above it, which for long stretches is cut into the side of a gorge with no alternative line. This is the single strongest reason we do not run it: a gorge is a bad place to be in a landslide season.
- Leeches. The forest and bamboo sections between Machha Khola and Deng are thick with them in July and August. This is an irritation rather than a danger, but it is a real one.
- Bridges. This route crosses the Budhi Gandaki on a long series of suspension bridges, and monsoon takes some of them out most years. A missing bridge in a gorge is not a detour, it is a dead end.
- Wet kit that never dries. Teahouse drying rooms are limited and everything you own stays damp for a fortnight.
The one honest caveat: the upper valley above Samagaun sits partly in a rain shadow and stays comparatively dry. Samdo and the approach to the pass genuinely do get less rain than the gorge below. That does not help you, because the only way to reach the rain shadow is to walk two hundred kilometres through the rain to get there. Anyone selling you a monsoon Manaslu Circuit is selling you the gorge.
If your only free fortnight is in July or August, message us. We will point you at a genuine rain-shadow trek such as Upper Mustang, or at a different month, rather than sell you the Manaslu Circuit and hope.
Only free in the monsoon? Ask us what actually works: +977 9704551232Manaslu Circuit weather month by month
Three altitude bands, because the circuit spans more than 4,000 m of vertical and a single "Nepal weather" figure is useless. The lower valley band covers Machha Khola to Namrung (930–2,630 m); Samagaun is 3,530 m; the pass figure is dawn on Larkya La at 5,106 m, which is when you will be standing on it.
| Month | Lower valley, day | Samagaun, day / night | Larkya La, dawn | Rain or snow | Pass status | Trail |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 10–16 °C | 4–8 / −12 to −18 °C | −16 to −25 °C | Occasional snow at altitude | Often blocked | Empty |
| February | 12–18 °C | 5–10 / −10 to −16 °C | −14 to −23 °C | Occasional snow at altitude | Often blocked | Empty |
| March | 16–22 °C | 8–13 / −6 to −12 °C | −9 to −16 °C | Dry, occasional late snowfall | Variable early, reliable from mid-month | Quiet, filling |
| April | 19–25 °C | 11–16 / −4 to −9 °C | −6 to −12 °C | Mostly dry, afternoon cloud | Reliably open | Busy |
| May | 21–27 °C | 13–18 / −2 to −6 °C | −3 to −9 °C | Pre-monsoon storms late in month | Open | Busy, tailing off |
| June | 21–27 °C, humid | 13–18 / 0 to −5 °C | −2 to −8 °C | Monsoon arrives mid-month | Usually open, approach unreliable | Emptying |
| July | 20–26 °C, wet | 12–17 / 1 to −4 °C | 0 to −6 °C | Heaviest rain of the year in the gorge | Crossable in dry spells | Empty |
| August | 20–26 °C, wet | 12–17 / 1 to −4 °C | 0 to −6 °C | Heavy rain, landslide risk | Crossable in dry spells | Empty |
| September | 19–25 °C | 11–16 / −1 to −6 °C | −3 to −9 °C | Monsoon clears from around mid-month | Improving through the month | Filling from late month |
| October | 17–23 °C | 9–14 / −5 to −10 °C | −7 to −14 °C | Dry and settled | Most reliable of the year | Busiest |
| November | 14–20 °C | 7–12 / −8 to −14 °C | −9 to −16 °C | Dry, exceptional visibility | Reliable, cooling through month | Busy, thinning late |
| December | 11–17 °C | 5–10 / −10 to −16 °C | −13 to −21 °C | Dry, first serious snowfalls | Usually open early, closing late | Quiet |
Two things worth reading off that table. First, the lower valley is pleasant all year. The circuit is never "too cold" at Jagat; in the monsoon it is too wet, which is a different problem. Everything that makes a month good or bad for the pass happens above Samagaun. Second, the difference between the best month and the worst month at the pass is about 20 °C at dawn, which is the difference between a cold walk and a cold-injury risk.
Larkya La pass-open windows
The single planning question that matters. Nobody officially opens or closes Larkya La. There is no barrier, no permit that gets withdrawn and no published closure notice. It simply becomes impassable when there is too much fresh snow on it, and passable again when the trail has been broken by people and yaks. On this route that judgement is made by a handful of guides and lodge keepers at Dharamsala, and by the groups coming the other way from Bimthang.
| Window | Typical condition | What we plan for |
|---|---|---|
| Late March to mid-May | Reliably crossable; significant residual snow on the descent early, softening later | Standard itinerary, standard buffer day |
| Late September to late November | The most reliable window of the year | Standard itinerary, standard buffer day |
| Early December and mid-March | Usually crossable, less predictable, microspikes advisable | Standard itinerary plus a willingness to wait a day at Samdo |
| Mid-December to February | Usually impassable after snowfall; the Dharamsala huts shut | Experienced parties only, with an agreed retreat plan |
| Mid-June to mid-September | Often crossable itself, but the gorge approach is the problem | We do not run it |
Every one of our itineraries carries a buffer day for exactly this. If the pass is not crossable on your scheduled morning, you wait and go the next day, and the trip still works. Waiting at Dharamsala is uncomfortable and waiting at 4,460 m is not free, so where the delay looks like more than a day we drop back to Samdo instead, which is warmer, better supplied and lower. Itineraries without a buffer day are quietly assuming your international flight has slack in it. See the 14-day itinerary, or the 16-day side-trip itinerary if you would rather have two buffer days and an extra acclimatisation night.
Crowds, beds and how busy each month really is
"Crowded" on the Manaslu Circuit means something much smaller than it does on the Annapurna or Everest trails, because the permit rules cap the numbers. What it actually means is Dharamsala: a few dozen beds on open ground at 4,460 m, no alternative within four hours, and in mid-October more people wanting them than there are beds. Everywhere else you will walk for long stretches without seeing anybody, in any month.
- Busiest: the first three weeks of October, then early April. Busy here still means a handful of groups a day.
- Comfortably busy: late September, November, mid-March, late April, early May.
- Quiet with a working pass: late March, early December.
- Near-empty: January, February, and the whole monsoon.
The practical effect of booking ahead in peak season is that the Dharamsala beds are held for you. That is not a small thing in the third week of October. It is also not something you could arrange yourself even if the permit rules let you trek independently, which they do not: see the permits page.
If solitude matters more to you than anything else, look at the Tsum Valley variant: the side valley takes a fraction of the traffic the main route does, even at the height of October, and it is the emptiest place either of us has walked in Nepal.
When to book from the UK
Booking lead times are driven by flights, by one lodge, and by the permit office. We can add a departure at short notice; British Airways and Qatar cannot, and the Department of Immigration needs your passport scan and your Nepal visa in hand before it will issue a restricted-area permit.
| October / November departure | Book 5–7 months ahead |
| March / April / May departure | Book 3–4 months ahead |
| Early December departure | Book 2–3 months ahead |
| January / February departure | We do not normally run these |
For an autumn trip, the flight is the reason to move early: booking a mid-October departure in February rather than August commonly saves £150–£250 per person on the return fare alone, which is more than the difference between our 14-day and 16-day itineraries. The Dharamsala beds are the second reason, and the permit is a third: we cannot file it until you have landed and have a visa, so the day in Kathmandu at the start is not padding.
Fitting the circuit into UK leave
This is the awkward bit and worth saying plainly. The classic circuit needs about 18 days door to door from the UK, 14 on the ground plus two travel days each end. That does not fit an October half-term week, and it does not fit the standard two-week holiday without borrowing days either side. Manaslu is less flexible than the Annapurna Circuit here, because there is no flight to shortcut the exit and no jeep road in the middle to cut a day out of. Realistic options:
- Three weeks of leave: the comfortable way to do the classic 14-day trip, or the 16-day side-trip itinerary.
- Two weeks plus two days: not enough, and we would rather say so. Fourteen days on the ground plus two travel days each end is eighteen. Compressed itineraries exist, but the days they save come out of the buffer and then out of the Samagaun rest day, and on a route with no road to leave by those are the two we will not sell.
- Easter: the two-week Easter break plus a few days is the neatest spring fit, lands in the best fortnight of April, and catches the cheaper permit band.
How hard the walking actually is, and whether your current hill fitness is enough, is covered on the difficulty and fitness guide. What the whole trip costs from the UK is on the cost page.
Best time to trek the Manaslu Circuit: FAQ
What is the best time to trek the Manaslu Circuit?
Can you trek the Manaslu Circuit in November?
Is March a good month for the Manaslu Circuit?
Can you trek the Manaslu Circuit in the monsoon?
Is the Manaslu Circuit possible in winter?
How far ahead should I book from the UK?
Is a spring Manaslu trek really cheaper?
Which month has the best mountain views?
Does the pass ever close in the main season?
