The 19-day Circuit with Tsum Valley: the full version
This is the Manaslu Circuit with everything left in. You walk the first two days up the Budhi Gandaki as normal, then turn off at Lokpa into the Tsum Valley for six days, reach Mu Gompa at around 3,700 m under the Tibetan border, come back down the valley, and rejoin the circuit at Deng to finish over Larkya La at 5,106 m.
Two restricted areas in one trek, nineteen days on the ground, and a genuine step up in commitment from the standard circuit. It is also the only version of this trek where the walking is not the main event. The Tsum Valley is a cultural trip that happens to involve walking.
What is the Tsum Valley, and why detour?
Tsum is a side valley running north-east off the Budhi Gandaki, up against the Tibetan border. It is a beyul, one of the sacred hidden valleys of Tibetan Buddhism, and it was effectively closed to outsiders until 2008. The people are Tsumba, Tibetan in language, dress and religion, and the valley kept a working monastic culture through a century in which most of the region did not.
What that means on the ground is different from the rest of the trek. The circuit is a landscape trip: a gorge, a valley, a pass. Tsum is a village trip. You walk between settlements, past mani walls and chortens, into monasteries that are still functioning rather than preserved.
- Mu Gompa, around 3,700 m, the highest and most remote monastery in the valley, close under the border
- Rachen Gompa, a nunnery rather than a monastery, which is uncommon and worth the stop
- Milarepa's cave, known locally as Piren Phu, associated with the eleventh-century Tibetan saint and poet
- A valley where the trekker traffic is a fraction of the circuit's, which is already a fraction of the Annapurna's
The honest counterpoint: if what you want is high mountains, Tsum is not where you find them. The valley tops out well below where the circuit starts getting interesting, and the big views are still on the main route. Add Tsum for the culture, not the scenery.
19-day itinerary, day by day
Days 1 to 2 and days 8 to 19 are the classic circuit. The Tsum detour is days 3 to 7, and it rejoins the main trail at Deng.
| Day 1 | Kathmandu → Machha Khola (930 m), 8–9 h by jeep |
|---|---|
| Day 2 | Machha Khola → Jagat (1,340 m) |
| Day 3 | Jagat → Lokpa, turn into the Tsum Valley → Chumling (2,386 m) |
| Day 4 | Chumling → Chhokangparo (3,010 m) |
| Day 5 | Chhokangparo → Nile (3,360 m), via Milarepa's cave |
| Day 6 | Nile → Mu Gompa (about 3,700 m) → Nile |
| Day 7 | Nile → Chumling, via Rachen Gompa |
| Day 8 | Chumling → Deng (1,860 m), rejoin the circuit |
| Day 9 | Deng → Namrung (2,630 m) |
| Day 10 | Namrung → Lho (3,180 m) |
| Day 11 | Lho → Samagaun (3,530 m) |
| Day 12 | Samagaun, acclimatisation day, walk high and sleep low |
| Day 13 | Samagaun → Samdo (3,875 m) |
| Day 14 | Samdo → Dharamsala, also called Larkya Phedi (4,460 m) |
| Day 15 | Larkya La (5,106 m) → Bimthang (3,720 m) |
| Day 16 | Bimthang → Dharapani (1,860 m) |
| Day 17 | Dharapani → Besisahar → Kathmandu by jeep |
| Day 18 | Kathmandu, spare day and weather buffer |
| Day 19 | Departure |
Days 1 to 2: the walk in
Identical to the classic itinerary. The long jeep day to Machha Khola, then the first walking day up the gorge to Jagat, where the restricted area begins and your permits are checked.
Day 3: Jagat to Chumling, into the Tsum Valley
A long day, and we would rather say so up front. You continue up the Budhi Gandaki to Lokpa, where the Tsum Valley branches off to the north-east, then climb into it as far as Chumling.
Some operators break this into two days at Lokpa. We run it as one because the extra night at Lokpa buys very little, and because on a nineteen-day trip the days are better spent higher up the valley. If you would prefer the gentler version, say so and we will build it at twenty days.
Days 4 to 5: Chumling to Chhokangparo to Nile
The valley opens out and the character changes. Chhokangparo at 3,010 m is the first place it feels properly Tibetan, and on a clear day Ganesh Himal fills the view back down the valley.
Day 5 takes you on to Nile, the last real settlement, passing Piren Phu, Milarepa's cave, on the way. You are now within a day of the Tibetan border.
Day 6: Mu Gompa, about 3,700 m
Up to Mu Gompa and back, the highest and most remote monastery in the valley, sitting on open ground under the border ridges. It is a short day by the standards of this trek and it is the point of the detour.
This is also the high point of the Tsum leg, which matters for a practical reason: it is roughly the altitude of Lho on the main circuit, so by the time you rejoin the route you have already slept in that band for several nights.
Days 7 to 8: back down and out to Deng
Down the valley to Chumling, taking in Rachen Gompa on the way, then out of the Tsum and along to Deng, where you pick up the circuit exactly where the 14-day itinerary reaches it on its third day.
Day 7 is the second of the two long days on this itinerary. From Deng onward, nothing is longer than the classic route.
Days 9 to 19: the circuit and the pass
From Deng the trip is the standard circuit, day for day, as set out on the 14-day itinerary page: Namrung, Lho, Samagaun with its acclimatisation day, Samdo, Dharamsala, the pass, and the long descent to Bimthang and out.
The Samagaun acclimatisation day stays, even though you arrive better adapted than you would on the 14-day version. It is the last chance to assess the group before the pass, and we do not trade it away.
The second restricted permit
The Tsum Valley is not part of the Manaslu restricted area. It is its own, with its own permit, and it is the one thing about this itinerary that genuinely cannot be arranged on arrival.
You will be carrying four permits on this trip:
- The Manaslu Restricted Area Permit, seasonally priced and charged by the day
- The Tsum Valley Restricted Area Permit, charged by the week
- The Manaslu Conservation Area Permit (MCAP)
- The Annapurna Conservation Area Permit (ACAP), for the walk out through Dharapani
Both restricted permits can only be issued to a group of two or more, through a Nepal-registered agency, against your passport and Nepal visa, and you must be accompanied by a licensed guide. There is no solo option and no independent option. We file them in Kathmandu before you start. The full picture, with what each one costs, is on the permits page.
Is the Tsum detour worth it?
Worth it for: anyone more interested in Himalayan Buddhist culture than in summit views, anyone who has already done a big teahouse trek and wants somewhere genuinely quiet, and anyone with three weeks rather than two.
Skip it if: you are tight on leave, you want the mountains to be the point, or you are travelling in early spring, when the upper valley trails can still be holding snow. In those cases the 16-day side-trip itinerary gives you most of the acclimatisation benefit and a bigger mountain day, for five days less.
One thing worth being straight about: the Tsum days are not hard, but there are two long ones, and nineteen days of teahouse food and no shower is a longer stretch than most UK trekkers have done. The trek is not more difficult than the circuit. It is more of it. Our difficulty and fitness guide covers the honest self-assessment.
