Upper Mustang: trek or jeep

Until the 2010s, there was only one way to reach Lo Manthang from Jomsom: on foot or on horseback, over four or five days of trail. Then a dirt road was pushed north up the Kali Gandaki, linking Jomsom with Lo Manthang and the Chinese border at Korala. Today jeeps, motorbikes and trucks use it every day in season.

The road changed life in Upper Mustang. Goods are cheaper, the sick can reach hospital, and villagers can sell apples and potatoes in Pokhara. It also changed the trek. Parts of the main trail now follow or cross the road, and in October you may share a stretch with a dusty line of jeeps. That is why the question of trek or jeep has become one of the first we discuss with anyone planning Upper Mustang.

The table below compares our 14-night trek with our 9-night jeep journey. Both include the restricted-area permit, flights to and from Jomsom, a licensed guide and three nights in Lo Manthang. Prices are indicative per person for two people sharing.

Walking is still the best way to understand Upper Mustang. The trail between Chele and Ghami climbs over a series of passes where the view opens north into Lo one ridge at a time, and you feel the distance the old salt caravans covered. You arrive in villages tired and hungry, eat in lodge kitchens with families, and have time to wander after the walking is done. Most travellers who trek remember the evenings as much as the views.

Trekking also acclimatises you properly. Climbing from Kagbeni at 2,810 m to Lo Manthang at about 3,840 m over five days gives the body time to adjust. On foot you also reach places the jeeps do not: the trail by Ghar Gompa and Dhakmar, the high route through Samar, and quiet villages like Ghiling that sit away from the road.

• You see the land at walking pace and arrive in villages the way local people did
• Better acclimatisation and fewer altitude headaches
• Trails to Ghar Gompa, Dhakmar and Samar that jeeps cannot follow
• More time with lodge families and in monastery courtyards

A jeep makes Lo Manthang possible for people who could never walk there. We have taken guests in their seventies, families with young children and travellers with knee problems to the walled city by road. With short driving days and stops in every village, it is a comfortable, if dusty, way to see a remarkable place.

The jeep also suits people short of time. A 9-night trip from Kathmandu fits into a two-week holiday with room for Kathmandu and Pokhara. And for photographers, a vehicle means heavy gear, tripods and the freedom to stop wherever the light is good. The trade-off is less time in villages, faster altitude gain and many hours on a rough road. Bring a buff, motion sickness tablets if needed, and patience. Ask your guide to plan short walks every day, to a monastery above the village or along an old section of trail, so you still spend part of each day on foot and meet people along the way.

In practice, many of our Upper Mustang trips are a mix. The commonest is to walk in and drive out: five or six days on foot from Kagbeni to Lo Manthang, two or three nights in the walled city, then a jeep back to Jomsom in one or two days. You get the acclimatisation and the best trails on the way up, and avoid walking back over the same ground.

Another option is to drive in as far as Ghami or Tsarang and then walk the most beautiful sections: Dhakmar and Ghar Gompa into Lo Manthang, or a loop to Chhoser on foot. A third is to drive both ways but add day walks, to Ghar Gompa, Chhoser or the hills above Lo Manthang, with the jeep waiting at the end. Each of these uses the restricted-area permit well, and each can be tailored to your fitness and time.

A common mistake is to think a jeep trip carries no altitude risk. You sleep at the same height either way, about 3,840 m in Lo Manthang, and by jeep you get there faster. We always build in a night in Kagbeni at 2,810 m and a night at Tsarang or Ghami at around 3,500 m before Lo Manthang, and we carry a pulse oximeter. Drink three litres of water a day, avoid alcohol for the first nights up high, and tell your guide about headaches, nausea or breathlessness at rest.

Trekkers have the advantage of gradual ascent, but they also exert themselves more at altitude. Neither group is immune. If someone develops symptoms that do not ease with rest, the answer is to go down, and in Upper Mustang a jeep can usually get you down faster than walking.

When guests cannot decide, we ask them a few simple questions. The answers usually make the choice obvious within a few minutes, and they also tell us which mixed itinerary might suit best. Be honest with yourself about fitness and time; Upper Mustang rewards people who travel at the pace that suits them, and punishes those who squeeze too much into too few days.

If most of your answers point the same way, follow them. If they are split, a walk-in, drive-out trip is almost always the right answer, because it gives you the best trail sections and the acclimatisation of walking without the long return over the same ground.

• How many days do you have in Nepal in total, including Kathmandu and a spare day for flights?
• Have you walked five to seven hours a day, several days in a row, on hilly ground before?
• Do you have knee, back or heart problems that make long descents or bumpy roads hard?
• Is meeting people in villages more important to you than seeing every monastery?
• Will you carry heavy camera equipment or need to travel with young children or older relatives?

The best months for both trek and jeep are April, May, September and October. Upper Mustang lies in the rain shadow of the Annapurnas and Dhaulagiri, so it can be visited in June, July and August when the rest of Nepal is wet, but the road below Jomsom and the Jomsom flights are more often disrupted then. From December to February many Lo Manthang families move south for the winter and lodges close.

Whichever way you go, the Jomsom flight is the weak link. It flies only in the morning, and wind or cloud cancels it often. Keep a spare day at the end of your trip, and if the flight does not go, the jeep road from Jomsom to Pokhara, 8 to 10 hours, is the fallback.