The best day hikes from Pokhara, and the one to do on your first morning

If you have one free morning in Pokhara, walk up to the World Peace Pagoda: a boat across Phewa Lake, about an hour of stone steps through forest, and the whole Annapurna range above the water when you reach the top. If you have a whole day and the weather is clear, start at Sarangkot at dawn and walk the ridge west to Naudanda instead. Those are the two hikes most visitors should choose between, and the rest of this guide is how to choose.

World Peace Pagoda: the one to do first

Do this one on your first morning, because it gives the most for the least. The pagoda — the Shanti Stupa — sits at about 1,100 metres on Anadu Hill, on the far side of Phewa Lake from Lakeside. The classic way up is the best one: take a boat across the lake, then walk up through the forest on stone steps and village paths for roughly an hour. At the top the view opens over the lake, the city and the full line of the Annapurnas behind it.

The stupa itself has a story worth knowing before you arrive. Monks of the Japanese Buddhist order Nipponzan-Myohoji laid its foundation in 1973; the first attempt was stopped by the authorities partway up, and it was re-founded in 1992 and finished on 30 October 1999. Dress and behave as you would at any temple — shoes off on the upper terrace, voices down. Photographs are fine; filming video there is restricted, so ask before you record.

If you would rather not climb both ways, a road reaches the top from the Chhorepatan side and a taxi takes about 25 minutes. The best version walks up from the boat and takes a taxi down, which leaves your legs fresh for anything else that afternoon.

Sarangkot: the sunrise everyone comes for

Sarangkot is the view on the postcards, and at dawn it has the crowd to match. The hill rises to about 1,600 metres on Pokhara’s western side and looks straight at Dhaulagiri, the Annapurnas, Machhapuchhre and, on the clearest days, Manaslu. Most people are driven up in the dark to be on the viewing tower for first light. You can also walk it: the path from Miruwa on the Pokhara–Baglung road takes about ninety minutes.

A useful thing nobody tells you: the sun rises over the valley hills to the east, but the reason you came is behind you. Turn round. The snow peaks to the north take the colour first, a few minutes before the sun clears the horizon. Sarangkot is also where Pokhara’s paragliders launch, so by mid-morning the sky above the lake fills with wings.

Sarangkot to Naudanda: the full ridge day

This is the hike for people who came to Pokhara to walk, not to look. Start at Sarangkot for sunrise, then follow the ridge west through Kaskikot, an old hilltop settlement with the remains of its fort, past Gurung and Brahmin villages to Naudanda at about 1,430 metres. It is roughly 14 kilometres and five to six hours of easy, mostly level walking, with the valley falling away on one side and the snow peaks on the other the whole way. A vehicle brings you back to Lakeside.

It is also the quietest of the three. The sunrise crowd stays on the Sarangkot tower; ten minutes along the ridge you are walking through farm terraces with nobody but the people who live there.

Which one should you do?

One morning: the Pagoda. One full day: the ridge. Only the sunrise: Sarangkot by car. The table puts the three side by side.

Do you need a guide for a Pokhara day hike?

For the Pagoda and Sarangkot, honestly, no. Both are well-trodden walks outside any national park or conservation area, and Nepal’s licensed-guide rule applies to those protected areas, not to a walk above the lake. Plenty of people do them alone every day, and we would rather tell you that than sell you a guide you do not need.

The ridge day is different. The path through the villages beyond Sarangkot branches often, and a guide who knows it turns a day of checking your phone into a day of looking at the view and learning whose fields you are crossing. If you are walking the Pagoda alone, go in daylight and with company if you can, as you would on any quiet forest path.

When to go, and what to bring

October, November, March and April, and always in the morning. Autumn after the monsoon gives the clearest skies of the year. December to February is clear but hazier in the valley; June to September is green, humid and often cloud-bound, and the mountains may not show at all. For every hike here, bring water, a warm layer for the dawn start, sun cream, and shoes you can walk in on stone steps — trail shoes are plenty. Carry some cash for the boat, tea and a snack at the top.

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Want help picking the right morning? Contact us and we will tell you which hike fits your days in Pokhara.

Sources: Wikipedia, “Shanti Stupa, Pokhara” and “Sarangkot”; Travel Himalaya Nepal field experience. Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Yallu007 (CC BY-SA 4.0); Gaurav Dhwaj Khadka (CC BY-SA 4.0); Mahendra Raj Adhikari (CC BY-SA 3.0); Anuja Sharma (CC BY-SA 4.0).