Dashain and Tihar 2026: What Actually Happens to Nepal's Guides, Flights and Buses

Nepal's two biggest festivals send guides, porters and lodge staff home and book out domestic flights and buses for weeks — here's the real autumn 2026 logistics picture, verified against 2025's rush.

LR By Laxman Rawal · Jul 30, 2026 · 4 min read · Updated Jul 30, 2026

Dashain and Tihar 2026: What Actually Happens to Nepal's Guides, Flights and Buses

Every October, Nepal's trekking industry runs into the same problem, and every year first-time visitors are surprised by it: the country's biggest holiday falls in the middle of the best trekking season, and for two weeks, a large share of the people who make a trek run — guides, porters, cooks, lodge staff, bus and taxi drivers — would rather be somewhere else. Specifically, at home.

Key facts

Dashain 2026 runs 11–25 October, with the main Tika day on Wednesday 21 October (auspicious time from 11:53am NPT).
Tihar 2026 runs 7–11 November, ending with Bhai Tika on 11 November.
Domestic flights to regional hubs typically sell out about a month ahead of Dashain, with fares on high-demand routes rising sharply.
In 2025's pre-Dashain rush, more than 15,000 passengers made advance long-distance bus bookings in a single opening window, per Nepal Minute.

Dashain is Nepal's longest and most important festival — fifteen days built around a pilgrimage home. Government offices close, city buses and planes run near capacity in both directions, and workers across every industry, trekking included, use whatever leave they are owed to be with family for Tika, when elders bless the younger generation with rice, yogurt and a red tika on the forehead. We covered the full festival calendar separately; this is about what it does to the people who actually run your trek.

Autumn 2026 festival travel — what to expect and when
What	Typical pattern	Book by
Domestic flights (Kathmandu–regional hubs)	Sell out on high-demand routes; fares rise	~4 weeks ahead
Long-distance buses	Advance counters open in September; heavy early rush	~3 weeks ahead
Trekking guides & porters	Tightest 11–25 Oct and 7–11 Nov; most agencies can still staff a trek	2–3 weeks ahead

None of that means Nepal shuts down to trekkers. Most Everest and Annapurna region guides and porters are Sherpa, Gurung or Magar and already live in or near the trekking valleys, so they are not competing for a Kathmandu–Terai flight to get home for Tika. The bigger effect falls on support staff who travel further — kitchen crews, drivers and office teams — and on the shared infrastructure every trekker relies on too: the same small Kathmandu domestic terminal that handles Lukla and Pokhara flights is, during Dashain week, also carrying a nationwide holiday rush of well over a hundred domestic flights a day. Book your own Lukla or Pokhara flight with that in mind, not just your guide.

Our guides report that even in busy corridors like the Annapurna Circuit and the Everest Base Camp trail, some family-run lodges close for a few days around Tika itself. Village hubs like Namche Bazaar and Ghorepani generally keep at least one teahouse open, but a trekker mid-itinerary during Tika week should expect fewer meal choices and a quieter, more family-focused village than the one they would see three weeks later.

15days, Dashain 2026 (11–25 Oct)

5days, Tihar 2026 (7–11 Nov)

15,000+bus tickets pre-booked in 2025's opening rush

~1 monthahead that flights to regional hubs sell out

What this means for trekkers

The guide's take

We do not stop running treks over Dashain and Tihar — we plan around them. Staff who choose to work through the holiday get first pick of upcoming departures and a fair premium for the two weeks they are missing at home; staff who go home get relieved by a colleague, not left short-handed. What we ask trekkers to do is simple: confirm your trek dates and any domestic flight connections at least three to four weeks before 11 October, the same window Nepali families are booking their own trip home. Leave it until late September and you are competing with the country's single busiest travel fortnight of the year, not just our booking calendar.

If you would rather sidestep the crunch entirely, both festivals fall in the first half of autumn — trek in November after Tihar clears and you get the same clear mountain views on a fully rested, fully staffed trail. Either way, a fixed departure on the Everest Base Camp Trek or Annapurna Base Camp Trek booked in the next few weeks will beat one booked in late September, festival or not.

Source: Rising Nepal Daily; bus-booking figures via Nepal Minute.

Cover photo: Bineetojha via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Source: Rising Nepal Daily

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