Manaslu Circuit vs Annapurna Circuit in 2026: The Honest Head-to-Head

Both circuits loop around 8,000m giants in central-west Nepal. Both take about two weeks. But in 2026 they are two very different trips: Manaslu just became easier for solo trekkers to permit, while the Annapurna Circuit keeps losing trail to a widening road. If you're choosing between them, here is the real difference in rules, crowds, cost and difficulty — using our own published rates, not a marketing pitch.

Permits and rules: Manaslu is stricter, and just got a little easier

Every trekker on the Manaslu Circuit needs three permits — MCAP ($30), a Restricted Area Permit, and an ACAP for the final stretch into the Annapurna region — plus a licensed guide, no exceptions. Until March 2026, the RAP could only be issued to groups of two or more, which meant a genuine solo traveller had to either find a trekking partner or pay for a second permit just to qualify. Nepal's Department of Immigration lifted that two-person minimum in March 2026: a single trekker can now get a Manaslu RAP on their own, provided they still travel with a licensed guide from a registered agency. Guideless trekking is still not allowed in either restricted or non-restricted zones under Nepal's 2023 guide-mandatory rule — see our full breakdown of that rule if you're unsure how it applies to you.

The Annapurna Circuit sits inside the Annapurna Conservation Area, not a restricted zone, so the paperwork is lighter: an ACAP and a TIMS card, both straightforward to arrange in Kathmandu, Pokhara, or online in advance. The same national guide-mandatory rule for independent trekkers still applies, but there is no restricted-area fee and no group-size rule.

The road problem: why Annapurna isn't the trail it was

The Annapurna Circuit's original draw was a continuous footpath from lowland rice terraces to the 5,416m Thorong La pass. That path has been steadily narrowed by a jeep road pushed up the Marsyangdi valley — the Besisahar-to-Chame stretch opened to vehicles back in 2012, and by 2025 the road reached Upper Manang, putting a dusty jeep track through villages like Dharapani, Bagarchhap and Chame that used to be pure trekking trail. Trekkers who want the original footpath experience now need to actively follow the NATT (New Annapurna Trekking Trails) markers — color-coded red/white or blue/white signs that route you off the road and back onto traditional paths. It's manageable, but it's an extra layer of navigation the Annapurna Circuit didn't used to require.

Manaslu has no equivalent problem. The Budi Gandaki gorge that the trail follows has never been widened for vehicles, so the route is still walked start to finish — one reason it draws roughly 20 times fewer trekkers than Annapurna despite similar scenery and a comparable high-pass crossing.

Cost: what a 14-day trek on each route actually costs

Group size changes everything, since a guide and permits cost the same whether you're one person or eight. Comparing our own published rates for a comparable 14-day itinerary, travelling with 2-3 people:

The roughly $450 gap is almost entirely the Manaslu RAP fee plus the extra logistics of supplying a genuinely restricted, lower-infrastructure route — not profit margin. Solo travellers pay more on both (Manaslu solo is $2,100 for 14 days; Annapurna Circuit solo is $1,600), since a private guide's day rate does not split across a group.

Source: Travel And Tour World, Annapurna and Manaslu Conservation Area visitor arrivals, 2025.

Cover photo: Namal Siriwardana via Pexels (Pexels License).