Permits & Rules

Upper Mustang's $500 wall comes down: the permit is now $50 a day

Nepal scrapped the decades-old flat $500 / 10-day Upper Mustang permit for a pay-as-you-go $50-per-day model. Short trips to Lo Manthang just got…

By Laxman Rawal · Jun 15, 2026

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One of the longest-standing pricing rules in Nepali trekking has been torn up — and shorter trips into the old forbidden kingdom of Lo just became far more affordable. Nepal has replaced the flat USD 500 Upper Mustang restricted-area permit, which always…

Travel Himalaya Nepal · News

How the new system works

Under the old rule, even a quick five-day jeep tour to Lo Manthang cost the full USD 500, because the permit always billed ten days whether you used them or not. Under the new pay-as-you-go model, that same five-day trip costs USD 250. The change was…

Travel Himalaya Nepal · News

Who wins

The big winners are travellers on shorter itineraries: jeep tourers, mountain bikers and motorcyclists doing a four-to-seven-day loop to Lo Manthang, and trekkers who fly into Jomsom rather than walking in from Pokhara. If your time inside the restricted area…

Travel Himalaya Nepal · News

A region that rewards the effort

Upper Mustang is unlike anywhere else in Nepal — a high desert of ochre cliffs, walled medieval towns, sky caves and Tibetan Buddhist monasteries that feels more like the Tibetan plateau than the green middle hills. It sits in the rain shadow of the Annapurna…

Travel Himalaya Nepal · News

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