Langtang region

Often visible from Kathmandu city centre, the Langtang range offers the most accessible trekking in Nepal.

If the city pollution and traffic wasn’t so off-putting, you could start walking from your guesthouse straight to the mountains.

This accessibility, easy-to-follow trails and lots of lodges has meant the Langtang Valley has always been, alongside Everest and Annapurna, one of the big three independent trekking areas.

The 2015 earthquake caused massive damage and loss of life in and around the Langtang Valley. The beautiful stone wall village of Langtang was buried under a huge avalanche. Today, all the trekking areas have re-opened and once again there are lodges along the routes. But the reminders of the disaster are still there. Where there were yak pastures, pine forests and the village itself, there is now a grey wasteland of rubble stretching for at least two kilometres. Slowly though, even this is fading from sight as vegetation starts to cover the rockfall.

But don’t be put off. This is a beautiful area to trek with high Alpine pastures, rewarding side trips, holy lakes, stunning mountain views, cultural interactions, relatively few other trekkers, and easy and cheap access with no internal flights needed.