12% off
Dubai
4.7(84)Dubai Desert & Skyline Weekend
A tight three-day weekend: red-dune desert camp, Burj Khalifa at sunset, old Deira souks and a dhow dinner on the creek.
3 days2 – 8 guests
From$690$780
Eight days by 4WD into the restricted trans-Himalayan kingdom of Lo — walled Lo Manthang, sky caves and cliff monasteries.
Upper Mustang sits in the rain shadow behind the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri massifs — a high, dry, ochre landscape that is culturally and geologically Tibetan, and closed to foreigners entirely until 1992. Entry is still capped by a restricted-area permit.
This trip does it by 4WD rather than on foot, which turns a fourteen-day trek into eight days without losing the places that matter. Tenzin, whose family is from Charang, handles the permits and opens doors — the monastery visits here are personal introductions, not ticketed entries. Accommodation is simple guesthouse and homestay; this is not a luxury route, and its remoteness is the point.
Day by day, as it actually runs.
Spectacular 20-minute morning flight between Annapurna and Dhaulagiri into Jomsom. Meet the vehicle and drive up the Kali Gandaki to Kagbeni, the medieval gateway village to Upper Mustang. Afternoon walk through its mud-brick lanes. 2,810 m.
Permits checked at the Kagbeni post and we cross into the restricted zone. The landscape empties out immediately — red cliffs, terraced barley, whitewashed chortens. Stops at Tangbe and Chhusang. 3,050 m.
The most dramatic driving day, crossing Taklam La and Dajori La with the full Nilgiri and Tilicho panorama behind you. We stop at Syangboche and reach Ghami, one of Mustang's largest villages, beside the longest mani wall in Nepal. 3,520 m.
Detour to Ghar Gompa, founded in the 8th century and associated with Padmasambhava — older than almost anything else standing in Nepal. Then over Lo La pass for the first sight of Lo Manthang's walls on the plain below. 3,840 m.
A full day inside the walls. The four-storey royal palace, and the Jampa, Thubchen and Chodey monasteries with their restored 15th-century murals. Afternoon among the alleys and the weaving workshops. Optional horse ride onto the surrounding plain.
North almost to the Tibetan border. The Jhong cave complex at Chhoser is a five-storey warren cut into a sheer cliff, occupied 2,500 years ago and reached by internal ladders. Then Nyphu, a monastery built into a cave mouth. Return to Lo Manthang.
Return south on the eastern route through Dhakmar's red cliffs and Charang, then down to Muktinath — 108 stone water spouts, an eternal flame, and one of the few temples where Hindu and Buddhist pilgrims worship side by side. 3,760 m.
Short morning drive down to Jomsom through the wind that starts every day around 11 a.m. like clockwork. Midday flight to Pokhara. Trip ends on arrival, or continue to Kathmandu.
4.9
Based on 47 reviews
Isabelle Moreau
11 Jun 2026
France
Extraordinary. The sky caves are hard to believe until you are climbing inside them. Tenzin's family connections meant we saw murals normally kept closed.
Greg Hollins
19 May 2026
United States
Went in July when everywhere else in Nepal was soaked. Blue sky the whole week. The drive is genuinely rough — take the motion sickness advice seriously.
Dubai
4.7(84)A tight three-day weekend: red-dune desert camp, Burj Khalifa at sunset, old Deira souks and a dhow dinner on the creek.
From$690$780
Pokhara
4.8(156)Nine days from Pokhara into the Annapurna Sanctuary — rhododendron forest, Gurung villages and a 360° amphitheatre of peaks at 4,130 m.
From$985$1,120
Everest Region
4.9(214)Fourteen days to 5,364 m and back, on a conservative acclimatisation schedule with a Sherpa lead guide and a 97% completion rate.
From$1,690$1,890
$1,290
per person · 8 days