Tsum Valley Trek

Two documents cover a standalone Tsum trek in 2026: the Tsum Valley Restricted Area Permit at USD 40 per person per week and the Manaslu Conservation Area Permit at NPR 3,000, with no TIMS card required. The restricted permit is issued by the Department of Immigration in Kathmandu through a registered operator, for a trekker travelling with a licensed guide, and its week count runs from the Philim checkpoint stamp to your exit back through the same post. A standard 14-day itinerary spends 10 days inside the restricted zone, which still bills as two full weeks because the Department rounds up.

Checkpoint load is lighter than the neighboring Manaslu Circuit: Jagat checks papers on the way in, Philim stamps the restricted permit, and a police post at Chhokangparo logs groups moving up-valley. Fee tables, photo requirements, and the shared application form for combined itineraries sit in the Manaslu restricted-area permit requirements guide, since both permits come out of the same Kathmandu office and our office files them together.

TAAN-registered operators quoted USD 1,150 to 1,600 for a 14-day group Tsum departure in spring 2026; private trips ran USD 1,450 to 1,950. The permit load is modest at USD 103 for two weeks plus MCAP, less than half the Manaslu Circuit's, and the table below shows where the rest goes. Quotes under USD 1,000 typically skip the porter or route you through in 11 days, which turns the Shiar Khola stages into forced marches and cuts the Mu Gompa layover day that most people book this trek for.

Cash planning matters more here than on richer routes: there are no ATMs beyond Arughat and no card payment anywhere in the valley, and homestay families settle in Nepali rupees only. Budget NPR 8,000 to 12,000 for extras across the trek, covering hot bucket showers at NPR 200 to 300, charging at NPR 150 to 300, and monastery donations, which run NPR 500 or more per gompa by local custom.

Lodging changes character three times between Machha Khola and Mu Gompa, and knowing the sequence sets expectations correctly. Machha Khola, Jagat, and Lokpa run standard teahouses with private twin rooms at NPR 500 to 800; Chumling (2,386 m) has three small teahouses of 4 to 6 rooms each; Chhokangparo (3,031 m) is homestay country, where trekkers sleep in family houses, eat from the family kitchen, and pay NPR 800 to 1,200 including breakfast. Nile (3,361 m) returns to two simple teahouses, and Mu Gompa itself offers monastery guest rooms.

Homestay nights are the reason Tsum reviews read differently from other treks, and they come with homestay rules: dinner is what the family cooks (usually dal bhat or thukpa), bedrooms are unheated with blankets supplied but a sleeping bag necessary, and the toilet is an outhouse. Mingma Tendi Sherpa has used the same Chhokangparo family since 2016, and on our departures the homestay allocation is fixed before the group leaves Kathmandu rather than negotiated on arrival, which matters in October when the village's roughly 30 guest beds fill.

Mu Gompa (3,700 m), the valley's highest and oldest working monastery, takes overnight guests in a guest wing of about 15 beds at NPR 800 per person, with dinner served at 6:30 pm and the morning puja open to guests at 5:30 am. Photography is allowed in the courtyard and prohibited inside the prayer hall during ceremonies, and the monks sell thangka prints whose proceeds fund the winter food store. A layover day here reaches Dhephyudonma Gompa, a 45-minute climb, or the yak pastures toward the closed Ngula Dhojhyang pass on the Tibetan border.

Rachen Gompa (3,240 m), the nunnery on the east bank of the Shiar Khola, houses over 80 nuns and accepts guests in a smaller dormitory at NPR 600, women given priority when beds run short. Guest etiquette at both gompas is the same: quiet after 8 pm, no alcohol on the premises, and meals taken at the fixed hour or not at all. Our itinerary sleeps one night at each, which no teahouse-only schedule can offer.

A combined itinerary runs 21 to 24 days and needs four permits filed in one application: the Tsum restricted permit (USD 40/week), the Manaslu restricted permit (USD 100/week from September to November, USD 75/week otherwise), MCAP, and ACAP for the Dharapani exit. The Tsum turn-off sits at Lokpa on day 3, so the side valley is walked first, and the week counts for the two restricted permits run separately, a detail that decides whether your paperwork costs USD 183 or USD 283 and that our office calculates date by date at booking.

The altitude profile is the strongest argument for the combination: 8 to 10 days between 2,000 and 3,700 m in Tsum is near-ideal pre-acclimatization for the Larkya La at 5,106 m, and combined-itinerary clients cross the pass noticeably stronger than circuit-only groups. Anyone considering the crossing should read the altitude sickness prevention guide first, since the combination converts a moderate trek into a strenuous one in its final week.

Late September to November and March to May are the reliable windows, the same as the Manaslu Circuit, but Tsum's 3,700 m ceiling stretches both shoulders: our late-November and early-December departures have run without weather incident, when the circuit's Larkya La is already closing. October gives the clearest skies over the Ganesh Himal wall; April adds flowering barley terraces around Chhokangparo and lambing season in the homestay villages.

Monsoon (June to mid-September) closes the approach for the same reason it closes the circuit, the landslide-active Budhi Gandaki gorge between Machha Khola and Jagat, even though upper Tsum itself sits in partial rain shadow and stays walkable. Winter visits in January and February are possible for cold-tolerant groups, with homestay families in residence year-round, night temperatures to -12 C at Nile, and the USD 40 weekly permit rate unchanged, since Tsum has a single flat rate in all seasons.

A 3,700 m ceiling at Mu Gompa makes Tsum the gentlest restricted-area trek this site runs, well under the Manaslu Circuit's 5,106 m Larkya La and Upper Dolpo's 5,190 m Numa La. The itinerary still follows the 500 m sleeping-altitude rule once the route passes 3,000 m at Chhokangparo, with the layover day at Mu Gompa doing the acclimatization work rather than a dedicated rest day lower down, since the whole upper valley sits close enough together that a single high-point pause covers it.

Mild AMS symptoms, headache and poor sleep mostly, show up occasionally at Nile and Mu Gompa on our departures, and guides run pulse-oximeter checks from Chhokangparo onward. Serious cases are rare at this altitude range, but the response protocol is identical to any higher route: descend if symptoms don't clear overnight, covered in full in the altitude sickness prevention guide.

The Nepal trekking packing list covers the sleeping bag, layers, and footwear every teahouse trek needs, and Tsum's homestay nights add a specific item: a sleeping bag liner matters more here than on lodge-only routes, since homestay bedding varies family to family and a liner keeps the bag itself clean over a long trek. A headlamp earns its place for the 5:30 am puja at Mu Gompa, which runs before first light.

Cash planning is stricter in Tsum than almost anywhere else this site operates: there is no ATM beyond Arughat, no card payment anywhere in the valley, and homestay families and monastery guest wings both settle in Nepali rupees only. Small notes matter specifically, since change is limited in villages this remote, and a monastery donation, by local custom, runs NPR 500 or more per gompa.

A standalone Tsum trek suits travelers with 14 days who want the valley's cultural depth, homestays, two monastery overnights, and a Buddhist hidden-valley history closed to foreigners until 2008, without committing to the Larkya La's altitude and difficulty. The combined 21 to 24-day itinerary suits travelers who want both: Tsum's lower-altitude villages function as genuine pre-acclimatization for the pass, and combined-itinerary clients cross the Larkya La noticeably stronger than circuit-only groups, a pattern Mingma Tendi Sherpa has tracked across his own departures of both routes.

The decision usually comes down to time and altitude appetite rather than cost, since the marginal cost of adding Tsum to a circuit booking is smaller than either trek's standalone permit and logistics overhead. Anyone unsure should read the Manaslu Circuit page alongside this one before choosing, since the two share a guide, a starting point at Machha Khola, and the same Department of Immigration application process.