Family Trekking in Nepal
We took the kids on a short trek in the foothills of the Himalayas this weekend. We had the assistance of some very patient and helpful porters.
We started in Pokhara and went on a two day trek with one overnight in a little lodge up in the mountains. We climbed a long ways and walked for close to 10 miles that first day. The kids were actually pretty good about the whole thing. There were some stressful moments, Andrew (20 months old) tried to run away from us off the side of a cliff or steep staircase several times. Then later he decided he wasn’t going to be carried by the porters at all. So I carried him for a bit longer than I hoped during that day. Really, it was a thrilling and fun experience. We got to see some amazing terrain, and some (distant) really really high mountains in the Annapurna region of the Himalayas.
After we got back from the trek we still had some interesting sight in the city of Pokhara to see. Including a pedestrian suspension bridge, a buddhist monastary and the “World Peace Stupa”. Sadly we did not stay long enough to try Paragliding, but it sure looks like fun.
If you’re interested, we had a good experience with our trekking company Happy Treks. I asked for quotes from several companies and was able to make it a somewhat reasonably cheap and quick family vacation. Our trek was “easy”, we went to Dhampus and then Australian Camp, it ended up being about 3000 ft of altitude gain throughout the trek and then you shed almost all of that on the last leg down. I ended up logging over 24,000 steps on my fitbit each day, so it was pretty intense.