In this business world, everything has its price. Whether you go trekking or traveling, a certain amount of money is required to complete the journey successfully. That means there is a requirement to plan where and how you spend your money.
To fulfill your dream of adventure without going into debt, you have to plan your budget, track your expenses, and cut unnecessary spending. I don’t want my audience to forget their dreams just because of money mismanagement.
So, I have prepared a detailed blog on budgeting for your Annapurna Circuit adventurous trek just for my lovely audiences. Continue reading.
Annapurna Circuit Trek Budgeting
Annapurna Circuit Trek budgeting means planning the budget for trek with including all the essential factors like accommodation, meals, permits, equipmentand transportations.
- Package costing
The packaging costs can vary as there are many trek operators offering different trekking packages. You can choose based on your preferences, and budget level.
Some of the packages that covers basic facilities may range from $600 to $1000. You can also get discounts if you are going for trek in group.
- Daily expenses
In terms of daily expenses, if you have good bargaining skills, then you can reduce the expenses. The other factors that affect the expenses are your personal choices and specific routes taken during the trek.
Meal items and costs, shelter costs, and other expenses may vary from lower to higher altitude tea houses. But, there is no shortage of food. You will get as much as you want.
Here are the major daily expenses during Annapurna Circuit Trek.
- Breakfast
Trekking on a hungry stomach can give you bad experiences of the hike. You may have to face health problems like gastritis. So, skipping breakfast is not a good idea.
Tea houses in the Annapurna circuit offer breakfast, which is the best way to start your day. You can enjoy a variety of items in the breakfast set that includes boiled eggs, hash brown potatoes, toast, and coffee. The typical breakfast set costs around $5-$6.33.
Furthermore, Tibetan bread or chapati, omelets, or cornflakes can also be added if you wish to have more. The item costs may differ from tea house to tea house and from lower altitudes to highest altitudes.
- Lunch and dinner
If you wish for a plain lunch or dinner, your cost will come to around $7.96 per meal per person, which includes a daalbhaat set. These daalbhaat are delicious and reflect the Nepali culture.
There is a popular Nepali saying, “Daalbhaat power lasts several hours,” which is actually true. The local dish, like daalbhaat, gives you enough power that you will feel no hunger until you reach the next tea house for dinner.
Moreover, if you wish for some other local dishes, then you have choices like vegetable curries, soups, momos (dumplings), chapati, and noodles with additional costs of $2-$4 per item. These items provide you with energy and a balance of nutrition that is needed during the hike.
- Shelter
After a long hours of trek, you will get tired and need shelter to rest at night. Tea House provides the facility with one room that costs around $5-$6 per night.
There, you can rest, summarizing all the memories of the places that you have encountered during the day.
- Wi-Fi and electricity costs
If you wish to use Wi-Fi to use the internet, you can ask t9 the tea house staff. The one-time fee generally costs around $5-$10. But as you get higher altitudes, there may be problems with Wi-Fi, or you may not find it. So, I suggest using prepaid cards instead of Wi-Fi.
The cost of prepaid cards for 20GB of data comes to around $25. Moreover, the use of a prepaid card gives you flexibility and sole authority without lagging the network.
When It comes to electricity costs, you have to pay around $3-$5 per hour to charge your devices and power banks.
- Transportation via road and flight costs
You have a variety of options of transportation options that have varying costs. Your flight from your destination to Kathmandu costs around $500 to 1000. The costs may carry on which operator you choose to trek with.
If you wish to have a luxury international flight, it costs around $3500 to $3700. These costs may vary depending on the trek operators you choose.
The return flight from Jomsom to Pokhara costs around $160 per person, and the flight back to Kathmandu from Pokhara costs around $31-37 per person.
Moreover, for transportation by bus, the journey from Kathmandu to Besi Sahar per person costs around $15. But, you think that traveling by the bus has no private ride. Then, you can enjoy a Jeep drive that costs around $175 to 200 Per person.
- Tourism cost
You have to take various permits and passes to make sure that you face no problems during the journey. The normal trekking permits cost around $2.98 per day per person
- Guides and porter costs
Guides and porters, the professionals, are required in every part of the trek. Porter carry your luggage and other necessary things. And guides guide you through the trek, providing knowledge about the path and helping you in emergencies.
The average cost of the guide per day is around $15 to $25, and the charge per day of the porter is $15. You can reduce the cost of the guide by trekking in a group where you can split the cost between group members.
It is not compulsory, but if you are satisfied with their service, you can tip the guide and porter. The normal tipping cost for a guide is around $150-$200, and for a porter, it is $60-$80. You can give the tip at the end of the trek if you want.
- Permits and passes
While going for trekking in Annapurna circuit, you will need two permits: Annapurna Conservation Area Permit (ACAP) and the Trekkers’ Information Management System (TIMS) Card.
These are the most important permissions to ensure your safety from the environmental hazards and wildlife attacks. You will have to pay $18 for a TIMS permit if you are traveling solo and with the group; it costs only $9. In contrast, an ACAP permit costs $25.
- Unexpected medical expenses
No one can predict future. Problems and emergencies can come at any time, so you have to be prepared for any emergencies that occur on your way.
In case of emergency, the medical evacuation during the trek costs around $4000 to $6000 or even more depending on location.
- Travel insurance
In terms of travel insurance, you have to be very careful when choosing a policy. Some policies may not cover trip cancellation expenses or emergency expenses above 5000m.
Some of the popular quoted costs of travel insurance are listed below.
- World Nomads Travel Insurance-$130
- General policy covering trekking up to 6000m-$150
Travel insurance generally costs around $130 to $170. Make sure that your insurance policy includes trekking above 5000m because most of the places in Annapurna Circuit Trek are above 5000m. So, depending on the travel route and days, you have to plan your budget accordingly.
- Visa fees
This is one of the costs that is not included in your trek package, but you need to spend in order to do the traveling across the border. Visa fees vary on how many days you are staying in the country. The days include your arrival in the country and departure to your destination.
There are different visa fee structures for those coming from other countries. You will benefit if you come from one of the SAARC countries. Here are the lists of the visa fee structures.
For SAARC nationals
• Visa for 30 days-$30
For other countries
• Visa for 15 days-$25
• Visa for 30 days-$50
• Visa for 90 days-$125
- City tour expenses
Your other expenses that is generally not included in your package is city tour expenses. There is private touring company that presents you a package costing $95 per person for city tour.
But if you want to tour of your own, then your costings are listed below.
For SAARC national
- Entry fee to heritage sites and museum-$0.5 to $5
For other countries
- Entry fee to heritage sites and museums-$1 to $10
- Additional costs
While covering all the costs, there are still more unknown expenses that you may spend during the journey. These expenses include shopping, alcoholic beverages, and other general spending activities.
As you go on the hike, you may want to keep some things in the memory of the trek. Furthermore, you may wish to go shopping for clothes, bracelets, Malas, and so on.
Along the way, you may want to have alcoholic drinks, like vodka, beer, rum, and so on. Rum is more popular in the cold region.
Moreover, you may need essential equipment like warm sleeping bags, thermal jackets, hiking boots, and more, and the costs range from US$500 to $1,000. So, it is essential to carry all the extra expenses.