Upper Mustang Motorbike Tour

A Firante representative meets you at Tribhuvan International Airport and transfers you to your hotel. In the evening, a briefing covers the route, the bikes, and the permit process, followed by a welcome dinner.

We leave Kathmandu early in the morning after breakfast, giving us the full day for the ride. The road out runs through the busier Kathmandu–Mugling stretch, shared with heavy freight traffic from the Sunauli and Birgunj border crossings, before opening into a smoother, more scenic road through mountain villages and valley landscapes for the final stretch into Pokhara, roughly 6- 7 hours of riding in total. After checking into a hotel with good facilities and cleaning up, there’s time in the afternoon for a walk along Phewa Lake or an optional bike ride up to Sarangkot, if energy allows after the first long day. Over dinner, we go over any last questions before heading further into the mountains tomorrow.

The road runs through Beni and Tatopani, an area with some ongoing construction that mainly slows four-wheeled traffic rather than motorbikes. Just past Tatopani, Rupse Chhahara(waterfall) comes into view, a waterfall dropping straight down beside the road, and a natural stopping point to stretch and take photos before continuing on. From there, the route continues to Ghasa (2,010 m), known for its own waterfalls and apple orchards, and Lete (2,480 m), before reaching Kalopani, with views of both Annapurna I and Dhaulagiri on a clear day.

The ride continues through Marpha, the whitewashed Thakali village known for its apple orchards and brandy, and on to Muktinath, one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the Himalaya, home to an eternal natural gas flame and 108 water taps. From Muktinath, the road descends to Kagbeni, the checkpoint village where permits are checked before entering the restricted area.

Past Kagbeni, there’s a single road the whole way to Lo Manthang, no alternate route, and the riding gets noticeably more technical here: loose gravel through switchbacks, stretches of soft sand where standing on the pegs helps, and the occasional shallow river crossing. It runs through Chhusang and Chele before climbing over Syangboche, one of the higher points on the route, then descends to Ghami (3,520 m), the third-largest village in the Lo region, known for its poplar-lined trail and barley fields. From Ghami, the road continues through Charang (also spelled Tsarang, 3,560 m), home to an active monastery and a historic dzong, before the final stretch into Lo Manthang.

A full day inside the walled city. The morning covers Lo Manthang’s three major monasteries: Jampa Lhakhang, the oldest, known for its mandala paintings and thick walls; Thubchen Lhakang, with its large assembly hall and ancient wall paintings; and Chode Monastery, the largest of the three, home to a monastic museum.

In the afternoon, we ride north to Chhoser village (also known locally as Garphu), roughly 9-10 km from Lo Manthang, home to a cluster of genuinely remarkable sites: the Shija Jhong Cave (commonly called Chhoser Cave), a five-story, man-made cave complex believed to be over 2,000 years old, cut into a sandstone cliff with more than 40 interconnected rooms linked by ladders and narrow stone stairways. Nearby is Garphu Monastery (Lo Gurfu Gompa), a small cave monastery built directly into the cliff face, still active, and quieter than the caves themselves. Depending on time and interest, we can also stop at Lo-Nifu Gompa, another cave monastery in the same valley.

The ride back retraces the same single road through Charang, Ghami, Syangboche, Chele and Chhusang to Kagbeni, where permits are checked on the way out, before continuing on to Jomsom.

The road retraces the outbound route back through Marpha, the whitewashed Thakali village you rode through on Day 4, this time heading south, and on through Kalopani and Ghasa, dropping steadily out of the high desert and back into greener terrain. By the time you reach Tatopani, the climate change is obvious: warmer air, denser forest, and the sound of the Kali Gandaki running much fuller than it did further north. Tatopani means “hot water” in Nepali, and the natural hot springs here are exactly the reward you’d want after a week of high-altitude riding: a proper soak before the final push back to civilization.

The final riding day of the tour, retracing the Beni corridor south, the same stretch that had some construction-related slowdowns on the way out. Past Beni, the road opens up and runs smoothly the rest of the way into Pokhara. Riders often describe this as the day the trip starts to feel “over”, the mountains behind you, lakeside city ahead, and a proper hotel bed waiting at the end of it.

No riding today (optional short ride to Sarangkot)
A full rest day, and a deliberately built-in one, after nine days on the bike; this is where the schedule finally lets you slow down instead of packing up and moving on. Spend the morning on Phewa Lake, either in a rented rowboat out to the Tal Barahi Temple on its small island, or just having coffee at one of the lakeside cafes. The World Peace Pagoda, a short boat ride and a walk up the hill across the lake, gives a wide view back over Pokhara and the Annapurna range beyond it. For anyone not ready to fully put the bike down yet, an optional short ride up to Sarangkot for sunrise is genuinely worth the early start; on a clear morning it’s one of the best mountain views on the entire trip.

A shorter, easier riding day to Bandipur, a preserved 18th-century Newari hill town that the modern highway bypassed entirely in the 1970s, which is exactly why it still looks the way it does. The main bazaar is vehicle-free, red-brick buildings with carved wooden windows and doors line the street, and it feels like a genuinely different Nepal from anywhere else on this route. From the Thani Mai Temple and the open ground of the Tundikhel, the views stretch out to the Annapurna, Dhaulagiri, Manaslu and Langtang ranges all at once. For anyone with energy left, Bandipur is also the gateway to the Siddha Cave, the largest cave in Nepal and the second-largest in Asia, an easy add-on if there’s time before dinner.

The final ride back to Kathmandu, rejoining the main highway and retracing the same busier stretch from Day 2 in reverse. In the evening, Firante hosts a farewell dinner to mark the end of the tour, a chance to swap photos and stories from the road with the rest of the group before everyone heads their separate ways the next day.

A Firante representative transfers you to the airport, timed ahead of your flight, bringing the tour to a close.

Airport drop-off by private car