Jeep ride toward Lukla

Which village is currently the closest to Lukla option to drive to?

Thank you for your answers

Marco

Unless things have changed it was Jiri. From there its around a 6 day trek to namche bazaar. If your going up to EBC you will not go through lukla, you will merge onto the path further up.

Hi Marco,

I came through there last month.
The road almost reaches Nuntala now but jeeps don't seem to go much further than Trakshindo La at the moment. That would put you about two days walking from Lukla.

Eric
My travel blog https://wanderingeric.org

Thanks James but that was the situation 10 years ago...

Thanks Eric

Agree, post #1 not up to date.

Easy to get jeep from Kathmandu to Salleri/Paphlu, and, as Eric suggests, possibly to Traksindo.

For clarity's sake we should note that Jiri and Salleri roads are not the same. Jiri road goes at least to Bhandar (depending on the weather situation), Salleri road makes first a huge detour to the west, then to Terai and east, then climbs north, now reaching Nuntala/Manidingma. In 2 year's time it is supposed to reach Surkie, just below Lukla. I have not heard about plans to continue towards Namche, at last yet.

We used the "jeep" (a 4 x 4) in Dec 2015, from Ktm to Saleri, then to Phaplu, which is about another 20 minutes. We left Ktm at 6.30 (after the usual messing about - it was meant to leave at 5.00), got to Phaplu at 16.45. This included stops for drinks, toilet and lunch.

The next day we walked up to Junbesi, where we stayed the night, after going to the Tibetan monastery north of Junbesi.

If time is limited, it may be best to go to Phaplu, see if any other vehicles are going north from there (to Nhunthala etc). We saw the "road" in 2015, but it was very much under "construction" - many of these roads have no proper engineering input, which is part of the reason there are so many landslips etc. The locals need to be very careful that they do not deter trekkers who want to walk in from Jiri (or Phaplu).

We did the walk in from Jiri in Dec 2010.

Thanks to everybody.
I did the walk from Bandhar in 2011. Now I'd like to come back to Gokyo Valley, I don't like flying to/from Lukla and I would like to spend not more than 3 days from KTM to Lukla.
I think I will able to do so.

marco

Way to go guys, very encouraging to read that Trekkers still have interest in the classic EBC route from Jiri and exploring other approaches, rather than the majority going the fly-in-fly-out Lukla route quick thrill consumable run. Although I respect everyone has time and other limits and prefer to devote their efforts in different ways.

I first did the solo self guided Jiri EBC and back out run in 1987 and did so about 4 times more since then but fly out Lukla, not for the last 13 years though. The Jiri to EBC route has always been mentally and physically important for me to acclimatise, get fitter and prepared in the approach to EBC and build up for the final EBC and Gokyo endpoints. I always enjoy the beautiful bus ride and mingle cheek to joul intereaction with the locals and beautiful towns and hills before Lukla.

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