OK - we have 3 weeks for a trek this fall. Is Annapurna now too wrecked with roads to be the best choice? I went in 1981 and loved it, unsure now. I have been trying to read up on this, vs Manaslu or Mustang etc, but cannot tell yet. Other trips a hassle because need a guide. Or maybe that is not so bad. Anybody been out on the Nepal trails recently? Thanks, Sam.

I hiked up to the Annapurna base camp (Annapurna Sanctuary) from Phedi then came back around on a connector trail to Ghorepani by way of Tadapani and then finished off like the normal circuit. I did it in 11 days, but I'm sure it can be done much faster if one chose to. It was a wonderful trek, once in the sanctuary, it was pretty surreal being surrounded by a bunch of 7000m & 8000m peaks. I've wanted to hike in the Mustang and Dolpa region as well...I believe that requires a flight to Jomson and permits and possibly a guide. Here is a great resource even if you aren't planning on hiking the entire Great Himalaya Trail:

http://www.thegreathimalayatrail.org/

Go to the "The 10 Sections" area and there are several tabs of useful information.

I did the Annapurna Circuit and Sanctuary last November and didn't think the road situation was nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Although compared to your experience in 1981 you might have a different perspective. On the first half of the trail I think I only saw 2 or 3 jeeps. However, there were a few sections that were under construction -- mostly on the other side of the valley -- and those sections were a bit noisy until getting past them. There was one instance where the construction was on the same side that we were hiking on and we had to wait about 10 minutes for them to finish what they were doing before letting us through.

Once we got to Muktinath, the situation changed and there were a bunch of jeeps. Since we were behind schedule and ended up taking a bus from Jomsom to Tatopani, the road only impacted us on the day we hiked to Jomsom. From Tatopani on to the Sanctuary and then out to Naya Pul, the road wasn't an issue at all. Not really sure what it was like between Jomsom and Tatopani, but I imagine that part probably had the heaviest traffic.