The TIMS card, region by region: what's actually required to trek Nepal in 2026

For years, the answer to "do I need a TIMS card?" in Nepal was a simple yes. In 2026 it is genuinely "it depends on where you are going." The Trekkers' Information Management System card — long a near-universal requirement — is being unwound region by region, replaced in some areas by local entry fees and in others by a digital version. Here is what is actually being asked of trekkers right now, and where the picture is still in transition.

From the trail · Mustang

Region by region

In the Everest region, the TIMS card has been fully scrapped. In its place, the local Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality charges its own entry fee of NPR 3,000, raised from NPR 2,000 in 2025, collected locally. On the Annapurna trails — the Circuit, Base Camp and Poon Hill — checkpoints in 2026 verify the Annapurna Conservation Area Permit (ACAP), and a TIMS card is still required alongside it — registered agencies issue one for every client. In Langtang, by contrast, TIMS is still required, but the old paper card has been replaced by a digital e-TIMS system.

An honest caveat

This is a moving target, and we will say so plainly: sources and checkpoints do not all agree yet. Some operators report TIMS is no longer compulsory anywhere; others confirm it is still actively collected on Langtang and restricted-area routes. Enforcement practice is genuinely in transition through 2026 and can vary from one checkpoint to the next. The conservation-area permits — ACAP for Annapurna, the national park fees for Everest and Langtang — are not affected by any of this and remain firmly required.

What hasn't changed

Two things are worth underlining because they cause the most confusion. First, dropping the TIMS card does not make a region "permit-free" — you still pay the conservation or municipal entry fee, which in most cases costs more than TIMS ever did. Second, the restricted areas (Manaslu, Upper Mustang, Upper Dolpo, Kanchenjunga, Nar-Phu and others) keep their own special permit regime, and a licensed guide through a registered agency remains legally mandatory there.

The direction of travel is clear: Nepal is decentralising trekking fees toward the regions that actually host trekkers. That is arguably fairer — more of your money stays in the valleys you walk through — but it does mean the old single-card simplicity is gone for good.

Source: Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal (TAAN) and Nepal Tourism Board, joint TIMS administrators.

Cover photo: Poonhillguide via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).