Where to Walk in March

March moves the map north

January belongs to Patagonia and the Negev winter. March is the month those southern and desert trips start to age, and two other maps become honest. In Nepal the pre-monsoon spring is open: Annapurna Base Camp lists March to April, and the Everest highlights trek lists March to May. In Israel the hills green up. The Jesus Trail lists March to May, and the cool-season canyons are still inside October to April.

The high Alps are not part of this month. The Tour du Mont Blanc lists mid-June to mid-September, and its own notes say high traverses can hold snow into early summer. Booking a March flight to Chamonix does not make that a walking tour. The full month list is on Where to walk in March. If your dates are still midwinter, use Where to walk in January instead.

Nepal, before the monsoon

Annapurna Base Camp

Seven days, about 90 km, about 5,000 m of ascent, graded hard. The walk climbs from terraced Gurung villages into the Annapurna Sanctuary, a circle of high peaks around base camp at 4,130 m. Waymark names two windows: October to November, and March to April. It says to avoid the June to September monsoon, and deep winter snow above Deurali.

March is the spring window, not a quieter copy of October. You are walking toward the rains, not away from them. If your dates slip into late May you are no longer inside the listed season. The grade is hard because of the days and the height, not because the path is technical. Read Everest or Annapurna if the only thing you know is that you want Nepal in spring.

Annapurna Base Camp

Everest Base Camp, the highlights trek

Eight days, about 110 km, about 3,200 m of ascent, graded hard. Waymark describes it as an accelerated highlights version: the airstrip at Lukla, the Sherpa valleys, and base camp at 5,364 m. The season is pre-monsoon spring, March to May, and post-monsoon autumn, late September to November.

March is the start of that spring, which is the point and the risk. You are early. The page is a highlights line, not the old three-week teahouse amble, so the days are the itinerary you are agreeing to, not a suggestion you can stretch without changing the trip. Altitude is the subject. Do not treat 5,364 m as a viewpoint you collect on the way to something else.

Everest Base Camp trek

Israel, while the hills are still green

The Jesus Trail

Four days, about 65 km, about 1,600 m of ascent, graded moderate. It runs from Nazareth across the Lower Galilee to the Sea of Galilee. The season is spring, March to May, and autumn, October to November. Summer is hot and exposed. Winter can be rainy and muddy.

March is the opening of the spring the page actually names. Four days is short enough to sit inside a week that also has a city day in Nazareth, and long enough that you should not add a Negev crater on the same long weekend. The north and the desert are both “Israel in March.” They are not the same trip.

The Jesus Trail

Three days that do not need a full trail

If four days is too much, March still has walks that finish before dinner.

Nahal Amud is about 11 km and 150 m, graded moderate, listed October to April: a shaded canyon, springs and the pillar of rock the stream is named for, down toward the Sea of Galilee. The page says to check flash-flood warnings after winter storms. March is still that season.

Banias is the easy day: about 4 km and 60 m, year-round, from the spring of Pan to Israel’s largest waterfall. The waterfall is fullest from December to May, so March is not a compromise month. It is one of the months the water is the reason to go.

Ein Avdat is about 5 km and 220 m, graded moderate, October to April. The page prefers winter and early spring, when the pools are full, and it is blunt about the gorge: avoid May to September because it traps heat, and do not enter when rain is forecast over the Negev highlands. Flash floods close the park. March is early spring. It is also still a flood month if the forecast is wet. Read the forecast before you drive down from Mitzpe Ramon.

Nahal Amud, Banias and Ein Avdat.

A longer cut of the Israel National Trail

If you want more than a canyon day and less than a full end-to-end trail, the highlights line is five days, about 92 km and 3,000 m of ascent, graded hard. It samples the Galilee ridges, Mount Carmel, the Wilderness of Zin, the Ramon Crater and the Eilat mountains. The season is autumn, October to November, and spring, March to April.

March is inside that spring. Five days across the length of the country is a different holiday from a Galilee weekend. Do not book it as “a few hikes near the hotel.”

Israel National Trail highlights

What March is not

Patagonia’s listed summer runs roughly to March, so the W Trek and Laguna de los Tres are at the end of their window, not at the December and January peak. The Inca Trail and Salkantay name a dry season of May to September. The Laugavegur huts are staffed from late June. Mount Fuji lists an official climbing season from early July.

If the trip you actually want is a hut tour in the Alps, wait for Where to walk in June. March will not become June because the fare was lower.