Everest Base Camp Trek

Fixed departures of the 14-day Everest Base Camp trek currently start at USD 1,620 per person, and a private trip for your own group is USD 2,150. That covers both national park permits, your licensed guide, teahouse rooms and every meal while you are on the trail. The full list is in the What's included section higher up this page.

What it does not cover is the spending you do on the trail itself. None of it is large, but it adds up over two weeks, and most people are surprised by it because few operators write it down. Here is the honest version.

How much cash to carry

There are ATMs in Kathmandu and two in Namche Bazaar, and that is the last of them. Above Namche it is cash only, in Nepali rupees, and the machines in Namche do run empty in peak season. Draw what you need in Kathmandu and carry it. Work out your own number from the table above rather than using someone else's daily figure, because showers and Wi-Fi are what separate a cheap two weeks from an expensive one.

Tipping

Tipping is normal in Nepal and it matters to the crew, but we do not publish a fixed rate and we would rather not invent one. Tips are usually pooled and handed over on the last evening. Ask your guide or our office what is reasonable for your group size, and we will give you a straight answer.

Two things worth budgeting for

Leave a spare day and some spare money at the end of the trip. Lukla flights are weather dependent and delays happen in any season, so an extra night in Kathmandu is a real possibility rather than bad luck. And if you want a room to yourself rather than sharing, tell us when you book and we will quote it before you pay.

It is a hard trek, but not a technical one. There is no climbing and no equipment to learn. What makes it hard is walking 5 to 7 hours a day, day after day, while sleeping higher than most people have ever slept. People of all ages finish it every season, including trekkers in their seventies.

What actually makes it hard

Two things. The first is altitude: most nights are spent above 3,500 m, and the air holds roughly half the oxygen you are used to. The second is the descents. The trail gives back almost everything it takes, and it is knees rather than lungs that people complain about once the descent starts.

The itinerary builds in two rest days for this, at Namche Bazaar (3,440 m) and Dingboche (4,410 m). They are not padding. Feeling breathless, tired and sore at altitude is normal. Feeling worse each morning is not, and that is the difference your guide is watching for.

How to train for it

Give yourself three months. Four sessions a week is enough if you use them well:

• Two hill walks, an hour or more, carrying the daypack you will actually bring, loaded to about 5 kg.
• One longer walk at the weekend, building to 5 or 6 hours.
• One session of legs and core, or stairs if you have no hills nearby.

Once a month, walk two long days back to back. That is the thing the trek asks of you that a single hard workout never tests, and it is the best preparation you can do. Train the descents as well as the climbs. If you have a heart, lung or blood-pressure condition, talk to your doctor before you book.

Altitude, and how we watch it

A pulse oximeter is a cheap clip that reads the oxygen in your blood, and plenty of trekkers now carry one. At sea level a healthy reading is around 95 to 100 per cent. At 4,000 m and above, everyone reads lower, so a single number on its own means very little. What matters is the trend across a few days and whether it comes with headache, poor sleep or loss of appetite. Never use a good reading to talk yourself into going higher when you feel bad. Tell your guide either way, and let them make the call.

Can a beginner do it?

Yes, if you train and you are honest with yourself about the training. First-time trekkers reach base camp every season, and a prepared beginner usually copes better than an unprepared runner. We cap groups at 8 people, which means the pace can follow the slowest walker instead of the fastest. If you want the Khumbu without the full two weeks, ask us about the shorter, lower routes.

Spring (March to May) and autumn (September to November) are the two best windows. The trek runs year round, but those two seasons give you the clearest air and the most reliable flights. Everything else is a trade.

Spring, March to May

Stable weather, daytime temperatures of 8°C to 16°C at Namche (below freezing at night higher up), and rhododendron forests in flower lower down. It is the busiest season along with autumn, so lodges fill early and the trail has company. Sherpa New Year (Gyalpo Losar) falls in spring.

Autumn, September to November

The monsoon has washed the haze out of the air, so this is the clearest visibility of the year, with daytime temperatures of 5°C to 14°C. Dashain and Tihar both fall in autumn, and Mani Rimdu is celebrated at Tengboche Monastery with three days of masked dances that visitors can watch.

Monsoon, June to August

Rain, leeches lower down, and Lukla flights that get delayed or cancelled. Not the season we would recommend for a first visit. In exchange you get empty trails and green hillsides, which suits experienced trekkers who do not mind being wet.

Winter, December to February

Nights drop to around minus 15°C or colder at Gorak Shep and many of the higher lodges close for the season. Snow can cover the trail. It is doable if you are experienced, properly equipped and with a guide, and the reward is silence and very sharp mountains.

The quieter weeks

Late February, early March and late November sit just outside the rush. Fewer people, often excellent visibility, and lower prices. If your dates are flexible, these are the weeks to ask about.

Two permits, and we arrange and carry both of them for you. They are already in your trip price. You need a third one only if you walk in from Jiri instead of flying to Lukla.

The Khumbu Pasang Lhamu fee goes straight to the local government for trail repair and community work, and it covers your whole trek rather than each entry.

Things people get caught out by

You do not need a TIMS card in the Everest region. The Khumbu Pasang Lhamu permit replaced it here, although TIMS still applies in other parts of Nepal. All permit fees are paid in Nepali rupees, not dollars. Bring two passport photos and a photocopy of your passport, because the checkpoints ask for them and there is nowhere convenient to get them once you are on the trail.

The municipality fee is NPR 3,000 per person for most foreign trekkers and NPR 2,000 for SAARC and Chinese nationals. Both permits are already in your trip price.

In teahouses, which are family-run lodges along the trail. They get simpler the higher you go, and that change is the honest part of this trek that photographs never show.

What a teahouse is like

Low down, in Lukla, Phakding and Namche, some lodges are genuinely comfortable, with private bathrooms, hot showers and Wi-Fi that works. Above Namche it thins out. A typical room is two single beds and a window. There is no heating in the bedrooms, so your sleeping bag does the work, and shared bathrooms are the norm. Some stops still have squat toilets, though many have changed over.

The dining room is always heated, and it is where the evening happens. Everyone sits around the stove with dal bhat and tea, and that room is most of what people remember.

Showers and charging

Hot showers are available at most stops for about USD 3, paid separately. Lodges usually charge per device higher up, and cold flattens batteries fast, so keep power banks in your sleeping bag overnight.

Getting a bed in peak season

In spring and autumn the lodges fill, and in the busiest weeks you may share a room with another trekker. Our guides ring ahead each day so you are not walking into the dark looking for a bed. In winter many high lodges close, which is one of the reasons a guide matters more than usual in that season.

Three meals a day are included, ordered from the teahouse menu. Breakfast and dinner are where you sleep, lunch is at a stop along the way. Menus are more varied low down and get simpler with altitude.

What to actually order

Dal bhat, which is lentil soup, rice, vegetable curry and pickle, is the meal that will get you up the hill, and refills are traditionally free. Vegetarian and vegan food is easy to find the whole way. Tell us before you travel if you have allergies or a strict diet, so guides can brief the lodges ahead of you.

Skip the meat above Namche Bazaar. There is no reliable refrigeration up there and it has been carried a long way. Two weeks of vegetarian food is a small price for not spending a day of your trek in a toilet.

Leave the alcohol alone until you are back down. It hits harder at altitude, dehydrates you, and a hangover looks a lot like the early signs of altitude sickness, which is the last thing you want your guide guessing about.

Water

Drink 3 to 4 litres a day. The Khumbu has restricted single-use plastic since 2020 and bottled water gets dearer with every day's walk, so bring a metal bottle and use one of these:

• Boiled water from the lodge. Costs about NPR 100 to 150 a litre lower down and more as you climb.
• Purification tablets or a filter. Fill from a tap or stream and treat it yourself.

Most people use a mix of both. Never drink untreated tap or stream water, however clean it looks.

You fly to Lukla (2,860 m), which is 62 km from Everest Base Camp on foot. In peak season that flight now leaves from Manthali in Ramechhap rather than Kathmandu, which changes your first day more than people expect.

The Lukla flight

Because Tribhuvan airport in Kathmandu is congested, spring and autumn flights to Lukla depart from Manthali, about 4 to 5 hours away by road. Lukla's runway only works in the morning before the wind picks up, so flights leave around 6 am, which means leaving Kathmandu around 1 am. We arrange private transport and you sleep in the vehicle. The flight itself is under 40 minutes onto a runway built into a hillside, and it is the moment the trip stops feeling abstract.

Flights here depend on weather in two places at once, so delays are normal rather than exceptional. Keep a spare day before your international flight home.

Walking in from Jiri instead

If you would rather not fly, you can drive to Jiri (8 to 9 hours) and walk in from there. It adds about a week, you gain height gradually, which helps acclimatisation, and you see a part of Nepal that most trekkers now skip entirely. This route needs the Gaurishankar Conservation Area permit. Ask us and we will build the itinerary.

Swotah runs several treks in the Everest region, and these are the main alternatives. They share the Lukla trail as far as Namche Bazaar and then split by how high, how long and how hard you want to go.

If you have fewer than two weeks, the helicopter return cuts the walk back down. If you want lakes and fewer people, Gokyo adds four days and the Cho La crossing. Experienced trekkers who want a summit go for Lobuche East, which needs crampons and fixed ropes. Prices change with the departure date, so check each trip page for current figures.