Everest Region Trekking

Everest Region trekking takes you into the Khumbu and Solukhumbu valleys below the highest mountain on Earth, Nepal’s most famous trekking country. You can walk to Everest Base Camp at 5,364 m, climb Kala Patthar at 5,545 m for the classic sunrise view of the summit, cross high passes to the turquoise Gokyo Lakes, or skip the walk and fly over it all in a helicopter. Every route passes through Sherpa villages, Buddhist monasteries and Sagarmatha National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This guide helps you choose the right Everest Region trek, then covers what you need to know before you go: seasons, costs and permits, how to get to Lukla, how hard the walking is, and the story of the mountain itself. Every trip below is run by our own Kathmandu-based team, with permits included and acclimatisation days built into the itinerary.

Which Everest Region trek is right for you?

Treks in the Everest Region fall into four kinds of trip. Here is the short version, followed by every Everest trip we run with its length, highest point, grade and starting price.

• Choose an Everest Base Camp trek if you want the classic: Namche Bazaar, Tengboche Monastery, the Khumbu Glacier and the famous rock at base camp. Our 12-day Everest Base Camp trek is the most popular way to do it without cutting acclimatisation days.
• Choose Gokyo, Cho La or the Three Passes if you want quieter trails, glacial lakes and a full loop rather than an out-and-back walk. These routes are longer and include high pass crossings.
• Choose a short trek or a heli tour if you have a week or less. Pikey Peak gives a wide Everest panorama at 4,065 m without the altitude of the Khumbu, and the heli tour reaches Kala Patthar in a single morning.
• Choose peak climbing if you have trekked at altitude before and want a summit of your own: Lobuche, Mera, Kyajo Ri or Ama Dablam.

Every trip can be adjusted. We can add a rest day, start with the overland drive instead of the Lukla flight, or swap the walk out for a helicopter. If two treks look similar, our side-by-side trek comparisons show the day-by-day differences.

Everest Base Camp: the classic route

However you start, the main trail from Lukla is the same. You walk to Phakding, climb to Namche Bazaar (3,440 m), continue through Tengboche (3,860 m) and Dingboche (4,410 m), then Lobuche (4,940 m) and Gorak Shep (5,164 m), before the final walk across the moraine to Everest Base Camp at 5,364 m. Most trekkers climb Kala Patthar (5,545 m) the next morning, which is the best viewpoint for Everest itself, because the summit cannot be seen from base camp.

On our Everest Base Camp Short Trek you reach base camp on day 8, stand on Kala Patthar on day 9 and fly back to Kathmandu on day 12. It keeps both acclimatisation days, at Namche and at Dingboche, which is where “short” itineraries usually cut corners. Our day-by-day Everest Base Camp itinerary walks through each stage.

The other base camp trips change how you get in or out:

• Everest Base Camp via Ramechhap is built around the Manthali airport flight used in peak season, with time in Kathmandu at either end.
• The Everest Base Camp overland trek drives to Salleri and walks in, skipping the Lukla flight altogether.
• The Everest Base Camp luxury trek uses the best lodges on the trail.
• The heli trek and the 9-day heli return walk up and fly back by helicopter, saving the knees and several days of descent.

Gokyo Lakes, Cho La and the Three Passes

West of the base camp trail, the Gokyo valley holds a chain of glacial lakes between roughly 4,700 m and 5,000 m, below Gokyo Ri and the Ngozumpa, the longest glacier in Nepal. The Gokyo Lake trek goes there and back. The Gokyo Renjo La Pass trek loops back over the Renjo La (5,360 m), one of the finest viewpoints in the region.

The Cho La (5,420 m) links the Gokyo valley with the main base camp trail, so you can see both on one trip: our Everest Base Camp via Gokyo Lakes and Cho La and Everest Base Camp with Gokyo Lake treks both do this. The Everest High Pass trek and the Cho La Pass trek go further, crossing the region’s high passes for the most complete circuit of the Khumbu. The passes involve steep, icy sections and long days, so they suit trekkers who are comfortable at altitude. For budgets, see our Three Passes trek cost guide and Gokyo Lake trek cost guide.

Short Everest treks and scenic flights

Not everyone has two weeks. The Pikey Peak trek and the Short Pikey Peak trek start with a drive to Dhap and climb to Pikey Peak (4,065 m), in the lower Solukhumbu, where the sunrise view takes in Everest and a long line of Himalayan peaks. The trails are quiet, the altitude is moderate, and the villages see far fewer trekkers than the Khumbu. Read more in our Pikey Peak trek guide.

The Everest heli tour flies from Kathmandu to land near Kala Patthar (5,545 m) for the view of Everest, then returns the same day. It does not replace the trek, but it is a real option if you are short on time or cannot walk at altitude.

Best time to trek in the Everest Region

The best seasons are autumn (September to November) and spring (March to May). After the monsoon clears in mid-September, October and November bring the clearest skies of the year and the most reliable Lukla flights. October is the busiest month, and November is quieter with the same views and colder nights. Spring is a close second: March and April bring the rhododendron bloom on the lower trails, warmer days and fewer trekkers than peak autumn, and May is the climbing season at base camp.

Winter (December to February) is cold above 4,000 m and some trails are icy, but the skies are often clear and the lodges are empty. The monsoon (June to August) brings cloud, rain on the lower trails and more flight delays. Our best time to trek Everest Base Camp guide compares every month, and we have month-by-month guides for March, June, October, November and December.

Everest Region trek cost and permits

What an Everest trek costs depends on the route, its length and how you travel. As a benchmark, a guided Everest Base Camp trek with a Nepal-based company typically costs between $1,300 and $1,900 for a standard 12 to 14 day itinerary on a shared group departure. Short treks like Pikey Peak cost less, while the longer pass crossings, private and luxury trips and helicopter returns cost more. The table above shows the current starting price of each of our trips, and our Everest Base Camp trek cost guide breaks down every expense.

You need two permits for the Everest Region, and both are included in our packages:

• Sagarmatha National Park entry permit: NPR 3,000 per person for foreign nationals.
• Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality permit: NPR 3,000 per person (raised from NPR 2,000 in 2025).

The TIMS card is no longer required in the Khumbu. See our Everest permit guide for where each permit is checked. Peak climbing needs a separate climbing permit, covered in our guides to the Lobuche Peak permit and the Island Peak permit.

Travel insurance that covers trekking at altitude and helicopter evacuation is essential. Our Everest trek insurance guide explains what to check in your policy.

Getting to the Everest Region: Lukla, Ramechhap or overland

There is no road into the Khumbu. Almost every Everest trek starts with the short flight to Lukla’s Tenzing-Hillary Airport, famous for its short, sloping runway.

• Direct from Kathmandu: outside the peak months, flights leave Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport and take about 30 to 35 minutes. One-way fares for foreign nationals run roughly $215 to $240. See our Kathmandu to Lukla flight guide.
• Via Ramechhap (Manthali): in the peak seasons, mid-March to mid-May and late September through November, Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority moves Lukla flights to Manthali Airport in Ramechhap to ease congestion in Kathmandu. That means a pre-dawn drive of 4 to 5 hours, then a flight of about 20 minutes. Fares run around $175 to $190 one-way, plus shared transport. See our Ramechhap to Lukla flight and Kathmandu to Ramechhap transport guides.
• Overland: you can drive to Salleri, Phaplu or Jiri and walk in. This was the original approach, used by the 1953 expedition before Lukla’s airstrip existed. It adds trekking days but avoids flight delays and passes villages most trekkers never see.
• By helicopter: shared and private helicopters fly to Lukla, base camp and Kala Patthar, and many trekkers use one for the return.

How hard are Everest Region treks? Difficulty, altitude and acclimatisation

Difficulty ranges from easy short treks like Pikey Peak to strenuous peak climbs, so check each trip’s grade in the table above. The treks themselves, Everest Base Camp included, are walking trips: they need no technical climbing skills, no ropes and no mountaineering experience. What makes them hard is the altitude and the run of long days. On the base camp trek, the round trip from Lukla is about 130 km, daily walks run from three to eight hours, and the longest day, from Lobuche to Gorak Shep and on to base camp, takes about eight hours over rocky glacial moraine. Most reasonably fit people manage it when they pace themselves. Our honest guide to how hard the Everest Base Camp trek is maps the effort day by day.

Altitude affects everyone, regardless of age or fitness. Above roughly 2,500 m, acute mountain sickness can strike anyone whose body has not had time to adjust. That is why our Khumbu itineraries include acclimatisation days, such as the rest days at Namche Bazaar and Dingboche on the base camp route. A mild headache or tiredness is normal. Confusion, loss of coordination or breathlessness at rest are the signal to stop climbing and descend. Read our Everest altitude sickness guide, and learn about Everest ER, the high-altitude clinic at base camp.

To prepare, start cardio and hill walking six to eight weeks before you go. Stairs, inclines and long days on your feet help more than flat running. Our guides to Everest Base Camp trek preparation and the Everest Base Camp trek for beginners cover training, packing and what to expect on the trail.

Guides, porters and gear for Everest treks

Since April 2023, all foreign nationals need a licensed guide arranged through a registered Nepali trekking agency to trek in Sagarmatha National Park, and this is checked at the Monjo entrance below Namche Bazaar. Solo trekking in the national park is no longer possible for foreigners. Read more in is a guide required for the Everest Base Camp trek.

A porter is optional but the best money you will spend on the trek: carrying a full pack at altitude adds a lot of effort for very little benefit. Our guide to hiring guides and porters for Everest Base Camp covers rates and what each role does. Good footwear matters more than any other piece of gear, so see our tested advice on the best boots for the Everest Base Camp trek.

On the trail: Namche, Tengboche and Sherpa culture

The Khumbu, the high valley system directly below Everest’s southern flank, is home to the Sherpa people. According to Nepal’s 2021 census, the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality, which covers the core Everest trekking region, has 8,720 people in 2,489 households. Sherpas make up roughly 59% of that population, living in villages between 3,000 m and 4,500 m such as Namche Bazaar, Khumjung, Khunde and Pangboche. Lower down the valley, towards Jiri and Phaplu, Rai, Tamang, Magar, Chhetri and Brahmin communities become more common.

The Sherpa people migrated here from eastern Tibet roughly 500 years ago, in several waves between the 16th and 18th centuries. They practise Tibetan Buddhism, and the monasteries, most famously Tengboche Monastery, remain active centres of religious and community life. Since Tenzing Norgay Sherpa reached the summit with Edmund Hillary in 1953, Sherpas have been central to almost every Everest expedition, and many Khumbu households speak Sherpa, Nepali and English.

Namche Bazaar is the trading town of the Khumbu and the first acclimatisation stop on every route, with bakeries, gear shops and the first views of Everest from the hill above town. Further up, Kala Patthar and Everest Base Camp are the two high points every trekker remembers.

Sagarmatha National Park and its wildlife

Established in 1976 and inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, Sagarmatha National Park covers 124,400 hectares of the Solukhumbu district, from subtropical forest up to the summit of Everest. On a single trek you pass through temperate forest, subalpine forest, alpine meadow and finally the nival zone above 5,000 m, where almost nothing grows.

The park holds 28 recorded mammal species, including the snow leopard, red panda, Himalayan tahr, musk deer, Himalayan black bear and grey wolf. Over 200 bird species have been recorded, including the Himalayan monal, or Danphe, Nepal’s national bird, which you are most likely to see in the rhododendron forest around Tengboche in the early morning. More than 1,000 plant species grow across the park, and the rhododendron forests bloom red and pink through March and April. The Sherpa community’s Buddhist reverence for the mountain and its wildlife long predates the park, and park management builds on that relationship.

Mount Everest: the mountain behind the trek

Mount Everest stands at 8,848.86 m above sea level, the highest point on Earth. Nepal and China jointly confirmed this figure in December 2020, using GPS survey equipment and ground-penetrating radar to measure the snow cap on top of the rock summit. The first serious measurement came in 1856, when British surveyor Andrew Waugh calculated “Peak XV” at 8,840 m by triangulation from the plains of India, because foreigners could not enter Nepal or Tibet to measure it directly.

The summit sits exactly on the border between Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, at 27.9881°N, 86.9250°E. Climbers from the south start in Nepal’s Solukhumbu District, climbers from the north in Tibet. Everest belongs to the Mahalangur Himal, which also holds Lhotse (8,516 m), Makalu (8,485 m) and Cho Oyu (8,201 m), which is why the skyline from Kala Patthar or Gokyo Ri is a wall of giants rather than one peak alone.

Locally the mountain has two older names. Nepal calls it Sagarmatha, “forehead of the sky”. Tibet calls it Chomolungma, “goddess mother of the world”. The English name honours Sir George Everest, a former Surveyor General of India, and was adopted by the Royal Geographical Society in 1865.

Everest is roughly 60 million years old, young by geological standards. It formed when the Indian tectonic plate collided with the Eurasian plate, a collision that began 40 to 50 million years ago and is still happening, so the Himalayas are still rising by a few millimetres a year. The rock near the summit is marine limestone containing fossils of sea creatures: it once lay at the bottom of the Tethys Ocean.

Trekking to Everest or climbing it?

Walking to Everest Base Camp and climbing to the summit are almost unrelated trips. The base camp trek is a walking holiday that tops out at 5,545 m on Kala Patthar. Climbing Everest is a technical expedition of six to nine weeks, with fixed ropes, supplemental oxygen, the Khumbu Icefall and weeks of acclimatisation in progressively higher camps.

The South Col route from Nepal, the route Hillary and Tenzing used in 1953, is the more popular of the two standard routes. The North Ridge route from Tibet starts from a base camp around 5,150 m and faces the technical Second Step near the summit. Every guided expedition works to a turnaround time, the “2pm rule”: if you have not reached the summit by 2:00pm on summit day, you turn back, because most Everest deaths happen on the descent. More than 13,700 summits have been recorded since 1953.

Nepal’s climbing royalty for Everest’s standard route is $15,000 per person in spring, $7,500 in autumn and $3,750 in winter and the monsoon, and total expedition costs run from about $40,000 to well over $100,000. Solo expeditions on Nepal’s 8,000 m peaks are no longer permitted, and Nepal’s new Tourism Bill requires Everest applicants to have summited a 7,000 m peak in Nepal first.

That is why the trekking peaks of the Everest Region matter. Lobuche (6,119 m), Mera (6,476 m) and Kyajo Ri (6,186 m) are how trekkers learn to use crampons, fixed ropes and an ice axe at altitude, and Ama Dablam (6,812 m) is one of the most admired technical climbs in the Himalaya. Our guide to peak climbing in the Everest Region compares them.

Plan your Everest Region trek with us

You don’t need an expedition budget or a 7,000 m summit to stand in front of Everest. Our treks follow the same trail through the same Sherpa villages that every expedition walks, with your own licensed guide, permits included and acclimatisation days built in. Pick a trip from the table above, or tell us your dates and we will shape an itinerary around you.