Tours and formats
Which Everest Base Camp trek should you book?
There is one trail to Everest Base Camp and 18 ways we sell it. The choice is not really about money. It comes down to how many days you have, how much walking your body wants to do, and whether you need to stand at the camp at all. Answer those three and the right format picks itself.
Start here
Three questions decide this, and the first one is how many days you have
Almost everybody starts by comparing prices and ends up on the wrong trip. The formats below are not better and worse versions of one product. They are different trips with different answers to three questions, and the answers are yours rather than ours.
How many days do you have, door to door? This is the hard constraint and it rules out more options than anything else. Count from the day you land in Kathmandu to the day you fly home, then take a couple of days off that total for weather, because the flight into Lukla does not always go. Under a week and the honest options are the helicopter day tour or a short walk that does not reach base camp. Around twelve days and you are looking at walking up and flying out. Around two weeks and the classic walk fits. Around three weeks and you can add a pass, a lake valley or both.
How much walking do you actually want? Not how much you could survive. How much you want. Every walking format on this page asks for five to seven hours on foot on most days, one day after another, and the ones that add a pass ask for more. If the walking is the part you are looking forward to, take the longest one your calendar allows. If the walking is the price you are paying for the view, take the shortest one that still reaches the camp. How hard any of it is, in detail, is on the page about how hard the Everest Base Camp trek is.
Does the walk out matter to you? The way back down is the same trail in reverse. Some people love it, because you are dropping into thicker air with the hard part behind you and you see everything a second time in different light. Other people find it the longest four days of the trip. If you are in the second group, the helicopter return exists for exactly that reason and taking it is not cheating.
And do you need to reach base camp at all? This is the question nobody asks out loud, and getting it wrong is the most common mis-sale in this market. Several popular Everest trips never go near the camp. They are good trips. They are not the Everest Base Camp trek, and a page that lets you believe otherwise has taken your money for something you did not buy.
Compare
Every format we run, side by side, on days, highest point and price
Three columns, all read from our own published trip record1, plus one plain sentence on who each format suits. Read the group headings first. They carry the thing that actually separates these trips, which is what each one reaches.
| Format | Trip days | Highest point | Price | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reaches Everest Base Camp, and walks both ways | ||||
| The classic trek | 15 days | 5,550 m (18,209 ft) | 1,295 USD | You have about two weeks and you want the whole thing on foot, both directions. |
| The budget version of the same walk | 15 days | 5,550 m (18,209 ft) | 1,250 USD | Same route, same days, run at the lowest price we can run it honestly. |
| The comfortable version of the same walk | 13 days | 5,364 m (17,598 ft) | no single published price yet, quoted in writing | You want the best bed available in each village and you are ready to pay for it. |
| The road approach, no Lukla flight | 15 days | 5,550 m (18,209 ft) | 1,495 USD | You do not want to fly into Lukla, in either direction. |
| The Jiri approach, walking in from the road | 20 days | not published | no single published price yet, quoted in writing | You have three weeks and you want to walk in the way the 1953 expedition did. |
| Reaches Everest Base Camp, then flies you out | ||||
| The trek with a helicopter return | 12 days | 5,550 m (18,209 ft) | 2,895 USD | You can walk up but you cannot spare the days to walk back down. |
| Reaches Everest Base Camp and adds a pass or a lake | ||||
| Gokyo Lakes and the Cho La | 18 days | 5,550 m (18,209 ft) | 1,495 USD | You have close to three weeks and you want the lakes and a glacier pass as well. |
| The Three Passes loop | not published | 5,550 m (18,209 ft) | no single published price yet, quoted in writing | You want the hardest version of this route that is still a walk. |
| The Kongma La with Ama Dablam base camp | 15 days | 5,550 m (18,209 ft) | no single published price yet, quoted in writing | You want one pass and one extra objective without adding another week. |
| Adds a climbing summit, so it is a climb as well as a walk | ||||
| Base camp with Island Peak | not published | 6,189 m (20,305 ft) | no single published price yet, quoted in writing | You want base camp and a first climbing summit, and you have been on snow before. |
| Base camp with Lobuche Peak | not published | 6,119 m (20,075 ft) | no single published price yet, quoted in writing | You want base camp and a climb, with the climbing guide and the climbing gear in the trip. |
| The Three Passes with Island Peak | not published | 6,189 m (20,305 ft) | 2,099 USD | You want all three passes and a summit, and you have walked at altitude before. |
| Does NOT reach Everest Base Camp | ||||
| Everest View Trek | 7 days | 3,870 m (12,697 ft) | 795 USD | You have a week and you want to see Everest from the trail rather than stand at the camp. |
| Sherpa Village Trek | 8 days | 3,860 m (12,664 ft) | no single published price yet, quoted in writing | The villages and the monasteries matter more to you than the altitude does. |
| Everest Mini Trek | 11 days | 3,860 m (12,664 ft) | 950 USD | You want a long Khumbu walk that stays below the heights where most people get ill. |
| Gokyo Valley | 14 days | 5,357 m (17,575 ft) | no single published price yet, quoted in writing | You want the lakes and a high viewpoint, without the base camp side of the valley. |
| Gokyo and the Renjo La | 15 days | 5,545 m (18,192 ft) | 1,195 USD | You want a high pass and the lakes, and base camp is not the point for you. |
| Not a trek at all | ||||
| The helicopter day tour | 1 day | 5,364 m (17,598 ft) | no single published price yet, quoted in writing | You have one morning, and you accept that this is sightseeing rather than a trek. |
Days are trip days, counted Kathmandu to Kathmandu, which is the figure in our product record and the figure you are sold. The day by day itinerary counts trail days instead, Lukla to Lukla, so its number is smaller. Neither is wrong. They count different things, and no page here presents one as the other.
On the highest point column. Most walking formats that reach base camp publish a maximum a little above the camp itself, because they go up to the Kala Patthar viewpoint on the last morning. The Kala Patthar viewpoint that trekkers reach, where the Everest photographs are taken, sits at about 5,545 m. Figures of 5,550 m and 5,555 m are roundings of the same point.2 Where a walking format’s maximum reads 5,364 m (17,598 ft) instead, the high point is the camp and that viewpoint morning is not in its trip facts.
On the price column. Where a format shows a price, that is the price of the trip, and your written quote confirms it for your group and your dates before you pay anything. Where it does not, there is no single published price for that trip yet, and the price comes to you in writing, in the quote for your dates, before you pay anything.
Some length cells are deliberately blank. We publish no length for the Three Passes or for the trips that add a summit, because our own pages give more than one for each and we have not settled which is right. We publish no maximum altitude for the Jiri route, because the figure in its trip facts is lower than a point its own day list reaches. We would rather leave a gap than print a number we would not defend. Ask us for any of them and you will get the current answer with the working shown.
Feet are computed by the page from the meter figure in the store. No feet figure on this site is typed by a writer, so the two cannot drift apart.
The price column
What each format costs, and what your written quote confirms
9 of the 18 formats in the table carry a published price, and it is in the price column. The price of the classic trek, for example, is 1,295 USD. Your written quote confirms the price for your group and your dates before you pay anything.
The other formats have no single published price yet. For those, the price comes to you in writing, in the quote for your dates, before you pay anything. Ask for it through the inquiry form.
Each price in the table is the one we stand behind for that trip. If you have seen a different figure for the same trip on another page of ours, the price here replaces it.
If what you really want is to understand where the money goes, that is a different question and it has its own page. Permits, the flight, your guide, your porter, beds, food and tips are broken down on the page about what the Everest Base Camp trek costs. That page owns the components. This one owns the formats and their prices.
The classic
The classic trek walks in and walks out, and most people should still book it
15 days from landing in Kathmandu to flying home, topping out at 5,550 m (18,209 ft). You fly to Lukla, walk up the valley over a week and a half with two days built in for getting used to the air, stand at Everest Base Camp, and walk back down the way you came.
This is the version the route was shaped around, and it is the one we recommend unless something specific rules it out. The reason is not tradition. It is that walking out gives you a slow descent into thicker air, a buffer if the weather closes in, and two more nights low in the valley on the way down that almost everybody ends up grateful for.
The acclimatization days are the part people try to cut, and they are the part we argue hardest to keep. Acclimatization means letting your body get used to less oxygen before you climb higher, and it takes days rather than willpower. A trip that saves two days by removing them has not made the trek shorter. It has made it more likely to end early. What happens on each of those days is on the day by day itinerary.
The price of the classic trek is 1,295 USD, and your written quote confirms it for your group and your dates before you pay anything. The full version, including the hardest days and what is actually included, is on the page for the classic Everest Base Camp trek.
Walk up, fly out
The helicopter return removes the walk out, not the trek
12 days, topping out at 5,550 m (18,209 ft). You walk the whole way up, on the same trail, with the same acclimatization days, and you reach base camp on foot. Then instead of several days walking back, you fly out.
This is the option people are most embarrassed to ask about and it is the one that fits the most lives. It saves the difference between the two day counts above, which is most of a working week. It also takes you out of the Lukla departure queue, which is where trips most often lose their last day to weather.
What it does not do is make the trek easier. Everything hard about this route happens on the way up, and you still do all of it. If you were hoping the helicopter would take the altitude out of the trip, it will not, and the honest answer for you is probably a different format on this page.
One thing to know before you book it. Mountain flying depends on the weather and on weight, so a helicopter departure is a plan rather than a promise, and the fallback is that you walk. We tell you that before you pay rather than on the day. The price of this format is 2,895 USD, and your written quote confirms it for your group and your dates before you pay anything. The detail is on the page for the Everest Base Camp trek with a helicopter return, and the wider argument about walking against flying is on the comparison of the trek and the helicopter.
Budget and comfort
Budget and comfortable are the same walk with different beds
These two are not different treks. They are the same trail, the same villages and largely the same days, bought at two different standards of room and board. What separates them is where you sleep and what you eat, and above a certain height neither of those is much of a choice any more.
The budget version runs 15 days and tops out at 5,550 m (18,209 ft), which is the same shape as the classic. Its price is 1,250 USD, and your written quote confirms it for your group and your dates before you pay anything. It is the cheapest way we are willing to run this route. We will tell you plainly what is left out of it rather than let you find out at a lodge, and if the saving is not worth what it costs you in comfort at altitude, we will say that too.
One naming problem, because you will meet it on every operator site including our own. Our budget product is currently published as Everest Base Camp Tea House Trek. Every trek on this route is a teahouse trek. Teahouses are the family run lodges the whole trail is built on, there is no other kind of accommodation up there, and so the name describes nothing. We are renaming it. Until we do, judge it by what is in it rather than by what it is called, and the lodges themselves are described on the page about teahouses on the Everest Base Camp trek.
The comfortable version runs 13 days, which is shorter, and its published high point is 5,364 m (17,598 ft). Read that figure carefully, because it is the height of the camp itself rather than the viewpoint above it. On our own trip facts this format does not go up for the Kala Patthar morning. If that morning is the thing you came for, ask us before you book and we will tell you exactly what the current itinerary does. There is no single published price for the comfortable version yet. The price comes to you in writing, in the quote for your dates, before you pay anything.
And the thing money cannot buy on this route is air. Better lodges exist in the lower valley and thin out fast above it. Nobody sells a comfortable night at 5,364 m (17,598 ft), and the last nights are cold and basic for everybody on the mountain regardless of what they paid. Any page telling you otherwise has never slept there.
No Lukla flight
The road approach exists because the Lukla flight frightens people
15 days, topping out at 5,550 m (18,209 ft). You drive out of Kathmandu instead of flying, start walking from the road head, and join the main trail lower down the valley. No flight in, no flight out, no flight to be canceled.
This is the most under-sold format we run, and the fear it answers is real rather than imagined. The flight into Lukla is short, spectacular and genuinely weather dependent, and in the busy seasons it sometimes operates out of a different airport several hours by road from Kathmandu, which people find out about late. What that flight is like, and what happens when it does not go, is on the page about the flight to Lukla.
What the road costs you is time on a bus and a couple of extra walking days at low altitude before the scenery starts. What it buys you is certainty and, as a side effect, a gentler acclimatization profile, because you gain height on foot from lower down instead of being set down at an airstrip in the morning. In money, the price of the road approach is 1,495 USD, and your written quote confirms it for your group and your dates before you pay anything.
There is a longer version of the same idea. The Jiri approach runs 20 days and walks in from the road the way the 1953 Everest expedition did, several days before the modern trail begins. We run it on request. We are not publishing its highest point here, because the figure in its own trip facts is lower than a point its own day list reaches, and that contradiction is ours to fix before we print anything.
The long routes
The longer routes reach base camp and then keep going
If you have close to three weeks, base camp stops being the whole trip and starts being one day inside a bigger one. These three formats all stand at the camp. They differ in what they add on either side of it, and in how much high pass work you are signing up for.
Gokyo Lakes and the Cho La. 18 days, topping out at 5,550 m (18,209 ft). You get the lakes and the viewpoint above them, a glacier crossing, and one high pass linking that valley to the base camp side. Plenty of people who have done both say the lakes are the better half. The real decision inside this trip is which direction you walk it, because the direction changes where the pass falls in your acclimatization and which valley you see fresh. That is laid out on the page for the Gokyo Lakes and Cho La trek. The price of this trek is 1,495 USD, and your written quote confirms it for your group and your dates before you pay anything.
The Three Passes. This is the maximal version and the hardest thing on this page that is still a walk. It links the base camp side, the lake valley and the Chhukung side with three separate passes, the highest of them Kongma La at 5,535 m (18,159 ft). Its published top height is 5,550 m (18,209 ft). We publish no length for it, for the reason under the table. Take it if you have walked multi-day routes at altitude before and you want the whole horseshoe. The route is on the page for the Everest Three Passes trek.
The Kongma La with Ama Dablam base camp. 15 days, topping out at 5,550 m (18,209 ft). This is the classic route with one pass and one extra objective added, and it is the sensible middle rung between the classic trek and the Three Passes. Be clear about what it is. Most of it is the standard walk to base camp, with a single day that goes up to the foot of Ama Dablam. It is not a climb of Ama Dablam and we do not sell one. The honest version is on the page for the Kongma La and Ama Dablam base camp trek.
Adding a summit
Can you climb Island Peak or Lobuche Peak with the Everest Base Camp trek?
Yes. Both exist as combined trips, and both change what you are buying. Island Peak tops out at 6,189 m (20,305 ft) and Lobuche East at 6,119 m (20,075 ft). The moment you add either one, the trip stops being a walk and becomes a walk with a climb on the end of it.
What changes in practice. You wear crampons, you carry an ice axe, you are clipped to a fixed rope on the steep section, and you need a climbing guide rather than a trekking guide. Summit day starts in the dark and is longer and colder than anything on the trek itself. Neither peak is a beginner objective, and one afternoon of instruction is not a substitute for having been on snow before.
Both combined trips are on sale. On the Lobuche trip, the climbing guide and the climbing gear are both included. We publish no length for either combination, because our own product pages give more than one figure for each and we have not settled them. Neither combined trip has a single published price yet. The price comes to you in writing, in the quote for your dates, before you pay anything.
A climb needs more insurance than a walk. For a trekking peak we require travel insurance that covers you to 7,000 m (22,966 ft). What that policy has to include is on the page about travel insurance for the Everest Base Camp trek.
The two combined trips are on the pages for the Everest Base Camp trek with Island Peak and the Everest Base Camp trek with Lobuche Peak. The top of the ladder is the Three Passes with Island Peak on the end. Its price is 2,099 USD, and your written quote confirms it for your group and your dates before you pay anything. That trip is on the page for the Three Passes trek with Island Peak. If you are weighing whether your fitness is anywhere near this, start with how hard the Everest Base Camp trek is and work up from there.
Say it plainly
These trips do not reach Everest Base Camp
The Everest View Trek, the Sherpa Village Trek, the Everest Mini Trek, the Gokyo Valley trek and the Gokyo and Renjo La trek do not go to Everest Base Camp. Not a shorter way. Not a partial way. They go somewhere else in the same national park and they turn around.
That gets a sentence of its own because it is the most common mis-sale in this market. These trips are sold under the word Everest, they show up in the same search results as the trek, and a reader skimming a booking page can pay for one believing they are going to stand at the camp. The people this happens to find out on about day five.
They are good trips, and two of them go high. The Gokyo Valley trek runs 14 days and reaches 5,357 m (17,575 ft), and the Renjo La version runs 15 days and reaches 5,545 m (18,192 ft). Those are serious heights, higher than most people ever go. They are simply in the next valley, and base camp is not on the route.
At the other end, the Everest View Trek runs 7 days to 3,870 m (12,697 ft), the Sherpa Village Trek runs 8 days to 3,860 m (12,664 ft), and the Everest Mini Trek runs 11 days to 3,860 m (12,664 ft). All three stay in the lower and middle valley. You see Everest, you sleep in Sherpa villages, you visit the monasteries, and you spend your nights at heights where far fewer people get ill. For a first trip at altitude, or a trip with children, or a trip with somebody nervous about thin air, that is often the better buy.
One caution on the two Gokyo figures above. Our own pages for those trips state a different highest point in their question sections than the one in their trip facts, so treat the number as indicative and confirm it with us before you commit to it. All of these are compared properly on the page about the short Everest treks that do not reach base camp.
Not a trek
The helicopter day tour is a different experience, not a shorter trek
1 day. You leave Kathmandu after breakfast and you are back for lunch. Its published high point is 5,364 m (17,598 ft). It sits on this page because people compare it with the trek, and it sits in its own group because it is not one.
The difference is not length, it is exposure. On the trek you spend a week and a half letting your body adjust before you ever see base camp. On the day tour you go from a bed in Kathmandu to above five thousand meters within a couple of hours, with no adjustment at all, stand in the cold for a few minutes and come down. Some people feel nothing. Some feel terrible. It is a short sharp strain instead of a long slow one.
It is the right buy for a narrow and real set of people. Somebody with one free morning. Somebody who cannot walk that far. Somebody who wants to see the valley from above and has no interest in the trail. It is the wrong buy for anybody who wants to have walked there.
Where the helicopter actually lands, and why that is not the same as landing in the camp, is answered in full on the comparison of the trek and the helicopter, and the tour itself is on the page for the Everest Base Camp helicopter tour. One honesty note while you are choosing. The maximum altitude above is the one figure in the table our own tour page has stated more than one way, so confirm it with us before you rely on it.
Booking
How do you book the Everest Base Camp trek?
You send your dates, your group size and the format you are leaning toward through the inquiry form. We reply within 24 hours, with the format we would actually put you on, what is included, and a written quote for your group. You confirm in writing. We register your permits before you fly.
There is no booking engine on this site and that is deliberate. Whether a given format suits you depends on your dates, your fitness and sometimes your medical history, and a checkout page cannot ask about any of those. A person reads your inquiry and a person answers it. If the honest answer is a cheaper format than the one you asked about, that is the answer you get.
Fixed departures or your own dates. We run set departure dates on the classic route, and every date is on the page of fixed departure dates. Any format on this page can also be run privately on dates you choose. Which months are actually good for walking is on the page about the best time to trek to Everest Base Camp.
Changing the itinerary. Every format here can be adjusted. Adding a day, starting a day later, building in a rest day in Kathmandu, changing the lodge standard, all normal. The one change we push back on is removing an acclimatization day to shorten the trip, because that is the change most likely to end it early.
The deposit. The deposit is 30 percent of the trip price. The cancellation schedule is on our booking terms page, and your quote states the balance date in writing before you pay anything. No deposit is taken to answer a question. One term is not settled yet. We have no written position on liability to publish, and we will not invent one.
Who we are
Every format on this page is run by us, not resold
everestbasecamp.tours is Nepal Unique Treks and Expedition Pvt Ltd, a licensed Kathmandu operator and member 2291 of the Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal. Same company, same guides, same office. This site is where we answer the Everest Base Camp question properly, and the parent company name you may have seen elsewhere is the same business.
That matters here for one practical reason. Nobody is taking a cut between you and the people on the trail, so when you ask what is included in a format, the answer comes from the company that will be running it. Our license numbers and the public membership record are on the page about our licenses, and what to ask any Everest operator before you pay them is on the page about choosing an operator for this trek.
Questions
Questions people ask before they book
How do you book the Everest Base Camp trek?
Send your dates, your group size and the format you are considering through the inquiry form on this site. A person replies within 24 hours with the format we would actually put you on, what is included, and a written quote for your group. You confirm in writing and we register your permits before you fly. There is no booking engine, because whether a format suits you depends on your dates, your fitness and sometimes your medical history, and a checkout page cannot ask about any of those. We run fixed departures on the classic route and will run any format privately on your own dates. The deposit is 30 percent of the trip price. The cancellation schedule is on our booking terms page, and your quote states the balance date in writing before you pay anything.
Can you climb Island Peak or Lobuche Peak with the Everest Base Camp trek?
Yes, both exist as combined trips, and both change what you are buying. Island Peak tops out at 6,189 m and Lobuche East at 6,119 m, so the trip stops being a walk and becomes a walk with a climb on the end of it. You wear crampons, carry an ice axe, clip to a fixed rope on the steep section and need a climbing guide rather than a trekking guide. Neither peak is a beginner objective. We publish no length for either combination, because our own product pages give more than one. Both combined trips are on sale, and on the Lobuche trip the climbing guide and the climbing gear are both included. Neither combined trip has a single published price yet, so the price comes to you in writing, in the quote for your dates, before you pay anything.
Which Everest Base Camp trek is best for a first timer?
The classic walk in and walk out, if you have about two weeks. It has the most acclimatization built into it, the most room to absorb a bad weather day, and the slowest descent. If two weeks is not there, the trek with a helicopter return is the next honest answer. If you are unsure whether your body is ready for either, read the difficulty page before you choose a format.
Which trips on this page do not reach Everest Base Camp?
The Everest View Trek, the Sherpa Village Trek, the Everest Mini Trek, the Gokyo Valley trek and the Gokyo and Renjo La trek. All of them stop somewhere else in the same national park, two of them go high, and none of them goes to the camp. The helicopter day tour is a separate case and a different kind of trip altogether.
Why do some formats on this page have no price?
There is no single published price for those trips yet. The price comes to you in writing, in the quote for your dates, before you pay anything. Where a format does show a price, your written quote confirms that price for your group and your dates, also before you pay anything.
How many days do you need for the Everest Base Camp trek?
Around two weeks for the classic version, counted from landing in Kathmandu to flying home, and a little less if you walk up and fly out. Take a couple of days off your available total before you plan anything, because the flight into Lukla is weather dependent in both directions. Under a week means a short trek that does not reach the camp, or the helicopter day tour.
Can the itinerary be customized?
Yes. Extra days, a later start, a rest day in Kathmandu, a different lodge standard, a private departure on dates you choose, all normal and all arranged by email. The one change we argue about is removing an acclimatization day to shorten the trip, because that is the change most likely to end it early.
Sources
Where these figures come from
Every number above is listed here with the body that publishes it and the date we last read it. If a figure has changed since, write to us and we will correct the page and say that we did.
- Our own published trip record Every duration, maximum altitude and price in the format table, as published by Nepal Unique Treks and Expedition Pvt Ltd and held in this site's fact store. An internal record rather than a public document, reconciled product by product. Each price is the confirmed price for that trip and replaces any other figure published for it. Lengths we have not settled are left blank rather than guessed. Checked 12 September 2026.
- specialist consensus, range 5545 to 5550 m The height of Kala Patthar, the viewpoint above the last village that the longer formats go up to on their final morning. The rounder figures published elsewhere describe the same spot. Read the source Checked 12 September 2026.
Keep reading
Where to go next
- The Everest Base Camp trek itinerary, day by dayWhat happens on each walking day, and why the two rest days sit where they do.
- How hard the Everest Base Camp trek isThe three things that make it hard, and the self test for whether you are ready.
- What the Everest Base Camp trek costs, line by linePermits, flights, guides and beds broken down. The components this page does not carry.
- The Everest Base Camp trek compared with the helicopter tourWalk or fly, argued on days, altitude exposure and what you actually see.
- The short Everest treks that do not reach base campAll five compared, with what each one reaches and who it genuinely suits.
- The best time of year to trek to Everest Base CampMonth by month, including the flight delay risk that decides your buffer days.
Tell us your dates and we will tell you which format to take
Send the days you have, how many of you there are, and anything about fitness or health that bears on it. We come back with the format we would actually put you on, what is in it, and a written quote for your group. We will say so when the answer is the shorter trip, and nothing is taken from you to answer a question.
Published 12 September 2026. Last checked 12 September 2026 against the issuing authorities. A hollow circle marks a figure we have not settled yet. A half circle marks one where two authorities disagree, and we show both.