Should you Hire a Guide or Trek Independently to Everest Base Camp?
When Nikki of Drawn to High Places and I first started planning our trip to Nepal, we had a lot of discussions about whether we should hire a guide or trek independently to Everest Base Camp. Nikki is a very positive, adventurous, and independent traveler. She believes everything will work out and doesn’t want to be told what to do or be held to the schedule of other people in a large group. I am the type of traveler that worries about every single detail that could possibly go wrong and wants to pay those problems away ahead of time. At first, I worried if we would be able to come to a compromise with our very different mindsets.
After we both did a bit of research, we ultimately decided to hire a guide based on the recommendation of Miss Meghan Young. I am extremely happy with our decision, and spoiler alert, my recommendation is to definitely hire a guide if you plan on doing the Everest Base Camp trek. But with that recommendation in mind, not all guided trips are the same. Prices can range anywhere from as low as $500 for just a guide, to $4300 for a full trekking expedition. In order to make the right decision for you, you need to decide on your budget, and what kind of experience you are hoping for.
Types of guided services on the Everest Base Camp Trek:
Guided trip through a third-party adventure travel company:
Cost: $$$
This tends to be the most expensive option. As you can see a 15-day trek through REI costs around $4300, but includes EVERYTHING you could possibly need, plus a little more. On trips like this, you don’t need to worry about finding travel companions, because you will be grouped with everyone else that books the same dates. For me, this can be a blessing and a curse. What if you don’t like the people in your group? Too bad, you are stuck with them for the duration of the trek. It’s even possible you will be even roomed with someone you don’t like as these prices are based on double occupancy. There is also a chance everyone will hike much faster or slower than you will, which can be frustrating. If you are hoping for independence, this isn’t your best option.
My friends Sarina and Katherine were in Nepal at the same time as us and booked through Travel Her Way. Originally, we were supposed to be a day ahead of them on the trek, but after our flights to Ramechhap were delayed by a day, we ended up on the same schedule. This worked out well since we were able to hike and stay in the same teahouses as our friends, and also meet the group of women they were trekking with.
They are an amazing group of women, and it was awesome to watch them encouraging each other on their way up to Everest Base Camp. There is forever something so inspiring to me about women encouraging and befriending other women. It’s probably from my former mean girl tendencies. If you don’t mind paying a little more, want to meet fun new people, and are patient with the different hiking speeds of a larger group, this is a good way to go.
Views along the Everest Base Camp trek.
Booking a guide through a trekking company in Nepal:
Cost: $$
This is the option Nikki and I went with and my personal recommendation. Most adventure travel companies are working with local guides in Nepal. You pay a premium for them to be the middleman, while the people in Nepal do the work of putting your trip together. Personally, I prefer all of my money to go to the local people, so this option made sense to me. It also helped that it was much cheaper and better fit into my budget.
Nikki and I spoke with Trekking Planner and Sherpa Himalaya, ultimately we booked through Trekking Planner as they were able to offer our trek for a slightly lower price. We also knew Sarina’s group was being guided by a Trekking Planner guide, so we figured our chances of being in the same teahouses were greater if we booked through the same company. Both were extremely easy to work with and I believe our experience still would have been great if we had booked with Sherpa Himalaya instead! If you want to find your own trekking agency, you can check Trip Advisor for good reviews and reach out to multiple companies to find the best match for you.
My experience was that you have a lot more control with guided trips through local Nepali trekking companies than you do with third-party adventure travel companies. This was a great compromise for mine and Nikki’s differing travel styles. When reaching out, we told both companies our flight dates, what we hoped to see, and our budget. They would respond with an itinerary/price and we would adjust based on anything we wanted to add or subtract. Even once we booked with Trekking Planner, we were able to change our itinerary two different times during our trek at no additional cost. We made our first change when our flight from Ramechhap was delayed a day. We were able to add an extra day of trekking so we could acclimate at Namche as previously planned. Our second change was made when I came down with acute mountain sickness. Instead of doing the planned Gokyo Lakes portion of our trek, we descended early and spent those nights in Pheriche, Namche, and Phakding instead.
You are also in control of what is and isn’t included in your trek. Want them to provide a guide/porter only and you will cover lodging and meals on the trek? No problem. Don’t want to worry at all and have them provide everything for you? You got it. After some back and forth, Nikki and I went with the all-inclusive option. While we probably could have saved more money by purchasing our own food, it was ideal for me to not worry about carrying extra cash and to be able to order what I wanted without trying to do the math on the conversion rate in my oxygen-starved brain.
Sudip, the best guide, and now one of my best friends.
Cost of our Everest Base Camp and Gokyo Lakes Trek:
$1200/person for a 16-day trek
What was included:
Guide
Porter
Flights to Lukla and back
Lodging along the trek
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner all days
Airport pick up and drop off via private car
National Park Entrance fee and all other tourism fees
What WAS NOT included:
Lodging in Kathmandu
Flights to Kathmandu
Nepal Visa Fee
Snacks
Bottled water (we opted to use a steripen to cut down on waste, so this was a non-issue for us)
Booking an independent guide in Lukla:
Cost: $
For those wanting to save even more money or meet their potential guide before committing, it’s also an option to book a guide once you land in Lukla. Obviously, you will need to take care of booking your own flights to Lukla if you choose this option. Most guides charge a daily rate (around $20 USD) and this includes their lodging and food on the trek. You will need to take care of your own lodging and meals, but this means you get to pick when/where you eat and stay instead of having your guide dictate this for you.
While this option seems to give you the most amount of control, it doesn’t come without risks. Based on my research, it’s possible these guides are freelance and uninsured. So, there is little recourse for them if something goes wrong. If you are just looking for someone to teach you about the local culture and mountains along your trek, this can be a good option. It’s not the best option if you want someone to take care of all the little details for you or be responsible if the worst somehow happens.
Why I recommend hiring a guide for your Everest Base Camp trek:
As I said above, we booked through Trekking Planner Nepal and our guide was Sudip. At first, he was a little shy, but the more we talked, the more he came out of his shell. Nikki and I don’t have enough good things to say about Sudip. We even ended up drinking a few too many beers with him on our last night in Lukla and he taught us some Nepali dance moves. Truly a memory I will never forget. Another Trekking Planner guide, Nirmal, was the guide for Sarina’s Travel Her Way group and he was also amazing! Everyone I met from Trekking Planner was extremely friendly and helpful, so if Sudip or Nirmal aren’t available, you will still have a great guide if you book through them.
Nikki and our guide Sudip found a perfect lounging rock.
We loved having Sudip as our guide for multiple reasons. First, if you are financially able, it’s important to support the local economy of the places you travel, and hiring a guide is a great way to do that. Second, paying for the full trekking experience took all of the stress out of our trip. In 2019 all flights to Lukla are being routed through Ramechhap instead of Kathmandu due to runway maintenance. Ramechhap is a four-hour bus ride from Kathmandu, and once you arrive, it’s basically a small warehouse with a couple of airline desks outside. No one seems to stand in line at the airline desks. Instead, everyone crowds around the desk waiting for the attendant to notice them, aka literally a scenario I have nightmares about. We saw a few people that were trekking independently dealing with this situation and I was extremely thankful to have Sudip figuring everything out for us. After waiting there a few hours, we were informed all flights had been canceled for the day, and Sudip arranged transport in a tuk-tuk for us to a local hotel. Tourists trekking independently ended up walking and carrying all of their gear to local hotels, which were more than 15 minutes away. Some even had to walk to multiple locations before they found a place with an open room. I can’t say I am sad I missed out on that experience.
Another good reason to hire a guide is lodging. October is peak season for the Everest Base Camp trek, and you can’t book teahouses ahead of time. This is fine lower down in places like Phakding and Namche, but as you get higher up, the number of teahouses in each town decreases. It’s not uncommon to arrive in a town and find that all of the teahouses are booked up and have to continue on elsewhere. On our trek, we never worried about whether we would have a place to stay. Even after we changed our itinerary twice on the trail, we ran into no issues. Every morning Nikki was able to stop and paint for a couple of hours with no risk of not finding a place to sleep. I can’t imagine this would have gone as well if we had trekked independently.
Ama Dablam and a Stupa along the Everest Base Camp trek.
Having Sudip as our guide also helped me learn about a lot about local culture and customs. I am generally a shy and reserved person. If left to my own devices, I tend to listen a lot more than I speak when surrounded by new people. Unfortunately, this means I miss out on things while traveling because I am too shy to ask questions. Even though I was quiet, Sudip constantly informed us about different things on the trail. He taught us multiple Nepali words and phrases and answered all of our (mostly Nikki’s) questions. There is no way I would have learned as much as I did without having him there. I also loved hearing his perspective on things like dating in Nepal and other mildly personal questions we threw at him.
My main reason for suggesting hiring a guide is having someone to take care of you if you get sick. I came down with a moderate case of acute mountain sickness on our trek, and I truly don’t know how I would have made it through that without Sudip. He carried my daypack, as well as his own backpack, for the final three days of our ascent to Everest Base Camp. He encouraged me when I felt so ill, I broke down sobbing in the middle of the trail. He set up a descent via horseback when things looked particularly gnarly for me in Gorak Shep, and then canceled it when I decided I would stay the night. Throughout the course of that night, he came and checked in on me in my room a few times to make sure my condition hadn’t worsened. I don’t think I was capable of doing any of these things for myself during my illness, and I was extremely grateful to Sudip for everything he did for me. When you travel to such a high altitude, there is always a risk of getting sick from acute mountain sickness. If it happens to you as it happened to me, I cannot express how helpful it is to have a guide to quite literally, guide you through it.
Please trust I am way happier than I look and it’s only altitude sickness destroying my ability to smile.
Be a good human. Tip well and treat your guide like a trusted advisor or friend, not a personal servant.
If you are going to be rude or cheap, please ignore all of my advice above, and don’t hire a guide. They are not your servants or someone you get to treat poorly. Being a guide is challenging work, they are doing their best to keep you alive while teaching you about the local culture and making sure you enjoy your trek as much as possible. They are away from their friends and family for weeks to months at a time during the peak trekking season. Our trek coincided with two different Hindu festivals in Nepal, instead of being with his family, Sudip was with us, making sure we didn’t die. Guides are also not immune to the elevation, they are taking on the same risks of developing altitude sickness as you. Please do not underestimate all of this and treat your guide well. I saw a lot of entitled and rude behavior from Western tourists on this trip that frankly made me embarrassed.
Of course, if you are unhappy with the service you are being provided, or something has gone terribly wrong, you are entitled to fire your guide or ask for your money back. But this does not apply to things like the cleanliness of the teahouses/bathrooms, the lack of options for food, or anything else that is standard on the Everest Base Camp trek. You are traveling in a developing nation to the highest mountains in the world. There is no Four Seasons or luxury spa here. English is generally everyone’s second (or third, or fourth language). If you are expecting extreme luxury, this is not the trip for you.
I will always remember the amazing guides and porters I met on this trip!
Not convinced? Want to go your own way? Trek to Everest Base Camp independently!
While this isn’t the choice I made, I get it. Sometimes you have an extremely tight budget, or you are just an adventurous traveler wanting to explore on your own. I have heard some people even get excited at the prospect of not knowing where they will spend the night. To that, I say, no thanks, but you do you.
Luckily, it’s completely possible and safe to do the Everest Base Camp Trek independently. In fact, many people have done so and written extensively on the subject. Here are some resources I found while researching doing the trek without a guide:
https://www.twowanderingsoles.com/blog/how-much-does-everest-base-camp-trek-cost
https://www.halfwayanywhere.com/everest-base-camp/
Hopefully, I have been able to help you decide which option of guided or unguided trekking is best for you, your budget, and your traveling style. Nepal is a beautiful country and no matter which option you choose, you will have an amazing trip.
