Everest Base Camp Trek

Accommodation: Hotel

Meals: Not Included

Overnight: Kathmandu

You arrive in Kathmandu, the vibrant capital of Nepal. As you step out of the arrival gate at Tribhuvan International, our airport representative will be waiting with a Magical Nepal name card — easy to spot. From there, a private vehicle takes you to your hotel in Thamel (Kathmandu Village Home or Kathmandu Business Hotel) so you can rest, shower, and shake off the long flight.

The rest of the day is yours. Wander Thamel for any last-minute gear, grab your first plate of momos, or just sleep — most trekkers do a mix of all three. If you need anything specific for the trail (a forgotten power bank, a SIM card, a thicker beanie), Sulav or Dina at the office can point you to the right shop within a five-minute walk.

Later in the day, you’ll come to our office in Jamal for your pre-trek briefing. This is when you meet your guide and fellow trekkers, walk through the itinerary day by day, do a quick gear check, and get the practical details about the trail — pace, altitude protocol, what to expect at each teahouse, how the Lukla flight works. Bring every question you have. Most clients tell us this is the moment the trip stops feeling abstract.

Tomorrow morning, the adventure begins — flying into Lukla and starting the walk that will take you, step by step, to the base of the highest mountain on earth.

Kathmandu

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Kathmandu is a city of layers — ancient and chaotic and quietly beautiful all at once. Walk ten minutes in any direction from your hotel (Kantipur Temple House or Kathmandu Business Hotel) and you’ll pass a 13th-century temple wedged between a phone shop and a momo stall, a sadhu in saffron robes scrolling Instagram, and a rooftop café with a clear view of Swayambhunath glowing on its hilltop. It’s been the country’s capital for over 2,000 years, and somehow it still surprises us. For most of our trekkers, Kathmandu is the warm-up act before the mountains — and we’d encourage you to give it more time than just one night. Wander Thamel for the gear shops and bakeries, walk the lanes of old Durbar Square, sit through an evening aarti at Pashupatinath, climb the steps to the Monkey Temple for sunset. If you have a spare day, our office can arrange a Kathmandu day tour covering the highlights, or just point you to the bits of the city we like best ourselves. The Everest Base Camp trek is the headline, but Kathmandu is the city you’ll find yourself thinking about months later.

Trek time: 3 to 4 hours

Flight time: 35 to 40 minutes

Accommodation: Tea House

Trek Distance: 6.2 km/3.8 miles

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Overnight: Phakding

Due to changes in the regulations and upgrades at the domestic airport in Kathmandu, flights to Lukla will likely operate out of Manthali Airport in Ramechhap District in the major season time, March April and Mid September to Mid November.

This involves a four-hour drive from Kathmandu at night. The flight from Manthali will depart early in the morning and take 20 minutes.

Our journey starts with the legendary Lukla flight—a 30-minute flight with breathtaking views of terraced hills, deep valleys, and the distant peaks of the Everest region. Lukla’s Tenzing-Hillary Airport, located at 2,860m, is renowned for its unique setting and serves as the gateway to the Everest trek in Nepal.

From Lukla, the trek is gentle as we descend through pine forests and scattered Sherpa villages. The trail follows the Dudh Koshi River, passing chortens, mani walls, and prayer flags fluttering in the wind. After about 4 hours of easy walking, we will reach Phakding, a peaceful riverside village surrounded by greenery.

This is a great first day of trekking—easy on the legs and lots of Himalayan atmosphere.

Lukla

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Lukla is a small Himalayan town at 2,860 m (9,383 ft) in Nepal’s Solukhumbu district, and the main gateway to the Everest Base Camp Trek. It’s famous for Tenzing-Hillary Airport — often called the world’s most thrilling mountain airport — with daily Lukla flights operating from Kathmandu and Ramechhap (Manthali Airport) during the spring and autumn trekking seasons. In peak season, the town is alive: teahouses lining the main path, trekking gear shops selling last-minute gloves and headlamps, yaks loaded with supplies clattering up the trail, and Sherpa guides catching up between expeditions. Surrounded by green hills and the first real glimpse of the Khumbu Himalaya, Lukla is where adventure and Sherpa culture meet. Most trekkers spend only a few hours here before heading down to Phakding on Day 1 of the Everest Base Camp Trek — but it’s the perfect place to grab a warm meal, fill your water bottle, and take the first proper breath of Khumbu air before the trail begins. Read More

Phakding

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After a gentle four-hour walk down from Lukla, Phakding (2,610 m / 8,563 ft) is where your first day on the trail ends — a small Sherpa village on the banks of the Dudh Koshi River, with prayer flags strung over the suspension bridges and pine forest closing in on both sides. Your guide will have already messaged ahead to confirm rooms at the teahouse we’ve worked with for years, so by the time you arrive, tea is on the way and your duffle is on the bed. Most of our trekkers eat their first mountain Dal Bhat here, sit in the dining room while the wood stove gets going, and start to feel that the trip is finally real. An early dinner, an early night — Day 2’s climb to Namche is the one your legs need to be ready for.

Trek time: 5 to 6 hours

Accommodation: Tea House

Trek Distance: 7.4 km/4.6 miles

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Overnight: Namche Bazaar

Day 2 of the Everest Base Camp Trek is where the climb begins in earnest — the Phakding to Namche Bazaar hike is one of the longer, steeper days of the entire trek, with around 830 m (2,723 ft) of elevation gain over roughly 7.4 km.

You’ll walk alongside the Dudh Koshi River, crossing five high suspension bridges — each draped in faded prayer flags and swaying just enough to make you watch your footing — with the river roaring through the gorge far below. The last and tallest of them is the famous Hillary Suspension Bridge, the photo most trekkers send home from Day 2 of the EBC trek.

Just past the village of Monjo (2,835 m), you’ll enter Sagarmatha National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to Mount Everest itself. Your guide will have all your permits — the Sagarmatha National Park entry permit and the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality permit — ready at the checkpoint, so you don’t have to dig through your bag. Once they’re stamped, the real climb begins.

The push up to Namche Bazaar is steep, slow, and quiet — about three hours of uphill switchbacks through pine and rhododendron forest, with the air thinning no…

The push up to Namche Bazaar is steep, slow, and quiet — about three hours of uphill switchbacks through pine and rhododendron forest, with the air thinning noticeably as you gain altitude.

About halfway up, near a small ridge called Top Danda (just before the village of Chautara), there’s a clearing on the trail with the first view of Mount Everest peeking out behind Lhotse and Nuptse on a clear day.

Your guide knows exactly where to stop, and will let you catch your breath, take the photo, and remind you it’s still a long way away.

You’ll arrive in Namche Bazaar (3,440 m / 11,286 ft) by mid-afternoon or evening — the largest town in the Khumbu region and known as the Sherpa capital. Built like a horseshoe into the mountainside,

Namche is full of bakeries, cafés, trekking gear shops, ATMs, and prayer wheels turning at every corner. Namche is also where your serious acclimatization begins — you’ll be here for two nights, and tomorrow’s rest day is one of the most important days of the entire Everest Base Camp Trek.

Namche Bazaar

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Namche Bazaar (3,440 m / 11,286 ft) — often called the “Gateway to Everest” — is the Sherpa capital of the Khumbu and the place every EBC trekker remembers. Built like a natural amphitheatre into the hillside, it’s part Himalayan trading hub, part trekker town: yak-laden caravans heading up to the higher villages, monks walking the lower lanes in maroon robes, and trekkers from every corner of the world comparing notes over apple pie at the bakery. For our trekkers, Namche is where the trip starts to feel real. You’ll spend two nights here as part of your acclimatization, and there’s more to do than rest — wander the Saturday market if your dates line up, hike up to the Everest View Hotel for your first proper sit-down view of Everest, visit the Sherpa Culture Museum, or just find a rooftop café and watch the clouds move across Thamserku. Our guides have their own favourite spots after years of stopping here, and they’ll happily share them once you’ve all settled in. Read More

Trek time: 6 to 7 hours

Accommodation: Tea House

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Overnight: Namche Bazaar

Today is a rest day, but not a lazy one. Your Magical Nepal guide will take you slowly — and we mean slowly — up to the Everest View Hotel (3,880 m / 12,729 ft). It is one of the highlights of the Everest Base Camp trek. The pace is deliberate, with regular stops to breathe, drink water, and look back at Namche shrinking below.

After running this day with hundreds of trekkers, we’ve learned that the ones who climb fastest on Day 3 are usually the ones who struggle on Day 6. So we keep it slow on purpose.

Hydration is the single most important thing you’ll do today — aim for 3 to 4 litres of water. Your guide will remind you, often. You get your first proper view of Everest, Lhotse, and Ama Dablam, all lined up over a hot lemon ginger honey.

On the way back, we loop through Khunde and Khumjung to see the Hillary School and the Khumjung Monastery’s famous Yeti skull, then it’s down to Namche for the afternoon — bakery, hot shower, oximeter check with your guide(if necessary), early dinner, early bed.

Trek time: 5 to 6 hours

Accommodation: Tea House

Trek Distance: 9.2 km/5.7 miles

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Overnight: Tengboche

After two nights in Namche, today is the day the Khumbu skyline really opens up. The walk from Namche to Tengboche is one of the most photographed sections of the entire Everest Base Camp Trek, and after running it hundreds of times, our guides still slow down at the same spots to take it in.

You’ll leave Namche after a slow breakfast and head out along a gentle ridge trail — the first 90 minutes are almost flat, traversing the hillside above the Dudh Koshi valley.

This is the warm-up. On a clear morning, Ama Dablam (6,812 m), Everest (8,848 m), Lhotse (8,516 m), Nuptse (7,861 m), Thamserku (6,623 m), and Kangtega (6,782 m) all stack up in front of you at once.

There’s a small teahouse cluster at Kyanjuma (3,550 m) where most of our trekkers stop for hot lemon and a few minutes of just looking. Bring your camera out here — your guide knows the angle.

From Kyanjuma, the trail drops steeply for about an hour down to Phunki Thanga (3,250 m) on the Imja Khola river. It’s a long descent through rhododendron and birch forest, with prayer wheels turning in the streams that feed the river.

Phunki Thanga is the lunch stop — your guide will order ahead so the food is ready when you arrive. Eat well, refill your water, and rest your legs, because the climb that follows is the hardest part of the day.

The push from Phunki Thanga up to Tengboche is about 600 m of switchbacks over roughly two hours — slow, steady, and warm work even in cool weather. The forest opens up as you climb, and just when your legs are asking why,

Tengboche Monastery (3,860 m / 12,664 ft) appears on the saddle ahead, with Ama Dablam standing directly behind it like a backdrop someone painted on. It’s one of the genuine “I can’t believe this is real” moments of the trek.

You’ll arrive at the monastery by mid-afternoon. Tengboche is the spiritual heart of the Khumbu — the largest Buddhist monastery in the region, founded in 1916 and rebuilt twice after fire and earthquake damage.

If the timing works (usually around 3:00 PM), your guide will quietly walk you in for the afternoon puja, where the monks chant against the sound of long copper horns and butter lamps flicker in the dim hall. It’s not a performance for trekkers — it’s their daily practice, and visitors are welcome as long as they’re respectful. Shoes off, phones away, no flash photography.

The teahouses at Tengboche are basic but well-located. After settling in, walk out behind the monastery for sunset — the light hits Ama Dablam directly, and there’s a stillness up here that you don’t get anywhere else on the trek.

Dinner is early, the wood stove gets going, your guide checks oxygen saturation, and most trekkers are in bed by 9 PM. Tomorrow, the trail climbs above the tree line for the first time.

Tengboche

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Tengboche (3,867 m / 12,687 ft) is home to the Tengboche Monastery, the largest and most spiritually significant Buddhist monastery in the Khumbu region.Tengboche (3,867 m / 12,687 ft) is home to the Tengboche Monastery, the largest and most spiritually significant Buddhist monastery in the Khumbu region. Set on a wide saddle with Ama Dablam, Everest, and Lhotse rising directly behind it, the location alone makes it one of the most photographed spots on the entire Everest Base Camp Trek. For our trekkers, Tengboche is the moment the trek shifts from being a hike to being something a little more reflective. The afternoon puja, the smell of juniper incense, the long copper horns echoing across the valley, and the silence that follows — most of our guests tell us this is the village they remember most clearly months after they’ve gone home.

Trek time: 6 to 7 hours

Accommodation: Tea House

Trek Distance: 12 km/7.45 miles

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Overnight: Dingboche

Day 5 of the Everest Base Camp Trek is when the trail finally pushes you above the tree line. The walk from Tengboche to Dingboche is about 5 to 6 hours over roughly 12 km (7.5 miles), with around 550 m (1,800 ft) of elevation gain, and it’s the day the landscape stops looking like a forest trail and starts looking like the high Himalaya you came for.

After running this stretch with hundreds of trekkers, our guides know exactly where to slow down, where to stop for tea, and where the wind picks up enough to need an extra layer.

You’ll start the morning with sunrise behind Tengboche Monastery — most of our trekkers wake early for this, whether they planned to or not, because the light hitting Ama Dablam (6,812 m / 22,349 ft) from the monastery courtyard is something you don’t want to miss.

After breakfast at the teahouse, the trail drops gently for about 30 minutes through rhododendron and birch forest down to Deboche (3,820 m / 12,533 ft), a small Buddhist settlement with a nunnery and a few quiet teahouses.

Your guide will likely point out the Deboche Nunnery as you pass — it’s home to a small community of Ani (Buddhist nuns), and one of the few places on the trail where you’ll see this side of Khumbu monastic life.

From Deboche, the trail drops to a suspension bridge over the Imja Khola river, with prayer flags strung the full length and the gorge dropping steeply below.

After crossing, you climb gently for about an hour to Pangboche (3,985 m / 13,074 ft) — the highest year-round Sherpa settlement in the Khumbu, and the home of many of the climbing Sherpas who work on Everest expeditions.

Pangboche Monastery here is the oldest in the region, said to date back to the 1660s, and your guide can usually arrange a quick visit if the lama is in. There’s a lower and an upper trail through Pangboche; our guides usually take the upper route for the cleaner views of Ama Dablam.

Pangboche is also the lunch stop. Your guide will order ahead so the food is ready when you arrive, and you’ll have a proper sit-down break — usually 45 minutes to an hour — before the second half of the day. Most of our trekkers go for Sherpa stew or garlic soup here. Garlic, by the way, is not folklore — it’s a mild natural blood thinner, and our guides recommend it at every meal from this point onward.

After Pangboche, the landscape changes fast. The trees thin out, the trail opens, and you walk along the Imja Khola valley with the river running below and Lhotse (8,516 m / 27,940 ft) rising directly ahead.

About 90 minutes (roughly 3 km / 1.8 miles) from Pangboche, you’ll reach a fork in the trail at Shomare (4,010 m / 13,156 ft) — the right path leads to Pheriche, the left to Dingboche. We take Dingboche, because the Imja Valley views and the acclimatization profile work better for our standard itinerary.

The final hour into Dingboche is a gentle climb through stone-walled potato fields — the highest cultivated fields in Nepal — with Island Peak (6,189 m / 20,305 ft) appearing at the far end of the valley. Dingboche (4,410 m / 14,468 ft) sits in a wide, wind-protected bowl, with stone-walled lodges built low against the weather and yaks grazing in the surrounding pastures. You’ll arrive by mid-afternoon, having covered roughly 12 km (7.5 miles) for the day.

You’ll stay here for two nights, with tomorrow being your second acclimatization day. After checking in, our guides usually recommend doing nothing more strenuous, drinking 3 to 4 litres of water throughout the afternoon, and getting an early dinner. You’re set up well for the rest of the climb.

Dingboche

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Dingboche (4,410 m / 14,468 ft) is a wide, wind-shaped Sherpa village sitting in a sunlit bowl in the upper Khumbu — best known for its patchwork of stone-wall…Dingboche (4,410 m / 14,468 ft) is a wide, wind-shaped Sherpa village sitting in a sunlit bowl in the upper Khumbu — best known for its patchwork of stone-walled potato and barley fields, the highest cultivated land in Nepal. Ama Dablam (6,812 m) rises directly behind the village to the south, Lhotse (8,516 m) dominates the head of the Imja Valley to the north, and Island Peak (6,189 m) closes the eastern horizon. For our trekkers, Dingboche is the village where the trek begins to feel genuinely high. You’ll spend two nights here as your second acclimatization stop on the Everest Base Camp Trek, and there’s more to do than rest — bakery runs (yes, even at 4,410 m), the climb up to Nangkartshang viewpoint tomorrow, and quiet afternoons in the teahouse with the wood stove going. The light up here, especially around sunset, is some of the cleanest you’ll see on the trek.

Trek time: 6 hours

Accommodation: Tea House

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Overnight: Dingboche

Today is your second and final acclimatization day on the Everest Base Camp Trek, and the rule is the same as Day 3 in Namche: climb high, sleep low. The standard hike from Dingboche is up to Nangkartshang Peak (also spelled Nagarjun Hill — 5,083 m / 16,676 ft).

It’s the hardest acclimatization hike of the whole trek, but after running it hundreds of times, our guides have it dialed in — and it’s the day that builds the lungs and legs that get you to base camp.

You’ll start with a slow breakfast around 7:30 AM — porridge, eggs, or Tibetan bread, and at least a litre of water before you leave. If anyone in the group is feeling off, the plan adjusts; Nangkartshang isn’t compulsory, and a shorter hike up the lower ridge works just as well for acclimatization.

By 9 AM, your guide will lead you out of the north end of Dingboche, past the last of the stone-walled fields and onto the open ridge that rises steeply behind the village. There’s no cover from the wind up here, so layer up before you start.

The first 90 minutes are a steady climb on a clear dirt trail, gaining about 200 m. The pace is slower than you’ll want to walk — roughly 30 to 40 steps, then a 10-second breathing break. Sherpas call it the “Khumbu shuffle,” and it’s the only pace that really works above 4,500 m. You’ll reach a small stone chorten draped in prayer flags at around 4,700 m, the first natural rest point.

From here, the view back over Dingboche with Ama Dablam (6,812 m) filling the southern sky is spectacular. Most of our trekkers stop for 10 minutes — water, a few squares of chocolate, and a quick check-in from your guide.

From the chorten, the trail steepens and the air thins fast. Switchbacks zigzag up loose scree, with a couple of false summits along the way. About an hour above the chorten, the trail eases briefly onto a wide ridge with prayer flags strung between cairns — and the eastern horizon suddenly opens up. Lhotse (8,516 m), Lhotse Shar (8,383 m), Island Peak (6,189 m), and Makalu (8,485 m — the world’s fifth-highest peak) all appear at once. This is the photo most of our trekkers send home from Day 6.

A final steep push gets you to the prayer-flag-covered summit of Nangkartshang (5,083 m / 16,676 ft) by around midday. The full 360-degree view from the top: Ama Dablam, Lhotse, Lhotse Shar, Makalu, Cholatse (6,440 m), Taboche (6,542 m), Island Peak, the Imja Tse glacier, and the Imja Valley stretched out below toward Chhukung (4,730 m).

This is the highest point you’ll have reached on the trek so far — higher than tomorrow’s overnight at Lobuche. Spend 15 to 20 minutes at the top, no more. The wind picks up after noon, and you want to be descending before it turns.

The descent takes about 90 minutes — faster but harder on the knees, especially on the loose scree. Trekking poles help a lot here; if you don’t have them, our office can lend you a pair before you leave Kathmandu.

Your guide will keep the group on the main switchbacks rather than shortcutting straight down, which protects both the trail and your ankles. You’ll be back at the teahouse in Dingboche by mid-afternoon, hungry and tired in the best possible way.

The rest of the day is yours. Big lunch, a litre of water, an hour off your feet. Most of our trekkers spend the late afternoon in the teahouse dining room with the wood stove going, journaling, playing cards, or sitting in the sun with their boots off.

Your guide will run the oximeter check before dinner if necessary — anything in the high 80s at this altitude is normal — and if your numbers look strong, you’re well set up for tomorrow’s climb to Lobuche (4,940 m / 16,207 ft). Drink another litre of water before sleep. Tomorrow is when the air really starts to get thin.

Trek time: 4 to 5 hours

Accommodation: Tea House

Trek Distance: 8.5 km/5.2 miles

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Overnight: Lobuche

Day 7 of the Everest Base Camp Trek is short on distance but long on altitude. You’ll cover roughly 8.5 km (5.3 miles) in about 5 to 6 hours, with around 530 m (1,740 ft) of elevation gain — but every metre is felt up here.

After two nights of acclimatizing in Dingboche, today is the day your body finds out whether it’s ready. The trail is exposed, the air is genuinely thin, and the pace your guide sets will feel almost frustratingly slow. Trust it. The trekkers who walk Day 7 the slowest are usually the ones who reach base camp two days from now.

You’ll leave Dingboche after a slow breakfast, climbing steadily out of the village on a wide trail that traces the moraine of the Khumbu Glacier. The first hour takes you up onto a broad shoulder with sweeping views back down the Imja Valley — Ama Dablam (6,812 m), Kangtega (6,782 m), and Thamserku (6,623 m) lined up behind you, and Lobuche East (6,119 m) and Cholatse (6,440 m) rising ahead. There’s no real shelter on this section, so the wind can be sharp. Your guide will tell you exactly when to pull up the buff.

After about 90 minutes, you’ll reach Thukla (also spelled Dughla — 4,620 m / 15,157 ft) at the foot of a steep moraine wall. This is the lunch stop — usually a single teahouse, a kettle on the stove, and a wooden bench outside with the best view of the day.

Your guide will order ahead so the food is ready when you arrive. Most of our trekkers go for garlic soup and a hot lemon ginger honey. Eat slowly, rest your legs for an hour, and use the toilet before you start the climb — there’s nothing between here and Lobuche.

The push out of Thukla is the toughest part of the day: the Thukla Pass climb, around 200 m of steep switchbacks up the glacial moraine. Take it slow. The Khumbu shuffle your guide taught you yesterday is for moments exactly like this — 30 steps, breathe, 30 more.

At the top of the climb, you reach the Thukla Pass (4,830 m / 15,846 ft), one of the most quietly powerful places on the trek: a wide, windswept plateau dotted with dozens of stone memorials and chortens built for climbers and Sherpas who lost their lives on Everest. Names like Scott Fischer (1996) and Babu Chiri Sherpa are written on the stones here. Your guide will give you time to walk slowly through. Most of our trekkers leave this place a little quieter than they arrived.

From the memorials, the trail eases into a gentler walk along the side of the Khumbu Glacier moraine. Pumori (7,161 m), Lingtren (6,749 m), and Khumbutse (6,640 m) start to appear ahead, and on a clear afternoon, the wall of mountains around the upper Khumbu basin opens up completely.

About 90 minutes from the pass, you’ll drop into the wide valley floor and into Lobuche (4,940 m / 16,207 ft) — a cluster of stone-walled teahouses sitting right against the lateral moraine of the glacier.

Lobuche is basic, exposed, and cold. The teahouses are simpler here than lower down on the trail, the rooms are colder, and the dining room is the only properly warm spot in the village.

That’s normal at this altitude. Our guides have worked with the same Lobuche teahouses for years, so you’ll have a clean room reserved and your duffle on the bed by the time you arrive. The afternoon is for rest — drink 3 to 4 litres of water throughout the day, eat as much as you can manage (appetite tends to drop up here, which is exactly when you need to eat more), and stay out of the cold wind.

What matters is how you feel: headache, nausea, sleeplessness are worth flagging immediately; mild breathlessness on stairs is just altitude. Dinner is early, the wood stove gets going by 6 PM, and most trekkers are in bed by 8:30. Tomorrow is the big one.

Lobuche

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Lobuche (4,940 m / 16,207 ft) is a small, exposed settlement of stone-walled teahouses sitting right against the lateral moraine of the Khumbu Glacier — the last proper village before Gorakshep, and one of the highest overnight stops on the Everest Base Camp Trek. The views from here are some of the most powerful of the trek: Nuptse (7,861 m / 25,791 ft), Pumori (7,161 m / 23,494 ft), Lobuche East (6,119 m / 20,075 ft), and Lingtren (6,749 m / 22,142 ft) rise on every side, and the glacier itself groans and creaks loud enough to hear at night. For our trekkers, Lobuche is the village where the trek stops being about sightseeing and starts being about discipline — eating when you don’t feel like it, drinking water you don’t want, sleeping in a room that won’t warm up past freezing. The teahouses are basic by necessity at this altitude, but the dining room with the yak-dung stove going is one of the best places on the trek to sit quietly with a hot drink and listen to the wind off the glacier outside.

Trek time: 6 to 7 Hours

Accommodation: Tea House

Trek Distance: 15 km/9.3 miles

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Overnight: Gorakshep

Day 8 is one of the biggest days of the Everest Base Camp Trek — short on distance but high on altitude, with one of the trek’s signature summits in the afternoon.

You’ll cover roughly 4.5 km (2.8 miles) in about 3 hours to reach Gorakshep, then another 2 km (1.2 miles) and 380 m (1,247 ft) of elevation gain up to Kalapatthar in the afternoon.

After running this combination hundreds of times, our guides have a clear way of splitting the day so you arrive at the top of Kalapatthar with energy left for the view.

You’ll leave Lobuche after an early breakfast, around 7:30 AM. The trail climbs gently out of the village along the western edge of the Khumbu Glacier, with Pumori (7,161 m / 23,494 ft), Lingtren (6,749 m / 22,142 ft), and Khumbutse (6,640 m / 21,785 ft) rising directly ahead.

The glacier itself is visible to your right the whole way — a vast frozen river of ice and rock, groaning audibly on a still morning. About an hour out of Lobuche, you’ll cross a small stream and then climb a short, rocky ridge with cairns and prayer flags. This is the high point of the morning, around 5,030 m (16,503 ft).

From here the trail drops slightly onto the lateral moraine and traces a rocky, undulating path for another 90 minutes. The terrain is uneven — loose stones, glacial debris, and a few short scrambles.

Watch your footing. Your guide will set a slow, steady pace. The wind tends to pick up in this stretch, and Nuptse (7,861 m / 25,791 ft) dominates the southern view the entire way.

You’ll round a final bend and drop into the wide, sandy basin where Gorakshep (5,164 m / 16,942 ft) sits — a tiny cluster of five or six teahouses on what was once a glacial lakebed, with Pumori towering directly behind it.

You’ll arrive at Gorakshep around 11:00 AM. Lunch is the priority — your guide will order ahead, usually soup, fried rice, and as much hot lemon as you can drink. Eat as much as you can manage, even if your appetite is gone (it usually is up here).

After lunch, drop everything except your day pack, an extra layer, a windbreaker, gloves, a hat, water, and your camera. Leave your duffle at the teahouse. Your guide will check that you have everything you need, and then it’s straight out the door for Kalapatthar.

The climb to Kalapatthar (5,545 m / 18,192 ft) starts immediately behind the village. It’s about 2 km (1.2 miles) one way with 380 m (1,247 ft) of vertical gain — and it’s the hardest hour and a half of the entire trek.

The trail is a brown, rocky shoulder rising steeply above Gorakshep, with no shade and no shelter from the wind. The Khumbu shuffle is essential here: 20 to 30 slow steps, breathing pause, another 20 to 30 steps. Don’t try to push. Your guide knows the pace.

You’ll pass a series of false summits — each one looking like the top, none of them actually being the top. After about 90 minutes of climbing, you reach the prayer-flag-covered summit ridge of Kalapatthar (5,545 m / 18,192 ft).

This is the moment. Mount Everest (8,848 m / 29,029 ft) stands directly in front of you in full view — the summit pyramid, the South Col, the Western Cwm visible below the icefall. Nuptse, Lhotse, Changtse, Pumori, Lingtren, and Khumbutse form a 360-degree wall of giants around you. This is the closest, clearest view of Everest you can get without a climbing permit, and it’s why everyone walks the eleven days to get here.

Your guide will pick the timing carefully — usually a late-afternoon push (arriving at the summit around 4:30 to 5:00 PM) so the light hits Everest from the west and the summit pyramid glows gold at sunset.

Spend 20 to 30 minutes at the top, no more — the temperature drops fast once the sun gets low, and the wind picks up sharply. Photos, a moment to take it in, a hug if your group has bonded the way most of ours do, and then back down.

The descent takes about 45 minutes. Headlamps come out for the last stretch — your guide carries spares if you’ve forgotten yours.

You’ll be back in the warm Gorakshep dining room by 6:30 PM, exhausted, slightly speechless, and probably colder than you’ve ever been. Hot soup, hot drinks, and as much food as you can manage. Sleeping at Gorakshep is genuinely hard — it’s the highest you’ll sleep on the trek, the air is thin, and most people don’t sleep well. That’s normal. Tomorrow morning is base camp.

Gorakshep

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Gorakshep (5,164 m / 16,942 ft) is the highest settlement with teahouses on the Everest Base Camp Trek — a tiny cluster of five or six lodges built on what was once a frozen glacial lakebed, with Pumori (7,161 m / 23,494 ft) rising almost vertically behind it and the Khumbu Glacier stretching east toward Everest. It’s the launch point for both the walk to Everest Base Camp (5,364 m / 17,598 ft) and the climb up Kalapatthar (5,545 m / 18,192 ft), and the landscape up here is otherworldly — barren, windswept, and ringed by some of the highest mountains on earth. For our trekkers, Gorakshep is the village they remember as the hardest and the most memorable in equal measure. The teahouses are simple, the rooms are cold, and most people don’t sleep well at this altitude. But sitting in the dining room after coming down from Kalapatthar, with the wood stove going and the day’s photos still on your camera, is one of the moments our trekkers tell us they didn’t realise they’d remember so clearly — until they were home, looking back.

Kala Patthar

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Kalapatthar (5,545 m / 18,192 ft) is the highest point on the Everest Base Camp Trek you can reach without a climbing permit — and it’s the reason most people walk all eleven days to get here. The view from the prayer-flag-covered summit ridge is the one you came for: Mount Everest (8,848 m / 29,029 ft) standing directly in front of you in full view, with the summit pyramid, the South Col, and the Western Cwm visible below the icefall. Nuptse (7,861 m / 25,791 ft), Pumori (7,161 m / 23,494 ft), Lhotse (8,516 m / 27,940 ft), Changtse, Lingtren, and Khumbutse form a 360-degree wall of giants around you, with the Khumbu Glacier flowing east toward Everest below. The climb up from Gorakshep is short but brutal — about 380 m (1,247 ft) of steep vertical gain over 2 km (1.2 miles) on loose rocky terrain, with no shelter from the wind and no shade. Our guides time the climb carefully: usually late afternoon for sunset, so the light hits Everest from the west and the summit pyramid glows gold against the sky. The barren, windswept landscape and the climb both fall away the moment you reach the top. After running this push hundreds of times with our trekkers, we can tell you — Kalapatthar is the photograph, the memory, and the moment that makes the entire trek worth it. Read More

Trek time: 7 to 8 Hours

Accommodation: Tea House

Trek Distance: 19.6 km/6 miles

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Overnight: Pheriche

This is the day. After eight days on the trail, hundreds of slow steps, two acclimatization days, one Kalapatthar sunset, and a cold night at 5,164 m, today is the Everest Base Camp day. After an early breakfast at Gorakshep — usually around 7:00 AM — your guide will set out with you along the western edge of the Khumbu Glacier for the final push to Everest Base Camp (5,364 m / 17,598 ft).

The walk from Gorakshep to base camp is about 6.5 km (4 miles) round trip, taking 4 to 5 hours. It’s not technically difficult, but at this altitude every step costs something.

The trail traces the rocky lateral moraine, climbing and dropping over uneven ground, with Pumori (7,161 m / 23,494 ft), Lingtren (6,749 m / 22,142 ft), Khumbutse (6,640 m / 21,785 ft), and Nuptse (7,861 m / 25,791 ft) towering above you the entire way.

Your guide will set a slow pace — the Khumbu shuffle one more time. The glacier groans and shifts beneath you on a quiet morning.

Then, suddenly, you see it: a wide, rocky basin scattered with prayer flags and a famous painted boulder marking Everest Base Camp (5,364 m / 17,598 ft).

In expedition season (April-May), this is where you’ll see the tents of climbing teams preparing for the summit push — yellow and orange domes against the ice, with the Khumbu Icefall rising directly behind, the route every summiteer takes through that broken wall of ice toward the Western Cwm and on to Everest.

Outside of expedition season, the basin is empty and silent — and arguably even more powerful for it.

This is your moment. You’re standing on the same ground where every Everest summit climb begins.

Your guide will take the group photos at the base camp boulder, give you time to wander, sit, take it in, and let the eleven days of walking finally land. Most of our trekkers stay 30 to 45 minutes. Some are quiet, some are emotional, some can’t stop laughing. All of it is normal.

After base camp, you’ll retrace your steps to Gorakshep for a hot lunch (around 1:00 PM), then pick up your duffle and start the long descent.

The afternoon walk drops you back down through Lobuche, past the Thukla Memorials on the moraine, and steeply down into the valley to Pheriche (4,371 m / 14,340 ft) — about another 4 to 5 hours, covering roughly 8 km (5 miles) with 800 m (2,625 ft) of net descent.

Pheriche is a wide, wind-scoured valley village with stone-walled lodges and the Himalayan Rescue Association (HRA) clinic — the high-altitude medical post that’s been saving climbers’ and trekkers’ lives for decades.

The air here is noticeably thicker than Gorakshep. Your appetite comes back. Sleep gets easier. You’ll arrive in the late afternoon, tired in a deeper way than you’ve been tired before — but it’s the satisfied kind of tired. You’ve reached Everest Base Camp, climbed Kalapatthar, and started the long walk home.

Dinner is celebratory. Even our quietest groups tend to share stories from the day, share a drink (if anyone’s having one), and stay up later than they have in a week. Your guide will run the oximeter check before bed — your numbers should already start improving down here at 4,371 m. Sleep deep tonight. You’ve earned it.

Pheriche

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Pheriche (4,371 m / 14,340 ft) is a wide, wind-scoured Sherpa village sitting in a flat glacial valley below the high country — known for its sharp afternoon winds and, more importantly, the Himalayan Rescue Association (HRA) aid post. The HRA clinic here has been treating altitude sickness in climbers, trekkers, and Sherpas since 1973, and it’s one of the reasons we run our descent through Pheriche rather than the alternative trail. For our trekkers, Pheriche is the village where you finally start to feel like a human again. After two nights at 4,940 m or higher, the air here feels almost generous — appetite comes back, sleep gets easier, and the wood-stove dining room with the rest of the group sharing stories from base camp is one of the warmest evenings of the whole trek. The valley views toward Taboche (6,542 m / 21,463 ft) and Cholatse (6,440 m / 21,128 ft) are spectacular at sunset, and most of our guests tell us this is the night they finally slept properly for the first time in a week.

Trek time: 6 to 7 Hours

Accommodation: Tea House

Trek Distance: 16 km/9.9 miles

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Overnight: Namche Bazaar

After Everest Base Camp and Kalapatthar, the descent to Namche Bazaar starts. The trail follows the EBC return route, and we’ll get to see the landscapes we passed on the way up from a different angle. With every step, the air gets thicker, and breathing gets easier – and we get an energy boost.

We’ll pass Pangboche and Tengboche, and the monastery might invite us to stop for a quiet moment. The trail goes through forests and suspension bridges, and then Namche Bazaar comes into view.

Coming back to this lively Sherpa town feels like coming home. After days of remote villages and cold nights, Namche’s cafes, bakeries, and warm lodges are a comfort and a taste of civilization. Many trekkers celebrate here with a meal and share stories with fellow trekkers.

Trek time: 7 Hours

Accommodation: Tea House

Trek Distance: 16 km/9.9 miles

Meals: Breakfast

Overnight: Lukla

Today is our last day of walking. The Namche to Lukla trek starts with a big descent, back through Monjo and Phakding, and then a gradual climb into Lukla. Along the way, prayer flags flutter, rivers rush by and stone-carved mani walls give us one last dose of Himalayan magic.

The trail will feel different this time – less about the effort, more about the reflection. We’ve walked in the footsteps of the mountaineering legends, experienced Sherpa culture and tested our limits in the highest mountains in the world.

Arriving in Lukla is emotional. It’s the end of the trail, where the boots come off and the backpacks rest. Many trekkers have a celebratory dinner with their guides and porters and express their gratitude and the bond that has been built over nearly two weeks on the trail.

Lukla

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Lukla (2,860 m / 9,383 ft) is both the start and the finish of the Everest Base Camp Trek — a small Sherpa town built around the legendary Tenzing-Hillary Airport and surrounded by the green foothills of the lower Khumbu. On the way up it’s where the adventure begins; on the way down, it’s where it quietly ends. For our trekkers, the second time through Lukla feels completely different from the first. The town that seemed nerve-wracking on Day 1 — the steep runway, the unfamiliar trail, the not-quite-knowing-what-you’ve-signed-up-for — now feels familiar, almost homely. After twelve days on the trail, you’ll walk in tired, sunburned, ten or fifteen pounds lighter, with a different set of legs than the ones you arrived with. Tonight is the celebration dinner: your guide and porters at the same table, momos and Everest beer (or hot lemon, if you’re being sensible), and the slow realisation that you actually did it. Sleep well — the early flight back to Kathmandu tomorrow morning is the last logistical hurdle, and then it’s a hot shower and a real bed in Thamel.

Flight time: 35 to 40 minutes

Accommodation: Hotel

Meals: Breakfast

Overnight: Kathmandu

Weather permitting, your early-morning Lukla flight back to Kathmandu is the last leg of the Everest Base Camp Trek. The flight is short — about 30 minutes direct to Kathmandu (or 20 minutes to Manthali Airport in Ramechhap during peak season, followed by a 4-hour drive). As the plane takes off from the sloped runway at Tenzing-Hillary Airport, you’ll get one final look at the mountains you’ve spent twelve days walking through — Lukla shrinking below, the green foothills rolling out toward the horizon, and the Khumbu giants disappearing behind you for the last time.

A note on flight delays: the Lukla flight is famously weather-dependent, and it’s not unusual to lose a day to fog, cloud, or wind — even in peak season. This is exactly why we always tell trekkers to build 2 to 3 contingency days into the end of their trip before booking international flights home. If your flight is delayed, our team in Kathmandu and your guide on the ground will handle the rebooking immediately. In serious weather windows we can also arrange a helicopter charter out of Lukla as a backup — talk to Dina, Sulav, or Saugat in the office if you want this lined up in advance.

Back on the ground in Kathmandu, the contrast hits fast. After two weeks of cold, thin air, mountain silence, and yak bells, the city’s chaos of traffic, hawkers, and incense is almost overwhelming — in the best way. Our driver will be waiting at the domestic terminal with a name card, and you’ll be back at your Kathmandu hotel in Thamel (Kantipur Temple House or Kathmandu Business Hotel) within 30 minutes. Hot shower, soft bed, the first proper coffee in a fortnight, and lunch at a real restaurant. Most of our trekkers say this shower is the best one of their entire lives.

The rest of the day is yours, and it’s a good one to celebrate. Wander the lanes of Thamel for souvenirs, visit a UNESCO World Heritage Site like Swayambhunath (the Monkey Temple), Boudhanath Stupa, or Patan Durbar Square, book a Thai massage or a steam bath at one of the Thamel spas, or just sit on a rooftop café and watch the city move. In the evening, many of our groups meet their guide one last time for dinner — Nepali, Thai, or pizza, depending on what everyone’s craving most after two weeks of Dal Bhat. If you’re adding extra days in Nepal, our office can arrange a Kathmandu day tour, a flight to Pokhara, or a Chitwan jungle safari — just let us know.

Your Everest Base Camp trek ends with mixed emotions. Whether you’re going to your next destination or back home, the memories of this trek will stay with you. We will arrange your airport drop-off so you have a smooth and hassle-free goodbye.

This isn’t the end of a trip – it’s the beginning of a deeper connection with Nepal. The lessons, landscapes, and people you met along the way are part of your story.