Everest Panorama Premium Trek

It is close to the best answer the Everest region has. You sleep no higher than 3,820 m at Deboche and touch 3,880 m for an hour at the Everest View Hotel. Serious altitude illness is uncommon at these heights, and the two nights at Namche before you go higher are there to make it rarer still.

Fit enough to walk four to six hours on rough ground, on consecutive days, carrying a light daypack. If you walk hills at home for half a day and enjoy it, you are ready. There is one genuinely hard afternoon, the climb to Namche, and everything else is gentler than people expect.

No upper one. This is the trek we recommend to people in their seventies who want to see Everest and have been told Base Camp is too much, and it is the one we run most often for families. The youngest we take is eight, walking with a parent.

Most children over eight manage it better than their parents do, provided the days stay short and nobody is being hurried. We add an extra night at Namche for families as a matter of course, carry the daypacks, and keep the Deboche night optional if a child is tired.

Base Camp itself, which is a moraine with tents on it, and the view from Kala Patthar, which is genuinely the best on the trek. What you keep is the Khumbu: the forest, the villages, the monastery, and a view of Everest from the Everest View Hotel that is arguably better than the one from Base Camp.

Not mid-trek, because the acclimatisation profile for Base Camp is a different itinerary and we will not improvise one. If you suspect in advance that you might want it, book the Base Camp trek instead and turn back early, which is easy, rather than the other way round, which is not.

Five-star hotels in Kathmandu rather than three-star, the best lodges on the route at Phakding, Namche and Deboche, a heated room with a private bathroom at every stop, one porter per traveller instead of one between two, and a slower itinerary. Eleven days instead of seven is part of what you are paying for.

At Phakding, Namche and in Kathmandu, yes, with a private bathroom, hot water and heating in the room. At Deboche the best rooms have a private bathroom but heating is a dining room stove, not a radiator. We would rather tell you that now than have you discover it at 3,820 m.

You can, and we can arrange it, but we do not put it in the standard itinerary. Sleeping at 3,880 m on your third night out of Lukla is a bigger jump than we like when the alternative is a night 440 m lower in Namche. If you want the night there, we add a day first.

Yes, at every stop on this route, which is not true higher up the valley. It is included and in your own bathroom rather than a coin-fed cubicle down a corridor. Water is heated by gas or solar, so an evening after a cloudy day can be warm rather than hot.

Yes, at every stop on this itinerary, which is unusual in the Khumbu and is one reason we keep the route low. A single room throughout is $360 on top of the trip price. The lodges we use have the rooms; the teahouses further up the valley do not.

Mild symptoms, a headache or a poor night's sleep at Namche, are common and usually pass. Anything serious is rare below 3,900 m. Your guide takes your oxygen saturation each evening and writes it down, so a decline shows up as a number rather than as an argument about how you feel.

We go down, which on this route is easy, because Namche is always within a few hours and Lukla within a day. Descent is the treatment that works. If it is serious we call a helicopter, which can reach Namche or Lukla within the hour in daylight, and your insurance pays for it.

A policy covering trekking to 4,000 m with helicopter evacuation and repatriation included. That is a cheaper and easier policy to buy than the 6,000 m cover Base Camp needs, and it is worth saying so to your insurer. We ask to see the certificate before you fly to Lukla.

At Deboche, the highest night, expect around 0°C in October and down to -14°C in January. Namche is two or three degrees milder. Days on the trail in the walking seasons are 10°C to 16°C and pleasant in the sun. Your room is heated at Phakding and Namche, which changes the evenings entirely.

Between 5 km and 13 km, which is four to six hours at the pace we set, with the last day out to Lukla running six to seven. There is a stop for lunch every day and time to sit at the monastery, at the Everest View Hotel and in Khumjung rather than passing through them.

Wifi is included and genuinely usable at the lodges we book, which is not the case on most of this route. Ncell and NTC mobile data cover Lukla, Namche and most of the trail between them. Buy the SIM in Kathmandu, because you cannot register one on the trail.

At these lodges, yes, and better than most people expect: soups, fresh bread, vegetables grown in the lodge greenhouse, and coffee that came from a machine. We still advise against meat above Namche, because it walked up unrefrigerated, and that advice does not change with the price of the room.

Vegetarian is easy and often the best thing on the menu. Vegan and gluten free are manageable if you tell us when you book, because the guide orders ahead at each lodge rather than asking on arrival. A teahouse kitchen cannot rule out cross-contamination, and we will not pretend otherwise.

A porter carries your duffel, one porter per traveller on this trip rather than one between two, to a hard limit of 20 kg. You carry a daypack with water, a warm layer and a camera, around 5 kg. The Lukla flight allowance of 15 kg is the tighter constraint.

Two, and both are in the price: the Sagarmatha National Park entry permit at NPR 3,390, and the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality permit at NPR 2,000. A TIMS card has not been required in the Khumbu since 2018, whatever other operators' pages still say.

On arrival at Kathmandu airport for most nationalities: $30 for 15 days or $50 for 30, payable in cash. Filling in the online form within 15 days of arrival shortens the queue considerably. Bring a passport photograph and a passport with at least six months left on it.

$200 to $300 in small notes, changed into rupees in Kathmandu. Almost everything is included on this trip, so that covers drinks, souvenirs from Namche and tips. There is an ATM in Namche, it is often empty, and no lodge on the route takes a card.

It depends on the month. Through the busiest stretches of spring and autumn the aviation authority moves Lukla flights to Manthali airport at Ramechhap, which means a four to five hour drive leaving Kathmandu in the small hours. Outside those windows you fly from Kathmandu in about 35 minutes. We tell you which before you book.

It happens several times a month in every season, which is exactly what day 10 is for. If the delay runs longer we can put you on a helicopter for around $500 a seat, or move you to a lower trek at no extra charge. Book your flight home with a clear day to spare.

You can fly Kathmandu to Lukla by helicopter, and in a bad weather week it is the difference between trekking and not. What we will not do is fly you straight to Syangboche at 3,880 m and start you there. Gaining 2,500 m in twenty minutes is how people get hurt on an easy route.

For October, three to six months out, because there are only a handful of lodges in the Khumbu at this standard and they fill long before the flights do. For other months, six to eight weeks is comfortable. We have put people on the trail in a week when a cancellation freed a room.

Yes, and most people do. Add a night at Namche, sleep at the Everest View Hotel, walk out to Thame for a quieter day, or stretch the whole thing to thirteen days so nothing is rushed. From a party of five a private trip on your own dates costs the same as joining a group departure.