Accommodation
3 nights hotels, 17 nights teahouses.
Transport
Minibus/car (dependant upon your group’s size), domestic flight, on foot.
Meals
2 breakfasts.
Staff
Guide, porters and driver(s).
Age Restriction
Minimum 16 years.
What To Bring
Trekking in the Everest region takes the walker through a variety of high altitudes where temperatures will drop below freezing: you should pack accordingly. Spring and autumn are, as in the UK, usually warmer than winter but even then you should be prepared for temperatures down to -10c or lower. Weather can also change quickly in the mountains and good rainwear is essential. Your luggage should ideally consist of a main pack (a rucksack or trek bag) and which will be carried for you on trek (max 15kg) by porters, a daysac (around 35litre capacity, with a waist strap) to carry items needed during the day when walking (raingear, extra layer, water, map, camera, snacks etc) and lastly a bag in which to store items not needed whilst on trek in the hotel in Kathmandu. When do your initial packing at home bear in mind airline weight limits (usually 20kg).
The following is a kit list of essential items which you should bring on trek: walking boots (and spare laces), long trousers (lightweight poly-cotton trekking are best), down jacket, breathable waterproofs (jacket and trousers), gloves, thermal socks, liner socks, training shoes/sneakers, thick wool sweater/good quality fleece jacket, thermal underwear, thin shirts/T-shirt, a warm hat, sleeping bag (down or synthetic, but it should be 4-season, temperature –10°C to –5°C; a cotton liner is useful and helps to keep your bag clean). A water bottle, iodine sterilisation tablets, plastic bags to keep your gear dry, a head torch/batteries, sunglasses, high factor sun cream/block, lip salve, personal first aid kit, trekking pole(s).
Group Size
This Private Journey can operate with as few as 2 participants, however is aimed at couples and small groups of friends travelling together with a maximum of 14 passengers in the group.
Other Information
Nepali chai-bhattis or teahouses are a local institution. It wasn’t so very long ago that the only viable roads in the country were in the capital; if you wanted to travel anywhere else Nepalis had to walk. To service such travellers every village and hamlet had a tea house or two where for the price of a dhal bhat you got a place to sleep. These lodging houses were in those days small and cramped, perhaps everyone sleeping around the fire; things have moved on. The traditional remains with lodges now catering to the new breed of traveller, the trekker.
Teahouse or lodges as they are more often called today, vary in standard with some extremely rustic places to those with more modern facilities. Most have either dorm rooms or twin rooms without anything more than a thin mattress and certainly no heating; showers, if available, are shared and have either solar heated water or you may need to ask for a bucket of warm water with which to wash. Toilets are usually of the long-drop type. Food varies from lodge to lodge and in larger communities that are closer to a road-head can be surprisingly varied; remote places usually have the staple of dhal bhat, momos and noodles.
Operator Remarks
Meals are not included on the trek to enable you a large degree of choice as to what to eat. Prices in the mountains are very reasonable and allowing £12 per day will cover all your meal requirements.
