Ama Dablam Base Camp Trek - 8 Days Itinerary and Cost

Arrival, welcome, and trek start

When you land at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, our representative will be waiting just outside the terminal with a marigold garland, a Khada, and a sign with your name on it. From there, a private vehicle takes you straight to your hotel. Once you have settled in, we sit down with you for a face-to-face briefing — bag check, layer check, a walk-through of the route from Lukla to Pangboche to Ama Dablam Base Camp, and answers to anything you want to know about the eight days ahead. The rest of the day is yours. The next morning we transfer you to the airport for the early flight to Lukla and the trek officially begins.

Accommodation and meals

You sleep in family-run teahouses every night on the trail, the same lodges Sherpa families have run for two and three generations. In the lower villages — Phakding, Namche, Tengboche — the rooms are clean and warm with proper beds, blankets, and pillows, and most have hot showers and Wi-Fi for a small extra charge. Higher up at Pangboche, lodges are simpler but cosy, with yak-dung stoves keeping the dining room warm at night. In Kathmandu you stay in a hotel of your choosing, arranged separately from the trek package so you can pick the comfort level that suits you.

Three meals a day are included on the trail. Breakfast tends to be Tibetan bread, eggs, porridge, or pancakes with hot drinks. Lunch is at a teahouse along the route — usually dal bhat, fried rice, noodle soup, or thukpa. Dinner is back at the night's lodge. We strongly recommend sticking to vegetarian food at altitude, drinking plenty of warm fluids, and skipping alcohol and caffeine until you are back in Namche on the descent. Your guide will keep an eye on your appetite and hydration the whole way up.

Luggage and porter support

One porter is shared between every two trekkers in the Standard package, and one porter per trekker in the Luxury package. Each porter carries up to 20 kg, so on the Standard package you can pack 10 kg of personal kit into the duffel bag we provide. We ask that you carry a small daypack yourself with water, snacks, camera, sunscreen, a windproof layer, and your travel documents. Everything else gets weighed and checked at the start of the trek so nobody is overloaded.

Safety and support on the trail

Your guide is an English-speaking, government-licensed trekking guide from the Khumbu region — someone who grew up walking these trails and knows every teahouse owner between Lukla and Pangboche by name. They carry a pulse oximeter, a basic first-aid kit, and a satellite phone or walkie-talkie for areas where mobile signal disappears. Each morning they check how you slept, whether you have a headache, and how your appetite is holding up. If anything feels off, we slow down or take a rest day. Nobody is rushed up this mountain on our watch.

Why trek to Ama Dablam Base Camp with us

Ama Dablam is the mountain everyone walking to Everest Base Camp stops to photograph but very few stop to actually visit. Most groups walk straight past Pangboche on their way north to Dingboche and the EBC trail. We turn east at Pangboche instead and walk up the moraine valley directly beneath the south face — close enough to hear ice crack from the hanging glacier the mountain takes its name from. The whole route stays below 4,600 metres, which means thinner crowds, easier altitude, and a better chance of clear weather than the EBC main line gets. We have been guiding this trek since 2017 and we know which lodges in Pangboche serve the best dal bhat, which morning gives the cleanest view of the south face, and which bend in the trail makes you stop walking the first time you see the mountain.

How difficult is the trek

This is a moderate Khumbu trek — easier than Everest Base Camp, easier than Gokyo, but it is still a Himalayan walk at altitude and you should not arrive completely untrained. Expect four to six hours of walking each day on stone-stepped trails, suspension bridges, and the occasional steep climb. The maximum altitude is 4,570 m at Ama Dablam Base Camp, with one acclimatisation day built in at Namche Bazaar. If you can comfortably walk a long uphill day at home with a daypack, you have the fitness for this trek. Previous high-altitude experience is helpful but not required.

Best season for the Ama Dablam Base Camp trek

The Khumbu has two clear trekking windows and we do not generally run treks outside them.

Spring (March to May) brings rhododendron blooms in the lower valleys, mild days, and stable mountain views — this is our most popular window, especially April. Autumn (late September to November) gives the cleanest air of the year, sharp blue skies, and the best photography light on the south face of Ama Dablam. Days are cool but sunny. Winter (December to February) is possible for trekkers who do not mind cold mornings and quiet trails — the lodges are emptier and the views can be incredible on a clear day. We avoid the monsoon (June to early September) because the trails are wet, the views are clouded, and the Lukla flights cancel more often than they fly.

Travel essentials

Visa

Most nationalities can get a tourist visa on arrival at Tribhuvan International Airport. You need a passport with at least six months of validity remaining, one passport-sized photo, and the visa fee in cash (USD 30 for 15 days, USD 50 for 30 days, USD 125 for 90 days). Indian and SAARC citizens have different rules — write to us if you are coming from one of those countries and we will tell you exactly what you need.

Travel insurance

Travel insurance is required for this trek. The policy must include emergency medical cover, trip cancellation, and helicopter evacuation up to at least 5,000 metres — that buffer is enough for Ama Dablam Base Camp at 4,570 m. Please send us a copy of your insurance certificate within a week of booking so we have it on file in case we ever need to call for an evacuation. Read the small print on your policy — we have seen claims rejected over things buyers thought were covered.

Currency

The Nepali Rupee (NPR) is the only currency accepted on the trail, roughly 130 NPR to one US dollar. ATMs are reliable in Kathmandu and Pokhara. There is one ATM in Namche but it is often out of cash or out of service, so plan to bring enough rupees for the whole trek before you fly to Lukla — for tips, hot showers, snacks, beer, and souvenirs. UPI is now accepted in many shops in Kathmandu if you are coming from India.

Extra expenses

Plan on roughly USD 15 to 20 a day for personal items not covered by the package — bottled or boiled water, snacks at teahouses, hot showers above Namche, charging fees, Wi-Fi, beer at the end of the day, souvenirs, and the group tip for your guide and porters at the end of the trek.

Tour booking

Solo trekkers and group bookings

The Khumbu is not a restricted-permit zone, so we are happy to take a single trekker on this route — there is no minimum group size. If you are coming on your own and would prefer some company, write to us and tell us your dates. We will either pair you with another solo trekker on the same window or post your dates on our website as an open group so others can join. Most of our Ama Dablam departures end up being two to four people, which is the right number for this kind of trek.

Trusted booking

The Everest Holiday is a registered, bonded, family-run trekking company. We are members of the Trekking Agency Association of Nepal (TAAN) and the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA). To confirm your booking we ask for a 10% advance payment, which you can pay through the Himalayan Bank online portal on our website, by major credit card, by international bank transfer, by Wise, or by Western Union. The remaining balance is due on arrival in Kathmandu. Please send us a copy of your passport within a week of booking so we can start the permit paperwork for Sagarmatha National Park.

Last-minute booking

We do take last-minute bookings on this trek — Sagarmatha permits are issued the same day in Kathmandu, so the paperwork is rarely a blocker. The bigger issue is Lukla flight availability in peak season, when seats book out weeks in advance. If you are within ten days of your preferred start date, message Shreejan directly on +977-9810351300 or email info@theeverestholiday.com and we will tell you honestly whether we can pull it off.

Flexible schedule

Our published dates are a starting point. If those dates do not suit you, tell us when you want to trek and we will plan a private departure around your travel window. Most of our Ama Dablam Base Camp treks run as bespoke departures for one to four trekkers.

Flight delays

The Lukla flight is genuinely weather-dependent — fog, cloud, or wind can delay or cancel a day's flying. This is normal in the Khumbu and not a failure of the airline. We strongly recommend keeping at least two buffer days at the end of your trip before your international flight home, in case the return from Lukla gets delayed. If a flight is cancelled outright, the alternatives are a helicopter charter (USD 500 to 1,000 per person depending on group size and weather) or simply waiting for the next clear window.

Trip extension

Trekkers who finish at Ama Dablam often want a few quieter days before the long flight home. We can arrange a jungle safari in Chitwan or Bardiya, a paragliding flight in Pokhara, a rafting day on the Trishuli, or a slow walk through the Kathmandu Valley heritage sites — Bhaktapur, Patan, Boudhanath, Pashupatinath, Swayambhunath. Tell us what sounds good and we will price it for you.

Ecotourism practices

We ask every trekker on this route to join our eco-friendly hiking practice as part of our strong commitment to protecting the upper Imja Khola valley above Pangboche and the moraine fields beneath the Ama Dablam hanging glacier. At the start of the trek each person receives their own eco-waste bag. Please use it to collect everything that cannot be composted — wrappers, plastic bottles, batteries, used hand-warmers — and carry it back down with you to Namche, where our guides will direct you to the proper disposal points. Sagarmatha National Park has no rubbish service above Namche, so what you carry up is what comes back down.

The family

The Everest Holiday is run by Shreejan Simkhada and Shamjhana Basukala, with Shreejan's father Ganesh Prasad Simkhada in the background — he has held senior roles in Nepal's tourism and mountaineering institutions for decades, and his father before him supported Himalayan expeditions in the 1960s. Our Khumbu guides and porters are Sherpa families we have worked with for years, not freelancers we hire for one trek. We cover their insurance, food, lodging, and any medical care they need on the trail. A small share of every booking funds the Nagarjun Learning Center, the family-run school in rural Nepal that we have supported since 2019. You can read about the school on our Heart for Nepal page.

Ending the trek

Farewell dinner

On your last night back in Kathmandu we take the whole group out for a sit-down dinner — a chance to share photos, swap the stories that did not make it into the WhatsApp group, and let the eight days sink in. You also get a small printed certificate from us marking the trek you just completed.

Departure

Send us your flight number, hotel name, and room number a day before you leave Nepal and we will arrange the airport transfer. We genuinely hope the trek was everything you came for, and we hope to see you back on a Khumbu trail again.

Tipping

Tipping is not compulsory but the guides and porters rely on it. The convention in Nepal is a single group tip at the end of the trek, given to the lead guide to share among the team. The amount is your call and should reflect the length of the trek, the quality of the support, and what felt fair to you. As a rough benchmark, most of our groups tip USD 8 to 12 per trekker per day in total, split across the guide and porter team.