Everest Base Camp Trek Cost From the Netherlands: The Real All-In Numbers in Euros for 2026 and 2027

Written by Shreejan Simkhada, CEO of The Everest Holiday and third-generation Himalayan guide. TAAN Member #1586.

Last updated 8 September 2026. Package prices read from our booking system on that date; they hold for 2026 and 2027 departures. Euro figures use 1 US dollar = 0.86 euro, the rate in the first week of September 2026, rounded.

Dutch trekkers are the most direct people I deal with, and I mean that as a compliment. They do not want a brochure; they want to know what the Everest Base Camp trek really costs from the Netherlands, all in, in euros, what is not in the price, and whether the cheap quote on a forum is real. This page is my answer, with the arithmetic shown so you can check it against anything you are holding.

The short answer

A twelve-day Everest Base Camp trek costs a Dutch trekker roughly €3,050 to 3,350 all in on a budget package once you add your own trail meals, about €3,850 to 4,150 on a standard package with meals and porters, and €5,950 to 6,350 for the luxury version with helicopter transfers. In US dollars, which is what we quote in, that is about $3,550 to 3,900, $4,500 to 4,850 and $6,900 to 7,400. The flight from Schiphol is the second-biggest line. Where the money goes, line by line, is below.

What does the trek package itself cost?

Our own prices for the twelve-day trek, per person, held for 2026 and 2027:

• Budget: US$1,399, about €1,205. Guide, permits, Lukla flights and lodge rooms. You carry your own bag and buy your own meals on the trail.
• Standard: US$2,499, about €2,150. Everything above plus all meals and one porter between two trekkers.
• Luxury: US$4,999, about €4,305. A porter to yourself, private rooms, and a helicopter to and from Lukla instead of the fixed-wing flight.

The route and the guide are the same on every tier; what changes is how much is carried, cooked and arranged for you. The full inclusion list is on the Everest Base Camp trek page.

If you would rather ask than read, message me on WhatsApp with your dates and how many of you there are. Kathmandu is three hours and forty-five minutes ahead of Amsterdam in summer time and four hours and forty-five minutes ahead in winter, so a message sent at breakfast has real numbers back by lunch.

Does it get cheaper as a group?

Yes, and here are the actual bands rather than a vague promise. Per person, US dollars, for the twelve-day trek:

In euros the standard tier runs from about €2,150 for a pair down to about €2,025 a head for a group of thirteen or more. Two things about how we run groups, because not everyone does it this way. Every trip is private, so we never add strangers to your trek to fill seats, and the discount comes from group size alone. Six friends from the same wandelvereniging get the same deal as six members of one family. Dutch clients tend to come as a couple or a group of four to six, and if that is you, the first or second row is your price. A solo trekker pays the same per-person rate; there is no single supplement on the trek itself.

How much are flights from the Netherlands to Kathmandu?

There is no nonstop flight from the Netherlands to Nepal. From Schiphol the usual routings connect once, most often in Delhi, otherwise in Doha, Istanbul or Abu Dhabi, and land in Kathmandu the following day. Return fares start at about €650 on the cheaper connections, and our Dutch clients report paying €750 to 1,050 return when booking three to four months ahead; a late booking for the October peak can pass €1,200. Total travel time is 12 to 16 hours each way including the connection. Land in Kathmandu at least a full day before the Lukla flight: a missed connection in Delhi should cost you a night in Kathmandu, not your trek.

Visa, permits and insurance

Nepal tourist visa for Dutch passport holders: US$50 for 30 days, about €43, paid on arrival at Kathmandu airport in cash or by card. You can fill the online arrival form up to 15 days before you fly to skip the kiosk queue. Bring one passport photo. The visa on arrival guide walks through it step by step.

Sagarmatha National Park permit: NPR 3,000, about €17. Khumbu Pasang Lhamu municipality permit: NPR 2,000, about €11. On any decent package, ours included, both permits are bought for you and sit inside the price; I list them so you can see where the money goes.

Travel insurance: this is the one item you must buy yourself and the one item not to economise on. Your basisverzekering covers treatment abroad only up to Dutch rates and pays nothing towards a helicopter, and a helicopter from Gorak Shep to Kathmandu is billed in the thousands of US dollars. A standard doorlopende reisverzekering usually excludes trekking above a set altitude, often 3,000 or 4,000 metres, unless you add the mountain-sports cover, and some exclude helicopter evacuation altogether. Read the polisvoorwaarden, not the summary. Buy a policy that names trekking to 6,000 metres in the wording; it has to be higher than Kala Patthar at 5,545 metres, not equal to it, because a rescue helicopter flies above you to reach you. Budget €100 to 200 for two to three weeks. Ask the insurer for the confirmation in writing, because the helicopter company in Kathmandu will phone them before it lifts. Send us the wording before you fly and we will tell you honestly if it has a hole in it.

What will I spend on the trail?

On a standard or luxury package with meals included, trail spending is small: hot showers (NPR 500 to 800 higher up), wifi, battery charging, snacks and a bakery stop in Namche. €16 to 25 a day covers it comfortably. On a budget package you buy your own meals, and prices climb with altitude because everything above Namche arrives on a porter's back or a yak. Plan on €38 to 50 a day for three lodge meals and tea, so roughly €450 to 600 across the trek.

Add two or three Kathmandu hotel nights, which are not included in trek packages, ours included. A clean tourist-class double in Thamel runs €60 to 90 a night; a five-star runs €170 and up. Carry the trail money in Nepali rupees from Kathmandu. Euros change easily in Thamel at a fair rate, or use a Kathmandu ATM, but do not count on the trail: the only ATMs on the route are in Namche and they are often empty.

How much should I tip?

Tipping is a bigger part of the trek than it is of a holiday in the Netherlands, and nobody in Nepal will make you feel awkward about it, but it genuinely matters to the crew, whose wages are modest. A fair guideline is about ten per cent of the trek price, pooled: for a standard trek, think €175 to 250 for the guide and €120 to 170 for the porter, adjusted for group size and how the team looked after you. Hand it over on the last trekking day, in rupees, euros or US dollars.

The full arithmetic, from Schiphol

Standard package, one trekker sharing rooms:

The same arithmetic puts the budget route at about €3,200 once you add roughly €520 of trail meals and tip the guide alone, and the luxury route at about €6,100. If someone quotes you dramatically less than the bottom of that range for the same twelve days, a line has been cut somewhere, usually wages, an acclimatisation day or the safety margin. The fuller breakdown of what sits under every operator's pricing is in what Everest Base Camp really costs.

How many days off work do I need?

Fifteen is the honest answer from the Netherlands: twelve for the trek, one travel day each way, and a spare day at the end. Lukla weather occasionally holds flights, and a buffer day turns a drama into a rest day. The herfstvakantie is a week, so it is not enough on its own; most Dutch clients take it plus a second week, or come in the first half of November when the fares ease, or use the year-end when the trail is cold, clear and nearly empty. Plenty of Dutch clients add Pokhara or Chitwan on the way home, since the flight is too long to waste on twelve days alone.

When should I go?

October is the most reliable month and the busiest. Know one thing most sites will not tell you: from late September to the end of November, Lukla flights leave from Manthali airstrip, four to five hours by road from Kathmandu, with a 1 to 2am pickup. We tell every client this before they book. Mid-November into early December is quieter, colder and often better value. Late March into April is the warm, rhododendron alternative. Two recent autumns have seen the tail of a Bay of Bengal cyclone clip the last week of October, so if your dates are free, the first half of November has become my honest recommendation. The month-by-month detail is in the Everest Base Camp weather month by month guide.

What does Buitenlandse Zaken say?

The Dutch reisadvies for Nepal, as I write this, is yellow: you can travel, with attention to particular risks. It was updated on 28 August after the flash flood on the Bhote Koshi in Rasuwa district two days earlier, which killed hundreds of people and closed the main road north from Kathmandu. That is on the other side of the country from Everest, and the Everest region was not touched. I keep a trail-by-trail status page updated at which treks are open after the Rasuwa flood. Read the NederlandWereldwijd page for Nepal yourself before you fly, and register with the Informatieservice or the BZ Reisapp while you are there; it takes two minutes and your insurer expects it.

Which Everest trek should a Dutch trekker book?

The twelve-day trek on this page is the classic and the right first choice for most people. Three variants sell well with our Dutch clients, and each trades a little time for a lot less crowd:

• Everest Base Camp with Gokyo Lakes via Cho La, 15 days. The Gokyo side carries a fifth of the traffic of the main corridor.
• Everest Three Passes, 17 days. The full circuit, for people who have done a hut-to-hut week in the Austrian or Swiss Alps and want the same feeling with 3,000 metres more air below them.
• Everest Base Camp by road, 15 days. No Lukla flight at all, which some people pick for the budget and some for the nerves.

How do I pay from the Netherlands?

We quote in US dollars, so there is no exchange-rate guesswork between us, and your bank converts at its own rate on the day. A 10 per cent deposit confirms the booking; it goes by card through Himalayan Bank's secure gateway, and the balance is paid in Kathmandu in cash or by bank transfer. You need a Visa or Mastercard, credit or debit; a card that only carries the Maestro logo will not work on a foreign payment page, and iDEAL and a SEPA transfer cannot reach a Nepali bank. Approve the 3D Secure step in your banking app when it pops up, or the payment simply fails and we try again. The deposit is non-refundable, but if your plans change we move your trek to any date within a year, free, with 72 hours' notice.

Check us before you pay

Trekking scams in Nepal are real and in the news, so do not take my word for any of this. The Everest Holiday Pvt. Ltd. was registered in Kathmandu on 8 April 2016, company registration 147653/072/073, trekking licence 2090/072, Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal member 1586. Every legitimate operator holds the same paperwork and will send it without being offended that you asked. Ask me for a call before you send a deposit; I am on WhatsApp all day. If a company will not get on a call with you, walk away. Our reviews are on TripAdvisor and Google under our own name; read the critical ones as well as the kind ones.

The questions Dutch clients always ask me

Do I need to be very fit? You need to walk five to seven hours a day at altitude with a daypack. The Netherlands has no hills to train on, so train on stairs, long days on the dunes with a loaded pack, and if you can, a hut-to-hut week in the Alps first. If you have done the Alps comfortably, you are fit enough. Base Camp is 5,364 metres and you sleep above 4,000 metres for five nights, which is exactly why the itinerary has two acclimatisation days and why we will not cut them. Altitude does not care how fast you are; it cares how patient you are.

Is the food a problem? Every lodge cooks dal bhat, noodles, fried rice, momos and eggs, and above Namche vegetarian is the safer choice because meat has been carried up for days. Bring a bag of drop if you must; the porters will be curious. Tell us in advance about any dietary need.

Can I drink the water? Not from the tap. Budget for purified refills or bring purification tablets rather than buying bottles all the way up. Refills are cheaper and the mountain does not need more plastic.

What gear is provided? With us, a down jacket and a sleeping bag rated to minus fifteen Celsius are free on every tier, so you can leave your own at home and save the baggage weight. Tell us your height when you book; we have long bags for tall clients, which with Dutch groups is most of them. Bring broken-in boots, proper layers and category-3 sunglasses. Full list on the trek page.

Will my phone work? Buy a Ncell or Nepal Telecom SIM at the airport for a few euros; it works to Namche and patchily above. The Everest Link wifi card in Namche covers the lodges further up. Dutch operators' roaming bundles rarely include Nepal, so check before you rely on one.

Can I use my card in Nepal? In Kathmandu, yes, at hotels, better restaurants and ATMs, as long as it is a Visa or Mastercard. On the trail, no. Withdraw rupees in Kathmandu and carry them.

If you want a quote for your own dates and group size rather than an article's averages, write to me on WhatsApp and I will send the real numbers, including the unwelcome ones. That is rather the point of this page.

Shreejan Simkhada is the CEO and co-founder of The Everest Holiday, a family-run trekking company in Kathmandu, and a third-generation Himalayan guide. TAAN Member #1586. Every booking helps fund our Nagarjun Learning Center.