Everest Base Camp Trek Cost From New Zealand: The Real All-In Numbers in NZ Dollars for 2026 and 2027

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

Last updated 11 September 2026. Package prices read from our booking system on that date; they hold for 2026 and 2027 departures. New Zealand dollar figures use 1 US dollar = 1.70 New Zealand dollars, the rate in the first week of September 2026, rounded.

New Zealanders have a claim on this mountain that nobody else has. Many also know the Great Walks, which means they arrive with a realistic idea of what a long day with a pack feels like. What they ask me is the money: what does the Everest Base Camp trek really cost from New Zealand, all in, in New Zealand dollars, with the long flight counted honestly? 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 New Zealand trekker roughly NZD 6,300 to 6,800 all in on a budget package once you add your own trail meals, about NZD 7,800 to 8,300 on a standard package with meals and porters, and NZD 12,500 to 13,000 for the luxury version with helicopter transfers. In US dollars, which is what we quote in, that is about $3,700 to 4,000, $4,600 to 4,900 and $7,350 to 7,650. The flights are the single biggest line after the trek itself, which is why the totals sit higher than what a European reads. 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 NZD 2,380. Guide, permits, Lukla flights and shared lodge rooms. You carry your own bag and buy your own meals on the trail.
• Standard: US$2,499, about NZD 4,250. Everything above, with private rooms instead of shared ones, plus all meals and one porter between two trekkers.
• Luxury: US$4,999, about NZD 8,500. A porter to yourself, private ensuite 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 six hours and fifteen minutes behind New Zealand in winter and seven hours and fifteen minutes behind once your clocks go forward in late September, so a message sent in your evening lands on my desk in the early afternoon and you have real numbers when you wake up.

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 New Zealand dollars the standard tier runs from about NZD 4,250 for a pair down to just under NZD 4,000 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 members of a tramping club get the same deal as six members of one family. If you are coming as a couple or a group of mates of four to six, the first or second row is your price. A solo trekker pays the same per-person rate, with no single supplement, because your guide usually joins you in Lukla. On the luxury tier you still have a porter to yourself. On the standard tier porters are shared between two trekkers, so a solo booking has no porter and your guide carries up to 10 kg of your gear instead.

How much are flights from New Zealand to Kathmandu?

There is no nonstop flight from New Zealand to Nepal. From Auckland the quickest connection takes just under 18 hours, and many take over 20 once you count the layover. The usual routings connect once, in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong or a Chinese hub such as Guangzhou. Return fares from Auckland listed for this autumn run from about NZD 1,300 to over 3,300 depending on the date and the connection, and the cheapest October fares I can see as I write are on Chinese carriers at around NZD 1,400. I have used NZD 2,200 in the arithmetic below, a middle figure rather than the cheapest fare on the screen. Christchurch and Wellington add a domestic leg or a second stop. Treat the journey as two travel days out and two back, not one, and land in Kathmandu at least a full day before the Lukla flight: a missed connection in Singapore should cost you a night in Kathmandu, not your trek.

Visa, permits and insurance

Nepal tourist visa for New Zealand passport holders: US$50 for 30 days, about NZD 85, 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 NZD 34. Khumbu Pasang Lhamu municipality permit: NPR 2,000, about NZD 22. 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. ACC does not pay for treatment overseas, and a helicopter from Gorak Shep to Kathmandu is billed in the thousands of US dollars. SafeTravel's own insurance checklist names helicopter rescue and medical evacuation by air. 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. Some policies cap the trekking altitude or leave out helicopter rescue unless you add an adventure-activities option, so read the exclusions page rather than the brochure. Budget roughly NZD 200 to 350 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. NZD 30 to 45 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 NZD 70 to 90 a day for three lodge meals and tea, so roughly NZD 850 to 1,100 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 NZD 120 to 170 a night; a five-star runs NZD 340 and up. Carry the trail money in Nepali rupees from Kathmandu. New Zealand dollars are not an easy currency to change in Nepal, so bring US dollars or use a Kathmandu ATM, and do not count on the trail: the few ATMs on the route are often empty.

How much should I tip?

Tipping is not a Kiwi habit, and it is a bigger part of the trek than it is of a holiday at home, but nobody in Nepal will make you feel awkward about it and it genuinely matters to the crew. A fair guideline is about ten per cent of the trek price from each trekker, pooled: on the standard tier that is about NZD 425 each, so a couple would hand over roughly NZD 500 to the guide and NZD 350 to the porter, adjusted for how the team looked after you. Hand it over on the last trekking day, in rupees or US dollars.

The full arithmetic, from Auckland

Standard package, one trekker sharing rooms:

The same arithmetic puts the budget route at about NZD 6,550 once you add roughly NZD 950 of trail meals and tip the guide alone, and the luxury route at about NZD 12,750. 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?

Seventeen is the honest answer from New Zealand: twelve for the trek, two travel days 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. Against four weeks of annual leave that is a real ask, and it is why Labour Weekend in late October, or the first half of November, is worth building the trip around. Given how far you are flying, I would add Pokhara, Chitwan or a few days in the Kathmandu valley on the way home.

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, and it lands in your autumn, which suits people who want the Southern Alps season and this one in the same year. 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 SafeTravel say?

SafeTravel's advice for Nepal, as I write this, is to exercise increased caution, the second of its four levels, with higher levels for some areas. When I last read it, the page had been updated on 29 August 2026, after the flash flood of 26 August on the Bhote Koshi hit Rasuwa district and the Nepal-China border area. Rasuwa lies north of Kathmandu, a long way west of the Khumbu, and the Everest trails were not affected by that flood. I keep a trail-by-trail status page updated at which treks are open after the Rasuwa flood. Read the SafeTravel page for Nepal yourself before you fly, and register your plans there while you are at it; it takes a few minutes, and it is how the New Zealand government reaches you if something goes wrong.

Which Everest trek should a Kiwi trekker book?

The twelve-day trek on this page is the classic and the right first choice for most people. Given how far you are flying, three variants are worth a look, because they trade 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 the Routeburn and the Kepler back to back and want the same feeling far higher up.
• 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 New Zealand?

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. New Zealand Visa and Mastercard cards work on it; when one is declined, it is almost always the bank's fraud filter, so tell your bank you are paying a merchant in Nepal and approve the security step in your banking app when it pops up. 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, and your evening is my afternoon. 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.

Questions New Zealanders ask me

Do I need to be very fit? You need to walk five to seven hours a day at altitude with a daypack. If you have done the Tongariro Crossing comfortably, or a Great Walk carrying your own gear, you are fit enough. What New Zealand cannot give you is altitude: Base Camp is 1,640 metres higher than the summit of Aoraki, and you sleep above 4,000 metres for four 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 it like a Great Walk? In one way: a marked trail, a lodge every night, no navigation. In every other way, no. The lodges are family-run teahouses, not DOC huts; you eat what they cook; and the trail climbs far higher than any track at home. Think of it as the Milford Track stretched over twelve days, with four nights above 4,000 metres, well over the summit of Aoraki.

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. Bring broken-in boots, layers you would trust on a Southern Alps winter day, 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 dollars; it works to Namche and patchily above. The Everest Link wifi card in Namche covers the lodges further up. Check that your New Zealand roaming pack covers Nepal before you rely on it.

Can I use my card in Nepal? In Kathmandu, yes, at hotels, better restaurants and ATMs. 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.