Everest Base Camp Trek Cost from Poland: Złoty Prices, Flights, Visa and Insurance

Last updated 30 September 2026. Trek prices are read from our own booking system. Złoty figures use the National Bank of Poland mid rate of 29 September 2026, 1 USD = 3.8537 PLN and 1 EUR = 4.3728 PLN. Flight prices are a snapshot from one day, and I say so wherever they appear.

Polish trekkers who write to me tend to ask the same thing in the first line: how much will Everest Base Camp really cost me, in złoty, door to door? The honest answer has three parts. The trek price I can tell you to the dollar. The flight I can only show you a snapshot of. And the złoty is not the currency you pay in, so every figure below in PLN is a guide that will move.

So let us go through it properly, in dollars and in złoty. If you would rather ask me directly, my WhatsApp is +977 9810351300. I answer it myself.

Is there a direct flight from Warsaw or Kraków to Kathmandu?

No. I checked, and every source I looked at agrees. Momondo says it plainly for Warsaw: there are no direct flights to Kathmandu. Kraków is the same. You change planes once, usually in the Gulf, and that shapes both the price and the journey time.

Every real fare search I ran needed a stop. If a page promises you a direct flight from Poland, be suspicious of it.

Which hub should you connect through?

Kayak publishes how one-stop itineraries from Warsaw are split by hub. This is a snapshot of what people actually book, not a promise about your dates.

Hub	Share of one-stop options from Warsaw on Kayak	What I found on my own search
Dubai	49%	Airline not checked
Sharjah	33%	Air Arabia, cheapest return I found, no checked bag
Doha	7%	Qatar Airways, one checked bag included
Delhi	7%	Airline not checked

The Sharjah figure is the one to notice. Air Arabia is a low-cost carrier, and its cheapest fares come without a checked bag. That matters for you, because a trekker needs to bring boots and a sleeping system, or at least a duffel.

What will the flights actually cost from Poland?

Here I have to be careful with you, because this is where travel pages invent numbers. I used three independent snapshots, and they do not agree exactly, which is normal.

• Kiwi.com, searched on 30 September 2026, leaving 19 to 23 October and returning 2 to 9 November. Warsaw return on Air Arabia via Sharjah: 4,202 to 4,355 PLN, no checked bag. Kraków return on Air Arabia via Sharjah: 990 to 1,002 EUR, about 4,330 to 4,380 PLN, no checked bag. Warsaw return on Qatar Airways via Doha: 6,085 to 6,950 PLN, one checked bag included.
• Kayak's Warsaw to Kathmandu page shows a typical return of US$943 to US$1,173, average US$1,069, which is about 3,630 to 4,520 PLN, average about 4,120 PLN. It lists May as the cheapest month at US$870 (about 3,350 PLN), and November and January as the dearest at US$1,108 and US$1,122.
• Trip.com's Warsaw to Kathmandu page shows return fares from US$912 (about 3,520 PLN), on Air Arabia via Sharjah.

So the realistic picture for an autumn trip is this. If you accept a low-cost carrier and no hold bag, plan on about 4,200 to 4,400 PLN. If you want a full-service carrier with a bag, plan on about 6,100 to 7,000 PLN. The gap of roughly 2,000 PLN buys you a checked bag on a full-service carrier, and only you can decide whether it is worth it.

What I will not do is publish a confident "October fare band" as if it were a fact. These are one day's snapshots. Watch the price for a few days before you commit, and expect it to move.

What does the trek itself cost in złoty?

These come straight out of our booking system. They are the same for 2026 and 2027 departures, and the same whether you go privately or in a group.

Everest Base Camp, 12 days	USD per person	PLN, approximate
Budget	US$1,399	about 5,390 PLN
Standard	US$2,499	about 9,630 PLN
Luxury	US$4,999	about 19,270 PLN

The difference between the tiers is not marketing, and I want you to be able to check it. On Budget you carry your own bag, rooms are shared and meals are not included. On Standard you get a porter shared between two trekkers, all meals and a private room. On Luxury you get your own dedicated porter, a private deluxe ensuite room, all meals with fruit, nuts and unlimited soft drinks, and the Lukla legs by helicopter both ways instead of a fixed-wing flight.

Every tier includes the three permits the route needs. The full day-by-day route is on the Everest Base Camp Trek 12 Days page, and our Everest Base Camp cost guide has every line of the price.

A down jacket, a sleeping bag rated to minus fifteen and a duffel are ours to lend, so you do not have to buy them for a single trip.

What permits do you need, and are they included?

The Khumbu is not a restricted area, so there is no special trekking permit. You need three things, and we arrange and pay for all of them in every tier:

• Sagarmatha National Park entry: NPR 3,000 for foreigners.
• Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality fee: NPR 3,000.
• TIMS card: NPR 2,000.

That is NPR 8,000 in total, about US$52 or roughly 200 PLN. We buy the TIMS card for you in Kathmandu, and your guide pays the Khumbu fee on the trail at Lukla or Monjo. You do not have to queue for any of it, and none of it is added to your bill. Our permits guide covers the rest.

Do Polish citizens need a visa for Nepal?

Yes, but it is simple. Poland is not on the short list of nationalities that cannot get a visa on arrival, so you get a tourist visa at Kathmandu airport. The fees on the Nepal Department of Immigration website are US$30 for 15 days, US$50 for 30 days and US$125 for 90 days. Your passport needs to be valid for at least six months. You can also apply online before you fly.

One thing to watch. One Polish travel-agency page I saw quotes "about 30 USD". That is the 15-day fee. Almost every Everest trekker needs 30 days, so budget US$50, which is about 193 PLN. Our visa on arrival guide walks through the process, and I would carry the fee in US dollars cash.

Will your EKUZ card or Polish insurance cover you in Nepal?

This is where Polish trekkers get caught, so I am going to be blunt.

The EKUZ, the European Health Insurance Card, is not valid in Nepal. It covers state-provided treatment in EU and EFTA countries, and Nepal is neither. Nothing about it helps you on the way up to Namche Bazaar, and you should not leave it to the last week to find that out.

Then there is altitude. A Polish insurance comparison site, on a page dated 19 September 2024, lists insurers' limits for trekking at 3,500 metres and at 5,500 metres. Kala Patthar, the viewpoint most people climb for the best sunrise view of Everest, is 5,545 metres. A policy that stops at 5,500 metres therefore stops just short of it. I have not read those insurers' policy wording myself, so I cannot tell you which policy is which. That is the reason to read yours.

What I would ask for in writing before you buy: cover for trekking to at least 6,000 metres, and helicopter evacuation for illness as well as accident. Altitude sickness is an illness, and a policy that pays only for accidents will not lift you off the mountain. Get the answer in an email from the insurer, not a phone assurance. Buy it at home, before you fly. I would not wait to buy cover in Nepal. Poland's embassy in New Delhi is the mission that covers Nepal, so do not count on an embassy round the corner if something goes wrong.

What will you spend on the trail?

On Budget, where meals are not included, plan about US$20 a day, so about US$240 across twelve days, or roughly 925 PLN. That covers food, hot showers, charging and wifi. On Standard and Luxury your meals are already paid for, so the same money goes much further. Dal bhat is the best value on any teahouse menu and comes with refills, and our dal bhat guide explains why every guide in Nepal eats it twice a day.

Tipping is customary and is not included in any price. Budget roughly US$10 to US$15 a day for your guide and US$8 to US$10 a day for a porter, shared by the group rather than paid by each person.

What is the full cost from Poland?

One person, Budget tier, twelve days, leaving from Warsaw on Air Arabia via Sharjah at about 4,300 PLN, which is the middle of the band I found:

Item	USD	PLN, approximate
Trek, Budget tier (permits included)	US$1,399	5,390
Return flight, Air Arabia, no checked bag	about US$1,115	4,300
Nepal visa, 30 days	US$50	193
On-trail spending at US$20 a day	US$240	925
Total	about US$2,805	about 10,800

Three things sit outside that total on purpose. Kathmandu hotels are not included in any trek tier and are quoted separately, though you can stay in our own family homestay at US$15 per person per night, which helps fund the learning centre my family runs. Insurance is yours to buy, for the reasons above. And a checked bag on the low-cost flight is an extra I could not price, so look at the airline's own baggage page before you book.

If you fly Qatar Airways with a bag included and the flight lands near the middle of that 6,100 to 7,000 PLN band, add roughly 2,200 PLN to the total.

If you want the same arithmetic for Standard or Luxury, ask me and I will run it for your dates.

Does it get cheaper as a group?

Yes, and only by group size. Here is the whole table from the live trek page.

Group size	Budget	Standard	Luxury
1 to 4 people	US$1,399	US$2,499	US$4,999
5 to 8 people	US$1,299	US$2,449	US$4,949
9 to 12 people	US$1,199	US$2,399	US$4,899
13 to 20 people	US$999	US$2,349	US$4,849

The price is the same whether you book privately or as a group, and we never add strangers to a private booking. Four friends from the same office in Kraków pay less each than four separate travellers would, simply because you are four. Solo trekkers are welcome, and there is no single supplement on Everest Base Camp because your guide joins you from Lukla. If you bring fourteen or more paying trekkers, the organiser walks free, though they still cover their own flights and permits.

How many days off do you need?

Ask for sixteen days away from Poland. That is two travel days, twelve on the trek and two spare in Kathmandu.

Those spare days are not a luxury. The Lukla flight is weather dependent and delays are routine, and a trekker with no buffer is a trekker who misses the flight home. During the peak months, March to May and October to November, fixed-wing flights to Lukla leave from Manthali rather than Kathmandu, which means a road transfer of four to six hours starting around midnight. We tell every client this before they book. Helicopters are not affected. Our domestic flights guide explains the details.

One small piece of calendar arithmetic that helps. Polish public holidays fall in the best trekking window. All Saints' Day on 1 November is a public non-working day, and so is Independence Day on 11 November. In 2026 the first is a Sunday and the second a Wednesday, and in 2027 they are a Monday and a Thursday. Check how they fall against your own employer's calendar, but they can save you a leave day or two.

When should you go, autumn or spring?

October is the most reliable month and the busiest. Mid-November into early December is cold at night, very clear and much quieter. March and April are warmer, with the rhododendrons in flower, and are the second busiest season. June to mid-September is the monsoon and I will talk you out of it. Late October carries a real risk of cyclone tails, and we have had two autumns disrupted by them, so build a spare day into your flights home.

Here is the tension for a Polish trekker. On Kayak's data, May is the cheapest month to fly from Warsaw and November is one of the dearest. That is a snapshot from a fare page, not a forecast. If your leave is flexible, spring 2027 is likely the better value trip, and our prices are the same in 2027. Our month-by-month guide goes deeper.

Is Everest Base Camp hard, and how do you prepare?

If you can walk five to seven hours a day on consecutive days, you have the fitness for it. The Tatras are a very good place to train the legs. What they cannot give you is the altitude. Base Camp is 5,364 metres, and Rysy, the highest point in Poland, is about 2,500 metres, so you will spend days sleeping higher than you have ever been. That is a reason to walk slowly and take the acclimatisation days seriously, not a reason to stay home.

Our guides carry an oximeter, not bottled oxygen. If you want a canister available we can arrange it at cost, and I will tell you honestly that most trekkers who walk slowly and listen to their guide never need it. Our fitness guide and the distance guide show what the days really demand.

What does Poland have to do with Everest?

More than most people expect, and I like to say so, because it is a story Poles know better than I do.

On 16 October 1978, Wanda Rutkiewicz became the first Pole on the summit of Everest, and the first European woman. On 17 February 1980, Krzysztof Wielicki and Leszek Cichy made the first winter ascent of Everest, on an expedition led by Andrzej Zawada. It was the first winter ascent of any peak above 8,000 metres. Jerzy Kukuczka, who climbed with Wielicki, went on in 1987 to become the second person to climb all fourteen of the eight-thousanders.

A Base Camp trek is a different undertaking from any of that, and I will not pretend it is the same. But if you are choosing your month, October is the month of Rutkiewicz's summit, and it is also the best trekking month of the year.

How do you pay from Poland?

A 10 per cent deposit confirms your booking, and the balance is due when you reach Kathmandu. We bill in US dollars only, by card or cash. Card payments carry a 3.5 per cent bank charge, and cash in Kathmandu carries none. We cannot take złoty or Nepali rupees from foreign clients. Your own bank may add a currency margin when it converts from PLN, so ask it before you pay.

Please be clear on the terms before you pay. The deposit is non-refundable, and if you cancel there is no refund. What we do offer is free rescheduling, with at least 72 hours' notice, to any date within one year. For restricted areas and Tibet the notice is seven days. If we are the ones who cannot run your trip, we refund what you paid, less taxes, bank and card charges and any money already spent on permits and flights.

Check us before you pay

You are sending money to a company in another country, so verify us rather than trusting a nicely written page. We are The Everest Holiday Pvt. Ltd., registered in Nepal on 8 April 2016, TAAN member number 1586. You can check any Nepali operator through the Office of the Company Registrar, TAAN, the Department of Tourism licence register and the Nepal Rastra Bank forex certification. Ask any operator for those numbers and check them yourself.

I will also say what most operators leave out. Even fully licensed companies have been involved in scams. A licence is a floor, not a guarantee. Talk to us, ask hard questions, and see whether the answers are specific.

The questions Polish clients ask me

Is there really no direct flight from Warsaw? Not to my knowledge, and not on any source I could open. One stop is the minimum, most often through Dubai or Sharjah.

Can I pay in złoty? No. We bill in US dollars, by card or cash. The PLN figures here are a guide and they move.

Does my EKUZ work in Nepal? No. It covers EU and EFTA countries only. You need a private travel policy that covers trekking to altitude, in writing.

Do I need a guide? We run every Everest trek with a licensed guide, and honestly you want one. On restricted-area routes a licensed guide is mandatory.

What if the Lukla flight is cancelled? That is what your two spare days in Kathmandu are for. We rebook you, and on Luxury you are on a helicopter anyway.

Are permits included? Yes, in every tier. Sagarmatha National Park, the Khumbu municipality fee and the TIMS card, NPR 8,000 in total.

Is autumn or spring better? Autumn for weather and atmosphere, spring for cost and flowers. Both are good, and spring is probably the better value for you.

If you want the numbers run for your dates and your group size, message me on WhatsApp or email [email protected]. I will give you the real figure, including the parts that are not in our favour. You may also want our detailed country pages for neighbouring markets, from Germany and from France.

About The Everest Holiday

We are a family company in Kathmandu, three generations of Himalayan guides, registered in 2016 and a member of the Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal, number 1586. When you book with us you deal with the family, not a call centre, and the guide who meets you at the airport works for the same people who answered your first message.

Every booking helps fund our Nagarjun Learning Center. We fully run the centre at Saldum, where 70 children learn with a teacher I pay for personally, and we have helped build and still support other community learning centres. It is where a real part of what you pay ends up.

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