Everest Base Camp Trek Cost From Switzerland: The Real All-In Numbers in Swiss Francs for 2026 and 2027

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

Last updated 10 September 2026. Package prices read from our booking system on that date; they hold for 2026 and 2027 departures. Swiss franc figures use 1 US dollar = 0.81 Swiss francs, the rate in the first week of September 2026, rounded.

Swiss trekkers are the ones I least need to explain mountains to. Most have slept in a hut above 3,000 metres and some have stood on a 4,000-metre summit before breakfast. What they ask me is the money: what does the Everest Base Camp trek really cost from Switzerland, all in, in francs, and what is left out of the price on the brochure? 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 Swiss trekker roughly CHF 2,850 to 3,150 all in on a budget package once you add your own trail meals, about CHF 3,600 to 3,850 on a standard package with meals and porters, and CHF 5,600 to 5,950 for the luxury version with helicopter transfers. In US dollars, which is what we quote in, that is about $3,500 to 3,900, $4,450 to 4,750 and $6,900 to 7,350. By Swiss standards the trek itself is cheap; it is the flight and the insurance that need attention. 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 CHF 1,135. 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 CHF 2,025. Everything above plus all meals and one porter between two trekkers.
• Luxury: US$4,999, about CHF 4,050. 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 three hours and forty-five minutes ahead of Zurich 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. I reply in English.

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 francs the standard tier runs from about CHF 2,025 for a pair down to about CHF 1,905 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 an SAC section get the same deal as six members of one family. Swiss clients tend to come as a couple or a small group of friends, and if that is you, the first row is your price. A solo trekker books at the first-row rate, and on every tier a solo booking travels without a porter: your guide carries some of your load instead.

How much are flights from Switzerland to Kathmandu?

There is no nonstop flight from Switzerland to Nepal. From Zurich and Geneva the usual routings connect once, in Doha, Dubai, Istanbul or Abu Dhabi, and land in Kathmandu the following day. The cheapest return fares from Zurich show up at around CHF 600 in the booking engines. For October dates booked three to four months ahead, plan on CHF 700 to 1,000 return; a late booking for the October peak can pass CHF 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 Doha should cost you a night in Kathmandu, not your trek.

Visa, permits and insurance

Nepal tourist visa for Swiss passport holders: US$50 for 30 days, about CHF 40, 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 CHF 16. Khumbu Pasang Lhamu municipality permit: NPR 2,000, about CHF 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, and Swiss trekkers get it wrong for a specific reason. Your basic health insurance under the KVG pays for emergency treatment abroad only up to twice the Swiss tariff, and nothing towards a rescue outside Switzerland. Rega patronage is a wonderful thing and it is not a trekking policy: it covers repatriation at Rega's discretion, not the local helicopter that lifts you off the trail at Gorak Shep, which is billed in the thousands of US dollars by a Nepali company that will phone your insurer before it takes off. 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 CHF 100 to 200 for two to three weeks. Ask the insurer for the confirmation in writing. 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. CHF 15 to 23 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 CHF 35 to 47 a day for three lodge meals and tea, so roughly CHF 420 to 560 across the trek. By hut standards in the Valais, that is cheap.

Add two or three Kathmandu hotel nights, which are not included in trek packages, ours included. A clean tourist-class double in Thamel runs CHF 55 to 80 a night; a five-star runs CHF 160 and up. Carry the trail money in Nepali rupees from Kathmandu. Francs change in Thamel but at a worse rate than euros or dollars, so bring one of those or use a Kathmandu ATM, and 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 Switzerland, and nobody in Nepal will make you feel awkward about it, but it genuinely matters to the crew, whose wages are modest by any standard and tiny by yours. A fair guideline is about ten per cent of the trek price, pooled: for a standard trek, think CHF 160 to 230 for the guide and CHF 110 to 160 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 Zurich

Standard package, one trekker sharing rooms:

The same arithmetic puts the budget route at about CHF 3,000 once you add roughly CHF 490 of trail meals and tip the guide alone, and the luxury route at about CHF 5,750. 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?

Fifteen is the honest answer from Switzerland: 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. With four or five weeks of holiday that is a comfortable ask, and the Herbstferien in October land on the best fortnight of the year for families. Plenty of Swiss clients add Pokhara or a few days in the Kathmandu valley 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, and a Swiss trekker used to winter in the Alps copes with the cold better than anyone. 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 the EDA say?

The Swiss foreign ministry publishes Reisehinweise for Nepal, and they are the place to read the current wording on road closures and the monsoon rather than trusting my summary. Since the flood of 26 August on the Bhote Koshi in Rasuwa district closed the main road north from Kathmandu, I have been asked whether Everest is affected. 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 EDA travel advice for Nepal yourself before you fly, and register your trip on the EDA's Travel Admin app while you are there; it takes two minutes.

Which Everest trek should a Swiss trekker book?

The twelve-day trek on this page is the classic and the right first choice for most people. For Swiss clients specifically, who arrive fitter and more altitude-aware than most, three variants sell better than the standard route, 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, and the Cho La is a proper pass.
• Everest Three Passes, 17 days. The full circuit, for people who have done the Haute Route and want the same hut-to-hut feeling, a great deal higher.
• 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 Switzerland?

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. Swiss Visa and Mastercard cards go through without trouble; approve the 3D Secure step in your banking app when it pops up. TWINT only works inside Switzerland, so for the deposit a card is the practical route. 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 Swiss clients always ask me

Is it harder than a 4,000er? Differently. There is no technical ground on the Base Camp trek and nothing you would rope up for. What is different is duration: Base Camp is 730 metres higher than the Dufourspitze, and instead of touching that height for an hour you sleep above 4,000 metres for four nights. Acclimatisation, not fitness, is what decides it, which is exactly why the itinerary has two acclimatisation days and why we will not cut them, however strong the group.

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. Do not expect cheese above Namche; do expect the best apple pie you have eaten at 4,000 metres. 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. Bring your own broken-in boots, proper layers and category-3 sunglasses; you almost certainly own better ones than we could lend. Full list on the trek page.

Will my phone work? Buy a Ncell or Nepal Telecom SIM at the airport for a few francs; it works to Namche and patchily above. The Everest Link wifi card in Namche covers the lodges further up. Swiss operators' roaming outside Europe is expensive, so do not 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.