Everest Base Camp trek cost from the UK: the real 2026 numbers

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

Every week I answer emails from the UK that ask the same sensible question: what does Everest Base Camp actually cost, all in, from London? Not the package price on a website, the whole thing, flights to tips. Here is the honest answer for 2026, with the arithmetic shown so you can check my working.

The short answer

A twelve-day Everest Base Camp trek costs a UK trekker roughly £2,500 to £2,800 all in on a budget package once you add your own trail meals, around £2,900 to £3,300 on a standard package with meals and porters, and £4,800 to £5,300 for the luxury version with helicopter transfers. The trek package itself is only about half of that; the rest is your flights, visa, insurance, Kathmandu nights and spending money, and those cost the same whoever you trek with.

What does the trek package itself cost?

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

• Budget: US$1,399 (about £1,040). 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 £1,850). Everything above plus all meals and one porter between two trekkers.
• Luxury: US$4,999 (about £3,700). A porter to yourself, private rooms, and helicopter to and from Lukla instead of the fixed-wing.

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, WhatsApp me on +977 9810351300 with your dates and group size and I will send you real numbers the same day.

Does it get cheaper if we come as a group?

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

Two things worth knowing about how we run groups, because not everyone does it this way. The price is the same whether your group is private or joins others, and we never add strangers to your trek to fill seats. And the discount comes from group size alone, so four friends from a hiking club in Manchester get the same deal as four family members. A university club or a workplace group of thirteen or more gets the best rate on the board, and at about £740 a head for the budget trek that is genuinely hard to beat from any honest operator.

Is a cheaper quote always a scam?

No, and it would be self-serving of me to pretend otherwise. There are honest operators below us on price, usually running larger groups with leaner staffing. A quote becomes a warning sign when it is far below everyone else’s for the same twelve days, when the itinerary quietly loses an acclimatisation day, or when the company cannot show you the boring paperwork: government company registration, a trekking licence, TAAN membership, a tax certificate. Every legitimate operator in Kathmandu holds all four and will send them without being offended that you asked. We are TAAN member 1586, and I would genuinely rather you verified that with TAAN than took this article’s word for it — even a fully licensed operator can behave badly, so check the paperwork and the years of reviews together.

Sterling figures here use the rate on the day of writing, about US$1.35 to the pound; check the day’s rate, because on a US$2,499 package a few points of currency movement is worth £50 or more.

How much are flights from the UK to Kathmandu?

There is no direct UK–Kathmandu flight, so you will connect once, usually through Doha, Dubai, Istanbul or Delhi. Most of our UK clients pay somewhere between £600 and £900 return from London depending on how early they book, and peak October departures booked late can pass £1,000. Book two to four months ahead for autumn and you will usually land in the middle of that band. Regional UK departures typically add £50 to £150.

What about the visa, permits and insurance?

• Nepal tourist visa, 30 days: US$50, paid on arrival at Kathmandu airport in cash or obtained beforehand from the Embassy of Nepal in London.
• Sagarmatha National Park permit: NPR 3,000 (about £17).
• Khumbu Pasang Lhamu municipality permit: NPR 2,000 (about £11).
• Travel insurance: budget £100 to £200 for a policy that covers trekking above 5,545 metres and helicopter evacuation.

On any decent package, including ours, both permits are bought for you and included in the price; I list them so you can see where the money goes. Insurance is the one item you must buy yourself, and it is the one item you must not economise on. The policy’s altitude limit has to be higher than Kala Patthar’s 5,545 metres, not equal to it, because a rescue helicopter flies above you to reach you. Send the policy wording to your trekking company before you travel and ask them to read it; we do this for every client and reject more policies than you would believe.

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 the odd bakery stop in Namche. £10 to £15 a day covers it comfortably.

On a budget package you are buying your own meals, and food prices climb with altitude because everything above Namche arrives on a porter’s back or a yak. Plan on £25 to £35 a day for three lodge meals and tea, so roughly £300 to £400 across the trek.

Add two or three Kathmandu hotel nights, which are not included in most trek packages, ours included. A clean tourist-class double in Thamel runs US$50 to $70 a night; five-star runs US$150 and up.

How much should I tip?

Tipping is customary and genuinely matters to the crew. A common guideline is about ten percent of the trek price, pooled: for a standard trek, think £120 to £180 for the guide and £80 to £120 for the porter, adjusted for group size and how the team looked after you. Hand it over on the last trekking day, in rupees or a mix with sterling notes.

The full 2026 arithmetic, from London

Standard package, one trekker sharing rooms:

The same arithmetic puts the budget route at about £2,650 once you add roughly £350 of trail meals and tip the guide alone, and the luxury route at about £5,000. If someone quotes you dramatically less than the bottom of that range for the same twelve days, a line has been cut somewhere, and it is usually wages, acclimatisation days or the safety margin. I wrote a fuller breakdown of what sits underneath every operator’s pricing in what Everest Base Camp really costs in 2026.

Is October really the best time for UK trekkers?

October is the most reliable month and the busiest. For UK half-term flexibility, know one thing most sites will not tell you: in peak season, 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 to early December is quieter, colder and often better value, with flight fares and hotels easing. Spring, late March into April, is the warm, flowery alternative. And two recent autumns have seen the tail end of Bay of Bengal cyclones clip the last week of October, so if your dates are free, the first half of November has been the calmer bet.

Can I pay in pounds, and how does the deposit work?

We quote in US dollars, take a 10 percent deposit to confirm, and the balance is payable when you arrive in Kathmandu. Cards work fine, and one practical note for European bank transfers: Nepal is outside the IBAN system, so a UK bank will ask for a SWIFT code and correspondent details instead. A serious operator will send you those without being asked twice.

The questions UK 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. If you can do a full-day hill walk in the Lakes or Snowdonia comfortably, and you take the acclimatisation days seriously, you are fit enough.

How many days should I take off work? Fourteen is the comfortable answer: twelve for the trek plus arrival and departure days. Build in one spare day at the end if you can; Lukla weather occasionally holds flights, and a buffer day turns a drama into a rest day.

Is the tap water safe? No. 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 are free on every tier, so do not buy either at home. Bring broken-in boots, layers, and category-3 sunglasses. Full list on the trek page.

If you want a quote for your own dates and group size rather than an article’s averages, write to me 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.