Last updated 17 September 2026.
Every year I get the same message a dozen times over. Someone has a group. A hiking club, a few families, a university society, a workplace that wants to do something real together, a person raising money for a cause. They want to walk to Everest Base Camp, and the first question is almost always the same one. Is this even possible for a group, or is it only for serious solo trekkers?
It is absolutely possible. More than that, a group is often the best way to do it. I have run Everest Base Camp for couples, for a family of nine, and for larger clubs, and the group trips are usually the happiest ones on the trail. So let me set out honestly how a group trek to Base Camp actually works, what it costs, and what you need to do as the person organising it. This is from someone who runs these treks, not someone selling you a brochure.
A group makes the mountain easier, not harder
People worry that a group will slow them down, or that not everyone in it is fit enough. On Everest Base Camp, a group is a strength. We walk the days at a steady pace with proper rest and acclimatisation built in. This is not a race. The whole point is to reach 5,364 metres healthy, and a group gives you more eyes watching for altitude, more encouragement on the hard mornings, and more people to share the evenings in the lodges with. Our guides run each day so the slower walkers are never left behind and the faster ones are never held back.
You do not all have to be athletes. If your group can walk for five or six hours a day on hills, with a light day pack because a porter carries the weight, you can do this trek.
What a day actually looks like on the trail
Let me take the mystery out of it, because a group day on the way to Base Camp has a rhythm and it is a gentle one. You wake to tea brought to your room, pack your duffel and leave it for the porters, and walk after breakfast while the morning is still clear. Mornings are the best walking, three or four hours before lunch, and the mountains show themselves before the cloud builds. We stop at a lodge for a proper hot lunch, rest, then walk a shorter stretch in the afternoon to where you sleep that night.
Most days are five to six hours of walking, some are shorter, and the acclimatisation days are built in on purpose so your body has time to catch up with the height. On those days we take a short walk up high and come back down to sleep low, which is exactly how you let a whole group adjust safely rather than pushing anyone. Evenings are the best part. The group gathers around the stove in the dining room, the guides tell you what tomorrow holds, and you eat together. By the time you reach Base Camp, a group that started as strangers is usually a team.
How the price works for a group
Here is the part most companies keep vague, so I will be plain about it. Our price is per person, and it steps down as the group grows. On the standard Everest Base Camp trek it is US$2,499 per person for one to four people, US$2,449 for five to eight, US$2,399 for nine to twelve, and US$2,349 for a group of thirteen to twenty. The budget and luxury tiers work the same way, each with its own price, and you will see the full table on the trek page.
Three things I want you to know that you will not hear from most operators.
First, private and group are the same price. We never put strangers into your group to fill a departure. Whether it is the two of you or twenty of you, you are paying for a private trip on your own dates, and you are not paying a premium to keep it to your own people.
Second, the organiser treks free. Get fourteen or more paying trekkers together and whoever organised the group joins the trek free. The one thing the organiser still pays is their own flights and permits, because those are fixed costs we pay out to the airline and the government for every single person and cannot absorb. Everything else on the ground, the guiding, the porters, the lodges, the food, is on us. It is our thank-you for the real work of getting a group together. This is for our Nepal treks; our Tibet and Kailash trips are arranged differently.
Third, your departure is guaranteed. Your group sets the date and it runs. We do not cancel on you for numbers, and we never merge you into someone else's trip.
Getting your group ready
The honest truth about Everest Base Camp is that it is a fitness challenge, not a technical one. There is no rope work, no ice axe, no climbing. What it asks of you is the ability to walk for several hours a day, day after day, uphill, at altitude. Any reasonably active person can build up to that, and a group is the perfect way to train, because you keep each other honest.
If you have two or three months before the trek, tell your group to walk. Long walks on hills at the weekend, stairs during the week, and if they can, a walk with a loaded pack so their legs and back learn the feeling. Nobody needs to be a marathon runner. If someone in your group has a medical condition, ask them to see their doctor early and tell me, and I will tell you honestly whether it is something we can work around. It usually is.
What to bring, and what we provide
This is where a group saves real money without knowing it. We provide the serious cold-weather gear free, to every trekker. A proper down jacket, a sleeping bag rated to fifteen below, and a duffel bag for the porters to carry. It is our own kit, our own spec, and it is included, so nobody in your group needs to go out and buy a mountain wardrobe they will use once. What each person brings is their own boots worn in well before they fly, good socks, layers, a warm hat and gloves, sunglasses, sun cream, and a personal first-aid and blister kit. I send every group a full packing list once we have your dates, so you are not guessing.
Choosing your dates honestly
October is the most reliable month and the busiest. Clear mountain mornings, the trail full of life. If you want the best odds on the views and you do not mind company, this is the season. One honest caveat I give every group. The very end of October has, in two recent years, carried the tail of a cyclone off the Bay of Bengal, which can close the Lukla flights for a day or two. It is not a reason to avoid the month, but build a spare day into your flights home so a weather delay never costs anyone a connection.
Mid-November into early December is my own quiet favourite. The nights are cold, but the air is the clearest of the year and the trail empties out. If your group would rather have the mountain closer to themselves and can handle a cold evening, this is a wonderful time to walk.
Whichever you choose, fix your dates early. Everest Base Camp fills fast in autumn, and the lodges on the busy stretches near Base Camp have limited beds. For a group, the earlier you tell me your dates, the better the lodges and flights I can hold for you.
Flights, permits and insurance for a group
A few practical things worth knowing before you commit your group. The trek starts with a flight from Kathmandu to Lukla, one of the great short flights in the world. In the busy autumn and spring windows, that flight sometimes moves to a smaller airport at Manthali, which means an early road transfer of four to five hours before you fly. I tell every group this up front, because a surprise at two in the morning is not the way to start a trip. If it affects your dates, you will know from me before you book, not on the day.
Permits for Everest are the national park entry and the local municipality permit, and we arrange all of them for your whole group. And insurance is not optional. Everyone in the group needs travel insurance that covers trekking and helicopter evacuation, rated above the highest point of the trek. We will not file your permits without it, and I would not let a group of mine walk without it either. It is the cheapest peace of mind you will ever buy.
What we handle, and what you do
Your job as the organiser is the people. Gather them, agree the dates, keep everyone excited. Our job is everything on the ground.
That means the airport pick-ups, your hotels in Kathmandu, every permit, the Lukla flights, licensed guides with an assistant guide as the group grows, porters to carry the bags, all your lodges booked ahead, the meals on the trail, and someone reachable in Kathmandu the whole time you are out there. You bring the group. We run the mountain.
Guides, safety and altitude
Read this part twice, because it matters more than anything else. Everest Base Camp is not technical. There is no climbing. But it is high, and altitude is what turns a good trek bad. Every one of our guides is government-licensed and first-aid trained, and they watch the group every day, checking oxygen levels with an oximeter. The rule we give every client in writing is simple. The guide has the final say on safety. If the guide says someone goes down, they go down. On a group trek that judgement is what keeps everyone safe, and it is not up for debate.
The good news is that going as a group makes altitude safer, not riskier. More people means more eyes on anyone who is quiet at dinner or off their food, which are the early signs. We pace the whole group to the slowest safe rate, and nobody is ever pushed to keep up. Reaching Base Camp is not worth anyone's health, and any honest operator will tell you the same.
If your group is trekking for a cause
A lot of groups walk to Base Camp to raise money, and it is one of the best reasons to go. We can build the trek around your fundraising, honestly and with no hidden costs to your charity. If you want a target to walk towards, tell me, and I will help you build a realistic budget so the money you raise goes where you mean it to. And every booking with us already helps fund our Nagarjun Learning Center, which we run in the village of Saldum, so your group is helping children here simply by choosing us. Ask me and I will set it up properly.
Not set on Everest?
If your group wants something a little gentler or quieter, the same group pricing and the free-organiser deal apply across our other treks, and you can read how it all works on our group and club treks page. The Annapurna Base Camp trek is shorter and lower, a kinder first Himalaya for a group of mixed fitness. The Manaslu Circuit is the wilder, quieter choice for a group that has trekked before and wants fewer people around them.
How to start
Message me on WhatsApp with three things. Which trek, roughly when, and how many of you. I will come back with a price and a plan, usually within a few hours, and you will be talking to me, not a call centre. My family has guided in these mountains for three generations, and I would be glad to help you bring your group to Base Camp. Message me on WhatsApp or write to [email protected].
Written by Shreejan Simkhada, CEO of The Everest Holiday and third-generation Himalayan guide. TAAN Member #1586.
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