Mardi Himal Trek Cost 2026/2027: What You Actually Pay, Tier by Tier

Last updated 4 October 2026. Every trek price on this page is read from our own booking system, from the live package row for the 7-day Mardi Himal trek. Where a figure comes from somewhere else, I say where in the text or in the notes at the end. Where I do not have a number I can stand behind, I say that too.

The short answer: the Mardi Himal trek costs US$454 per person on Budget, US$849 on Standard and US$1,111 on Luxury for one to four people, and the price per person falls as the group grows. Both permits are inside that price. Your flight to Nepal, the visa, your Kathmandu hotel, insurance, tips and what you buy on the trail are not. For a solo traveller on Standard, the trek price plus the visa, a trail allowance of US$20 a day and a guide tip comes to roughly US$1,039 to US$1,059, before flights, hotel and insurance. The sums are below, so you can change them to suit you.

We already have a full Mardi Himal trek guide that covers the route, the difficulty and the best months. This page does one job only: it tells you what you will actually pay, line by line, including the costs that no package price shows. If a number here disagrees with a number you saw on another page, ask me on WhatsApp and I will check the live row before you book.

How much does the Mardi Himal trek cost?

Here is the price per person for the 7-day trek, as it stands on our package page. Pricing is the same for a private trek or a group, and it falls by group size only. The prices include the Kathmandu to Pokhara transport shown in the itinerary, so there is no separate bus or taxi bill on the way to the trailhead.

Group size	Budget	Standard	Luxury
1 to 4 people	US$454	US$849	US$1,111
5 to 8 people	US$404	US$799	US$1,061
9 to 12 people	US$354	US$749	US$1,011
13 to 20 people	US$304	US$699	US$999

A solo traveller is welcome and pays the one-to-four price. The price on our package page does not change by month, and I could not find a peak-season supplement on it. Our website prices also stay the same for 2027 departures, so a trek booked now for spring 2027 costs what the table says.

The price falls with group size only. A Standard trek for a group of six costs US$799 each, US$50 less than a solo traveller pays, and a group of ten pays US$749 each, US$100 less. On Budget a group of ten pays US$354 against US$454 for one. On Luxury a group of thirteen to twenty pays US$999, US$112 less than the solo price. It is the same trek either way. We never merge separate private bookings, so your group is your own. If you would rather meet other trekkers, ask us about a fixed departure, which is opt-in. To plan a group, send me the dates and the number of people on WhatsApp.

What does each tier include?

The route, the guide's standards and the safety kit are the same on every tier. What changes is who carries your bag, who feeds you, where you sleep and how you get to Pokhara. This is the part of the price that is easiest to misread, so here it is side by side, from the live package row.

	Budget	Standard	Luxury
Porter	None. You carry your own bag.	One porter for every two trekkers	One dedicated porter per trekker
Meals on the trek	Not included. You pay at the teahouses.	All meals, with tea or coffee at each meal and 2 litres of warm water a day	All meals and all drinks except alcohol
Rooms on the trail	Shared teahouse rooms	Private twin room, with an attached bathroom where possible	Private deluxe room with attached bathroom where available
Guide	One guide for the group, plus an assistant for groups of 8 or more	One guide for up to 6 trekkers, plus an assistant for groups of 7 or more	One guide for every 2 trekkers, plus an assistant for every 2 more
Kathmandu to Pokhara and back	Local transport	Shared tourist vehicle	Private luxury vehicle
Mobile SIM	SIM card only	SIM with limited data	SIM with unlimited data

Every tier also includes the airport pick-up and drop-off, two nights at a tourist hotel in Pokhara with breakfast, the two permits, all government taxes, a first-aid kit and a pulse oximeter, a sleeping bag and down jacket if you do not have your own, free storage for your spare luggage at our Kathmandu store, a T-shirt and cap, a farewell meal and a certificate of achievement. Standard and Luxury add a duffel bag.

The Luxury list also says it covers hot showers, charging, bed heaters and internet where they are available. The Budget and Standard lists do not say that, so plan to pay for those yourself.

One thing to read carefully. On Standard, a single trekker has no porter, because porters are shared one for two. Your guide carries up to 10 kg of your bag instead, and you carry a small day pack. On Luxury a solo trekker still gets their own porter. On Budget nobody has a porter, whatever the group size. Mardi Himal is not a restricted-area route, so a guide is not a legal requirement here, but we always trek with a licensed guide, so the guide is part of every price above.

Which permits does the price cover, and what do they cost?

Two permits are needed: the Annapurna Conservation Area Permit (ACAP) and the TIMS card. We arrange both in Kathmandu and they are included in every tier, so you do not queue for them and you do not pay anything extra at a checkpoint. For the record, the Nepal Tourism Board fee list gives NPR 3,000 for the ACAP and NPR 2,000 for the TIMS card for foreign visitors, so NPR 5,000 in all. For SAARC nationals it is NPR 1,000 for each. There is no restricted-area permit on this route.

The reason I mention the figures at all is that they show you what is inside the price. If another company quotes you a lower trek price and says "permits extra", add NPR 5,000 and the cost of arranging them before you compare. More on permits across the whole country is in our trekking permits guide.

What does the price leave out?

These are the lines that sit outside the package price. Some you cannot avoid, some depend on your choices.

• Your flight to Nepal. I do not quote international fares for Mardi because they depend on where you start and when. Our country cost guides, such as the UK guide, show how I check a fare.
• The visa. Our package page lists US$30 for a 15-day visa, US$50 for 30 days and US$125 for 90 days, payable in US dollars cash on arrival, or you can apply before you fly. See our visa guide for the current process.
• Kathmandu hotel nights. Kathmandu hotels are not in any trek tier, and I quote them separately. You need at least one night before the trek and one after it. Our family homestay is US$15 a night per person, and I can arrange a hotel to your budget instead.
• Travel insurance. It is mandatory for this trek. Your policy must cover medical costs and emergency helicopter rescue up to 6,000 m, and you give us a copy before the trek. Buy it in your home country. Our insurance guide explains what to look for.
• Tips for the guide and porter. Recommended, not included. See below.
• Meals on the road and in Pokhara. Only breakfast at the Pokhara hotel is included. Lunch and dinner in Pokhara, and food on the long drives to and from Kathmandu, are yours to choose and pay for.
• Drinks. On Budget, all drinks. On Standard, bottled water, soft drinks, juice and alcohol, beyond the tea or coffee with meals and the 2 litres of warm water. On Luxury, alcohol only.
• Delays you cannot control. The package excludes extra costs caused by landslides, weather, strikes, illness or changes in government policy.
• An extra porter. If you are on Budget, or you want a porter on Standard as a solo traveller, an extra porter is US$25 a day, with 13 per cent VAT and a 3.5 per cent bank charge on top. For four walking days that is US$100 before the add-ons and about US$117 once VAT and the bank charge are included.
• Flying instead of driving. See the section on flying below.

Gear is a smaller line than people expect, because the sleeping bag and down jacket are lent to you if you need them. Tell us at your online briefing. You will still want good boots with grip and walking poles for the steep descent, and those you bring.

What do trail extras and tips add up to?

The package page suggests budgeting about US$20 a day for personal expenses on the trek. The list it gives for that figure is broad: meals and Kathmandu accommodation, visa fees, snacks, hot showers, personal equipment and tips for the crew. So it is a rule of thumb for everything, not a trail-only number. In the sums below I price the visa and the tips on their own lines, and I use the US$20 a day only as an allowance for snacks, showers, charging and drinks over the four trail days. That is my reading, and on Standard and Luxury it may be more than you spend.

What I cannot give you is a Mardi menu with prices. We have no Mardi price list I can stand behind, and I would rather say so than guess. For a sense of how trail prices run, our currency guide uses examples such as a 650-rupee dal bhat, about US$5, and a 300-rupee phone charge, about US$2.30. Those are general trail examples, not Mardi quotes. For wifi, our guide to wifi and charging on trek gives 200 to 500 rupees per device per day at higher lodges on the Everest trail, which shows how such charges can mount. On Mardi, hot showers, charging and wifi cost extra, the rooms at High Camp are basic, and mobile data is not reliable above Low Camp.

On Budget, the line that matters is food. Meals on the trek are not included, so you pay the teahouse for breakfast, lunch and dinner on the four trail days, and drinks too. If you are on Budget, message me before you book and I will ask the guides for a current figure.

Tips come last. Our tipping guide suggests US$15 to US$20 a day for a trekking guide and US$10 to US$15 a day for a porter, and NPR 500 to 1,000 once for a driver on a long transfer. Tipping is not legally required, but it is culturally expected, and it matters to people who earn modest base salaries. Counting the four trail days, that is US$60 to US$80 for a guide and US$40 to US$60 for a porter. Some people tip across all seven days of the trip, so treat my sums as the low end. A group shares the total, so each person's part is smaller.

What does a solo trekker pay in total?

Here is a worked example for one person, using only numbers from this page. It leaves out your flight to Nepal, your Kathmandu hotel, your insurance and any gear you buy, because those depend on you. It uses the 30-day visa, the four trail days (days 2 to 5 of the itinerary), a US$20 a day allowance and the tipping ranges above.

Line	Budget	Standard	Luxury
Trek price, 1 to 4 people	US$454	US$849	US$1,111
Visa, 30 days	US$50	US$50	US$50
Trail allowance, 4 days at US$20	US$80	US$80	US$80
Guide tip, 4 days at US$15 to US$20	US$60 to US$80	US$60 to US$80	US$60 to US$80
Porter tip, 4 days at US$10 to US$15	none, no porter	none, no porter on a solo booking	US$40 to US$60
Total	US$644 to US$664, plus your trek meals	US$1,039 to US$1,059	US$1,341 to US$1,381

Add your flights, Kathmandu nights and insurance to get a real total. If you pay your balance by card rather than cash, add the card charge from the next section.

How do you pay, and what happens if plans change?

A 10 per cent deposit holds your dates, and you pay the balance in Kathmandu. We take US dollars in cash or card, not Nepali rupees, from foreign clients. Paying the balance by card carries a 3.5 per cent charge, and cash in Kathmandu carries none. Here is what that means for a solo Standard trek at US$849: the deposit is US$84.90, the balance is US$764.10, and the card charge on that balance is about US$26.74. Paying that balance in cash saves you that amount.

The deposit is non-refundable. If your plans change, you can reschedule free with at least 72 hours' notice, to any date within one year. If we cannot run the trip, we refund what you paid, less taxes, bank and card charges and any money already spent on permits or flights. I would rather you read this before you pay than after.

Should you fly to Pokhara instead of taking the road?

The price includes the road: day 1 is a drive of six to eight hours from Kathmandu to Pokhara, and day 7 is the same drive back. If the drive does not appeal, you can fly. Our domestic flights guide gives about 25 minutes and about US$124 one way for a foreign visitor, so roughly US$248 for the return. Flights can be arranged for an extra fee, and I would quote the swap for your dates rather than guess what a flight costs against the road in your tier.

The flight saves most of two long days, but it adds baggage limits and the risk of weather delay. For a short trek with no spare days, the drive is the steadier plan, and it is what the price is built on.

Is Mardi cheaper than Poon Hill or Annapurna Base Camp, and who should look elsewhere?

Here are the three nearest Annapurna treks side by side, from our live package rows, for one to four people.

Trek	Days	Budget	Standard	Luxury
Poon Hill	6	US$499	US$749	US$1,111
Mardi Himal	7	US$454	US$849	US$1,111
Annapurna Base Camp	9	US$499	US$799	US$1,400

So Mardi is the cheapest of the three on Budget, the dearest on Standard, and level with Poon Hill on Luxury. I will not pretend there is one clean reason for that. The tiers are built around different routes and different lodges, so compare what each includes before you compare the numbers. Our comparisons of Poon Hill and Mardi Himal and of Annapurna Base Camp and Mardi Himal go through the trade-offs, and our Annapurna Base Camp cost guide does for that trek what this page does for Mardi.

Who should look elsewhere? If you want comfortable lodges, hot showers every night and a long menu, the lodges at High Camp will disappoint you, and no tier changes that much. If you need a fixed total and cannot cope with a wet or cloudy day on the ridge, keep a spare day in Pokhara. If you are on Budget and counting every rupee, ask about the food line first. For the route itself, see the guides to Mardi High Camp and Mardi Himal Base Camp, and our own introduction to the Mardi Himal trail.

Tell me your dates, your group size and the tier you are leaning towards on WhatsApp, +977 9810351300, or email [email protected]. I will send you a price for your group, say what is and is not inside it, and check the current trail position before you pay anything. The page to start from is the Mardi Himal Base Camp trek, 7 days.

Notes and sources

Group prices, tier contents, itinerary, hotel and transport inclusions, permits included, visa fees, insurance requirement, personal spending suggestion, deposit and extra-porter terms: our live package row for the 7-day Mardi trek, read 4 October 2026. Permit fees: Nepal Tourism Board fee list. Flight time and fare: our domestic flights guide. Tipping ranges: our tipping guide. Teahouse prices on the Everest trail: our currency guide. Poon Hill and Annapurna Base Camp prices: our live package rows, read 4 October 2026. Balance by card, cash balance, refund and rescheduling terms: our standard booking terms. The sums in the solo-total table are my own arithmetic from these figures.

About The Everest Holiday

We are a family company in Kathmandu, three generations of family 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.

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.

Written by Shreejan Simkhada, CEO of The Everest Holiday. TAAN Member #1586.