The Everest Base Camp Trek

Standard Itinerary, Lukla to Base Camp and Back

The table shows a standard 13-day plan of the kind The World Travel Guy describes, flying from Kathmandu to Lukla and walking up the Dudh Kosi valley. Heights are from Himalayan Vista Trekking and Wikipedia. Some figures differ between sources, and both are shown where that happens, for example Dingboche is given as 4,410 m by the Dingboche article and Himalayan Vista Trekking and as 4,260 m (13,980 ft) by the Everest Base Camp article. Camping is not allowed at base camp on trekking permits, so trekkers sleep at Gorak Shep, the last village with accommodation.

Days 10 to 13 retrace the same villages downhill to Lukla and fly back to Kathmandu. A helicopter return can cut three or four days from the walk, per Ian Taylor Trekking, and if you want that built in, EBC Trek with Helicopter Return does the trek in 12 days and flies out from Gorakshep by helicopter.

The Two Acclimatisation Days and Why They Sit at Namche and Dingboche

Standard itineraries include two acclimatisation days, one in Namche Bazaar at 3,440 m (11,290 ft) and one in Dingboche, per Ian Taylor Trekking. The logic is a sleeping-height gain of about 300 to 500 m per day above 3,000 m, which Himalayan Hero advises, and Wikipedia puts the ceiling at 300 m (1,000 ft) of daily gain above 3,000 m. Namche at 3,440 m is the first rest stop and Dingboche sits above 4,000 m.

Skipping the rest days can reach base camp in 9 to 10 days but greatly increases altitude sickness risk, per Ian Taylor Trekking. Altitude sickness typically occurs only above 2,500 m and symptoms often show within ten hours of ascent, per Wikipedia. HACE needs immediate descent, per Himalayan Hero, and the Himalayan Rescue Association runs an aid post at Pheriche staffed by volunteer doctors twice yearly in trekking season.

Namche Bazaar itself is covered on the Namche Bazaar page. Ian Taylor Trekking argues that even two rest days are not enough and its own itineraries carry three nights in Namche, so more time is a reasonable choice if your schedule allows it.

Distance, Hours and the Real Difficulty

The round trip from Lukla including Kala Patthar is about 82 miles (132 km) per Ian Taylor Trekking, while The World Travel Guy puts it at about 130 km. The cumulative gain is about 18,324 ft (5,585 m) uphill and 15,853 ft (4,832 m) downhill per Ian Taylor Trekking. Daily walking stages run roughly 5 to 6 hours, for example G Adventures walks Namche to Tengboche in 5 to 6 hours and Dingboche to Lobuche in about 5 hours.

Altitude is the real difficulty. You sleep at 4,940 m (16,210 ft) in Lobuche and 5,164 m (16,942 ft) in Gorak Shep. The World Travel Guy is itself inconsistent, calling the trek not super difficult in one place and a pretty difficult trek in another, and notes people in their 70s and pre-teens have completed it, so a normal healthy person can walk it. Google's questions ask whether a beginner can trek Everest Base Camp. The honest answer is that no technical skill is needed but the pace, the 12 to 18 days and the sleeping heights punish anyone who rushes. Kala Patthar at 5,545 m (18,192 ft) is the highest point of the standard route and is covered on the Kala Patthar page.

How to Train

The published sources carries no formal training plan for this trek, so this is what the sources support. You need to walk 5 to 6 hours a day on back-to-back days with a loaded daypack, since the trek repeats that pattern for about two weeks. Cumulative gain of about 5,585 m uphill over the round trip means steady uphill walking, not speed.

Build long weekend walks before you go and practise on consecutive days, because fatigue accumulates the same way it does on the trail. If you want a higher objective after the trek, Island Peak and EBC Climb adds an Island Peak summit attempt on top of the walk, listed at 6,189 m (20,305 ft) and given as 6,165 m (20,226 ft) by Wikipedia. For the acclimatisation side, Himalayan Hero recommends one acclimatisation day for roughly every 1,000 m gained and drinking 3 to 4 litres of water daily.

Never ascend with worsening symptoms, and Wikipedia lists acetazolamide at 125 mg twice daily started about 24 hours before ascent as a prevention option to discuss with a doctor.

Permits, Teahouses, Wages and Tips

The Sagarmatha National Park entry permit is NPR 3,000 for foreigners and NPR 1,500 for SAARC nationals, and most sources list it with no tax added, though The Himalayan Times has described Rs 3,000 plus 13% tax for non-SAARC foreigners. The Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality permit is NPR 2,000 per Hop Nepal and the Kathmandu Post, and NPR 3,000 since 2026 per Everest Trekking Routes. The TIMS card is no longer required in the Everest region per Hop Nepal, and Everest Trekking Routes says the rural municipality permit replaced it for tracking trekkers. The Longest Way Home rounds the whole permit set to $60 total.

On the trail, credit cards are not accepted, ATMs exist only in Lukla and Namche and are unreliable, so carry enough rupees from Kathmandu per The World Travel Guy, who spent about NPR 2,400 (about $20) per day and never more than $25 in a day. Honeyguide suggests tipping 15% of wages or more for guides and porters. The round-trip cost for an average trek is $1,677 and a no-porter trek $1,513 per The Longest Way Home.

Bookable Treks and What Their Prices Cover

Guided trips trade money for logistics. Three catalog treks on this site are Everest Base Camp 12 Days at $955 per person, which includes return Kathmandu to Lukla flights and permits, Everest Base Camp Trek Lodge to Lodge at $1,475 per person, which includes flights via Ramechhap, permits and full board and needs at least 2 people per booking, and Everest Base Camp Trek 14 Days at $1,800 per person, which includes Lukla flights with airport departure tax, the national park permit and the Pasang Lhamu fee, and charges a $250 surcharge in Nepal if no group or room share is available. The pick between them depends on if you want the shortest price, full board or the largest review base.

A trek package does not remove the altitude: all of these still sleep high and still depend on the same acclimatisation rules.

Spring and Autumn, and What Winter Costs You

The Everest region has a spring trekking season of March to May and an autumn season of September to November, per Kandoo Adventures. Monsoon runs June to August with most of Nepal's annual rain, and December to February is the off-season when high-pass treks close. Nights at base camp are cold in every month: Kandoo Adventures lists -17C in March, -12C in April, -8C in May, -9C in October and -12C in November, while Everest Trekking Routes lists -15C in March, -10C in April, -5C in May, -12C in October, -18C in November and -25C from December to February.

The World Travel Guy puts November to February night lows as low as -30C. Teahouse rooms have little or no heating, and Best Heritage Tour gives room temperatures of -5 to 0C at Namche and -18 to -10C at Gorak Shep, with blankets provided. Rooms fill fast in October and November, and solo trekkers may end up sleeping on a bench in the dining hall, per Best Heritage Tour.

Tibet Travel also names April to May and September to October as the best window for the base camp area.

Lukla Delays and the Spare Day

Flights to Tenzing-Hillary Airport run on a 527 m (1,729 ft) runway with an 11.7% gradient, and strong southwest winds usually close it from mid to late morning, so flights are scheduled early. In peak spring and autumn all flights operate from Manthali in Ramechhap, which is 130 to 140 km from Kathmandu and 4 to 5 hours by road per The Bucket List Company, or about 5 hours per Himalayan Wonders, and guests usually leave the Kathmandu hotel around 2 or 3 am. Everest Trekking Routes says October has the best reliability, with about 1 in 10 departures delayed more than 2 hours, and monsoon cancellation rates exceed 60%.

Wikipedia says visibility closes Lukla about 50% of the time in the monsoon. G Adventures suggests keeping about USD 500 one way available for a helicopter if flights cancel. Build spare days into your schedule, because a missed Lukla flight can cost you the whole itinerary.

The flight itself is covered on the Lukla airport page.