What a Nepal trek package actually includes, and the five things it never does

A guided Nepal trek package normally covers the guide, a porter between two, every permit, all teahouse rooms and three meals a day on the trail. It normally does not cover your international flights, your Nepal visa, travel insurance, personal gear or tips. Those five are the gap between the price you are quoted and the money that actually leaves your account, and they are the same five at almost every operator. Here is our own list, item by item, so you can hold any quote against it.

What is in our packages, trek by trek

The core is identical across our treks; the transport around it is what changes. These are the real inclusion lists for three of our most-booked routes, at the solo price.

Two things in that table are worth pausing on. The Poon Hill trek starts and ends in Pokhara, so getting to Pokhara is yours to arrange; the Annapurna Base Camp package includes the tourist bus from Kathmandu, with the flight available at extra cost. And on Everest, the Lukla flights are inside the price, which is most of why the same number of trekking days costs more there.

The five things a trek price never includes

These are excluded on every package we sell, and on every honest quote you will be shown.

• International flights. Always separate, and usually the largest single line in the trip.
• Your Nepal visa. Issued on arrival or online: $30 for 15 days, $50 for 30 days. Our visa guide has the detail by nationality.
• Travel insurance. Never bundled, and the one exclusion you should not economise on: check the altitude limit and that helicopter evacuation is covered.
• Personal gear. Boots, layers, sleeping bag, down jacket. Rent the bulky items in Kathmandu or Pokhara rather than buying them for one trip.
• Tips. Customary for the guide and porter, and genuinely discretionary. Our tipping guide gives the normal range.

What you will still spend on the trail

Three meals a day are covered; almost everything else you consume is not. On a teahouse trek the room and the food are the package, and the extras are cash. Budget for bottled or treated water, tea and soft drinks, a hot shower where one exists, charging your phone or battery pack, and wifi. Higher up the mountain, each of those costs more, because everything arrives on a porter’s back or a mule.

It is not a large sum next to the trek price, but it is real money and it is cash: there are no card machines on the trail. Our guide to cash and ATMs on a Nepal trek sets out how much to carry and where the last reliable machine is.

Where two quotes really differ

When one quote is much cheaper, the difference is almost never the trail; it is the things around it. Four questions expose it.

1. What does “guide” mean here? A government-registered, English-speaking guide is not the same as a porter-guide carrying your bag and interpreting menus. Both are legitimate products; they are not the same price.
2. What is the porter ratio and the load limit? Ours is one porter per two trekkers, capped at 18 kg on Everest. An operator who will not state a limit is telling you something.
3. Which transport is inside the price? Airport transfers, the Kathmandu–Pokhara leg, the jeep to the trailhead, the Lukla flight. This is where quotes diverge most.
4. Which permits are included, and are they the right ones? Annapurna needs ACAP and TIMS. The Khumbu needs the Sagarmatha park permit and the Khumbu municipality permit, and no TIMS at all. A quote that lists TIMS for Everest was not written by someone who buys these permits weekly.

Before you pay a deposit anywhere, our list of questions to ask an agency covers the rest, including the ones about insurance for the crew.

Is a package worth it against doing it yourself

On a low route, independently is genuinely cheaper; on a high one, the gap narrows and the risk does not. You can walk Poon Hill with your own permits and pay teahouses as you go, and you will save money. What you buy in a package is the permits handled, a guide who has walked the route in every season, a porter so you carry a daypack, and someone whose job it is to make the call when you are the one with the headache at 4,000 metres.

We would rather say that plainly than pretend the saving does not exist. If your trek is short, low and in good weather, the honest answer is that you have a real choice. As the altitude and the number of days go up, the balance moves, and a licensed guide has been mandatory in the national parks and conservation areas since April 2023 anyway.

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