Traveling to Everest

April 27, 2012 11:31 AM

Everest base camp!

We are planning a trek to Everest base camp in November and would appreciate any advice as to the differences in accommodations between tea houses and luxury lodges. Any other information or ideas about the trip or planning would be appreciated.

If anyone has any experience with tour companies it'd be great! We’re considering Himalayan Glacier, Mosaic Adventure or Mountain Monarch.

posted by graventy to Travel & Transportation around Everest, KS (1 answer total)

Best answer: My wife and I did EBC with Himalayan Glacier about a year ago. I would give them a qualified recommendation. In general everything went well. Our bags didn't show up on our flight to Kathmandu and Himalayan Glacier were very accommodating in helping us track them down and rescheduling everything to a day later once we had our gear. But it does also depend on your guide, and our guide was serviceable but never enthusiastic. We talked with other HG groups and their guides and it seemed that was the exception rather than the rule. Never met any groups that I recall from the other companies you're considering.

We stayed in tea houses. I don't recall seeing anything beyond Namche Bazaar (second night on the trail) that looked at all luxurious. Even in Namche, I would not expect "luxury lodge" to mean more than a room with private bath and hot water - which is definitely a welcome treat, but keep in mind that "luxury" is relative. It appeared to me that every place was fairly similar - rooms are plywood construction, undecorated, with a serviceable bed.

General advice: It is quite warm when you're hiking up hill in the sun, and then quite cold when you're sitting around in the shade, so bring layers. The tour company lent us huge 0-degree-rated down coats, but they are overkill to hike in that except for the last day - so don't count on it as your only coat. Bring plenty to read (or otherwise amuse yourself). In addition to entire acclimatization/rest days, there were days that were only a few hours of walking from one teahouse to another, so you have lots of down time.

Last (big) tip - we went straight up to EBC and back, but once we were out there saw some other trips that looked more interesting. EBC is cool and all, but do thoroughly explore other options.

Happy to try to answer if you have more specific questions.
posted by Pseudonaut at 2:31 PM on April 27, 2012