I had wanted to do this trip for as long as I had been aware it was possible. However, when I started seriously thinking about it, I spoke to people I knew who had already done it and took a look at the companies they used. They all had straightforward trips with no delays or complications, so it was hard to know how these may be handled if they arose. After reading many reviews, trawling the small print on websites, and looking at what felt like a million Instagram posts, I narrowed it down to two. One was a little cheaper but didn’t include food and used Western guides. The other was a bit pricier, included three meals a day on the trek, used local guides, and had a Facebook group, which had many previous trekkers among their members. I was erring towards the second, so I joined the Facebook group to find out as much as I could before committing.

Becoming an Evertrekker

The company I was leaning towards was Evertrek. Based in Wales, using local guides, the team of Welsh Yetis as they are known, seemed a friendly, approachable bunch. During the pandemic they had started going live on Facebook every Tuesday lunchtime, discussing a different topic each week, and answering questions in real time. The fact that the owners of the company were so accessible was a huge plus for me, they took the time to get to know people and seemed to genuinely want people to have a great experience. Many people in the group had trekked with them multiple times, which is a pretty good endorsement. Another big plus was their lifetime deposit. If you couldn’t make your trip, you could just move the deposit to a different date, or a completely different destination if needed.

I was hugely impressed to hear of a man who experienced visa issues on the way to join his trek. He got on the phone to the Yetis who just told him not to worry, and moved the date of his trip to allow him to get his issues sorted out. I also got to know of people who had been trekking when covid first hit, they returned to a closed Kathmandu. Everything was shut, flights had stopped, but Evertrek made sure they were taken care of. It was starting to seem like a no-brainer, then Evertrek ran a competition, giving away a trek for two people. I entered, and crossed my fingers. I didn’t win, but because I had taken part I was sent a discount code. This brought the price closer to the level of what the cheaper company was charging.

The only thing holding me back was slight trepidation over handling asthma at altitude. I knew that one of the Yetis had asthma, and rang the office for a chat about it. Well, they really are a friendly bunch and I was on the phone for ages, asking lots of questions. My fears addressed, I booked there and then.

As soon as I booked, the perks began. I was given access to an app with lots of useful info, including a rundown of the whole trip, including what to expect each day, maps, even a countdown. I was given discount codes for kit purchases, as well as discounts at The Altitude Centre (I didn’t use this but have heard great things about it).

A couple of months before departure I received a package containing a personalised trip planner and a buff. A week before departure they sent an email detailing who to contact in the event of flight delays, and contact details for Anuj who heads up operations from the Nepal side. At our briefing he handed out our duffel bags (ours to keep) and caps and t-shirts. You couldn’t miss us!

Evertrek participates in carbon off-setting, but something that really got my attention was their Strides for Guides initiative. The pandemic travel restrictions lingered, meaning the guides weren’t earning any money. Evertrek got the whole community involved in what was basically a large-scale sponsored walk, the proceeds of which went to their guides in Nepal and Tanzania. They also sold down jackets to boost the funds.

The Facebook group, High Altitude Evertrekkers, was a great source of knowledge, experience and support. From kit lists, types of knickers to take, airline issues to sourcing medications, everything was covered.

Local guides and porters are employed, which I preferred. It seems quite an arrogant thing to take someone from Europe to lead treks when there are plenty of people in Nepal who are more than capable of doing the job. You learn so much from them, not just about the things you see on your trek, lots about Nepal and how things are done, cultural nuances that would completely go over the heads of people brought in from outside, and the contacts they have are top notch. Also, putting money into the local economy has to be a good thing. When you see porters trying to scrape a living by carrying packages twice their size, it really hits home. The Evertrek porters don’t carry anything like that weight, but you’ll see plenty who do.

Trip booked, what’s next?

So you’ve chosen which company to go with, and you’ve booked your trip, what happens now? Well, you have a few things to organise. Here are the things you need to do or check before you go.

Passport

Check the expiry date. Ensure it isn’t damaged. Do this before anything else, as you may need your passport number when booking your flights, and you’ll certainly need it when applying for any visas.

Flights                   

Unless you have a private jet at your disposal, this is a big part of booking your trip.

You can’t fly direct to Nepal from the UK, so you will have to change somewhere. The most popular routes are via Doha with Qatar Airways, via Dubai with Emirates, or via Istanbul with Turkish Airlines. Flights via India are also rising in popularity. Before you book, check what you are getting for your money. Check the baggage allowances, seat allocation if that’s important to you, but most importantly, the clauses around changing your flights. Sometimes the most basic ticket looks good cost-wise, but when you find that the luggage allowance won’t meet your needs, and there’s a fee for changing your flight, it often works out more cost-effective to pay a little more for your ticket, and have those things included.

Some of the cheapest bookable flights will consist of two separately ticketed flights. This means that each one is treated as a separate entity. If your first flight is delayed and you miss your second, you’re on your own. If that happens on a fully connected flight, it is up to the airline to get you to your destination.

With separately ticketed flights, you may have to clear passport control, collect your bags, check in again, and clear security. Also, having two standalone flights can mean that you need a visa for the country you’re transiting through. If you have to leave the airside section of the airport and go through passport control, you may very well need a visa. It is YOUR responsibility to make sure all visas are in place. Travel insurance often doesn’t cover visa-related issues, so do take the time to get this right. Check the Foreign Travel section on the UK government website, find the country in question, and check the requirements. You will find links there to embassies etc to ensure you have the most up to date information. If it isn’t clear, double check with the embassy via email. Not having the right visa can cost you a lot of money and time, and can even mean your trip doesn’t happen. Get it right. Personally, I like to book it all in one hit, with one airline. Yes it can cost a little more, but the peace of mind I get from knowing everything is taken care of is priceless.

Handing in your bags at check in and not needing to worry about them until getting to the carousel in Kathmandu is really handy. When I flew to Kathmandu I booked with Qatar Airways, they then consolidated their flights and I ended up on a codeshare, with the first leg operated by British Airways. However, as it had all been booked as one journey, all this meant was a different plane, nothing else was affected and my bags met me in Kathmandu, as promised.

Visa

To travel to Nepal from the UK you need a visa. You can get this ahead of time by applying online, then either sending your passport through the post, and paying via the payment link the embassy sends you, or printing off the form and presenting it, along with your passport and payment, in person at the embassy in London (this is what I did – no way was I risking my passport in the post within weeks of my trip).

You also have the option of getting it on arrival, at machines in the airport. Ensure you select the correct duration for your visa, you may or may not have issues leaving the country if you’ve outstayed the duration, but it may cause you issues in the future if you want to return. As always with anything visa-related, get it right. It is your responsibility.

Travel Insurance

This isn’t an optional extra. Any reputable trekking company will insist that you have insurance in place, and will want proof of that. Ensure that helicopter rescue is included. You will have to pay an excess to use this, check what that is and compare like for like cover between companies. Some charge a very high excess for helicopter rescue. You also need to make sure that the cover you purchase covers you for trekking up to 6000m elevation. Declare any medical issues, these may make the policy a bit more expensive, but not as expensive as finding out you have fallen foul of the small print, and have a hefty bill to settle before they will let you out of the country.

Vaccinations

As soon as you have booked your trip, check which vaccinations you will need. Some may require a course of injections, so can take a bit of time. I went to a local travel clinic, and was asked about the trip, how long I was going for, what sort of environments I would encounter, and what I would be doing. Obviously different types of trips carry different levels of risk, had I been going to volunteer in a dog shelter, a rabies vaccine would be more applicable than it was for trekking, if I was going on safari during my trip I would be more likely to encounter biting insects.

Each trip is different and a travel clinic will help you to decide what is relevant for you and what isn’t. It’s sensible to take a record of vaccinations you’ve already had, so I got a printout from my GP which I took to the appointment. Some vaccines may be available on the NHS, which you can get via your GP, others will be at additional cost.

Medication

When trekking at high altitude, some people like to take diamox. This is a polarising issue, you will hear very strong opinions from both sides of the debate, and it’s entirely up to you to make an informed decision on whether it is appropriate for you. After a discussion with a GP at the travel clinic, I opted to take some with me. I paid for a private prescription at the travel clinic, then paid for the medication when I collected it from the pharmacy. Another thing to bear in mind is medication you are already taking. Some countries will not allow certain medications, and may be twitchy about others. If you’re on strong medication, particularly opiates, check out the situation before booking your flights. Carry medications in their original packaging, in your hand luggage, and have a copy of the prescription available. You may never encounter an issue, but if you do, it’s best to be prepared.

Airport Transfers

As I had booked with Evertrek, I knew that my airport transfers were included, and I was met by the lovely Prashant at the airport. However, this isn’t always included, so do check. It won’t be a problem if they’re not included, you may need to pay for them on the day if the trekking company sends someone to get you, or you can hop in a taxi. It’s just good to know what you’re walking into before you get there. You can change money in the airport if needed. As Nepal has a closed currency you won’t be able to obtain it before you arrive.

Communication

The world we live in is ultra-connected, communication is important. I’m sure some of you are tutting as you read this, and thinking ‘just unplug for a while’, but that’s just not practical for most of us. Cities the world over are geared up for doing most things via the internet.

Say you’ve missed your flight, how are you going to let the trekking company know that you’re delayed? Can you find a public telephone? How can you pay for it? What if you have elderly parents, or dependants who may need reassurance that you haven’t been eaten by a rogue yeti? Most of us will need to communicate somehow. UK phone service providers don’t cover Nepal, you can’t even get it as an add-on as the necessary agreements aren’t in place, so where does that leave you? Well, two options really, you can buy a local sim card, or you can rely on wi-fi. Local sims loaded with data are a popular choice, but for a couple of reasons I decided not to get one. Firstly, my current phone only has space for one sim card, and I didn’t want to lose mine. Have you seen the size of those things? I can lose my big bunch of car keys while sitting in my car, I didn’t fancy my chances of keeping that tiny little thing safe. Secondly, I didn’t want the hassle of dealing with another number. This left me with wi-fi. For the entire time I was in Nepal, my phone was in flight mode. The only way I was limited was when walking around Kathmandu, when I could have done with Google Maps, and on the trek, when between teahouses during the day. Coffee shops, restaurants, even ice cream parlours in Kathmandu have wi-fi, and the hotel wi-fi was really speedy. On the trek, some places offered it for free, but most teahouses are part of a network. You buy a card that has a code on it, you use that code to access the network.

Prices get higher as the elevation increases, but I think 800 rupees was the most I paid for 24 hours access. The quality of the connection varies, sometimes it reaches the bedrooms, sometimes it doesn’t, sometimes I was able to make video calls on WhatsApp, sometimes I had to stick to audio. Only on one occasion did I have to settle for just sending a quick message, which was all I needed to do really, the video calls were just a nice bonus.

If you’ve seen my posts on Instagram, (if you haven’t, pop over and take a look) you’ll know that things didn’t go like clockwork.

In the days before I departed the UK, the weather around Lukla closed in, and flights didn’t move in or out for a week. There was a huge backlog of people stranded in Lukla, and more in Ramechhap, which doesn’t yet have the infrastructure to deal with that many people. By the time we got there, the backlog was still being cleared, and we were stuck in Ramechhap as we couldn’t get on a flight for 24 hours. This meant that we were a day behind schedule. Some companies cut out acclimatisation days to make the time up (and had a lot of people flown off the mountain with AMS as a result), but Evertrek stuck to the proven itinerary. While this was better for us, it meant we were always arriving a day later than planned, which pushed the logistics to the limit.

However, thanks to Evertrek’s team in Nepal, headed up by Anuj and supported by our lead guides Ang Dami and Sajan (and their assistants) we always had somewhere to eat, and somewhere to sleep. I was very thankful for this network of support, and wondered at the time how different this could have been if they didn’t have local connections. This delay also meant that we would miss the flights we were booked onto from Lukla to Ramechhap, so if there was a backlog we could be stuck again. As a result, many opted to fly down from various points after reaching base camp. This was handled swiftly and professionally by the Evertrek team, as was medical evacuation (when insurance companies didn’t make things more complicated than they needed to be, but that’s a story for another day).

At all times I felt like I was in safe hands, and was very glad that I had chosen Evertrek, especially after talking to a few people who were trekking with the company I had initially looked at. Travel is, by its very nature, unpredictable. That’s what makes it fun! To know you will be looked after when things haven’t gone to plan is very reassuring. Choose wisely, and happy trails!