Nepal · Khumbu
Everest Base Camp (Namche Bazaar)
A fortnight on foot to the foot of Everest - no roads, no wheels, and a dawn on Kala Patthar that shows the whole mountain.
The Everest Base Camp trek is the walk to the foot of the highest mountain on earth, and Namche Bazaar is the Sherpa town everyone stops in on the way. From the airstrip at Lukla the trail climbs the Dudh Kosi for a fortnight, past monastery ridges, yak trains and villages with no road to them, to a moraine at 5,364 m below the Khumbu Icefall. Everest itself hides behind Nuptse from base camp; the view people come for is from Kala Patthar at dawn.
Suggested stay
12–16 days
Language
Nepali
Currency
NPR
Timezone
UTC+5:45
Why you'll love Everest Base Camp (Namche Bazaar)
The walk in Two weeks up a valley with no road in it, gaining altitude past mani walls, yak trains and stone villages built for weather rather than for visitors.
Ama Dablam Everest is the goal, but the peak that stops you on the trail is the ice fin standing over Tengboche, arguably the most beautiful mountain on earth.
Kala Patthar The dark scramble at 5,545 m for the one view on the route where Everest stands clear of Nuptse, with the icefall spilling into the valley below.
Sherpa Khumbu Monasteries, prayer flags and lodge kitchens run by families whose grandparents guided the first ascents. The culture is why this is more than a long walk.
Best time to visit
Mar-May, Oct-Nov
Trek season starts · 10-15° days
27.804° N, 86.710° E
UTC+5:45 · Asia/Kathmandu
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Weather & when to go to Everest Base Camp (Namche Bazaar)
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Mar-May, Oct-Nov
Conditions Jan Deep winter · Feb Cold, passes shut · Mar Trek season starts · Apr Prime trekking · May Warm + haze · Jun Monsoon, no views · Jul Cloudy & muddy · Aug Monsoon · Sep Trails reopening · Oct Clearest skies · Nov Excellent trekking · Dec Cold, routes shut
Watch for Jan extreme cold risk · all year altitude risk · Mar-Apr haze risk
Cards tinted by verified verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Everest Base Camp (Namche Bazaar)
June to August is the monsoon: cloud on the peaks for days, a soaked and leech-ridden lower valley, and Lukla flights cancelled for a week at a time. January and February are savagely cold, with the high passes snowbound and many lodges above Dingboche shut. Autumn is the clearest window; spring is warmer and hazier.
Top things to do in Everest Base Camp (Namche Bazaar)
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Everest Base Camp - the moraine below the Khumbu Icefall
adventure hiking 👍 PopularThe end of the walk: a rubble shelf on the Khumbu Glacier at 5,364 m, marked by prayer flags and a boulder everybody photographs. In April and May it is a canvas town of expedition tents with climbers moving through the icefall above. There is no view of Everest from here, and it still feels like arriving.
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Kala Patthar - dawn on the whole mountain
scenic hiking ⭐ Highly recommendedThe brown hump above Gorak Shep, climbed in the dark for sunrise. At 5,545 m it is the highest most trekkers get and the only place on the route where Everest stands clear of Nuptse, with Pumori behind you and the icefall pouring into the valley below. Brutally cold and short of air; nobody regrets it.
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Tengboche Monastery - the ridge under Ama Dablam
culture arts history 👍 PopularThe spiritual centre of the Khumbu, on a saddle at 3,860 m with Everest, Lhotse and the ice fin of Ama Dablam ranged behind it. Sit in on the morning puja with its horns and drums, and sleep here rather than passing through: the autumn Mani Rimdu masked dances are held on this ridge.
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Namche Bazaar - the Saturday market and the acclimatisation day
culture arts food 👍 PopularNamche is a horseshoe of lodges stacked on a hillside at 3,440 m, and everyone spends two nights. The Saturday market draws traders up from the lower valleys with rice, eggs and kit. Between the bakeries and gear shops there is a national park visitor centre and a Sherpa culture museum on the ridge above.
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Gokyo Lakes and Gokyo Ri - the turquoise chain above the Ngozumpa
scenic hiking ⭐ Highly recommendedThe alternative valley west of the main trail: a string of milky-turquoise lakes beside the Ngozumpa, the longest glacier in Nepal. The climb up Gokyo Ri takes in Everest, Lhotse, Makalu and Cho Oyu in a single turn, and plenty of people rate it above Kala Patthar. Three days from Namche, or over the Cho La from Lobuche.
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Khumjung and Khunde - Hillary's school, hospital and the yeti scalp
history culture artsTwo green-roofed villages on the shelf above Namche, and the clearest picture of what the Himalayan Trust built here. The school Hillary funded still runs, the hospital at Khunde still treats the valley, and the gompa at Khumjung keeps a conical relic in a glass case that it will show you as a yeti scalp.
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Everest View Hotel, Syangboche - the mountain over breakfast
scenicA Japanese-built lodge on a pine ridge above Namche, high enough that getting to it counts as a serious acclimatisation walk rather than a stroll. The terrace looks straight up the valley at Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam, and a pot of tea on it is the standard reward for the morning's climb.
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Hillary Suspension Bridge - the crossing above the Dudh Kosi
adventure scenicTwo bridges hang one above the other over the confluence below Namche, the upper one strung with so many prayer flags you cross in a tunnel of them. Wait your turn behind a yak train, then start the long switchbacking climb to Namche that is the first real test of the trek.
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Thame - the climbing village and its cliff gompa
history off beaten pathA quiet spread of stone houses in a side valley west of Namche, and the home village of an extraordinary number of Everest summiteers, Tenzing Norgay among them. The monastery clings to the rock face above it, and the trail carries on towards the Nangpa La, the pass Sherpa traders used to cross into Tibet.
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Cho La and Renjo La - the high pass crossings
adventure hikingThe passes that link Gokyo to the base-camp trail, crossing glacier and rock at around 5,400 m. The Cho La has a short icy section that wants care and an early start; the Renjo La gives the better view down onto the lakes. With the Kongma La they make up the Three Passes circuit, and they close under snow.
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Sagarmatha National Park - tahr, musk deer and the danphe
nature wildlifeEverything above Monjo is national park and a World Heritage site. Himalayan tahr graze the slopes over the trail, musk deer slip through the birch and rhododendron below Tengboche, and the danphe, Nepal's iridescent national bird, breaks cover on the switchbacks. Snow leopards live here and almost nobody sees one.
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Sherpa lodge kitchens - dal bhat, shyakpa and garlic soup
foodEvery lodge cooks a similar menu and the local end of it is the good end: endlessly refilled dal bhat, shyakpa stew thick with hand-pulled noodles, riki kur potato pancakes with yak butter, and the garlic soup everybody drinks on the theory that it helps with the altitude.
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Island Peak (Imja Tse) - the trekking peak above Chhukhung
climbing adventureThe commonest first Himalayan summit, at 6,189 m up the Imja valley beyond Dingboche. It is a real climb - crampons, a fixed line and a headwall - rather than a walk, and it is normally bolted onto the trek with a guide and a couple of spare days. Lobuche East is the other standard option.
Best areas to stay in Everest Base Camp (Namche Bazaar)
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Namche Bazaar
Every trekker $$Horseshoe Sherpa town, bakeries and gear shops
Explore hotels in Namche Bazaar →
Lukla
Arrivals & departures $Airstrip village, first and last night
Explore hotels in Lukla →
Tengboche and Deboche
Monastery mornings $Monastery ridge under Ama Dablam
Explore hotels in Tengboche and Deboche →
Dingboche
Acclimatisation base $$Stone-walled fields in the Imja valley
Explore hotels in Dingboche →
Gorak Shep
The last night up $$Bleak sand flat below Kala Patthar
Explore hotels in Gorak Shep →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Everest Base Camp (Namche Bazaar)
Getting to & around Everest Base Camp (Namche Bazaar)
Getting there
Fly Kathmandu to Lukla, a hop of about half an hour, then walk two days up the Dudh Kosi to Namche - there is no road into the Khumbu.
Flight
Lukla (Tenzing-Hillary Airport)
How almost everyone arrives: a short hop from Kathmandu onto a sloping runway cut into the hillside. Flights go early because the valley clouds over by mid-morning, and cancellations of a day or more are routine.
Flight
Manthali (Ramechhap)
In the busiest trekking weeks the Lukla flights shift to Manthali, four to five hours east of Kathmandu by road, which means a pre-dawn drive or a night out there beforehand.
Helicopter
Lukla, Syangboche or Namche
Charters and shared seats run up the valley and are the usual way out for anyone short of time or unwell. Weather-bound as often as the fixed-wing flights, and by far the priciest way in.
Drive
Salleri or Phaplu
A long jeep ride east from Kathmandu to the roadhead, then two or three days walking up to Lukla. Slower and harder, but it sidesteps the flight entirely and acclimatises you on the way in.
Getting around
Walking
There are no roads and no vehicles above Lukla. Everything here is reached on foot, at four to seven hours a day.
Free
Porter or porter-guide
Hired in Kathmandu, Lukla or Namche to carry your pack, and it changes the trek more than any other decision. Agree the load limit up front.
TBC
Yak, dzo and mule trains
Cargo, not transport. When one comes past, step to the inside of the trail - people have been shoved off the outer edge.
TBC
Helicopter
The only motorised option in the valley. Charters shuttle between Lukla, Syangboche, Pheriche and Gorak Shep, and handle the evacuations.
TBC
Day trips from Everest Base Camp (Namche Bazaar)
Everest View Hotel and Syangboche
Half dayAcclimatisation viewpoint
The standard acclimatisation walk out of Namche: a steep pull past the Syangboche airstrip to a ridge lodge with Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam laid out beyond the terrace. Climbing high and sleeping low is the whole point, so take the long way back through Khumjung.
Getting there
walk
About 1.5-2 hr up on foot from Namche, an hour back
Khumjung and Khunde
Full daySherpa villages loop
A loop onto the shelf behind Namche to two villages with green tin roofs, the Hillary school, the hospital at Khunde and the yeti scalp in the Khumjung gompa. Gentle once the first climb is done, and the most rewarding acclimatisation day on the route.
Getting there
walk
About 4-5 hr on foot as a loop from Namche
Thame
Full dayClimbers' side valley
West into the Bhote Kosi valley, away from the base-camp traffic, to a scattered village that has produced more Everest summiteers than anywhere on earth. The gompa sits on the cliff above it. A long day out and back, and a far better one with a night at the far end.
Getting there
walk
About 3-4 hr each way on foot, west up the Bhote Kosi
Tengboche and Deboche
1-2 daysMonastery on the saddle
The monastery on its saddle under Ama Dablam, reached by dropping to the Dudh Kosi at Phunki Tenga and climbing back out. Possible there and back in a hard day, but the puja is at dawn and dusk, so most people sleep at Tengboche or warmer Deboche below.
Getting there
walk
About 5 hr on foot each way, with a steep drop to the river and a long climb out
Phortse via Mong La
1-2 daysHigh traverse village
Over the ridge at Mong La and along a high traverse to a terraced village that sends out a remarkable share of the valley's climbing guides, with the Khumbu Climbing Center on its edge. Much quieter than the main trail, and it rejoins it at Pangboche.
Getting there
walk
About 4-5 hr on foot over the Mong La ridge
A little history of Everest Base Camp (Namche Bazaar)
The Sherpas came over the Nangpa La from Kham in eastern Tibet perhaps five hundred years ago, and Namche grew where their trail met the routes up from the lowlands: a trading post swapping Tibetan salt and wool for Nepali grain, which is what the Saturday market still is. Buddhism arrived with them, Tengboche monastery was founded on its ridge in 1916, and the mani walls, chortens and prayer flags along the trail belong to the villages rather than to visitors.
Nepal was closed to foreigners until the 1950s, and the Khumbu went from unmapped to famous in a decade: reconnaissance from the south, then Hillary and Tenzing on the summit in 1953. Hillary spent the rest of his life on the valley's side of that bargain, building the school at Khumjung, the hospital at Khunde and the Lukla airstrip that made the trekking economy possible. A national park followed, then World Heritage listing. Lodges have replaced camping, the mountain now employs most of the valley, and the risks fall hardest on the Sherpa staff who work the icefall.
Sherpas cross the Nangpa La from Tibet and settle the Khumbu valleys
Tengboche monastery is founded on the ridge below Ama Dablam
Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay summit Everest from the Nepal side
Hillary's Himalayan Trust builds the school at Khumjung
An airstrip is levelled at Lukla, opening the valley to visitors on foot
Sagarmatha National Park is created over the whole upper Khumbu
The park is inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site
Sixteen Nepali climbing workers die in the Khumbu Icefall and the season is halted
An earthquake-triggered avalanche strikes Everest Base Camp
Know before you go
Payment
Cash preferred
English
Widely spoken
Wifi
Limited
Power
Type C / D / M
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+977
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The months our climate read flags to avoid: the wettest, lowest-rated weather of the year.
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FAQs about Everest Base Camp (Namche Bazaar)
▸ When is the best time to trek to Everest Base Camp?
October and November are the clearest and most settled window, with the monsoon washed out of the air. March to May is the other main season: warmer, hazier, rhododendron in the lower valley, and base camp full of expedition tents. June to August is the monsoon, and January and February are bitterly cold with high lodges shut and the passes snowed in.
▸ How long does the Everest Base Camp trek take?
Around twelve to fourteen days from Lukla and back, two of them acclimatisation days you should not skip. Add four or five for the Gokyo lakes or a pass crossing. Then add spare days at the end, because Lukla flights are cancelled often enough that a tight onward connection out of Kathmandu is a bad idea.
▸ Can you see Everest from Everest Base Camp?
No. From the camp itself the Nuptse wall and Everest's own west shoulder hide the summit, and what you look at is the Khumbu Icefall. The mountain shows itself from Kala Patthar, the hill above Gorak Shep, and from the ridges lower down the trail at Tengboche and Namche.
▸ Do you need climbing experience?
No. The standard route to base camp is a walk, with no technical ground, no ropes and no crampons, and thousands of people with no mountain background do it every season. What it asks for is a fortnight of long days on rough trail and a body that copes with altitude, which is not the same thing as fitness.
▸ How serious is the altitude?
Serious. You sleep at 5,164 m at Gorak Shep and stand at 5,545 m on Kala Patthar, and mild altitude sickness is normal rather than rare. Ascend slowly, take the acclimatisation days, drink more than you want to, and descend if you get worse. There is a Himalayan Rescue Association aid post at Pheriche. Ask a doctor about medication before you leave.
▸ Do you need a guide and permits?
Permits yes: a Sagarmatha National Park entry permit and a Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality permit, issued in Kathmandu, Monjo or Lukla. The guide question has moved around, since Nepal tightened its rules on independent trekking in recent years and the Khumbu has been treated differently at times, so check what applies before you book flights.
▸ What is the Lukla flight actually like?
Short, loud and memorable: about half an hour in a small turboprop, then an approach onto a sloping runway built into a hillside with a wall at the top end. The flying is routine for the crews. Unreliability is the real issue, since weather grounds it regularly and in peak weeks departures shift to Manthali, hours east of Kathmandu.
▸ Is the Everest trek expensive?
By Nepali standards yes, and it climbs with the trail: everything above Lukla arrives on a porter's back or under a helicopter, so a lodge meal high on the route costs several times what the same plate does in Kathmandu. The flight, permits, a guide and a porter are the big items. The walking itself is the cheap part.
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