Those who follow us know that we love to travel and trek independently. As independently as possible. Which often means no group tours and no trekking agencies. It is our personal style, mainly because we don´t want to lose our freedom of choice. We just like our independence.
But should you use a trekking agency for trekking the Everest base camp?
Is it dangerous to trek independently? Should you go with a trekking agency instead?
Here are the facts that will help you decide.
Should you use a trekking agency?
It is probably obvious that we don´t think you need a trekking agency to do an Everest base camp trek. The only time we would recommend an agency is if you plan to go alone or you are not an experienced trekker. However, you don´t have to have tons of trekking experience, more important is to have a common sense. When we did the Everest base camp trek we didn´t have much experience with multiple day trekking prior to the trek. And yet, we were just fine without a guide. Also check our post How to budget for trekking Everest base camp!
There are basically three ways how you can experience Everest Base camp trek:
1) Going with a trekking agency
It means to be basically a part of a larger group of people, usually strangers, that have the same goal. You usually buy it as a package and you do not have to worry about anything else. Going with a trekking agency means a highly organized trip. There is a setup itinerary that you follow. The agency provides accommodation, guides, porters, and even trekking equipment if you need. They also book aeroplane tickets from Kathmandu to Lukla for you. Price range – $1 500 and more.
2) Hiring a guide
If you don´t feel like going with an agency, but you still don´t want to go alone, there is another option. You can hire your own guide. The advantage is that you will definitely experience more freedom. And you have a saying in the itinerary. In this scenario, you are basically hiring your employee. There are plenty of ways how to hire a guide. Though a trekking agency, travel agency or find an independent guide on the trek.When you find a guide you negotiate the price, agree on number of days, itinerary and everything else. Also you can hire a porter if you need someone to carry your backpack. Price range – $ 30 – 50 a day for a guide, $ 20 – 40 a day for a porter.
3) Trek independently
Definitely the option with the most freedom. The only downside is that you need to plan everything by yourself. From air tickets, transportation to accommodation. The other thing you need to think about is, that you will be completely on your own.
But don´t worry. Even though it might seem hard at first, planning the Everest base camp trek is easier than you think. The trail is easy to follow even without a map and well-marked. And if you happen to be unsure, just follow other people. Everest base camp trek is not a trek you will walk alone. Forget it! Thousands and thousands of people walk it every day. We were never alone for more than 10 minutes.
Why not use a trekking agency?
Here are our main reasons why we wouldn´t use a trekking agency for Everest base camp trek.
1) A lot of agencies are just pure scams
If you decide to trek with a trekking agency, be very cautious about your choice. Always research the trekking agency history, recommendations and reviews. Pay attention to the price! Most budget travellers tend to choose a trekking agency based on a price. But this is definitely a place where the cheapest option can be deadly. The cheapest is definitely not better in Nepal.
Trekking agency scams
There are agencies that offer quite a cheap price for a tour. The normal price for a decent tour for 14 days to EBC should be between $1 300 – $ 1 500. However, some trekking agencies set up a very cheap price. You can find agencies that offer 14 days tour for less than $1 000. It is definitely not enough money to run a profitable trekking business with all those guides and porters. Why do they do it?
Because the scam lay in the trek. Those trekking companies don’t care about the initial payment for a tour. It is not their business. They are in a business of making trekkers sick!
You can read about this HERE and HERE.
By not setting the proper acclimatization days, by telling you to go faster, they will get you sick on a purpose. After you are sick, they will call a helicopter rescue for you. That is where the scam begins. The helicopter rescue will overbill you on your travel insurance. So not only you are seriously sick, your trek is ruined, but your travel insurer takes a hit too. We heard about helicopter rescue bill totals around $10 000. In comparison, travel insurance companies like World Nomads and True Traveller state that helicopter rescue should cost around $ 1 000. The money from your travel insurance is then split between a helicopter operator and the tour agency. There are agencies that have 6 rescues on average per tour!!! From 15 people on the tour they make sure at least 6 got sick. Better profit than from a tour right?
2) No control in an itinerary
In general we don´t like that your itinerary is completely out of your control. If you trek and you get bad weather, it is your bad luck. Tour sets up an itinerary if it rains, it rains, you walk. If there is fog and you actually don´t see anything. Your fault. So you actually came all the way to Nepal, paid thousands of dollars to see nothing? Walk when you are tired in rain or in pain? Seriously? What is the point?
When we trekked, we experienced really bad weather for the first 3 days. So we just stopped and waited in one lovely tea house and continued after the weather got better. Meanwhile, the tours continued no matter what. Because people paid for an exact amount of days and they needed to complete the trek on time. Trekking with a trekking agency is very limited.
3) Some itineraries are weird
One example for all, Kala Pathar. Every trekking agency we have met does the same thing. They force trekkers to climb Kala Pathar very early in the morning to see the sunrise. The idea behind it is to see a beautiful sunrise behind the Everest. It takes usually two hours to climb Kala Pathar. That means, trekkers are forced to wake up really early, as sunrise occurs around 6 o´clock. Why do we have a problem with this?
For a couple of reasons. First, ascend of Kala Pathar was hard to do even during the day, I can´t imagine how hard it is to do it in the dark. Second, even during a day, it is one of the windiest places we have ever been to and it is freezing out there. A lot of trekkers just gave up after a while and return to the Gorak Shep without actually seeing the sunrise. But the biggest reason of all, you never know what weather will be like the next morning. Also, trekkers don´t realize that when the sun rises behind the Everest, there is not much to see, because the sun blocks the view. Therefore forget to take pictures.
What have we done instead? We arrived in Gorak Shep roughly at 1 PM. It was a beautiful, sunny day with no clouds. We decided to climb Kala Pathar because the view of the Mount Everest that day was just breathtaking. When we climbed it the sun was already on the other side of the valley, which allowed us to take beautiful pictures of Everest. The next morning, when all the tours climbed Kala Pathar we headed to Everest base camp. The morning was foggy and freezing, but it was fine for visiting the base camp. There, because everyone was at Kala Pathar, we were completely alone 😊
4) Busy programs
We met tours that had scheduled literally every single minute of a day. To us, it felt more like a boot camp than a trekking experience. Waking up at 6 o´clock, breakfast at 6.30, leaving at 7:00, trekking, trekking, accommodating at 15:00, and sidewalk for acclimatization at 15:30. Those people were exhausted and I doubt they enjoyed the time.
5) Save a load of money
As you can read in our post about How much did it cost us to trek Everest base camp independently. You can save a lot of money by just going without a trekking agency.
If you still decide to go with a trekking agency, we have found one agency that we trust completely and we know that this agency is not involved in any scams – ACE Holidays Treks.
We had the best time in Nepal thanks to Narayan and his Ace Holidays Trek. Even though we always travel independently and arrange all flights and accommodation by ourselves, in Nepal it was different. We just could not buy flights online, so we started to look for a local agency. Our friend recommended us Narayan and his Ace Holidays Trek agency and we could not be more thankful.
Narayan personally helped us with all the arrangements, he assisted us with flight rebookings and even though he did not have to, he stayed in touch with us during the whole trek in case we need his help or guidance.
What we really appreciate was his personal involvement, he puts clients and travellers needs as his priority and he feels personally responsible for you to have a great time while visiting Nepal.
We would recommend Ace Holidays Trek agency to anyone who wishes to have a great time in Nepal with great services and a personal approach. It was our privilege to meet someone as Narayan.
What to do instead?
What to do if you don´t want to go alone but you don’t want to go with a tour either? Hire your own guide. When you hire your own guide, you negotiate your rate. You actually chose a guide you like based on your preferences. Remember you will spend 15 days with this guy, you should be able to come along with him. You will set up an itinerary with his help and if you decide you want to stay longer, you just pay for an extra day. The money comes directly to the guide, plus you have your own experience based on your preferences not on tour preferences. Additionally, you will save a lot of money.
