There are three ways to see Everest and they suit three different travellers. The Everest Base Camp trek is the classic: fly to Lukla's cliff-edge runway, walk up the Dudh Koshi valley through Namche Bazaar, Tengboche monastery, Dingboche and Lobuche to the base camp on the Khumbu glacier at 5,364 metres, then climb Kala Patthar the next dawn for the view of the summit pyramid that base camp itself does not have. Twelve to fourteen days round trip, teahouse lodges every night, and an altitude profile that must include rest days at Namche and Dingboche.
The trek requires no technical skill but real fitness and respect for altitude; acute mountain sickness is common and the only cure is descent. Since 2023 Nepal requires trekkers in the Khumbu to hire a licensed guide, and the Sagarmatha National Park and local permits are bought in Kathmandu or at Monjo. Porters carry the bags; you carry a daypack, water and layers for the range from 20°C in Namche to −15°C at Gorak Shep in the night.
The second way is the mountain flight: Buddha Air and Yeti Airlines run one-hour scenic flights from Kathmandu at sunrise along the Himalayan chain, every passenger with a window and a turn in the cockpit, and Everest, Lhotse and Makalu passing at eye level. It is the answer for the time-poor and the altitude-averse, and it is genuinely spectacular. The third is the Tibetan side — a drive to the Rongbuk monastery base camp at 5,150 metres, with the North Face filling the windscreen — which requires a Chinese visa and a Tibet permit arranged through an agency.
Kathmandu is the base for all three: the Boudhanath stupa, Durbar Square and Bhaktapur fill the days before and after, and the city's hotels range from the historic Yak & Yeti to the boutique Dwarika's. Airport transfers and a driver for the valley are inexpensive and best booked ahead; the airport arrivals scrum is not the introduction Nepal deserves.
Three things to get right
- Kala Patthar at dawn is the view; base camp itself does not see the summit.
- A licensed guide is now mandatory in the Khumbu — book a reputable operator.
- The sunrise mountain flight is the honest one-hour alternative.
