Everest Base Camp trek with return by Helicopter to Kathmandu

Day 01: Arrival day in Kathmandu (1,300m/4,264 ft)

Car

20 Minutes

Overnight

Kathmandu

Meal

Welcome Dinner

Accommodation

Hotel

Our representative meets you at Tribhuvan International Airport and transfers you to your hotel. In the evening, your trek leader runs through a full trip briefing in the hotel lobby: the route day by day, a hands-on gear check against our kit list, and a specific walkthrough of what to expect from the helicopter return on Day 10, including what happens if weather pushes the flight back. This is also when we confirm your insurance documentation covers helicopter evacuation and delay, since we'd rather catch a gap here than at Gorak Shep. Overnight in Kathmandu.

Day 02: Flight to Lukla (2,800m/9,186ft) & trek to Phakding (2,652m/8,700ft) 3-4 hrs walk

Car

20 Minutes

Overnight

Phakding

Meal

3 Meals

Flight

27 Minutes

Walking

3-4 Hrs

Accommodation

Tea House

Flights to Lukla depart early, generally between 6am and 8am, because the mountain winds that make afternoon flying dangerous haven't picked up yet. The 27-minute flight follows the Sun Koshi and then Dudh Koshi river valleys, climbing steadily until the terraced hillsides give way to forest and the first proper mountain terrain. Tenzing-Hillary Airport at Lukla sits on a runway just 527 metres long, angled uphill at roughly a 12-degree gradient specifically to help aircraft slow down on landing and gain speed on takeoff, a design that's earned it a reputation as one of the most demanding airports for pilots anywhere in the world; it's routine for the crews who fly it daily, but worth knowing before you experience it firsthand. From Lukla, the day's walk to Phakding is a gentle introduction, roughly 8km and a net descent of around 150m, though the trail rolls up and down rather than dropping in a straight line. You'll pass through Chheplung and Thadokoshi, cross your first suspension bridges over the Dudh Koshi, and get an early, unpressured chance to settle into trail rhythm, mentally and physically, before the trekking gets more demanding. This is also the day most trekkers notice the shift from lowland Nepal into Sherpa country: mani stones and prayer wheels start appearing at trail junctions, always passed on the left in the traditional clockwise direction. Overnight in a teahouse in Phakding.

Day 03: Trek from Phakding to Namche Bazaar (3,440m/11,283ft) 5-6 hrs walk

Overnight

Namche

Meal

3 Meals

Walking

5-6 Hrs

Accommodation

Tea House

This is the day that genuinely tests early-trip fitness, roughly 10 to 11km with a total elevation gain of around 800m, most of it concentrated in a single relentless climb in the final two hours. The morning starts gently, crossing back over the Dudh Koshi and following the valley through Benkar, Chumoa, and Monjo, where you'll present your permits at the Sagarmatha National Park entrance and the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality checkpoint. Past Jorsalle, the trail crosses the Hillary Suspension Bridge, the highest and longest of the pedestrian suspension bridges on the route, strung 125 metres above the river gorge, and this is where the real climb begins: a punishing, switchbacking ascent through pine forest that gains nearly 600m before levelling out near Namche. Pace matters more here than on almost any other day of the trek; going out too fast on this climb is one of the more common reasons trekkers arrive at Namche exhausted rather than simply tired. Your first proper glimpse of Everest itself, peeking above the ridgeline of Nuptse-Lhotse, typically appears from a viewpoint partway up this climb, weather permitting. Namche Bazaar itself, a natural amphitheatre of stone houses built into a horseshoe-shaped hillside, has functioned as the trading hub of the Khumbu for centuries, historically the point where salt and wool from Tibet was exchanged for grain from lower Nepal. Overnight in a teahouse.

Day 04: Acclimatization day at Namche Bazaar

Overnight

Namche

Meal

3 Meals

Walking

3 Hrs

Accommodation

Tea House

This is not a rest day in the sense of staying horizontal; it's an active acclimatisation day, built around a principle every experienced high-altitude guide follows strictly: climb high, sleep low. Ascending too quickly above 3,000m without giving your body time to increase red blood cell production and adjust to reduced atmospheric oxygen is the leading cause of acute mountain sickness (AMS) on this route, and Namche, sitting at the edge of what's generally considered the altitude where AMS risk starts becoming meaningful, is exactly where that adjustment needs to begin in earnest. The included short hike typically climbs roughly 300 to 400m above the village, commonly toward the Everest View Hotel, one of the highest-altitude hotels in the world, or across to the twin Sherpa villages of Khumjung and Khunde, both worth the detour for a quieter, more lived-in alternative to Namche's tourist-facing shopfronts. Khumjung's monastery holds a relic locally described as a yeti scalp, a genuine piece of regional folklore worth seeing regardless of what you make of the claim. We watch every trekker on this day for early AMS symptoms, mild headache, unusual fatigue beyond normal exertion, loss of appetite, since catching these early, while still reversible with rest and hydration, is far preferable to managing them further up the trail where options narrow. Overnight in Namche.

Day 05: Trek from Namche to Tyangboche (3,867m/12684ft) 5-6 hrs walk

Overnight

Tyangboche

Meal

3 Meals

Walking

5-6 Hrs

Accommodation

Tea House

Around 10km and a net gain of roughly 430m, though the day includes a notable drop and reclimb that makes it feel harder than the net figure suggests. The trail contours along the Dudh Koshi valley wall with increasingly spectacular, sustained views: Thamserku, Kangtega, and, on clear mornings, Ama Dablam's distinctive hooked summit dominating the skyline ahead for much of the day. The trail then drops steeply to Phunki Thanga at the river, before climbing hard, roughly 500m of ascent in a single push, through rhododendron and juniper forest to Tengboche. This final climb is deceptively tough at this altitude, and it's common to feel your breathing labour noticeably more than the gradient alone would suggest at sea level, one of the clearer physiological reminders that you're now operating with meaningfully less available oxygen. Tengboche Monastery, the largest and most significant Buddhist monastery in the Khumbu, sits on a saddle with a 360-degree amphitheatre of some of the highest peaks on Earth around it; if your arrival timing allows, sitting in on the monks' late-afternoon prayer session, with horns, chanting, and cymbals filling the hall, is one of the most memorable, least rushed moments of the entire trip. Overnight in a teahouse.

Day 06: Trek from Tyangboche to Dingboche (4,358m/14,295 ft) 5-6 hrs walk

Overnight

Dingboche

Meal

3 Meals

Walking

4-5 Hrs

Accommodation

Tea House

Roughly 12km with a net gain of about 490m. The day opens with a descent through rhododendron forest to the small settlement of Deboche, then a long, steady, exposed climb as the trail leaves the tree line behind for good, the vegetation thinning to hardy scrub and eventually bare rock and alpine grass as you cross into genuinely high-altitude terrain. The trail splits near Pangboche: most itineraries, ours included, take the slightly longer, gentler route via Shomare rather than the steeper direct path, a deliberate acclimatisation choice rather than a scenic preference, since gaining altitude more gradually here reduces AMS risk heading into Dingboche. You'll cross the Imja Khola on a suspension bridge before the final approach into Dingboche, a scattered settlement of stone-walled potato fields and teahouses that marks your entry into the high, dry, wind-scoured upper Khumbu. Overnight in Dingboche.

Day 07: Acclimatization day at Dingboche

Overnight

Dingboche

Meal

3 Meals

Accommodation

Tea House

Your second and final mandatory acclimatisation day, and arguably the more important of the two given how quickly the remaining altitude gain to Base Camp compounds. The included hike climbs Nangkartshang Peak, roughly 5,083m, a genuinely strenuous 3 to 4 hour round trip that delivers one of the best value-for-effort viewpoints on the entire trek: a full panorama taking in Makalu, the world's fifth-highest peak, alongside Ama Dablam, Lhotse, and the length of the Imja Valley. Daypacks only; main duffels stay at the teahouse, since you'll return to the same room tonight. We watch this day closely for the same AMS indicators as Namche, but with less margin for error: from here, every subsequent day pushes you higher into thinner air with fewer easy retreat options, so a trekker showing early warning signs here is one we'll genuinely hold back or reroute rather than push forward, regardless of how the itinerary reads on paper. Overnight in Dingboche.

Day 08: Trek from Dingboche to Lobuche (4,910m/16104 ft) 5-6 hrs walks

Overnight

Labuche

Meal

3 Meals

Walking

4-5 Hrs

Accommodation

Tea House

Around 8km but a serious day physiologically, gaining 550m at an altitude where every metre costs more effort than the last. The trail crosses arid, wind-scoured terrain through Pheriche, an alternative acclimatisation stop and the location of the Himalayan Rescue Association's seasonal aid post, a genuinely important resource for the region given how much altitude-related illness the Everest trekking season sees each year. From Pheriche, the trail climbs to Thukla, then tackles the steep, rocky Thukla Pass, at the top of which sits the Everest Memorial: a cluster of stone chortens built in memory of climbers, most of them Sherpa, who died attempting Everest and its neighbouring peaks. It's a quiet, sobering stop that most trekkers linger at longer than planned, a useful reminder of the mountain's real stakes before you get close enough to see it up close. Past the memorial, the trail levels out along a rocky, glacier-adjacent path with Khumbu Glacier moraine visible below, leading into Lobuche, a small cluster of teahouses with Nuptse's sheer face rising directly behind. Overnight in Lobuche.

Day 09: Trek to Gorakshep (5,160m/16,929ft) & hike to Everest Base Camp (5,364m/17,593ft) 5-6 hrs walk

Overnight

Gorakshep

Meal

3 Meals

Walking

5- 6 Hrs

Accommodation

Tea House

The longest and most physically demanding day of the trip, roughly 15km round trip in total and the day every previous acclimatisation day has been building toward. The morning leg to Gorak Shep, about 4km and 250m of gain, follows the lateral moraine of the Khumbu Glacier, an unstable, rock-strewn landscape that looks almost lunar, with jagged ice pinnacles occasionally visible where the glacier's surface has fractured. This section takes roughly 3 hours and is deceptively tiring: the terrain underfoot is uneven and demands constant attention, which adds a mental fatigue on top of the physical effort of walking at over 5,000m. After dropping your main gear at Gorak Shep, the push to Everest Base Camp itself is a further 3.5 to 4 hours round trip, roughly 7km, continuing along the glacier's edge on a trail that requires careful footing over loose rock and occasional ice. Base Camp itself is not a single fixed marker but a broad, shifting site on the glacier that changes season to season and, in climbing season (April-May), becomes a genuine tent city supporting Everest summit expeditions; outside those months, it's a quieter, starker place, marked mainly by prayer flags and a scattering of memorial stones, with the notoriously unstable Khumbu Icefall rising directly ahead, the first and most dangerous obstacle on the route to the true summit. Return to Gorak Shep for the night, both legs of today's walk now behind you and only Kala Patthar remaining before the helicopter takes over.

Day 10: Trek to Kala Patthar(5,550m/18,204ft) then back to Kathmandu by Heli

Overnight

Kathmandu

Meal

Breakfast and Welcome Dinner

Flight

1 hrs

Walking

3 Hrs

Accommodation

Hotel

An early, cold, pre-dawn start, roughly 1.5 hours and 400m of steep, loose-rock ascent to Kala Patthar, the highest point of the entire trip and, unlike Base Camp itself, a genuine summit viewpoint with a direct, unobstructed sightline to Everest's true summit, something the glacier-level vantage at Base Camp doesn't actually offer. Pumori looms directly behind, and on a clear morning the full amphitheatre of the Khumbu, Nuptse, Lhotse, Changtse across the Tibetan border, and Everest itself catching the first light, makes this widely considered the single best mountain viewpoint reachable on foot anywhere in the region. Back at Gorak Shep after a final breakfast, the helicopter segment begins. Ground handling, weight checks, and boarding typically take 30 to 45 minutes before the roughly 70-minute flight to Kathmandu, weather permitting, as covered in detail earlier on this page. The flight itself traces the Khumbu valley from above, giving you an entirely different read on terrain you've spent eight days walking through on foot, the scale of the glacier, the tightness of the gorge sections, and just how far you've actually travelled becoming clear in a way it rarely does at ground level. Overnight in Kathmandu, with a farewell dinner in the evening to mark the end of the trek.

Day 11: Departure from Kathmandu

Car

20 Minutes

Meal

Breakfast

Transfer to Tribhuvan International Airport for your onward flight.