Walking is the easy part. What catches visitors out is the desk work that comes first, because Nepal has spent the past few years rewriting who may trek where and with whom, and the guidebooks have not kept up. The headline change is that a licensed guide is now required across the main trekking regions rather than optional, which ended the era of arriving with a rucksack and walking off alone. On top of that sits a stack of permits that differs by region, is checked at different points on different trails and sold in different offices. None of it is difficult, but all of it has to be sorted before the first step.
Getting into the country is the simplest stage. Most nationalities collect a visa on arrival at the Kathmandu airport counter, a handful must apply through a mission in advance, and everyone benefits from the online form beforehand, which produces a barcoded receipt that expires within a couple of weeks and saves a long queue. Bring dollars in cash for the fee, because the card machines are unreliable at the airport and worse at the land borders. Compare flight and hotel prices for Nepal early, since the two trekking seasons concentrate almost all the arrivals into a few weeks and the good lodges in the mountains are allocated by agencies rather than sold openly.
The permits are worth understanding before you pay anyone. The guide requirement covers the named regions, between them Everest and Annapurna, Langtang, Manaslu, Mustang and the far western valleys, while day walks around the two main cities stay exempt. For Annapurna and Manaslu you need a conservation area permit. For Everest you need the national park entry plus a separate local rural municipality permit, checked on the way up to Namche. The remote restricted areas need a permit issued only through a registered agency, with a minimum party size. The trekkers' registration card is the confusing one: some sources treat it as compulsory everywhere, others report that the busiest regions now check conservation permits instead, so carry whatever your agency issues and confirm the current position.
Where you sleep splits between the cities and the trail. Kathmandu has hotels and guesthouses packed into the lanes of Thamel, walking distance from the agencies, the gear shops and Durbar Square, and the obvious place to sort paperwork. Pokhara has lakefront hotels and family guesthouses along the Lakeside strip on Phewa Lake, calmer, warmer and the staging post for Annapurna. Namche Bazaar has teahouse lodges and small guesthouses stacked on the horseshoe terraces above the Dudh Koshi, the acclimatisation stop that every Everest walk is built around. And Sauraha has jungle lodges and thatched guesthouses along the Rapti river at the edge of Chitwan National Park, the warm counterweight to a fortnight at altitude.
The logistics are where money and days disappear. Book the guide and any porters through a registered agency rather than informally, because the licence is the point of the rule and an unlicensed arrangement can be turned back at a checkpoint. For the Everest side, understand the flight: in the busy seasons the scheduled aircraft leave not from the capital but from a small airstrip several hours away by road, so you leave the hotel at two or three in the morning, and cancellations for cloud are routine, so build spare days into both ends of the trek. Helicopter charters still fly from the capital and cost accordingly. For the lowland loop between the cities, a private car with a driver beats the tourist bus by hours. And buy travel insurance that names trekking at the altitude you are going to and covers helicopter evacuation, because the standard policy does neither. Check tour, transfer and travel insurance prices for Asia travel together, since the agency, the flight and the cover all need to agree with each other.
Season is unusually decisive here. Autumn, after the monsoon has washed the air, gives the clearest mountain views and the fullest trails. Spring is warmer, the rhododendron forests flower and the haze builds as the season goes on. The monsoon brings cloud, leeches and the most cancelled flights, although the rain shadow valleys beyond the main range stay dry. Winter is cold and clear low down while the high passes close with snow. Personally, I would go in autumn, keep three spare days at the end rather than one, and treat the flight into the mountains as the part of the plan most likely to move.
Q: Can you still trek alone in Nepal?
A: Not in the main trekking regions, where a licensed guide is required and checkpoints ask for the arrangement. Day walks around the cities are unaffected. The rule was introduced for safety and search co-ordination.
Q: Which permits do you actually need?
A: It depends on the region. Annapurna and Manaslu use a conservation area permit, Everest needs the national park entry plus a local municipality permit, and restricted areas require an agency issued permit with a minimum group size. Reports differ on the trekkers' registration card, so ask your agency what is being checked now.
Q: Why do the mountain flights leave from somewhere else?
A: To ease congestion at the single international runway, the scheduled flights to the Everest airstrip operate in the busy seasons from a smaller airport several hours from the capital by road. Helicopters still leave from the capital at a much higher price.
Q: Does ordinary travel insurance cover a trek?
A: Usually not at altitude and almost never for helicopter rescue. Read the altitude limit and the evacuation clause specifically, and buy a policy that names both, because a mountain evacuation is charged in full and paid upfront.
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