A Detailed Everest Base Camp Budget Breakdown (+ Infographic)

Hiking from Jiri to Everest Base Camp has been the greatest physical challenge I have ever done in my life. Walking for 8 hours a day and ascending over 1300 meters while carrying a 10kg backpack certainly wasn’t easy.

But… walking this trail has also been one of the most amazing things I have ever done! Trekking through the beautiful Himalayas for 3 weeks is something I will never forget…

The views, the silence, the blue skies, the colorful prayer flags, the vertigo-inducing suspension bridges, the massive glaciers, and the most impressive mountains in the world, it’s a unique experience for sure.

The good news is that this unique experience doesn't require you to be a millionaire. In fact, our Everest Base Camp budget during our EBC hiking trip was only €31 per person per day!

Everest Base Camp Trek Budget

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Hike the Everest Base Camp trail on a budget

I always keep track of our expenses and have written a post about our daily travel budget for almost every country we visited. The good news is: hiking the amazing Everest Base Camp (EBC) trek is very affordable!

I was surprised to discover our average daily budget on the EBC trek was only 6800 rupees/€62 for us as a couple.

That comes down to 3400 rupees/€31 per person per day, not bad for one of the most famous hikes in the world!

Everest Base Camp trek travel budget: key facts and figures

• I traveled to Nepal with my husband, and all expenses mentioned are for the two of us together.
• I quote prices in Nepalese Rupees (NPR) as well as €. When we were in Nepal (March/April 2017), €1 was around 110 rupees. $1 was around 100 rupees so I figured including the costs in $ wouldn’t be necessary as it’s too easy to do the calculations yourself.
• I spent almost a full month in Nepal, 29 days to be exact. Of those 29 days, I spend 22 days on the trail from Jiri to EBC. We conquered the Cho La pass to Gokyo, admired the Goyko Lakes, and hiked back to Lukla where we boarded a scary as #$%^ short flight back to Kathmandu. You can read everything about our trekking itinerary and the lodges we stayed at in this post.
• I spent the remaining 6 days in Kathmandu, 3 days before and 3 days after hiking the Everest Base Camp trek.
• I divided our Nepal travel expenses into 2 parts: our EBC trek cost and our Kathmandu travel budget.

Our Nepal travel budget

Part I: Jiri – Everest Base Camp daily travel budget ⇒ 6800 rupees/€62 per day for a couple (3400 rupees/€31 per person).

Part II: Kathmandu daily travel budget ⇒ 4250 rupees / €39 per day for a couple (2125 rupees/€19,50 per person).

As you can see, spending time in Kathmandu is extremely cheap.

But Thamel (the backpacker district of Kathmandu) is dusty, busy, and polluted whereas the fresh mountain air in the Himalayas made me feel the healthiest I’ve ever been (though hiking for hours each day may have also contributed to that healthy feeling).

Anyway, I recommend spending most of your time in the mountains!

Also read: 17 things to do in Nepal that aren't trekking and tips for visiting Nepal.

Still, you’ll probably need a couple of days in Thamel to prepare for the trek to the base camp of the highest peak in the world, might Mount Everest…

This is why I felt it would be useful to add these costs to this post as well, to give you an idea about the average daily budget for Katmandu.

Part I: Our Everest Base Camp travel budget

In the infographic, you can see our average daily expenses for accommodation, transport, hiking stuff & miscellaneous, food, and official documents for the 22 days we spent on the trail from Jiri to EBC.

Cost of Everest base camp trek lodging

As you can see accommodation costs were very low. That's because the lodges and guest houses along the trail don’t make money from the rooms, they make money from the food.

Practically all lodges have the requirement that you eat dinner and breakfast there, otherwise, there is an extra charge for the room (usually between 2000-3000 rupees).

Since you are going to be spending that amount on food anyway, you might as well eat at your accommodation.

Some lodges didn’t even charge us for the overnight stay, only for the food we ate.

Our most ‘expensive’ lodge was in Lobuche, where the lodges have created a little cartel and you must pay 500 rupees for lodging at the small booth (at the start of the village).

Still, overall our average accommodation costs were only 191 rupees / €1,74 per night for the two of us. Not really the biggest chunk of our expenses.

Accommodation along the trail is basic: rooms have two single beds and that’s it. At all the lodges we stayed there were blankets available.

However, I highly recommend bringing a sleeping bag as well, as it gets very cold at night… There are no electricity sockets in the bedrooms, only in the dining room (you pay for charging your equipment).

At some lodges, we stayed there was a Western toilet, but mostly there were squat toilets. Some of the lodges have sinks, but above Dingboche, everything freezes at night which makes brushing your teeth a bit of a challenge.

Altogether very basic, but we slept like babies each night anyway. When selecting a lodge, we mostly paid attention to the softness of the bed and the menu…

Everest Base Camp transport costs

You may be wondering why the transport costs are so high. After all, while on the EBC trek, you are walking the entire day, why any costs in this category at all?

Well, virtually all the costs in this category are attributed to our flight from Lukla to Kathmandu.

The ticket for this 40-minute (scary as $#*^) flight costs $160 per person. Yep, that’s a pretty expensive flight ($4 per minute to be exact).

And every one of those 4 dollar minutes I was praying we would land safely. Luckily, we did.

Anyway, the residual costs in the transport category are for the 8-hour bus ride from Kathmandu to Jiri.

We paid $12 per person but that was via a travel agent. I’m not sure what the price for the ticket is if you go to the bus station to purchase your own.

Now, compared to the 40-minute flight this may sound like excellent value for money (only 0,02 per minute) but that isn't necessarily true;-).

While not nearly the most uncomfortable bus ride we’ve been on, that honor is still reserved for our infamous RoRo bus ride in the Philippines, it did take 8 long hours to get to Jiri.

About halfway we stopped for lunch (dal bath of course) and the views along the way were pretty good!

Anyway, I have digressed tremendously. Bottom line: average daily transport costs were 1500 rupees / €13,64 for us as a couple (though there were only 2 days we were actually being transported).

Important note: our decision to start our hike from Jiri was not because we thought it would be cheaper than paying for a flight from Kathmandu to Lukla airport.

In fact, the costs for a plane ticket for 2 people are about the same as the costs for 6 days of accommodation, food and transport on the trail.

The reason we added 6 extra days to our Everest trek was because we felt we needed the extra training. We had done some hiking in Sri Lanka and Oman, but not nearly every day so we were not well trained.

Therefore, it seemed like the best option to start hiking at 1995 meters (Jiri), instead of at 2860 meters (Lukla). We did not regret this decision!

While the trail from Jiri to Lukla is very strenuous, it's also a great trail for acclimatization (it goes up and down every single day…).

I don't know if this was the reason we didn't need Diamox (medication to prevent and treat acute mountain sickness) during the entire EBC trek, but it probably didn't hurt.

Anyway, after hiking for 6-8 hours every day from Jiri to Cheplung, the relatively short days (3-5 hour) on the Everest Base Camp trail seemed a lot easier!

Cost for food on the EBC trek

This is where we spent most of our money during the trek. Food (as well as everything else) got more and more expensive at higher altitudes.

In Jiri, we paid only 200 rupees each for a breakfast consisting of 2 chapattis, an omelet, a bit of jam, and coffee. In Gorak Shep, a plain chapatti was 400 rupees!

Therefore, it’s not surprising we spent 3322 rupees / €30,20 per day on food.

It's a good idea to bring some snacks (snickers, salted peanuts, raisins, cookies). We did this as well and also brought some oatmeal for breakfast from Kathmandu. Therefore, I would say this is the bare minimum you'll spend on food as a couple.

What can you eat on the EBC trek?

Well, fried noodles with veggies and eggs, momos, pizza, spaghetti, fried rice, spring rolls, soup, muesli, porridge, pancakes, omelets, hash browns, and some other carb-loaded meals.

EBC official documents

There are a couple of official documents you need for the Everest Base Camp trek:

• Tourist visa ⇒ upon arrival at Kathmandu airport, we paid $40 per person for a 1-month Nepal visa.
• TIMS Card ⇒when hiking in Nepal you need to obtain a TIMS Card (Trekker Information Management System). You can buy a TIMS Card at the Nepal Tourism Board office in Kathmandu for 2000 rupees / €18 per person.
• Sagarmatha National Park Permit ⇒ at the Nepal Tourism Board office you can also buy the Sagarmatha permit, which you need to hike in the Everest region. Costs for the permit are 3400 rupees / €31 per person.

Important note: because we started our hike from Jiri, we officially also needed a permit for the Gaurishankar Conservation Area. We did not buy this permit because I had done some research about it online before starting our hike.

I learned that three years ago the Gaurishankar Conservation Area was extended specifically to include Shivalaya (with the purpose of extracting more money from trekkers).

When I looked up the borders of the conservation area on our map, I found that the EBC trail only skirts around the edge.

I wouldn’t have minded to pay a 1-day fee of €5 or something, but we felt paying another 3400 rupees / €31 per person was extortion for 3 hours of hiking around the very edge of the park.

In the end, we didn’t buy the permit (much to the displeasure of the official in Shivalaya…).

Hiking gear & miscellaneous cost

You can find my ‘Essentials for EBC’ packing list in this post. We had to buy a lot of gear in Kathmandu because we had virtually no warm clothes with us.

If you are traveling for a year there is just no room in your backpack for 4-climate clothes. Anyway, we spent some time shopping in Thamel, buying warm clothes, food, and toilet paper.

Note: if you already have all the necessary hiking gear with you (plus snacks, etc.) you can deduct this additional cost from the budget breakdown

Some miscellaneous costs we incurred were an NCell SIM card and a couple of showers on the first part of our trek (from Jiri to Cheplung). The hot showers we took on that part of the trail were only 150/200 rupees.

In Namche Bazaar, the price for a shower was already 400 rupees and it only increased the further up we went…

We didn’t take showers anymore above Namche Bazar, not only because of the price but mostly because of the cold.

Anyway, altogether the average daily costs in this category came to 1034 rupees / €9,40 for us as a couple.

Adding all the expenses in the 5 categories I came to a daily average of 6797 rupees / €61,80 for our time on the EBC trek.

I would say this is very reasonable for a hike with views like the one in the picture above…

Alright, that’s the nitty-gritty details of our daily travel budget on the Jiri – EBC trek! We did try to save money by preparing well for the hike.

The easiest ways to save money on the Everest Base Camp trail are:

• Bring your own drinking water (Lifestraw Water Filter Bottle/SteriPen/chloride pills).
• Bring your own food (tea, snacks, etc.).
• Bring your own power (Goal Zero Nomad 7 Plus Solar Panel and Goal Zero Venture 30 Power Pack).
• Bring your own toilet paper.
• Don’t shower (use baby wipes instead).

In my EBC packing list post, you can read more details about our preparations and which gear to bring along.

Part II: Kathmandu travel budget

We spent 6 nights in Kathmandu and chances are, you’re going to have to spend some time there too.

Before the trek, we needed time to prepare (buy some hiking gear, get a TIMS card, arrange a flight, etc.). After the trek, we had some time left before our flight to Malaysia.

Flights from Lukla are frequently delayed (sometimes even for days) because of bad weather and you don’t want to cut it too close with your international flights.

In the infographic, you can see our average daily expenses for accommodation, transport, miscellaneous, food, and official documents for the 6 days we spent in Kathmandu.

As you can see, this comes down to just €39 per day for a couple (€19,50 pp).

Budget accommodation in Kathmandu

We stayed at hotel Bright Star, which I can highly recommend! The family running the hotel is super friendly and gave us lots of practical advice about hiking the EBC trek.

The room is simple but has a comfortable bed, a hot shower, and a large window. It’s in Thamel, but on a little side street (away from the noise). We paid 1150 rupees / €11 per night.

Kathmandu transport expenses

Our only transport costs in Kathmandu were from cabs from and to the airport. The fare from the airport to Thamel is 600 rupees.

From Thamel, you can get a cab to the airport for 500 rupees, perhaps even less if you are better at bargaining than we are. Average daily expenses: 250 rupees / €2,27.

Cost of food in Kathmandu

Even though the food on the trail is good, after 3 weeks we were craving something else than fried noodles.

So we ate ramen, falafel, and delicious eggs benedict at the Blueberry Kitchen when getting back in Kathmandu. And we drank a lot of coffee at the Himalayan Java Café…

Average costs for food: 2441 rupees / €22,19 per day for us as a couple.

Official documents

I attributed the costs for 6 visa days to Kathmandu, hence the average costs of 281 rupees / €2,55 per day.

Miscellaneous cost in Kathmandu

The only miscellaneous costs we had in Kathmandu were laundry costs. I cannot believe we got our laundry back smelling nice and fresh after we handed it in so very dirty and smelly…

Laundry is 100 rupees per kilo when you pick it up the next day. Average daily costs in this category: 133 rupees / €1,21.

Altogether the average daily costs for us as a couple during our time in Kathmandu were 4255 rupees / €38,68.

Travel insurance costs

I didn't include the cost of travel insurance in our EBC trek budget breakdown because we use our travel insurance for all our trips, not just for our Everest trekking itinerary.

However, that doesn't take away the fact that making sure you have proper travel insurance is super important.

It helps protect you and your belongings in the event of a mishap during your travels. Furthermore, it provides coverage for medical expenses, trip cancellation, lost or stolen items, and more.

Remember: altitude sickness is a real risk if you're hiking to the base camp of Mount Everest and Kala Patthar. If you need an emergency helicopter flight and your travel insurance doesn't cover this, this will cost you thousands of dollars.

Having good travel insurance will provide you peace of mind, knowing that if something goes wrong, you have a safety net in place.

With so much to consider when planning a trip, having the right travel insurance can help ensure a smooth and enjoyable journey without stressing out about things that can go wrong.

Hiking with or without a guide

We hiked the Mt. Everest base camp trip independently. Besides the fact that this is cheaper (a guide costs about $25 per day), we mostly did this because we like hiking by ourselves.

Hiking the Jiri – EBC trail independently enabled us to could choose our own speed (which was slow), choose our own lodges (usually the guide arranges this), and choose our own itinerary.

I'm not saying this is not possible with a guide, we just felt we didn't need one. And when it comes to navigating, I don't feel you need a guide.

However, it would be been nice to learn more about the area and local guides can obviously share so much information!

In the end, it's up to you if you want to do an independent trek or hire a professional guide via a travel agency or local company. No matter what you decide, hiking the EBC trail will be a great experience!

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Everest Base Camp trek cost: in conclusion

I know, that was a long post with lots of numbers. I hope my math makes a little sense to you and that this post will help you prepare for the EBC trek.

If you have any questions, leave a comment or send me an email, I'm happy to help!

This post was updated in November 2022.