Everest
The Khumbu: high, cold, thin-aired and unlike anywhere else. The one trek people plan their year around.
The Everest region is the reason a lot of people first look at Nepal. It is also the most demanding of the popular regions, and the one where the itinerary matters most.
You fly into Lukla and walk up a valley of Sherpa villages, monasteries and suspension bridges, and the mountains keep getting bigger until you are standing on a moraine below the Khumbu Icefall. Namche Bazaar is a genuine town at 3,440 m; Tengboche monastery sits with Ama Dablam filling the sky behind it.
Altitude, mostly. Everest Base Camp is not technical and the walking is well within reach of a regular hillwalker, but you sleep above 5,000 m and the air has half the oxygen it does at home. That is what the acclimatisation days are for, and it is why we will not sell you the compressed version of this trek.
The Lukla flight is weather-dependent. Build a spare day into your travel plans either side — everyone who has trekked here has a story about waiting.
Autumn and spring. Winter is clear but seriously cold at altitude, and the monsoon brings cloud that hides exactly what you came for.
