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In plain English
On the Everest trek you do not camp. Each village on the way has family-run lodges called teahouses, where you get a simple room and hot meals in a shared dining room. That makes the trip feel more like a long walk between guesthouses than a wilderness camping trip, and it means your pack can stay small.
But the choice of where to sleep is not really about comfort. It is about height. The higher you sleep, the thinner the air, and your body needs time to adjust. Rushing upward is the classic way trekkers get sick, and fitness does not protect you from it.1
That is why the itinerary includes rest days in places like Namche Bazaar, where you stay two nights. You are not resting because you are tired. You are giving your body time to catch up with the altitude before you climb higher. The rooms themselves get simpler and colder the higher you go, so your sleeping bag matters more than you might expect.
The Everest Base Camp trek is a roughly 12- to 14-day walk up the Khumbu valley in Nepal's Sagarmatha National Park, climbing through Sherpa villages — Namche Bazaar, Tengboche, Dingboche, Lobuche, Gorak Shep — to the foot of Everest itself. Nobody carries a tent up here: the entire route is lined with teahouses, family-run lodges that provide a room for the night and hot food in a shared dining room, so where you sleep is really about pacing your ascent, not finding shelter.
Why hike here
What makes this trek different from a typical multi-day hike is the way the landscape and the culture climb with you. You start among pine forests and mani walls, cross the valley on high suspension bridges strung with prayer flags, and by the time you reach Namche Bazaar the trail opens onto your first real views of the big Himalayan peaks. Each village above it — Tengboche, Dingboche, Lobuche — sits a little higher and a little starker, the fields giving way to bare rock and glacial moraine as you approach Gorak Shep and the foot of Everest. Because the route forces acclimatization days along the way, you're not just passing through these villages; you're spending real time in them, watching daily life continue at altitudes most hikers have never stood still at.
Getting there
There's no direct route to the trailhead: you fly into Kathmandu, then take a short, weather-dependent mountain flight to Lukla, the small airstrip that serves as the gateway to the Khumbu. Flights to Lukla are routinely delayed or canceled when cloud sits over the valley, so it's worth building a spare day or two into your schedule on both ends of the trek. From Lukla, the trek itself begins on foot — there's no road or vehicle option from here, so every hiker, porter, and supply covers the same ground you will, on foot, all the way up.
Where to stay
The realistic options, closest-to-the-trail first. Book through the official links — we don't list prices or availability because they change all the time.
For example: Family-run lodges in Namche Bazaar, Tengboche, Dingboche, Lobuche and Gorak Shep
Every trekker — teahouses are the backbone of the route.
Higher villages have simpler, colder rooms.
Usually arranged by your guide/agency, or on arrival in shoulder periodsFor example: More comfortable lodges and small hotels in Namche Bazaar (~3,440 m)
Trekkers wanting a better bed and a proper acclimatization stop.
Namche is the classic acclimatization day — spend two nights.
Book via your trekking operator
Permits & rules
You need the Sagarmatha National Park entry permit plus the local Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality permit; Nepal’s rules on guides for trekkers have been revised, so check the current requirement with the Nepal Tourism Board or a licensed operator. Build in acclimatization days.
Gear you'll want for this trip
Matched to the terrain and conditions here. Real products — check current price on Amazon.
Sleeping height is the schedule
Teahouses remove the shelter problem, but they do not remove the altitude problem. The CDC's Yellow Book says any unacclimatized person sleeping at 8,000 feet or higher is at risk of altitude illness, and that physical fitness and training do not protect against it.1 A 2025 peer-reviewed review of Wilderness Medical Society guidelines gives the same idea in metric, noting increased risk above about 2,500 meters.3
The CDC's pacing guidance is specific. Above about 9,850 feet, sleeping altitude should rise no more than about 1,600 feet per day, with an extra acclimatization day for each 3,300 feet gained.1 If Namche Bazaar is near the 3,440 meters the existing page gives, it already sits above that 9,850-foot mark, which is why the classic plan builds in a second night there. Headache is the main symptom of acute mountain sickness, typically starting 2 to 12 hours after arrival at altitude, so how you feel the evening you arrive is information about whether to climb the next day.1
Bed, bag and water at teahouse altitudes
The teahouse gives you a roof and a bed frame, but rooms get simpler and colder as you climb, so the sleeping bag is the part of your kit doing the work. Ratings are worth reading carefully. NEMO explains that the ISO comfort rating is the temperature at which an average woman sleeps comfortably without curling up, that the limit rating is where an average man keeps thermal equilibrium while curled up, and that the extreme rating marks serious risk of death from hypothermia within hours and is not a target.4 Choosing a bag by its comfort figure, not its extreme figure, is the safer reading.
Water is the other lodging-driven decision. If you treat your own water, the CDC says boiling is the best way to kill germs, for 1 minute, or 3 minutes above 6,500 feet, and that most portable filters remove parasites but not viruses or bacteria.5 Above that elevation, a longer boil is part of the routine, not an extra.
Permit and guide claims to confirm before you go
The page names a national park entry permit and a local municipality permit, and a guide rule that rests on a 2023 provision. None of that is spelled out on the source cited here. Nepal's tourism board, which is a national tourism organization and not the park authority, lists Trekking Permit, TIMS Card, Park Entry Fees and Safety in the Mountains as separate items under travel details, and lists a notice titled Revised Provision for Trekking in Nepal among its official notices without a date visible on the front page.2
Because that notice title suggests the rules have been revised, the permit and guide paragraph is exactly the kind of detail to confirm with a licensed operator and the current official notices before you book flights. It is also worth confirming how your operator handles rooms. On the page's account, guides or agencies usually arrange lodging, which shifts the room-hunting problem to them but not the acclimatization problem, which stays yours.
Common questions
Do I need to bring a tent for the Everest Base Camp trek?
No — teahouses line the entire route from the lower Khumbu villages up to Gorak Shep, so most nights you'll have a private room and a shared dining hall for meals rather than a tent. Rooms get simpler and colder the higher you climb, so pack a warm sleeping bag rated for sub-freezing nights, especially above Dingboche.
What permits do I need for the trek?
You'll need two permits: the Sagarmatha National Park entry permit and a local permit issued by the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality. Nepal's tourism board lists the Everest trek among routes that need a licensed guide and an agency-issued TIMS card under a provision dated 31 March 2023, and has since posted a notice about revised trekking provisions, so confirm the current permit and guide rules with a licensed operator or the official notices. Most trekking companies arrange the permits and guide as part of booking.
When is the best time to go, and does that affect finding a room?
The main trekking windows are late September through November and March through May, when trails and views are at their best — and also when the teahouses see the most trekkers. Traveling with a guide helps, since they typically arrange rooms as the group moves; if you're going independently in peak season, ask about a room as early in the day as you arrive.
Complete gearsets for this trip
Full curated kits built for exactly this kind of hike — what to bring, why, and links to similar gear.
Lodging details are compiled from official parks, refuge associations and reservation systems and can change without notice. We publish no prices, availability or ratings — always confirm current information on the official site before booking or setting out. Product links and the accommodation map are affiliate links: we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you; product prices and availability are shown on Amazon, and accommodation prices on the booking site. See our affiliate disclosure.