How to get to Everest Base Camp? Putting together a day-by-day itinerary.

Take a base itinerary and test every day against four things: how much higher you sleep, how far you walk, how you fly, and, if it matters to you, where you sleep. Change anything that doesn’t fit your requirements.

How do you build a day-by-day itinerary for Everest Base Camp? A worked example.#

Step 1: List the base itinerary and flag problems#

Step 2: Work out the changes#

For each day where you encounter an issue, list out the potential solutions including the benefits and costs.

Day 1 · Flights move to Manthali in high season, four to five hours from Kathmandu

• Helicopter from Kathmandu to Lukla. Pros: no drive, and more certainty where it matters. Cons: additional cost.
• Overnight at Manthali/Mulkot. Pros: Saves you the hassle of starting your trek without rest and sleep. Cons: Costs you an extra day.
• 1 a.m. drive to Manthali. Pros: Saves you a day and some dollars. Cons: The drive, and idle days if flights are cancelled.

Day 5 · Elevation gain of +640 m from Deboche (3,720 m) to Dingboche (4,360 m)

• Sleep at Tengboche (3,860 m). Pros: Brings the gain to +500 m without adding a day. Cons: Tengboche has fewer accommodation options.
• Sleep at Pangboche (4,020 m) and visit Ama Dablam Base Camp as a side trip. Pros: Fixes the altitude issues and adds the Ama Dablam Base Camp side trip. Cons: Adds a day.

Day 7 · Elevation gain of +580 m between Dingboche (4,360 m) and Lobuche (4,940 m)

• Sleep at Thukla (4,620 m). Pros: Keeps both days under 500 m, plus the Chola Lake side trip. Cons: Adds a day, and accommodation is very basic.

Days 9 to 11 · Long stretches of descent

• Fly from Gorakshep to Lukla after Kala Patthar. Pros: Saves your knees and two days. Cons: Not the cheapest option.
• Add a night at Pangboche and/or Phakding to decrease the distance traveled. Pros: Saves your knees with reasonable expense. Cons: Adds a day or two.

Step 3: Add up the changes#

The altitude fixes add up to two days, and the helicopter gives two back. The trek can keep its length, and no night above 3,000 m gains more than 500 m. The default itinerary skips these nights because each one costs a day. Whether that trade is worth it depends on you. Regardless, when you receive a trek document from HoneyGuide, for each of the days we provide a list of possible changes and their benefits and costs, just like we have done for the trek above.

Now that we have worked through an example, here are the basics behind each check.

How is the Everest region laid out?#

The Khumbu is shaped like a trident. One narrow valley runs from Lukla to Namche Bazaar, and three valleys fan out north from Namche, joined to each other by passes above 5,000 m.

The handle is the Dudh Koshi gorge between Lukla (2,860 m) and Namche (3,440 m). Every trekker walks it, and most walk it twice.

The Everest Base Camp valley runs northeast from Namche past Tengboche, Dingboche and Lobuche to Gorakshep (5,164 m). The Kongma La links it to Chhukung, and the Cho La to Gokyo.

The Gokyo valley runs north along the Ngozumpa glacier to Gokyo (4,790 m) and its lakes, with Cho Oyu at its head. It is quieter, and the Renjo La connects it to Thame.

The Thame valley runs northwest to Thame (3,800 m) and on toward the Nangpa La, the old trade pass to Tibet, and sees very few trekkers.

Every route runs through Namche, and every extra valley means walking back to the junction or crossing a pass. Namche is the one place in the Khumbu you will almost certainly visit twice.

How fast can you gain altitude, and where does the standard route break the rule?#

Above 3,000 m (9,843 ft), raise your sleeping altitude by no more than 500 m (1,640 ft) a night, and add an extra night for every 1,000 m (3,281 ft) you gain. That is the Wilderness Medical Society guideline, repeated in the CDC Yellow Book, and it is why the rest nights sit at Namche and Dingboche. It is a ceiling, not a target: reviews of WMS and UIAA guidance put the safe range at 300 to 500 m a day.

The same guidance advises against sleeping above 2,750 m (9,022 ft) on the day you arrive from a low altitude. Lukla is at 2,860 m. That is why day 1 ends lower, at Phakding.

Three days on the standard routes gain more than 500 m. Each has a village in between where one extra night keeps both halves under 500 m.

The altitude for Dingboche and Deboche varies here from the one that is widely circulated online and even in a few trekking maps. We are not sure how the measurements of 4,410 m for Dingboche and 3,820 m for Deboche came to be. But, HoneyGuide is certain that they are inaccurate. We have verified the altitudes we have given above using authoritative sources like the Survey Department of Nepal’s 1:50,000 topographic maps and Google Earth which uses the accurate SRTM-30 digital elevation model.

How far should you walk in a day?#

Plan on no more than about 14 km a day going up and 20 km coming down, because walking speed on these trails runs 1.5 to 3 km an hour and 7 hours walking time is a safe approximation. The higher you go, the slower you walk, and the shorter the day should be.

Most ascents stay well under the 14 km mark and average about 10 km. The descent is where the distance is. Walking out takes three days: Gorakshep to Pheriche after Kala Patthar, about 15 km; Pheriche to Namche, 19 km; and Namche to Lukla, 18 km, starting with the steep 630 m drop from Namche to the river at Jorsalle.

Some find those descents harder than any climb. The fix is to split the last day at Phakding, 10.4 km below Namche, leaving 7.8 km to Lukla. It costs one day. Phakding sits 250 m below Lukla, so the trek ends, fittingly, with a climb.

How does the Lukla flight change your first and last days?#

From mid-March to mid-May and from mid-September through November, Lukla flights leave from Manthali in Ramechhap rather than Kathmandu, a drive of four to five hours east. That leaves three ways to start, and the flight is covered in our guide to Ramechhap to Lukla flights.

The 1 a.m. drive saves a day by spending the night, and it is the option to avoid. The helicopter costs the most and protects the most, since it flies in lower cloud than fixed-wing aircraft, which matters most in the backlogs of early October.

On the return you sleep in Lukla and fly the next morning, because afternoon winds usually close the strip.

How does your choice of lodge change the route?#

If you are happy in basic teahouses, it changes nothing. If you are not, it changes where you can sleep, because comfort thins out as you climb.

Above Dingboche every bed is a basic teahouse. The way around it is to sleep low and fly to the view. Sleep only in the premium tier and see Kala Patthar and Base Camp on a helicopter day trip. You trade the walk to Base Camp for the view from above it. This is the logic behind most heli treks in the Everest region.

Which alternate routes and side trips add days?#

Most side trips add one night each. Several alternate routes add none.

Distances run from the village where you sleep. More on each under side trips on the EBC trek.

The Phortse trail. From Namche, cross the Mong La to Phortse (3,840 m) instead of going via Tengboche to Deboche (3,720 m). The trail is quieter, and it rejoins the main route at Pangboche.

A pass instead of the walk back. Crossing the Cho La to Gokyo turns the out-and-back into a loop. It adds about two days, and none of them retrace your steps. Any plan past Base Camp also depends on weather and on high lodges being open.

Sources#

• Luks AM, Beidleman BA, Freer L, et al. Wilderness Medical Society Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Acute Altitude Illness: 2024 Update. Wilderness & Environmental Medicine 2024;35(1 suppl):2S-19S. The 500 m ceiling and the extra-night rule this post tests every day against.
• CDC Yellow Book 2026: High-Altitude Travel and Altitude Illness. The same guidance in plain language, with an acclimatization checklist for travelers.
• Hackett PH, Rennie D, Levine HD. The incidence, importance, and prophylaxis of acute mountain sickness. The Lancet 1976;2(7996):1149-1155. The Pheriche study of 278 trekkers on this trail.
• National Topographic Database, National Spatial Data Center: Geoportal, Government of Nepal.
• McGuinness J. Trekking in the Everest Region. 6th ed. Trailblazer Publications, 2017. Route maps and village plans for readers who want to build an itinerary in more depth.