Budget Travel Blog by Thomas & Myrthe

Updated November 2026: We first published this guide in January 2019, after our own trek in April 2018. Since then Nepal has changed its guide rules, its permits and the way you fly to Lukla, so we’ve rewritten the whole guide for the 2027 trekking season. Where something changed, we tell you how it was in our time and how it is now.

Back in April 2018, two self-declared couch potatoes (one of them with asthma) walked from Lukla to Everest Base Camp and back without a guide or porter. We carried our own bags, picked our own teahouses and spent about $1,500 for the two of us, flights and gear included. Our guide to doing it yourself became the most-read article on this blog.