Lodges

Depends on the altitude.

Below 4,000m (Lukla to Tengboche on the EBC trail, Besisahar to Manang on Annapurna, most of Mardi Himal and Langtang): the lodges we use on The Journey and The Transformation have attached bathrooms, heated dining rooms, varied menus, and hot showers. Rooms are basic but private a bed with thick blankets, a small window, a shared corridor to the bathroom. The Trail tier uses clean teahouses without the attached-bathroom upgrade. Hygiene is non-negotiable on every tier.

Above 4,000m (Dingboche, Lobuche, Gorak Shep, Thorong High Camp, Larkya La Dharamsala, Kyanjin Gompa): the infrastructure changes. There are no upgraded lodges at 5,000 meters. Rooms are plywood-walled, unheated, with shared bathrooms often outside the main building. Dinner happens in a central dining room heated by a yak-dung stove. Hot water is limited. Wi-Fi works sometimes. Charging your phone costs money. Your sleeping bag is your warm room.

This is where Contextual Comfort matters. At 5,000m no one can build a heated en-suite lodge into the moraine the infrastructure does not exist. What we provide is a professionally cleaned -20°C sleeping bag with a silk liner on every tier, a guide who brings you hot ginger tea in your sleeping bag in the morning, twice-daily SpO2 monitoring, and the knowledge that if you are struggling, the guide has the authority to descend.

If a competitor's website promises you a heated en-suite bathroom at Gorak Shep, they are either lying or describing the view from Kathmandu.

Below 4,000m, usually yes at most lodges, a hot shower costs roughly $2–$5 (cash, at the lodge) and works on gas or solar heating. Sometimes the system is down or the queue is long; the guide will tell you in advance which stops have reliable hot water.

Above 4,000m, hot showers are not guaranteed. Water freezes at night. Gas heating is scarce. Solar panels deliver less power at altitude. At Gorak Shep, Lobuche, and similar high-altitude stops, assume cold water or a "hot bucket" rather than a shower. Many trekkers choose not to shower for the 2–3 days at the highest altitudes the body conserves heat better without the water-loss and temperature shock. The guide can advise.

If daily hot showers are non-negotiable for you, the honest answer is that an Everest Base Camp or Manaslu trek is probably not the right trip. Mardi Himal, Upper Mustang, and the lower sections of any of our treks are better suited to a daily-shower expectation.

Dal bhat is the trekking staple for a reason it is safe, freshly made, boiled, and sustaining. A typical plate includes rice, lentil soup, vegetable curry, pickles, and often a small portion of meat or an egg. Dal bhat is also "free refills" at most lodges: you can ask for more rice or more lentils at no extra cost.

Beyond dal bhat, most lodges offer porridge, eggs, Tibetan bread, pancakes for breakfast; momos, fried rice, fried noodles for lunch; soup, pasta, pizza at lower altitudes for dinner.

Dietary requirements: we communicate vegetarian, vegan, and culturally specific dietary requirements to lodges in advance. Vegetarian is straightforward. Vegan is manageable below 4,000m but harder at altitude. Gluten-free is difficult most lodge kitchens do not have a gluten-free grain supply, so we plan menus around rice-based meals for gluten-free trekkers.

Our guide inspects every lodge kitchen at every lunch stop and overnight lodge if the kitchen fails the hygiene check, we move. Food safety at altitude is not optional. Above 3,000m, we generally advise trekkers to eat vegetarian cold storage for meat is unreliable.

It depends on the tier.

On The Trail, which runs on fixed-date departures, room sharing is the default. If you are travelling solo and want a private room where lodges can provide one, there is a single supplement of roughly $15 to $25 per night, which comes to about $180 to $300 on a 12-day trek. You are quoted the exact figure for your trek and dates during the booking conversation.

On The Journey and The Transformation you are the only trekker in the group unless you bring companions. Solo travellers on these tiers have single rooms by default below 4,000m wherever the lodge offers them.

Above 4,000m the question partly stops being ours to answer. At Gorak Shep, Lobuche, Thorong High Camp and similar stops, lodges have very few single rooms and often none, so a private room may not be available at any price. The single supplement does not apply there, because there is nothing to charge for.

If you are travelling as a couple or with a friend you share by default, and that is what the pricing assumes.

This varies more than almost any other part of the trek, and it varies with altitude.

Below 4,000m, the lodges we use on The Journey and The Transformation generally have attached bathrooms with a western-style toilet. On The Trail below 4,000m, expect a clean shared bathroom down the corridor rather than an attached one. Western toilets are common at these altitudes, though squat toilets still appear, particularly at trail lunch stops.

Above 4,000m the infrastructure thins out. Shared bathrooms are the norm and are often in an outbuilding rather than the main lodge, which means a walk outside in the cold at night. Water freezes, so flushing is frequently a bucket. Squat toilets become more common the higher you go.

Two practical things. Bring your own toilet paper and hand sanitiser and keep both in your daypack rather than your duffel, because lodges rarely supply either. And keep a headlamp beside your sleeping bag; it is genuinely useful at 2 AM.

The one thing that does not vary is the hygiene standard we require of the lodges we book. If a lodge fails that check, we move.

Usually, for a fee. At most lodges charging costs roughly $2 to $5 per device, paid in cash at the lodge. Below 4,000m it is generally reliable. Higher up, lodges run on solar and a generator and both deliver less than you would like, so charging can be slow, queued, or occasionally unavailable.

Budget it alongside hot showers, which sit in the same $2 to $5 range. Across a 12-day trek, showers and charging together come to roughly $30 to $60.

What actually solves this is bringing your own power. A large power bank charged in Kathmandu will carry a phone through most of a trek, which means you are neither paying per charge nor waiting for a socket at Gorak Shep. Bring the cables you need, because lodges do not lend them.

Two altitude notes. Cold flattens batteries quickly, so sleep with your phone, your camera batteries, and your power bank inside your sleeping bag. And a camera that eats batteries deserves a spare or two, because you will not be charging four of them at 5,000m.

Below 4,000m, sometimes. On The Journey and The Transformation, the lodges we use at lower altitudes often have heated rooms where the infrastructure allows it. On The Trail rooms are generally unheated, though the dining room is warm.

Above 4,000m, no. Rooms are plywood-walled and unheated, and there is no version of this trek where that changes, because the infrastructure to heat a building at 5,000m does not exist up there. The heat in a high-altitude lodge is in one place: the dining room, around a stove burning yak dung, in the evening. That room is where everyone eats, talks, and stays until bed.

What keeps you warm at night is your sleeping bag. Every tier includes a professionally cleaned bag rated to -20°C with a silk liner, and that is the actual answer to the heating question. It is the same bag whether you booked The Trail or The Transformation.

Two things help more than people expect: a hot water bottle, which most lodges will fill for a small charge and which stays warm most of the night inside a sleeping bag, and going to bed in dry base layers rather than the ones you walked in.

If a website promises you a heated en-suite room at Gorak Shep, they have not been there.

Not straight from the tap or a stream, no. But you do not need to buy bottled water either.

Your Welcome Kit includes a reusable water bottle, and we ask you to bring a purification method as backup: a LifeStraw, a SteriPen, or purification tablets all work. Lodges sell boiled water, which is safe and is what most trekkers end up using, usually for a small charge that rises with altitude.

Bottled water is the option we would rather you did not default to. It costs about $1 at lower altitudes and up to $4 at Gorak Shep, and every one of those bottles was carried up by a person and mostly stays in the mountains afterwards. Some areas in the Khumbu restrict its sale for exactly that reason.

Hydration matters more at altitude than it does at home. Three to four litres a day is a reasonable target, and dehydration produces symptoms that look a great deal like early altitude sickness, which is one reason your guide keeps asking how much you have drunk.

Do not fill from streams, however clean the water looks. Livestock and settlements sit upstream of almost everything.

Two filters, applied in this order: hygiene, then location.

Hygiene is not negotiable and does not scale with tier. Our guide inspects the kitchen at every lunch stop and every overnight lodge, on every trek, at every price point. If a kitchen fails the check we move, including when that means walking further than the itinerary said. Food-borne illness at altitude is not an inconvenience; it dehydrates you at exactly the moment your body is already under load.

Location is the second filter, and it is mostly about the altitude profile. A lodge sitting 200 metres higher than the right sleeping altitude is a worse lodge, whatever it looks like inside. The overnight sequence on our itineraries is built around acclimatization first and comfort second.

After those two, the tier decides the rest. The Trail uses clean teahouses chosen for hygiene and position. The Journey and The Transformation add upgraded lodges below 4,000m where the infrastructure permits, which in practice means attached bathrooms, heated rooms, and more varied menus.

The relationships behind those bookings are twenty years old, built by our CEO long before this company existed. In a valley that is full in late October, a lodge relationship is the difference between a confirmed room and a mattress in the dining room.

Probably, for the first night or two at each new altitude. It is worth knowing that in advance rather than lying awake at 3 AM deciding something is wrong.

Broken sleep is one of the most common and least alarming things that happens above about 3,500m. Many people also experience periodic breathing, where your breath speeds up and then pauses while you are asleep, sometimes waking you with a start. It is unsettling the first time. On its own it is a normal altitude response rather than a warning sign.

What helps: go to bed properly hydrated but stop drinking an hour or so beforehand, because you will be up in the night regardless; sleep in dry base layers; use a hot water bottle; and do not fight the early bedtime. Lights out at 8 or 9 PM is standard on the trail for a reason.

What does not help: alcohol, which we advise against entirely above 3,000m, and sleeping tablets, which suppress breathing at exactly the altitude where you need it least suppressed. Do not take a sedative at altitude without a doctor who knows you are going to 5,000m.

Tell your guide how you slept. It goes into the Daily Trail Log next to your SpO2 reading, and the two together say more than either does alone.