Nepal Tours with Flights from €790

Everest Base Camp is the headline trek. Allow 12 to 14 days on the mountain plus a travel day each side. You fly from Kathmandu to Lukla (2,860 m), walk 5 to 8 hours a day on rocky, stepped trails, sleep in teahouses, and top out at Kala Patthar (5,545 m) for the postcard view of Everest. The real challenge here is altitude, not fitness. The acclimatisation days at Namche and Dingboche are non-negotiable, and even so roughly one trekker in five picks up some form of AMS. Sherpa Expedition Teams run 12-day versions from around €1,290, and G Adventures a 15-day from around €1,545.

The Annapurna Circuit is the classic 13 to 17 day loop, climbing from paddy fields to high desert, over the Thorong La pass at 5,416 m, then down into the Kali Gandaki gorge. More varied than EBC, more cultural too, and with no white-knuckle flight; it sits in much the same price bracket.

Annapurna Base Camp is the smart 7 to 10 day choice. The top altitude is 4,130 m, far safer, you get a proper glacier amphitheatre at the end, and there is no Lukla to gamble on. If you have one shot and two weeks, do ABC over EBC.

Not everyone fancies eight hours of walking a day for two weeks straight, and Nepal rewards the non-trekker more handsomely than most people expect. The standard 8-day cultural loop pairs the Kathmandu Valley with Chitwan and Pokhara, and runs from around €640 with Relax Getaways up to around €870 for World Travel Experiences' Classic Nepal Tour.

The Kathmandu Valley deserves three full days: Durbar Square, the Boudhanath stupa circuit at dusk, Swayambhunath at dawn, and the medieval warren of Bhaktapur, which came through the 2015 earthquake better than most assume. Add Patan on the third day if the temples haven't worn you out.

Chitwan National Park is a 5-hour drive south into the lowland Terai. Spend two nights, take a jeep safari for one-horned rhinos and sloth bears, and choose one of the elephant-free experiences (the ethical operators have all dropped the rides). In the dry season, roughly two in five travellers spot a Bengal tiger.

Pokhara is where you draw breath. There is Phewa Lake, paragliding off Sarangkot with Annapurna South filling the sky, and the Peace Pagoda. Lumbini, birthplace of the Buddha, is a 6-hour bus south and usually an overnight add-on for those with the time to spare.

Nepal runs on two tiers. Western-branded operators like Intrepid, G Adventures, Exodus, World Expeditions, KE Adventure and Mountain Kingdoms wrap their trips around local ground crews and charge €1,500 to €3,000 for a trek that costs a third of that locally. What you are paying for is English-speaking trip leaders, Western insurance, evacuation cover and a refund policy that will actually pick up the phone.

The local operators (Nepal Social Treks, Sherpa Expedition Teams, Nepal Hiking Team, Alpine Ramble, Peregrine Treks) run the very same routes for €790 to €1,480. Same trails, same teahouses, often the same guides, since G Adventures subcontracts to them anyway. You save real money and trade away a layer of service.

Here is what that support actually buys you: one licensed guide per 4 to 6 trekkers, plus a porter for every two trekkers carrying up to 20 kg of your gear, leaving you to walk with just a daypack of water, layers and a camera. Teahouse treks (all of EBC, most of Annapurna) mean private rooms, shared squat toilets and a dining hall warmed by a yak-dung stove. Fully supported camping treks (Manaslu Circuit, Upper Mustang) cost 30-50% more and come with a cook, a kitchen crew and tents. For a first Nepal trek, teahouse is the way to go.

October and November are the peak trekking months, and they earn it. Skies clear once the monsoon has scrubbed out the haze, the lower elevations sit at a pleasant 15-20°C while EBC altitude drops to -5 to -10°C, and the Annapurna and Everest ranges look exactly as you have always imagined them. Book 4 to 6 months ahead for this window, because Lukla flights and the EBC teahouses fill fast.

March and April are the second window, and arguably the lovelier. The mountain views go a touch hazy, but the rhododendron forests on the Annapurna and Langtang routes blaze red and pink from 2,500 to 3,500 m, and the teahouse nights are warmer. Prices come down roughly 10-15% on the autumn peak.

June through early September is monsoon. The trails turn to mud, the leeches come out, and the views vanish behind cloud for days at a stretch. Manaslu and Upper Mustang sit in the rain shadow and stay trekkable, but EBC and Annapurna are not sensible bets, and operators drop prices 30-40% for good reason.

December through February is trekkable but cold. EBC plunges to -20°C at night and the teahouses above Dingboche close for the winter. It is fine for lower-altitude cultural trips and for ABC to 4,130 m, provided you are properly geared up.

Kathmandu (KTM) is the single international gateway, and no carrier flies nonstop from any of the long-haul markets in 2026 — everyone connects, almost always through a Gulf or Asian hub.

From the UK and Europe, the standard routing is via a Gulf hub: Qatar through Doha, Etihad through Abu Dhabi, Emirates through Dubai, or Turkish through Istanbul. Turkish and Qatar are usually the cheapest, and Dublin, Paris, Frankfurt and London all connect well. Door to door is 13-17 hours; returns run €550-€750 in shoulder season (late February, early May, late September) and €700-€1,100 in the October-November peak.

From the US, Nepal is a long way from either coast. From the West Coast (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle) reckon on 21-24 hours via a Gulf hub or via Asia (Cathay through Hong Kong, Singapore Airlines through Singapore), US$1,100-US$1,600 return in shoulder season. From the East Coast (New York, Washington, Boston) it's a touch shorter at 19-22 hours via Doha, Dubai or Abu Dhabi, US$1,000-US$1,500.

From Australia, Sydney and Melbourne reach Kathmandu in about 15-18 hours via Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok or a Gulf hub. Return economy runs roughly A$1,200-A$1,700 in the shoulder months, A$1,700-A$2,300 over the October-November trekking peak, which collides with neither summer nor winter holidays in Australia, so book early.

From Canada, Vancouver and Toronto both connect via a Gulf or Asian hub in around 20-23 hours, C$1,300-C$1,900 return depending on season.

For Everest Base Camp, it is the second flight that matters: Kathmandu to Lukla (LUA) on Tara Air or Summit Air, 25 to 30 minutes, roughly €180-€220 (US$200-US$240) return. Tenzing-Hillary airport is a 527-metre sloped runway carved into the side of a mountain at 2,860 m. The flight is genuinely fine in clear weather and genuinely cancelled in anything less, so build two buffer days into each end of an EBC trip. In peak season, 10-20% of Lukla flights are scrubbed on the day. A helicopter out of a stuck airport runs US$500-US$600 a seat and is a running joke among Nepal trekkers. The good operators bake buffer days into the itinerary, which is precisely why the 15-day EBC packages are 15 days long.

Book 3-4 months out for the best fares from anywhere. The bundle prices the international flight live in your own currency the moment you search, so the full trip cost shows beside the tour before you commit to either booking. Kiwi.com handles the routing behind the scenes.