Everest Base Camp trek distance and days

12 days from Kathmandu and back is the usual plan, and Lonely Planet puts the trek at 12 to 14 days.

You spend 11 of those days on the trail. Base camp comes on day 8, after two rest days to acclimatise (to give your body time to get used to the thinner air), and the walk back down to Lukla takes three.

About 42 km (26 miles) each way from Lukla to Gorak Shep, the last lodges below base camp, by the stage lengths Wikivoyage gives. Base camp is a walk along the glacier from there, and the way back follows the same valley.

We have not measured the trail ourselves, and the walks on rest days come on top. Height sets the pace more than distance does: the way up takes 8 days and the way down three.

The standard plan, put together from guidebooks and other companies’ itineraries. Your guide adjusts it to the weather, the flights and how the group is doing, and your quote confirms your own plan.

The trail climbs from Lukla at 2,860 m to Gorak Shep at 5,164 m, the highest night, and comes back down the same valley. Kala Patthar, at about 5,644 m, is climbed on the morning of day 9.

The 12 days count from the morning you leave Kathmandu to the day you fly back. Arrival and departure days, and any spare day for flights, come on top.

Our 2023 itinerary, the one the guide price was quoted for, ran 16 days, and its notes include two nights in a Kathmandu hotel and a sightseeing day in the city. A spare day for the Lukla flights is worth keeping in any plan: they only fly in daylight and good weather, and they are often a day or more late.