Everest Trek Permits: Park Fee and Khumbu Permit

For the standard treks in the Khumbu, including Everest Base Camp, Gokyo, the Three Passes and the shorter Everest View walks, foreign trekkers need two documents. The first is the Sagarmatha National Park entry permit, issued by the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation. The second is the local permit of the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality, the elected local government that covers the Khumbu. Both are checked on the trail, and both are needed whether you trek with a company or not.

Fees, rules and checkpoints in Nepal change more often than guidebooks are updated. The figures below are what we have been paying for our trekkers in recent seasons. Check current status before you travel, and if you trek with us we buy everything for you with your passport details.

Sagarmatha National Park was established in 1976 and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. It covers the upper Khumbu above Monjo, including Namche, Tengboche, Dingboche, Gokyo, Thame and Everest itself. Every foreign visitor entering the park pays an entry fee, which has been NPR 3,000 plus 13 percent VAT for foreigners, with a lower rate for SAARC nationals. Check current status before you travel.

You can buy the permit at the Nepal Tourism Board office at Bhrikutimandap in Kathmandu, or at the park entrance at Monjo, a few hours' walk above Lukla. Most trekkers buy it at Monjo because it saves a trip across Kathmandu. You need your passport and the fee in Nepali rupees; cards are not reliably accepted. Keep the ticket with your passport, as rangers check it at the gate and sometimes again higher up.

The park fee helps pay for rangers, trail upkeep and conservation. Part of park income is also shared with the buffer zone communities around it, which is one reason Khumbu villages support the park.

In 2018 the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality began charging its own entry fee to trekkers, and at the same time the TIMS card stopped being required in the Khumbu. The municipality is named after Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, the first Nepali woman to climb Everest, in April 1993, who died on the descent. The fee has been NPR 2,000 per person for foreigners. It is collected in Lukla, at a counter near the start of the trail, and checked at points above.

You cannot buy the municipality permit in Kathmandu in the usual way; it is issued locally. If you walk in from Jiri, Phaplu or Salleri rather than flying to Lukla, you pay it at the first municipality checkpoint you reach on the trail. Keep the receipt with your park permit.

In April 2023 the Nepal Tourism Board announced that foreign trekkers in national parks and conservation areas must trek with a licensed guide, and the TIMS card system was revised to go with it. The Khumbu municipality, which runs its own permit, said at the time that it would not enforce the guide rule in its area, and in practice enforcement in Khumbu has been uneven since. Some independent trekkers still walk to base camp alone.

Our position is practical rather than legal: a licensed guide makes altitude decisions, lodge bookings in peak weeks and rescue arrangements much easier, and the rule may be applied more strictly at any time. If you plan to go without a guide, check current status before you travel and expect that rules can change between your booking and your trek.

Trekking peaks such as Island Peak, Lobuche East and Mera Peak need a climbing permit, issued through the Nepal Mountaineering Association for the peaks it manages. The fee depends on the peak and season and is highest in spring. For Island Peak it has been about USD 250 per climber in spring and USD 125 in autumn, but fees were revised in recent years; check current status before you travel. The climb must be organised through a registered agency with a licensed climbing guide.

Everest itself and the other big expedition peaks need expedition permits from the Department of Tourism, with royalties of thousands of dollars per climber. These are arranged by expedition operators months in advance and are not something trekkers deal with.

Drones are a separate issue. Flying a drone in a national park needs permission from the park authorities and, for most uses, from the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal. Do not fly one in the Khumbu without written permission; rangers can confiscate it.

Before the Lukla airstrip opened in 1964, everyone walked in, and a small number of trekkers still do. The permits depend on where you start. From Jiri or Shivalaya, the old trail passes through the Gaurishankar Conservation Area for its first days, which has its own permit, recently NPR 3,000 for foreigners. From Phaplu or Salleri in Solu, you walk outside any national park or conservation area until you reach the Dudh Koshi valley, though local fees may be collected in some villages.

Either way, you pay the Khumbu municipality fee at the first checkpoint inside its boundary, below Lukla, and the national park fee at Monjo as usual. The walk-in routes are quiet and lodges simpler, so a guide who knows the trail is useful even where the rules do not demand one. Check current status before you travel.

Permit checks in the Khumbu are routine and friendly, and they also serve as a record of who is in the park, which helps in emergencies. A few habits make them quicker.

• Carry your passport, not a copy, with the permits inside a waterproof bag.
• Bring enough Nepali rupees in cash for any permits you buy on the trail.
• Keep the permits until you leave the region; they may be checked on the way down.
• Make sure the name on each permit matches your passport exactly.
• Walk in with your guide; checkpoints move faster when guides deal with the paperwork.
• If you are walking in from Phaplu, Salleri or Jiri, ask your guide where the first checkpoint is.
• Ask for a receipt for every fee you pay, and keep it.

Permits are entry fees, not insurance or rescue arrangements. They do not cover helicopter evacuation, medical care or delays. For that you need travel insurance that explicitly covers trekking to the height you plan to reach, up to 6,000 m for most treks and higher for climbs, and helicopter rescue. Insurers often ask for permit details and your guide's name in a claim, so keep copies of everything.

Permits also do not guarantee lodge rooms, flights or open trails. In October and the first half of November, and in April, the busiest lodges and Lukla flights fill weeks ahead. Book those separately, early, and keep a spare day or two in your plans.