beware - Everest Base Camp trekking companies on TA

hi fellow TA users,

I just wanted to pop a quick message into this forum to warn other users about the advice given for certain trekking companies covering the Everest Base Camp and similar regions.

The advice is simply to take some of the recommendations with a pinch of salt.

I have serious and I think correct suspicions that representatives of these trekking agencies are going on these forums, registering as joebloggs or mikehaul or whatever and recommending their own companies in order to get your business.

I don%26#39;t want to name names and of course I can%26#39;t be 100% sure that they%26#39;re not honest or that the companies they recommend are bad - for all I know, all the trekking companies doing everest are probably good.

The broken English is a dead sure give away and another tip is when you see a recommendation, take a look at that person%26#39;s %26#39;other listings%26#39; and you%26#39;ll notice that many have ONLY posted within forums from this region. Some are bleedingly obvious because they make claims like %26#39;don%26#39;t go with company XYZ because they don%26#39;t have a permit to do base camp%26#39; or something like that - how on earth would an individual from the UK know that an obscure company in Nepal doesn%26#39;t have the right to do Base Camp treks????

Most normal travellers like myself have obviously been to numerous places around the world and lend their advice on various places....

obviously many people out there who are considering doing an organised trek in this region would know that up until a short time ago, you could arrive in Luhkla and simply hire a porter/guide to take you up to Base Camp....

but as I understand it, and correct me if I%26#39;m wrong, you now have to go with one of the officially recognised tour companies in order to trek Base Camp.

So just beware of what advice you take on board, speak to lots of people, email all the different tour companies and ultimately keep your fingers crossed you have a nice tour.

beware - Everest Base Camp trekking companies on TA

Good post and I completely agree. There is also some dodgy advice going around and even (in my opinion) unsafe advice.

beware - Everest Base Camp trekking companies on TA

KOliver - well done - this is a great website and without the contibutions we could not have done previous trips so well

the last thing we need is misleading information posted by ';business%26#39;

other forums they are evident and declare their hand but still give some good advice

at this time i am just structuring our next adventure

ausnomad

Hi,

thanks for your post and the advice.

I am thinking about doing a trek and there are so many companies to choose from. What is the best way of selecting a company?

Also what is the political situation around the region? I hear that ';Mao'; terrorists stop people and ask for $100 ranson per head. Is this true?

And if by magic, up pops a prime example of a tout!

I have used these 2

Highland Excursions Nepal Pvt Ltd

PO Box 12733 Baluwater

Kathmandu

Tel 4-413850/4-414783

and

Himalaya Expeditions Inc

PO Box 105

Kathmandu

Tel 4 22 66 22/4 257 257

email: info@himexnepal.com

www.himexnepal.com

Contact: Bhanu Sing Thakuri

The first one are agents for World Expeditions and the second are agents for Himalayan Kingdoms. Both western companies with great reputations.

I fully recommend these. I spent 2 months trekking in Nepal last spring and the only Maoist problems I came up against were roadblocks in Kathmandu. No activity in the areas we were (Everest, Annapurna %26amp; Mustang) except for flags and posters.

For the latest, check out

http://www.kantipuronline.com/ktmpost.php

which is a largely independant news source.

Has anybody heard of Nepal Trailblazers Trekking? They are a local outfit out of Kathmandu.

I used Nepal Trailblazers for an Everest BaseCamp trek in late 2007 and they were fantastic. All guides spoke English and were able to provide good cultural information about the region. The administrator of the agency (Mr. Tilak) is a good resource and was very helpful in communicating the details of the trip prior to our arrival. I am heading back to the Goyko Lake region next year and will definitely utilize their services for the trek. We met several other groups while trekking that were utilizing Nepal Trailblazers and everyone had positive comments about their organizational skills. With a cost of 50% of what the US based companies charge for the trip I would highly recommend this company.

We used HIMALAYAN ROCK TREKS %26amp; EXPEDITION operated by Mr. Rammani Sapkota for our Everest base camp trek and it was a terrible experience. The address of the agency is P.O. Box 5478, Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal. The website is www.himalayanrock.com.

In addition, when we were left stranded in Kathmandu due to the recent Bangkok airport takeover in Dec 2008, Mr. Rammani Sapkota was not interested in helping us despite numerous calls to him, he never returned any of our calls, and he basically left us to resolve the situation by ourselves after he took our money.