Your Travel Experience with ARRIVAL
Day 1
ARRIVAL
Fly into Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu. Your included airport transfer is waiting when you land and will take you straight to the hotel in Thamel, the heart of Nepal's capital. Drop your bags, and go explore the city. This evening is yours to explore at your own pace. Thamel's backstreets are full of restaurants, rooftop bars and the particular energy of a city that never really slows down. Dinner tonight is on your own, use it as your first introduction to Nepali food. Order the dal bhat. Your pre-trip briefing takes place this evening. Meet Liam, meet the crew and get across everything you need to know before the trek begins.
Day 1 - 3
Thamel Eco Resort or Heritage Inn (or similar)
Your base in Thamel before the trek begins and again on your return. A three-star boutique hotel with rooftop yoga, peaceful gardens and spa access, a world away from what waits on the trail but close enough to Kathmandu's spiritual circuit, markets and restaurant scene to make the most of your time in the city.
Day 1 - 2
Day 1 & 2: Rooftop Yoga and Guided Meditation
The trip begins with intention. Rooftop yoga above the rooftops of Thamel followed by a guided meditation that grounds you before sixteen days in the mountains. Not a token wellness moment, a genuine reset before the physical and mental demands of the trek ahead. The right way to arrive in Nepal.
Day 2
Day 2: Kathmandu UNESCO Cultural Circuit
A full day guided tour through the spiritual heart of Nepal. The sacred cremation ghats of Pashupatinath where Hindu cremation ceremonies take place openly along the Bagmati River. The all-seeing eyes of Boudhanath Stupa, one of the largest Buddhist stupas in the world and the spiritual centre of Tibetan Buddhism in Nepal. The monkey-filled hillside of Swayambhunath where 365 stone steps lead to panoramic views over the entire Kathmandu valley. And the ancient courtyards of Patan Durbar Square, one of the finest examples of Newari architecture. All four sites are UNESCO World Heritage listed. By the time you leave Kathmandu tomorrow you'll understand the culture you're trekking into.
Day 3
Fly to Lukla
Day 3 - 4
Hotel Sherpa (or similar)
Your first teahouse night. A cosy riverfront lodge with wooden interiors and warm hospitality right on the banks of the Dudh Koshi River.
Day 3
Days 3–14: Everest Base Camp Trek (Daily guided trekking throughout)
The backbone of the itinerary. Twelve days of guided trekking through the Khumbu Valley with Earthbound Expeditions' expert Sherpa guides, the people who know this mountain better than anyone on earth. The route covers suspension bridges, glacial valleys, Sherpa villages, rhododendron forests, alpine terrain and the Khumbu Glacier before arriving at Base Camp at 5,364 metres. Every day of trekking is guided, every camp is pre-arranged and every meal from Day 3 onwards is included. The trail does the rest.
Day 4
Day 4: Sherpa Culture Museum in Namche Bazaar
A visit to the local museum in Namche Bazaar that tells the story of the Sherpa people, their mountaineering history, their traditions and the extraordinary resilience of a community that has lived and worked at altitude for generations. The context this gives the rest of the trek is significant. The people guiding you up this mountain have a history worth understanding before you reach the top.
Day 4 - 6
Himalayan Cultural Home or Hotel Namche (or similar)
A comfortable Sherpa-run guesthouse in the heart of Namche Bazaar at 3,445 metres. Cultural décor, central location and the kind of warm hospitality that the Sherpa people are known for. The ridge above town offers the first clear views of Everest on a good morning.
Day 5
Day 5: Acclimatisation Hike to Sangbuche in Namche Bazaar
Your first acclimatisation day. A body-adjusting hike above Namche to Sangbuche at 3,800 metres with panoramic views of Teng Kangpoche at 6,500 metres and Kwangde at 6,187 metres. The kind of scenery that earns a full stop mid-sentence. Return to Namche for the afternoon.
Day 6 - 7
Himalayan Cultural Home (or similar)
A rustic but warm lodge sitting in the shadow of Tyangboche Monastery at 3,820 metres. Simple facilities, mountain views and the particular quiet that comes from being somewhere genuinely remote. You'll stay here twice, once on the way up and once on the descent, and it will feel completely different both times.
Day 6
Day 6: Tyangboche Monastery Visit and Meditation
One of the most revered Buddhist monasteries in the Khumbu sits at 3,800 metres surrounded by rhododendron forest and some of the most dramatic peaks in Nepal. If the timing aligns with the monks' prayer schedule you'll join a ceremony, chanting that echoes through ancient stone walls while snow peaks rise outside the windows. Whether you participate or simply observe, this is one of the most quietly memorable moments on the entire itinerary.
Day 7 - 9
Good Luck Guest House or Tashi Delek (or similar)
Mid-range alpine lodges at 4,300 metres with mountain-facing rooms and the teahouse warmth that becomes more important the higher you climb. Two nights here around the acclimatisation day, enough time to settle in, find your altitude legs and appreciate the views of Ama Dablam rising above the valley.
Day 8
Day 8: Acclimatisation Hike in Dingboche
Your second and most important acclimatisation day. A hike to a ridge above Dingboche at 4,300 metres with views of Ama Dablam, Makalu and the route ahead. The afternoon is unstructured: read, journal, share a masala chai with Liam and the crew around the teahouse stove. These slower days are where the bonds form and the trip deepens. Don't rush them.
Day 9
Day 9: Thukla Memorial Pause and En route to Lobuche
A moment of stillness at the Thukla memorial on the climb to Lobuche, a collection of stone monuments honouring the climbers who lost their lives on Everest. The mountain means something here that it doesn't anywhere else and this is where that weight becomes real.
Day 9 - 10
Oxygen Lodge (or similar)
High altitude with warm meals and thick blankets. At 4,900 metres Oxygen Lodge is exactly what you need. You'll stay here twice, once on the way to Base Camp and once after the Kala Patthar summit.
Day 10
Day 10: Khumbu Glacier Traverse & En route to Everest Base Camp
Navigate a dramatic stretch of ancient glacial moraine en route to Base Camp: towering ice walls on either side, the crunch of moving ice beneath your feet and a landscape so raw it barely feels like the same planet. One of the most visceral and visually extraordinary sections of the entire trek.
Day 10: Everest Base Camp, 5,364m
After ten days of trekking through the Khumbu Valley, twenty ARRIVAL travellers arrive together at the most famous base camp on earth. The Khumbu Icefall groans beside you. Prayer flags snap in the wind. You're standing at the foot of the world's highest mountain at the edge of human ambition. Not the summit, the place where every summit attempt on Everest begins. You'll understand why it matters the moment you get there.
Day 10 - 11
Everest Inn or Yeti Inn (or similar)
The closest accommodation to Everest Base Camp and the highest point you'll sleep on the entire trek at 5,164 metres. Basic facilities, a stove in the common room and the knowledge that tomorrow you climb Kala Patthar before the sun comes up. Sleep as well as the altitude allows.
Day 11
Day 11: Kala Patthar Sunrise Climb 5,545m
Before dawn you leave Gorak Shep in the dark and climb. By the time the light comes up you're standing at 5,545 metres, the highest point of the entire trek, with Everest filling the horizon in a way that no photograph has ever properly captured. The cold is serious. The silence is complete. The most dramatic Everest view on the planet and the moment the whole trek has been building toward. Worth every pre-dawn step.
Day 11 - 12
Oxygen Lodge (or similar)
High altitude with warm meals and thick blankets. At 4,900 metres Oxygen Lodge is exactly what you need. You'll stay here twice, once on the way to Base Camp and once after the Kala Patthar summit.
Day 12 - 13
Himalayan Cultural Home (or similar)
A rustic but warm lodge sitting in the shadow of Tyangboche Monastery at 3,820 metres. Simple facilities, mountain views and the particular quiet that comes from being somewhere genuinely remote. You'll stay here twice, once on the way up and once on the descent, and it will feel completely different both times.
Day 13 - 14
Nirvana Garden Lodge (or similar)
A quiet forest retreat at 2,835 metres feels like a completely different world after the high altitude of last week. A traditional feel, peaceful setting and a gentleness to it that matches exactly where you are mentally on the descent.
Day 14 - 15
Everest Eco Lodge (or similar)
The trek finale. An eco-minded lodge in Lukla where the final dinner of the trail happens. Stories, sore legs, laughter and the emotion of a group who just did something seriously special together. The right place to close out fourteen days of trekking before the flight back to Kathmandu.
Day 15
Fly to Kathmandu
Day 15: Cultural Farewell Dinner with Live Music
The send-off the trip deserves. Back in Kathmandu after sixteen days on the mountain, the whole crew sits down together for a cultural dinner with live local Nepali music. Good food, cold beer, warm company and twenty people with more stories than one dinner can contain. The right way to close out one of the most significant trips of your life.
Day 15 - 16
Thamel Eco Resort / Heritage Inn
A Three-star boutique hotel with rooftop yoga, peaceful gardens and spa access.
Day 16
Departure
Your included airport transfer takes you to Tribhuvan International Airport for your onward flight home. Leave with fifteen nights on the trail, two sacred monasteries, one glacier, a sunrise at 5,545 metres and nineteen people who were strangers sixteen days ago.