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Planning a Trek: Choosing Your Trekking Style
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After you've decided to trek in Nepal, you'll need to decide what type of trek is best for you, and whether to make the arrangements from home or once you're in Nepal. There are basically two styles of trekking: lodge-to-lodge (teahouse) treks and camping treks. Teahouse treks can be done on your own and are the most economical. On a teahouse trek you'll stay in rustic lodges used primarily by independent trekkers. By carrying your own pack, you can get by on less than $10 a day. Hire a guide or porter, and you might spend $16 to $20 a day.
Teahouse treks can be booked through a trekking company. On an organized teahouse trek, you will essentially hire a guide and a porter to walk with you from village to village. You'll be paying more than if you had done the teahouse trek on your own, but less than if you had opted for a camping trek. The only real benefit of doing an organized teahouse trek is that you don't have to worry about the planning or preparations, such as hiring guides and porters, or deciding on the route and where to stay. The only organized lodge-to-lodge treks I can wholeheartedly recommend are those run by Ker Downey Nepal (tel. 800/324-9081 or 713/744-5244), which operates its own system of deluxe lodges in the foothills north of Pokhara (see chapter 3 for details).
An organized camping trek, on the other hand (whether arranged in Nepal or in your home country), includes a large entourage that will have a guide (often a Sherpa), porters, cooks, and kitchen boys. These treks are patterned after the first mountaineering expeditions in Nepal. Today, a camping trek includes the same basic support personnel as a major mountaineering expedition, though generally on a smaller scale. For this reason, camping treks are the most expensive. Because they are basically self-sufficient, they aren't restricted to staying near villages, but on the more popular routes, these groups almost always use lodge gardens as their campgrounds (this seems to defeat the purpose of going on a camping trek). More-remote and less-traveled routes provide a truer glimpse of life in the hills and also give you a greater feeling of adventure because you see fewer trekkers. If you decide that a camping trek is for you, consider one that shuns the more-popular routes in favor of more-remote trails.
When and how to book your trek is another important question to answer early on. If you have more money than time, or if you want everything arranged before you leave, you'll probably want to book your trek through an agency in your own country. By booking your trek this way, all you'll need to do is show up in good health with your bag. Rates vary widely: A teahouse (lodge-to-lodge) trek booked through a smaller company goes for as little as $60 per person per day, and a trek into Mustang, which requires a $700 trekking permit, costs $200 or more per day.
On the other hand, if you have more time than money, consider booking your trek after you arrive in Nepal, or working directly with a Nepali trekking company. With this method, trekking rates can be as low as $40 a day for a teahouse trek, or up to $100 a day for an organized group trek with porters, guides, and cooks.
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