How to Choose a Best trekking agency and Tour company in Nepal?
by Jayaram Thapaliya · Updated August 26, 2021
Are you planning to trek in Nepal but worrying about finding the best trekking agency in Nepal. It might be difficult to choose your trek agency because there are 1759 trekking agencies that are members of the Trekking agency association of Nepal.
While you choose your bucket list trip afterwards you should choose a trekking company that can fulfill your wanderlust.
The choice of trekking agency(Company) is an important decision because the entire trekking experience depends on the trek/tour agency. – Jayaram Thapaliya
Trekkers should choose agency wisely because the entire trekking experience depends on trek operator hands. If you got good deals for packages and the best guide for trekking obviously, your experience will be perfect.
Price is primary and company’s professionalism, online reviews, team profiles, prompt response while inquiry for trip are secondary elements to choose trekking company.
In order to figure out the best of the best among the list, here we highlighted some basic points that you can use before booking trekking in NEPAL.
Here we made 7 tips to choose the best trekking agency in Nepal.
#1 – Registration, Licenses and Associations
Only registered trekking agencies can operate treks legally. So it is vital important to figure out whether a potential trekking agency authorizes with license and registrations.
In Nepal, a trekking agency must register with the Department of Tourism, Nepal Rastra Bank,Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal(TAAN) and Small Scale Industry Licence. Furthermore if a trekking agency offers climbing, they must be registered with Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA).
Mostly trekking website about-us menu section on their webpages. There you can see, trekking company legal documents if they are registered. For reference, you can visit here: http://www.basecamphike.com/legal-documents/
#2 – Response on inquiry
When you throw inquiry among trekking companies, definitely you’ll get responses but some of them respond quickly whilst some are very late. It doesn’t mean that response must be within 1 hour or 2 hours but most clients want to get answers to their trip questions in less than 24 hours. As this is the age of technology, it is a very essential response to an inquiry on time.
#3 – Trip Price
Mostly local trekking operators prices are more reasonable than international travel tour operators and even other third party websites.
#4 – Compare Price and Service
You’ll find around 200 website lists on most website browsers while you search on the trekking package price.
So from the list you should make a list of websites as much as can using your preferences.
From that list you can compare price and service using wisely.
If you think price is acceptable for you compare the prices with What Included and What Excluded. Afterwards, you can reach your decision which trek company you’re going to prefer.
A reliable and professional trekking company offers a list of services that offer clear cut trekking costs.
#5 – No Hidden Charge(cost)
Don’t book immediately by seeing the cheapest price than others or cheaper than others. Because you should investigate those cases. Mostly on the very cheapest trekking package, certainly there might be some things hidden using unfair business policy.
There might be a lot of conditions on their Included and Excluded package. For example, in the meals section, you should be clear on how many items you can eat at breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.
So make sure, agency package has a hidden cost or not.
#6 – Reviews and Testimonials
In this era, there are dozens of review websites where a person can submit their experience with the company. Though mostly trekking companies’ websites have their own reviews page, mostly tourists used to visit some trusted travel websites before booking trekking with them.
Nowadays Tripadvisor is #1 tools to check trek/travel agencies reviews. But tripavisor is not the ultimate one. You can also check reviews on Trustpilot, Google Reviews, and company Facebook pages.
Tip to read reviews :
It is better ideas to read both good and reviews of the company to figure out company services performance. However, if you don’t want to spend your time reading a dozen reviews, simply turn your eyes to the negative reviews(Why clients are complaining). Upon reading negative reviews you can point out whether it is the fault of the company or critical guests.
#7 – Safety Standard
If you are making a plan do high altitude trekking or remote areas trekking in Nepal, you should always think
about your safety. When you are going high altitude trekking, altitude mountain sickness can occur. So at that time depending on the situation, a guide and company take actions to save you from AMS.
If AMS becomes critical, it is needed to do rescue immediately. These types of rescue is known as Helicopter evacuations. So make sure, the agency(company) that you’re going to book a trek, can do Helicopter Evacuation or not?
But keep in mind to do mountain rescue, trekkers insurance must cover helicopter evacuation.
#8 – Experience of the staff
Not only trekking, an experienced person can solve their problems in a dynamic way. So during a trekking there might arise problems. For example, while you are on trekking with group, there might walking problems. Because some of them can walk very fast and some of them walk very slow. An experienced guide can lead them using their experience.
Likewise an experienced guide can tell you mountains description and local culture information confidently. Only experienced/professional guides can deal with that type of problem in a professional manner. So make sure the staff has years of experience or not.
Similarly, an experienced porter can play the role of secondary guide. For example if a guide is unable to lead some of the people in a group, at that time the porter can show the way by carrying luggage.
Note: Only experienced staff can provide you with the best hotels, best service, first aid treatment(if needed) and lead you to the best place for potential trekking trails.
#9 – Eco- friendly
A trekking company must operate trekking without doing environmental pollution. So ask the company how their trekking staff dispose of disposable things in trekking areas. Eco friendly is also one the factors to decide companies standard. Those who claim to be the best trekking agency, must be eco-friendly to save the environment.
Are you confused about whether Book with a Trekking Agency or Trekking Portals?
These days lots of trekking portals are dominating local trekking companies/agencies both search engines and social media. Thus travel portals are getting clients booking.
But it is not a self trekking organizer or we can also say it not independent trekking operators. Because it hands over the trekking to the listed local trekking organizer on their portal by deduction service charges.
So it is highly recommended to the tourists to book a trek with local trekking agencies. From local agencies, you’ll get the following benefits.
- Reasonable price(you’ll save commission charges)
- It is flexible to change dates, postponed, or even cancellation.
- Professional handpicked services.
- You’ll support local business
Final Say
Nowadays, you can find a suitable trekking company for you among the list of top trekking agencies in Nepal. Because this is not the age of 1990 to 2000(in this period there are very few trekking companies).
All you need to do is check the reliability and compare price with service among the best of the best. By taking some time to figure out, you’ll find a trekking company that can fulfill your dreams of trekking in Nepal.
