How to Hire a Guide in Nepal? Get 5 tips before book

by Jayaram Thapaliya · Updated August 18, 2023

You want to go trekking in the Himalayas through a trekking agency but don’t want to book a full board package. In those situations, you can buy only the guide service. If you buy only a trekking guide (can be porter too), this type of travel package is known as guide hire in Nepal. The excellence of trekking depends on trek leaders (guide). So guide hire is a very important process before your trek departure.

It doesn’t matter whether you hire a guide from a registered trekking agency or an independent guide(from any third party website), you should choose a guide very wisely and carefully. Because your guide plays a main role to make your trip fantastic or worse. Upon going trekking with the guide you will spend the whole trip and potentially pay him/her your trip money.

Before booking trekking with a guide, make sure you’ve got a suitable guide/leader for your trip. The following things you should know before book trekking guide service (hire a guide.)

1 – Have a Trekking Guide Licenced or not?

Not only in Nepal, in most countries, trekking agency guides or independent guides alike are required to be registered with some related departments of the country. So in Nepal a guide can acquire license from 1 month training from NATHAM OR FROM NMA and license will be issued from NEPAL TOURISM BOARD.

So you can check whether your guide has a valid licence or not. So license is valuable in the unlikely event when you run into any problems on the trek. Checking your guide licences you can find out whether a guide is trained or not . Moreover there will be no problems whilst unlikely events happen.

If a guide doesn’t have licenses, it shows he/she doesn’t get training from the institute. If a guide goes without licences, the tourist checkpoint can’t go further from the check post. It is vital to have a guide licence.

2 – How experienced is this guide?

Mostly guide starts out as porter. Upon visiting the trail, they can collect information on the route . After getting a license from Nepal Tourism Board, a guide can starts Job.

An experienced guide may be able to brief itinerary day by day, estimate one place to another places distances , solve AMS of their clients and so fourth.

An experienced guide can make your trekking lifetime memorable, whilst inexperienced guides can’t. Experienced guides provide services beyond your exception whilst beginners(inexperienced) guides couldn’t meet even your basic exception.

3 – Check communication Skills

If a guide can’t properly speak English or tourists’ own languages it is very difficult to accomplish trekking. Because if a guide couldn’t explain the mountain’s name, day by day plan, local culture information, and so forth, it is meaningless to have a trekking with a guide. So make sure your guide can communicate with you.

Guides who can speak your own local language except english and Indian, they certainly charge more than those who can speak international languages only. Because learning a language is a hard job itself and guides must invest big money and long time investment to speak native languages.

If you want to hire a guide who can speak your own native languages you’ll probably find it in Nepal but off-course they charge higher than normal.

Everyguide claims to speak fluently but you will get only a limited guide who can communicate properly. We have Seen communication problems with guest and guide a lot in trekking. In Nepal, there are limited numbers of guide who can speaks more than 4 languages. Mostly Guide can Speak Basic english but it is sad to inform you that only limited numbers of guide can speak intermediate level english well spoken can explain you surrounding things information as perfect way. So consider the communication level of the guide before select.

4 – Take a interview if it is possible

If you want the best guide, you can take an interview before booking Guide. You can make interviews through video call or you can take an interview of a guide upon landing in Nepal. Though it is the best way to find our suitable guide, if you want to book a guide upon landing in Nepal at Peak season, it might be difficult to find out. Because in peak season most of the guide will be prefixed on the trip.

5 – Add extra guide if you’re in more than 8

If you’re traveling with more than 8 people group for trekking, an extra guide needed too. Because in a group, some people can walk fastly likewise some slowly. To handle these two types of speed trekkers extra guide is needed. More to say, in case if some person gets sick and sick person needs to back at that time extra guide is also required. So make sure you have a sufficient guide if you’re traveling in a group.

5 – Check Guides Reviews

It is one of the best ways to find guide skills and capacity. If you find positive reviews of a guide, you can book without hesitating. But if you find Bunz of negative reviews of guides, try to search for another.

These days, to check guides performance, you check reviews of guides on tripadvisor, trustpilot and Google reviews also.By checking reviews you can find many things about guides. Upon checking reviews, you’ll know he has been on a related trail and so fourth. Therefore check reviews are essentials before selecting a trekking guide.

Conclusion
Did I (Jayaram) miss anything? Feel free to add your comments below because we would love your opinion. Good luck with your trek!