The Longest Way Home Travel Blog

Everest Base Camp in luxury and comfort – folly or just overpriced? The Everest Base Camp trek is a once-in-a-lifetime journey through Sherpa villages to Everest’s base. But in 2025, the Independent’s (UK newspaper) “Flat whites and underfloor heating” peddles a £11,875 ($15,000) group trek that’s more cash grab than Himalayan quest. With promises of …

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The Himalayas Are Still There: Debunking the BBC’s Hazy Himalayan Hype I have been traveling, living, and writing about Nepal for over two decades, trekking its trails, tasting high-altitude coffee in Kathmandu’s bustling Thamel, and staring in awe at the jagged, snow-draped Himalayas from mountain peaks. So when I stumbled across a recent BBC article …

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Ten years ago, Nepal shook. On April 25, 2015, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake tore through this Himalayan nation, followed by a second 7.3-magnitude punch on May 12. Nearly 9,000 lives were lost, over 22,000 people injured, and millions left homeless. I remember it … Durbar Square in Kathmandu crumbling, Patan’s temples leaning, Bhaktapur’s streets choked with …

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A new e-permit system has come online in Nepal, but there’s a catch In 2024 The National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) who run the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) launched an online portal for trekking companies and trekkers to buy ACAP and  MCAP permits online. Only the portal never worked very well and kept …

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What Do You Do If You Had a Bad Experience With a Trekking Guide or Agency in Nepal? Unfortunately, over the past year, there’s been a substantial rise in complaints about bad trekking agencies and bad trekking guides in Nepal. I’ve spent a lot of time analyzing why this has come about and what’s the …

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Langtang National Park Requests Mandatory Trekking Guides In February 2025, an official letter from Langtang National Park was sent to the Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal (TAAN). The park officials requested that all trekkers, foreign and Nepali, should no longer trek solo and should have a trekking guide for the Langtang trek. They cited past …

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Nepal Uncovered: Travel Podcast – brings you the best discussions about traveling to Nepal It started as some fun and also a learning experience. I really wanted to do something a bit different with this project. If I were to host a Nepal Podcast alone, it would either be information overload, and I’d probably start …

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