Namche Bazaar
3,440 m
Kathmandu
1,400 m
50 mins
8:00 AM
$650
per seat
$3,500
aircraft
Khumbu, Everest region
Namche Bazaar
Namche Bazaar sits in a natural amphitheatre at 3,440 metres, two days walk above Lukla. It is the administrative and commercial centre of the Khumbu, the place where trekkers take their first acclimatisation day, and the point at which a certain number of them discover that altitude does not negotiate.
That is the main reason helicopters come here. A trekker who is not adapting at Namche is not going to adapt higher up, and the correct response is to go down. The flight to Kathmandu takes fifty minutes and drops you two thousand metres, which is a more effective treatment for altitude sickness than anything in a first aid kit.
The ten-minute hop to Lukla
The shortest flight we sell is Namche to Lukla. It takes about ten minutes and saves a full day of walking downhill on knees that have already done two weeks of work. At our published shared-seat price it is the cheapest helicopter ticket in the Everest region and the one most often bought on the spot.
Acclimatisation and the helicopter question
People ask whether flying into Namche rather than walking is a problem. It can be. Arriving at 3,440 metres from 1,400 metres in fifty minutes gives your body no time at all, and the standard advice is to spend two nights here before going higher. If you fly in, plan the acclimatisation days you would otherwise have walked.
Nearby
Syangboche airstrip sits just above the town and the Everest View Hotel a short walk beyond it, at 3,880 metres, with one of the most photographed terraces in Nepal. Several of our Everest Base Camp tours put down there for breakfast.
01Departing
Flights out of Namche Bazaar
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