Are you making a plan to do trekking in Nepal? Then, how you are thinking of trekking? I mean you want to trek solo or want a guided trek? If you want a guided trek, then you should go through a trekking agency. But how do you find the best trekking agency in Nepal among more than 1000 agencies?
If you choose a bad agency, then your whole trip might be ruined as your whole trip depends on the hand of a travel agency. So, here we have listed some helpful tips for everyone who is planning of making their trip to Nepal.
A Few Tips to Find the Best Trekking Agency in Nepal
Be sure what you expect
Before looking for an agency, you need to be sure of what you want from the agency.
Your choices may include types of the hotel where you want to stay and the level of comfort during the trip along with the languages of the guide (except English language guide, other languages guides charge a little bit higher fees). In addition, you should know whether you want side trips or not, such as the Kathmandu sightseeing tour, Pokhara tour, etc.
Moreover, you must be sure about which trek you want to do. So, you have to decide what you want to get or what you want to avoid in the trek before choosing a trekking agency.
Registration and Affiliation
After you decide what you want, then the second most important thing is to find out the registration and affiliation of the agency. You have to know whether the agency is legitimate or not. Are they authorized and licensed by the Nepal Government?
Each and every travel and trekking agency needs to be registered with Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), Nepal Government. In addition, they should be a member of the Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal (TAAN). Then only a trekking agency is legally authorized to conduct the trekking services.
In addition, it would be better if the agency is associated with recognized organizations related to travel and tourism as well as Corporate Social Responsibility.
Services and trip cost
Now, the actual matter comes ahead; it means you should check out what services are being included in your trip package. And, compare whether it would be wise enough if you bought the trip offered to you.
I never suggest going for searching the cheapest trekking agencies. Because the cheapest may not always become the best one. Choose the best valued one by searching for the most reasonable cost that should match your needs with the services and facilities.
Remember! almost 99.9% of trekking agencies in Nepal do not include helicopter evacuation service; it should be covered by your travel insurance as they only arrange helicopters for the rescue.
Client Reviews and Testimonials
Client reviews and testimonials can give you a basic idea to find out a better company. You can go to the websites like TripAdvisor, lonely planet, etc, and view how many people recommend and write about the company. So, it may be an excellent way to get the feedback of different clients on several agencies. It only gives you a basic sense of not many effective ideas. Because reviews of TripAdvisor-like sites do not contain the best credibility as reviews can be bought and sold in recent days.
Besides that, you also can view testimonials written on the official sites. Some of the companies even provide email addresses and phone numbers which you can use to get detailed information about the service of the agency.
Experience and Safety Standards
You can even go to the history of the agency and find out the established date, and years of experience of the agency in the travel and trekking field. The high experienced might have dealt with many challenges of trekking. So, there is more chance of better services. It is said that practice makes a man perfect. Likewise, the longer time a company spends in the service, the more practices are there, and the higher chance of better service automatically coming there.
Although trekking is not the riskiest, you should consider some precautions as it is the Himalayas where the weather is unpredictable. It would be good enough if you know about the safety standards of the agency, such as emergency evacuation, primary treatment, etc before you book the trip.
Make an Inquiry
Without a proper conversation with an agency person, you can’t judge the agency either negatively or positively. So, you should make a quick inquiry by emailing them or you can directly call them. It will let you know the services and facilities that they are offering.
Check out the guides
Guides are one of the most important factors in trekking as you will be with them till the end of the trek. Make sure whether the trekking guides have valid guide certificates or not. And also check whether they are physically fit or not. You should also consider their trekking gear whether they have it or not because it is a must on the trek.
If it is possible, you can even talk with the guides as some agencies make the guide available to talk about prior to the trip booking. It will help you to understand whether the guide is knowledgeable or not, and whether s/he has good communication skills or not. You should know his/her personality before you set up the 1 or 2 weeks long trip with him. Because the success of your whole trip also depends on his/her knowledge and experience.
Some agencies even provide guides who speak other than the English language. However, these guides may charge higher than English-speaking guides.
Conclusion
Although it is a challenging job to find the best trekking agency in Nepal, you can follow the steps just mentioned above. However, don’t only judge by applying the above steps, but also make your own wise decision.
Wish you all the best for your trip to Nepal !!!
If you have any queries regarding Nepal Trip and have your own experience with Nepal Travel, we would appreciate your comments and blogs on our website. How was your trip? Don’t forget to share with us.
Are you looking for the best trekking route? Here we have listed the top 10 best treks in Nepal.
Want our help to plan your trip?
[contact-form-7 id=”1536″ title=”Need Help to Plan a Trip”]
