My wife and I had an absolutely terrific trekking experience with Hillary Step and I highly recommend the company. We did the Everest Panorama trek and added a night at the Everest View Hotel (which although pricy, I strongly urge you to consider).
My good vibes with Hillary Step began in the planning stage when I first contacted Hari. After spotty communication with a competitor company, I found Hillary Step and Hari and reached out to start planning a trek. Hari was always responsive and promptly answered my questions. He never left me hanging like the other company. Then when I asked about customizing the trip by adding a night at the Everest View Hotel, he made it very easy to modify the itinerary.
Now the for best part of the trek. Our guide was DB and he was superb. I never expected to get such an experienced and capable professional guide. I thought we’d get some lightly experienced kid and I was pleasantly surprised. DB not only has an encyclopedic knowledge of the Nepal mountains and various other treks, he also shared a lot of historical and cultural information that really helped round out our overall experience. And he was just as friendly and personable as an old friend. Thanks DB!
I was surprised and pleased to find that we were not made part of a larger group. It was just me, my wife, and DB. Despite being an older couple we are experienced hikers and backpackers and I was concerned that we’d be grouped with others and that we would be forced to trek at the pace of the slowest member of group. Not true! I suggest that Hari make this clear during the planning stage since it is a really huge positive! We had a private trekking experience and did not expect that. A minor criticism is that we had to pay cash for anything and everything we drank and at all breaks and meals. This got a little tedious. I suggest that usual and customary beverages be factored into the trip cost as was already the case with meals, lodging etc.
The bottom line is we had great trek, worked with great people, and had a wonderful experience that we will never forget. If we are lucky enough to return to Nepal I will certainly work with this company again. I recommend booking with Hillary Step without any hesitation.
