Our group of seven recently came back from a ...

Nepal | Oct 5 - Oct 25, 2019

Our group of seven recently came back from a trek in Nepal through your company and i thought it may be helpful to provide some feedback on our experience. Overall, we had a fantastic time and found all the staff professional, positive, and very attentive. We really appreciated that Erin was able to book not just our trek, but also our kathmandu hotel, our Surkhet hotel, and our internal flight to Surkhet. That was so convenient for us and made our lives much better. Everythimg was taken care of and we didn't have to worry about even one night's accomodations. 

Sonam, our guide...Our guide was fantastic!! She was a highlight of our trip!!! She seemed to genuinely care about us having a good experience. She had a great attitude and was so positive and fun! She was a great communicator, explained what to expect very well, and laid out each day clearly. She was also very good at estimating how long it would take to get to our destination, something Nepalis aren't always good at. She was a delight to spend two weeks with! I would highly reccommend her as a guide to anyone. Since our group was mostly women, we loved that we had a female guide!!

The porters and assistant guide...The porters enthusisam and pleasant personalities were a delight to be around. We really liked that they didn't smoke like we saw many others doing. They all worked so hard and anytime we asked them for anything they were right there to help us. They were fantastic!!!!

The food on the trek...The food was plentiful with a lot of variety. We all ordered different things and felt very accomodated. We all found the food delicious and got our fill. It was better than we expected!!

Hotel Manaslu...Our kathmandu hotel was great! The food, accomodations, staff were all great. It was our little refuge from the bustle of kathmandu life. 
The hotel in Surkhet...Our Surkhet hotel was far more than we thought we would get there. The hotel driver was there to pick us up at the airport, the food was great, and the staff very accomodating.

Trekking accomodations...Our first Hotel, ABC Hotel, was very dirty and we just sucked it up and endured. It was quite horrible and we were worried the whole trek would be like that. It got better almost with each hotel and we enjoyed all the other ones. We loved the hot showers and the rooms that had comforters!!! The clothes lines were really nice too. A couple of rooms had trash cans and we felt like we won the lottery.

Erin...Erin was always quick to respond to our questions while we were planning and getting ready in the US. Her enthusiasm came through in her messages, and once we met her she was equally enthusiastic. She was bery smiley and friendly and clearly enjoyed working with people. We had an issue with getting the permits and giving our passports to one of the staff people and she came to our hotel right away. She was good at solving problems in a timely manner. My only constructive feedback for Erin would be to be more definitive and less loosey-goosey about things. When we asked if we needed crampons or microspikes, she said we can bring them if we have them. We really didn't know if we needed to bring them or not. When asked about bringing snacks she said we could if we wanted to, but really we needed to bring them. When asked about bringing a sleep pad she said we could bring one if we wanted to, but we never needed one and several people in our group brought them. The beds on the trek all had sleep pads that were very nice. I don't know if Erin has done this trek, but if not, maybe it would be helpful to do it so she can better answer client questions with more certainty and less ambiguity to help people better prepare for their trip. 

The handouts...Some of the information we got pre-departure seemed pretty out dated. 
The tipping information seemed incorrect based on what others told us. 
We didn't need to bring nalgene bottles as they filtered water rather than bolied it. Several of us didn't bring a bladder because of this information, and wished we had one. 
Airport tax is no longer charged on departure. 

The need for crampons or microspikes was very wishy washy. I think you should tell everyone to bring micro spikes. If they don't need them its fine, but if they are needed, it's essential to have them. 

Sometimes it felt like the info was generic to any trek, but it would be nice to have information that was specific to our trek.

Some additional info that would have been helpful...Bring snacks because on the big pass day you won't have acces to food. 

It would be better to get a little more description on what to expect on the trails. We were sort of in the dark as to what to expect and pack for. We got the packing list, but it would have been helpful to know that we would be in both very hot weather as well as very, very cold weather. 
Our time hiked was greater than every day on the description. 

Trekking poles are essential for stream crossings, balance on cliffs, and downhill stints.
It would be helpful to know that the trekking itinerary is an estimate of where we would stay, and that the trek may change based on weather, hiking strength, or accomodations. It would be nice to know that the descriptions we got weren't set in stone if they aren't. 

It would be very helpful to have an idea as to how much various things cost along the trek. Specifically, a hot shower is $5 to $6. Beer is about $6. And wifi ranges from $2 to $5. This would help us to figure out how much money to bring on the trail. It would also be good to know that there are a few handcrafted items we may like to buy along the way. 

The night before the pass and on the pass day  we were told that we should drink warm water, not cold. We were supplied with half hot and half cold water so we wouldnt drink cold water. We were then charged $36 for having the water boiled. We weren't told in advance that we'd be charged for the water and weren't given a choice as to whether we wanted hot water or not. It would have been nice to have been told in advance that we'd be charged, then given the choice as to wheher we wanted it or not. 

We thought we were going to have two rest  days, but we had none and hiked everyday. It would have been nice to know that we really had no rest days to mentally prepare ourselves.