How much does food cost in Nepal: trek to Everest

So that you can better understand the prices for food in lodges on the trek to Everest Base Camp, we have collected in this article photos of menus from lodges located at key points on the route. The assortment there is almost identical, only the prices differ. For example, a liter of boiling water at the start (in Lukla) costs 1.5 dollars, and in Gorakshep (near Everest) they are already asking 3.5 dollars for it...
We have also created a summary table with which you can quickly compare prices for main products. Bon appetit!

Comparison of food costs at shelters on the way to Everest
	Lukla 2860	Namche Bazar 3440	Pangboche 3930	Tukla 4600	Lobuche 4940	Gorakshep 5170
Glass of tea	50	70	80	100	110	110
Boiling water 1 liter	150	250	300	350	300	350
Soup from a bag	200	300	355	300	320	400
Oatmeal	250	300	355	450	390	480
2 boiled eggs	300	350	345	450	430	500
Flatbread Chapati	270	300	380	400	350	400
Toast with cheese	370	350	485	500	550	500
Salad	350	400	455	No	No	No
Fried rice	400	400	475	450	500	550
Dal Bhat	450	550	595	650	700	750
Spaghetti with cheese	550	450	545	500	650	650
Veg Momo	450	400	495	No	550	550
Steak with side dish	600	650	755	750	1100	950

The prices in the table are in rupees. At the time of writing (autumn 2017) 104 Nepalese rupees = 1 US dollar.

Each village on the route to Everest has several shelters. And in a good way, for greater accuracy, it would be necessary to “measure” the prices in each of them and derive some average figures for the village. But I propose to neglect this error. After all, although lodges may differ greatly in terms of comfort, the order of prices for food INSIDE ONE VILLAGE is always more or less the same.

The Everest Trek begins in the village of Lukla, at an altitude of 2860 meters and culminates in Gorakshep (more of a cluster of lodges than a village) at an altitude of 5170 meters. Below is a map of the route, on which the settlements mentioned in this review are marked with numbers.

To the shelters located between Lukla and Namche Bazaar (inclusive), most of the food and fuel is delivered by mules (and not by plane, as you might think). Further (higher) the food is carried by porters and yaks. Both are quite expensive and therefore it is quite logical that as you move away from civilization, food prices rise noticeably. For many menu items, the price difference between Lukla and Base Camp is more than twice.

Examples of menus from lodges

As I already said, the menus in the lodges are almost the same type. This applies to both the set of dishes and the style of document design. So, once you have mastered the range of Nepali chefs, in the following shelters you will be able to order food without looking at the menu. But this is in theory, but in practice everyone spends hours staring at long-familiar menus, going over dishes in their minds, listening to their stomachs. After all, at high altitudes, appetite becomes very capricious and unpredictable.

Lukla 2860 - Paradise Lodge

Lukla is the starting point of the route and an important transport hub. Despite the presence of an airport and numerous fields and vegetable gardens, food prices in Lukla are relatively high. Perhaps this is due to the “steepness” of the lodge where we are staying, but we do not intend to change our place of residence yet, since there are more important arguments than food. I mean proximity to the airport and good interaction with airlines.

Namche Bazaar 3440 - AmaDablam Lodge

Namche has a huge number of lodges, large grocery stores, and several independent cafes and bars (not providing overnight accommodation). If you wish, you can find a local eatery there, where only Momos will be on the menu, but at bargain prices.

Pangboche 3930 - Om Kailash Hotel

Pangboche is a large village with an ancient monastery and extensive (for the Khumbu Valley) farmland. There are several "wholesale" stores here with prices slightly different from Namche. Most tourists pass through Pangboche during lunch and do not stop there for the night, but only eat. We, on the contrary, often spend the night here to go on a hike to Amadablam Base Camp. Om Kailash Hotel is a comparatively glamorous place. There is a washbasin (!!!) and the menu is printed on thick paper with designer touches.

Tukla 4600 - Yak Lodge

Thukla or Dugla are literally three houses (three lodges) standing at the foot of the Khumbu moraine. It’s already quite cold here, there are no vegetable gardens and, accordingly, there are no salads on the menu. They also rarely spend the night in Tukla, but often have lunch on the way from Dingboche to Lobuche. Therefore, the kitchens of local lodges are “tailored” to quickly serve a large flow of tourists. In particular, there is a very short menu, no frills.

Lobuche 4940 - Oxygen Lodge

In recent years, a couple of new lodges have been built in Lobuche with an improved layout - with good windows (i.e. no drafts), soft floors (i.e. no rattling boots) and a beautiful menu in the dining room. Oxygen, whose menu is presented below, is one of them. This may be why meat prices here are even higher than in Gorakshep. They also have oxygen cocktails (but I haven’t tried them). The rest is a completely standard menu.

Gorakshep 5170 - Snow Land

Gorakshep was once a tent camp - one of the Everest Base Camps. Now climbers “live” closer to the glacier, and Gorakshep is overgrown with stone and plywood shelters for trekkers. On one side of it is a dusty desert, on the other - endless moraine chaos. There is no normal water here (no taps, no streams, only dirty puddles) and certainly no gardens or fresh vegetables. Snow Land, where we most often stay, is no longer new, but a very “central” shelter with a good crowd. I mean that groups going to the top of Everest often stop here on their way to Base Camp.