Cash, cards, SIMs and wifi: the practical stuff nobody tells you

Cash on the trail

There are no ATMs above the road head on any trek we run, and teahouses do not take cards. Whatever you carry in is what you have for two weeks.

Budget roughly 1,500 to 2,500 rupees a day above your package for hot showers, device charging, wifi vouchers, drinks, snacks and the occasional beer. Less if you skip the shower and the beer, and prices climb steeply with altitude because everything arrived on somebody's back.

Bring it in small notes. Nobody at 4,000 m can change a 1,000 rupee note at breakfast, and this is the single most common practical complaint we hear. Break your money in Pokhara before you leave.

ATMs and changing money

Pokhara and Kathmandu have plenty of ATMs. Withdrawal limits per transaction are lower than most visitors expect and each withdrawal carries a fee, so take the maximum each time rather than making several small ones.

Bring some USD or EUR cash as a backup. Card networks go down, and a machine that eats a card on a Friday evening is a genuinely bad weekend.

Tell your bank you are travelling. A blocked card in a country where you cannot fall back on a second payment method is worse here than it would be at home.

SIM cards and signal

Ncell and Nepal Telecom both sell tourist SIMs at the airport and in town. You need your passport and a photo. NTC generally has better coverage in the mountains; Ncell is often faster in cities. Data is inexpensive by most visitors' standards.

On the Annapurna routes you will have patchy signal to around Chhomrong and very little above it. On Mardi's ridge and at Annapurna Base Camp, assume nothing. In the Khumbu there is a separate paid mountain network on the main trail. Tell people at home before you leave that you will be out of contact for a specific stretch, and agree when you will next check in. Two days of silence is normal on a trek and terrifying to a parent who was not warned.

Charging and wifi

Lodges charge per device per hour, and it gets expensive high up where power is solar. A power bank is the answer — charge the bank, then charge everything off it.

Cold flattens batteries fast. Sleep with your phone and your power bank inside your sleeping bag on cold nights; a phone left on a windowsill at 4,000 m can be dead by morning.

Wifi is sold by voucher on the main routes, is slow, and stops entirely near the top. Download your maps, books and music before you leave Pokhara.

Paying us, and paying for things generally

We take a deposit to hold dates and permits, and the balance before you start walking. You get a written breakdown first, with government permit fees on their own line. Ask us which payment methods work for your dates.

In Lakeside, larger restaurants and shops take cards, usually with a surcharge. Small shops, taxis and anything on a trail are cash. Keep small notes for taxis and tea. This is the whole secret to a frictionless week in Nepal and it takes five minutes at a bank.

Walk it with us

Private departures on your dates, guided by the people who wrote this page.

Questions we get asked

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