The people carrying your bag: porter welfare and how to trek well here
Trekking money reaches Nepali households more directly than almost any other tourism. It also, sometimes, gets people hurt. What to ask before you book.
By Dawa Gurung · 7 min read · Updated 1 August 2026
Trekking is one of the better forms of tourism for the country it happens in. The money goes to lodge families, porters, guides, jeep drivers and village shops rather than to an international hotel chain. In the hills above Pokhara it is often the main source of cash income.
It also has a specific and well-documented problem, which is that the person carrying the heaviest load is usually the one with the least power in the arrangement. I started as a porter. This page is the version I would want a client to read.
What a fair load looks like
The widely accepted limit for trekking porters is around 20 kg for the load a porter carries in total, and responsible companies keep well under it. We cap ours at roughly 9 kg per trekker with two trekkers to a porter, which puts a full load at about 18 kg including their own kit.
You will see much heavier loads on the trail. Commercial cargo portering is a different job with different norms; a man carrying 60 kg of beer to a lodge is not a trekking porter and is paid by weight. Those are the images that circulate online and they confuse the issue.
What matters for you is the company you book with. Ask what the cap is and ask what happens if the group's bags come in over it. A company that has a number and a plan is a company that has thought about it.
Clothing, insurance and altitude
Porters get cold and get altitude sickness like everyone else, and historically have been far less likely to be properly equipped for either. Boots, a jacket, sunglasses and gloves are the basics, and on high routes they are not optional.
Insurance for guides and porters is a legal requirement in Nepal and is not universally honoured. It is a fair question to ask an operator directly, and the answer should be immediate.
If a porter is unwell, the same rules apply as for a client: no ascending with symptoms, descend if it worsens. That should be obvious and it has not always been how this industry worked.
Where your money goes
On a teahouse trek, a large share reaches households directly — the lodge family, the porter, the guide, the jeep driver, the shop that sold you a chocolate bar at three times the Pokhara price because somebody carried it up.
Community-run routes push this further. On Mohare Danda and Khopra Ridge the lodges are owned collectively by the villages and profits fund schools, water schemes and trail repair. On the Machhapuchhre Model Trek, homestay guests are allocated between households on a rota so the income spreads. If where the money lands matters to you, those three routes are the strongest options we have, and choosing one over a commercial trail is the most direct vote you can cast.
Rubbish, plastic and the things that stay behind
Every plastic bottle sold above the road head has to be carried back down by someone or it does not leave. A filter bottle or purification tablets removes maybe thirty bottles from a two-week trek and saves you money.
Take your own rubbish down to a town with proper disposal rather than leaving it at a high lodge where the options are burning or burying. Batteries and wet wipes especially.
Toilet paper does not decompose quickly at altitude. Bag it out. This is unglamorous and it is the single most visible problem on the busy trails.
Being a good guest
Ask before photographing people, houses and religious sites, every time. It costs nothing and it changes the interaction — people usually say yes and then invite you in.
Walk clockwise around chortens and mani walls, keeping them on your right. Nobody will berate you for getting it wrong and everyone notices when you get it right.
Eat and drink at the lodge you sleep in. The room is cheap because the kitchen is where the family makes its living, and eating your own supplies in their dining room takes the margin out of the arrangement.
Tip properly at the end — around ten percent of the trip cost split between guide and porter is the usual figure. Nobody will ask you for it.
The questions to ask any operator
What weight do you cap porters at, and how many trekkers per porter? What do you pay them per day? Are guides and porters insured? Do you provide their jackets and boots on high routes?
Four questions, and any operator worth booking will answer all four in under a minute without checking. Vagueness on porter pay is the most reliable warning sign in this industry. You are allowed to ask us. We would rather you did.
Walk it with us
Private departures on your dates, guided by the people who wrote this page.
Questions we get asked
Should I hire a porter at all, or is it better not to?
Hiring one is better. Portering is skilled, well-paid work by local standards and refusing on principle removes a job rather than improving it. What matters is that the load and conditions are fair.
How much should I tip?
Around ten percent of the trip cost, split between guide and porter, handed over on the last evening. More if someone went out of their way, and nobody will sulk if you cannot.
Can I give clothing or equipment to my porter at the end?
Often appreciated, especially boots and jackets in good condition. Ask rather than assume, and give it privately.
Is it rude to give sweets or pens to children on the trail?
It encourages begging along popular routes and most guides discourage it. If you want to give, give to a school or a community fund through your guide.
Which treks put the most money into local hands?
Mohare Danda, Khopra Ridge and the Machhapuchhre Model Trek — all community-owned, with profits going to village funds rather than a private operator.
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