We started planning this trek in early 2017, more than a year before taking it. The two best times of the year to trek in the Everest region are October/November and March/April. In the fall, skies are clear, temperatures are colder, and it's more crowded. In March/April, there's more risk of fog, rain or snow, but the flowers are starting to come out and it's somewhat less crowded.
Julie knew that her work schedule was going to be bad in October/November, so that sealed it for us. In retrospect, we're glad we went in the slightly less-crowded season, even if we did have to deal with rain and clouds. We got lucky with flights and didn't have any fog-related problems getting in or out of the mountain region at Lukla. Others we met on the trail were not so lucky.
Our entire trek was arranged by a Nepali-owned trekking company called Cultural Treks. They did a great job and we were glad to give our money to local Nepalis rather than to an international company. Cultural Treks arranged for a guide and two porters and handled all of our transportation and lodging once we reached Kathmandu. It was really nice to have a local agent who could figure things out for us.
We have friends who have done a similar trek, and for several of them it was an eye-opening, overwhelming spiritual experience. We are all agreed that this is not what we experienced. Our experience was more "hiking turned up to 11". We all have previous experience camping and hiking, including canoe trips to the Boundary Waters and fully-loaded backpacking trips to places like the Grand Canyon and Glacier National Park. So, we're used to being tired, wet, cold and dirty. This Everest region trek was more of the same, just bigger.
That's not to say it wasn't difficult -- the ascent in a particular was a real slog most days, and 8 hours of hiking uphill is a challenge for anyone. But, hiking is about putting one foot in front of the other, and in that sense this trek wasn't much different than other trips we've done. In some ways, it was much easier, because we were only carrying 10-15 pounds of water, snacks, and extra layers in a technical daypack rather than 35-40 pounds of camping gear and food. Most days, we arrived at our lodging tired, but not sore, something which has not always been true in our backpacking trips. The extreme Himalayan altitude did matter, but we managed it by going slowly, keeping our breathing under control, and not worrying about whether people were going faster than us.
We are all glad that we did this trek, but unlike some of our friends, we don't have any immediate plans to go back. It was fun, but we will probably not do another Everest region trek any time soon. There are lots of other places to visit, and this is not the easiest place in the world to get to. It sure was spectacular, though!
All of our lodging — before, during, and after the trek — was arranged by Cultural Treks. In Kathmandu, they put us up at Hotel Thamel, right in the middle of the Thamel tourist area. The hotel was convenient (right in the middle of everything), and it was nice to have breakfast included.
While trekking, our guide Mahesh took our intended route into account and arranged for tea house lodging in each village we stayed at. In a lot of cases, he had personal relationships with the people running the tea houses, which helped when available space was tight. All of our meals were taken at tea houses, too. We ate breakfast and dinner wherever we stayed for the night, and had lunch at places Mahesh was familiar with along the trekking route
The definition of a tea house in Nepal has changed over time. Today (in the Everest region, anyway), a tea house is basically a small hotel with an attached restaurant and dining hall. In most cases, the lodging is very spartan. The only heated room is the dining hall, which usually had a big metal stove in the center of the room. Lower down, heat was provided by wood, and higher up by dung.
The three of us were in either one room all together (a triple) or two rooms (a double for Ken and Julie and single for Mark). On crowded days, Mahesh slept in the dining hall area with all the other guides and any late-arriving guests who couldn't get a room. If there was space, he sometimes got a room. Our porters Ranjot and Bijaya stayed at separate porter lodging in each village.
Most guest rooms had a single electric light driven off solar power, but in a lot of cases our headlamps were brighter than the overhead light. So, it was not all that much different than camping. Each of us got a narrow cot with a thin mattress and a blanket, which we typically used over our sleeping bag for additional warmth. Bathrooms were down the hall or outside. Lower down, we typically had western toilets that did flush, and there was typically a sink. Higher up, we were more likely to run into squat toilets only, and the typical toilet would need to be flushed manually using a bucket. There was typically not a sink. Toilets ranged from not bad to "ick, I have to go in there?" The ick factor often depended on how sick our fellow travelers were at that particular tea house.
Except at Gorkak Shep, we were always able to get water from somewhere (either a sink or from the kitchen via Mahesh) which we treated with our SteriPEN before filling our bottles and hydration reservoirs. At Gorak Shep, we ended up buying expensive bottled water because there was no other option. We occasionally bought a bottle of water elsewhere when it was inconvenient to treat, but we tried to avoid this because bottle waste is a big problem in the Everest region.
Food was generally good and plentiful, although it got more expensive the higher up we went. (This makes sense because it's all carted in on the back of either a porter or a pack animal.) Our tour arrangement with Cultural Treks included one menu item at each meal. If we wanted more, Mahesh paid for it and we settled up with him later. For the most part, one menu item was often enough, and we typically only paid a few dollars for a pot of something warm at lunch and dinner -- usually tea, or hot orange or lemon (basically, warmed up kool-aid, which was surprisingly satisfying).
We avoided meat above Namche Bazar, because quality couldn't be counted on (it has to be carried in like everything else). Eggs were ok, though.
Breakfast was the most awkward meal for us. It usually consisted of weak black tea, eggs and bread of some sort. Lower down, potatoes were sometimes offered. Since Ken can't eat bread, this offered a challenge. He gave his bread to Mark and Julie, which increased their meal size and made his pretty small. Especially higher up when potatoes were not available for breakfast, Ken always ate a Larabar after hitting the trail, to get some carbs. (He learned a hard lesson the day we left Tengboche.)
The standard lunch or dinner meal was dal bhat, which is what the porters and guides typically eat. It includes a lentil soup, a vegetable curry of some kind, rice, and a pappadom. The big advantage is that there are unlimited portions. And, it's gluten-free. We all had this regularly, but not at every meal. The remainder of a typical menu consisted of pasta, fried rice, or fried potatoes in various forms. We usually picked something of the "-and-veg-and-egg" variety (i.e. potatoes and vegetables and fried egg, or fried rice with egg, etc.). Sometimes, Mark would get an unusual meal like pizza (variable quality) or a dessert like a fried Snickers bar.