Annapurna Circuit - Porters? Guides?

I'd say the majority of the folks we ran into on the trail either had a guide, or a porter, and usually both. Porter-ing and guiding are very respectable ways to make a living in Nepal, and although they make more money than the average worker, they are very affordable… And you shouldn’t have too many qualms about having a porter carry your gear… just don’t overload them… be considerate, they're still just human.

Many of the hikers just assume that they paid for a service, so they can bring along their extra pair of expedition boots, some comfort food, and whatever else they would otherwise leave… but since a porter costs as low as 8$ a day… why not?

But there are reasons to not get a guide or porter as well… some guides aren’t very cool… that’s the main one. And flexibility is another one. Since you pay for a guided tour, you are on a schedule. You have some flexibility, but not total flexibility like we did. Which was nice.

And as a side… people just use “sherpa” as a synonym for porter, but the Sherpas are an ethnic group in Nepal. In the Khumbu region near Everest is one of the locations Sherpas live, and due to the necessity of large expeditions to transport large amounts of gear the sherpas have become synonymous with porter…

If you do decide to get a porter, we have two recommendations from ones we became familiar with on the trail. Snow Leopard Trekking (ask for MB), and Three Sisters (in Lonely Planet… but they train female porters and guides… a male dominated profession… pretty cool).

This guy's carring a baby cow for some reason...


We saw lots of chickens being transported.