What Tour Group to Choose...

Although you don't really need to have a tour guide to trek to Everest base camp, we have decided to hire a tour guide for this trek. The cost of the tour package includes:

• reservations and cost of all hotel and teahouses along the way
• three meals a day
• a return flight from Kathmandu to Lukla
• yaks and porters along the trail
• camping gear at Everest base camp
• trekking guide

We've decided to go with Peak Freaks based out of British Columbia.  This organization specializes in treks to the top of Mount Everest so they have a lot of knowledge and experience with altitude sickness.
By simply trekking to the base camp, we will all be at risk for altitude sickness so I feel safer going with tour guides who have experience with this. They will arrange for quick extraction from the trail for anyone who gets sick.

Since we have a group of people participating in this adventure, I thought it would be better to go with a Canadian based group so that we can do a bit of background checking on their company and we can using credit cards—something we couldn't do when booking safaris in Africa.