Why Nepal
Eight of the fourteen summits above eight thousand metres are here, and you do not need to be a mountaineer to get close to them: the great treks — Everest Base Camp, the Annapurna Circuit, Langtang — are walked on well-used paths, with lodges at every stage and without technical equipment.
The country is not only mountains. The Kathmandu valley concentrates seven World Heritage sites within a twenty-kilometre radius, and the Terai plain, to the south, shelters rhinos and tigers.
Getting around
The roads are slow and punishing: allow seven to eight hours for two hundred kilometres, between the state of the surface and the relief. Tourist coaches are more comfortable than local ones for a small difference in price.
Domestic flights to Pokhara or Lukla save a whole day, but are cancelled as soon as the cloud base drops — allow a margin before an international return flight.
Money
The country runs largely on cash, above all in the mountains where there is no ATM past a certain point: you withdraw in Kathmandu or Pokhara for the whole trek. Local withdrawal commissions are high and fixed, so taking out a lot at once costs less.
Tips for guides and porters are a significant part of their income and are prepared in advance, in cash, at the end of the trek.
Before you go
Trekking permits are compulsory and are obtained before setting off: the TIMS card and the permit for the area concerned. Following recent decisions by the authorities, several major routes require a licensed guide — check the rule in force for your trek before booking.
Altitude sickness is the real risk, not the cold: the rule of three to five hundred metres of ascent per night above three thousand metres, and an acclimatisation day every thousand metres. Going back down is the only remedy that works.
Ordinary travel insurance does not cover helicopter evacuation above a certain altitude: it is a cover to take out explicitly.