Guides and Porters

A porter can be useful if you can’t or don’t want to carry your bags. It there are children, elderly people, or you is going to an area where tents and cooking gear is needed. If you are going on a trip with several porters and a guide it can quite time-consuming and difficult, it is usually best to arrange things through a reputable travel agency. With a guide carry your backpack, and yourself only carrying a small day bag, can make walking much easier.

A guide is different than a porter. A guide should know the trails, speak good English, supervises porters, and interact with the locals. Guides will not usually carry a load or put up tents or cook, unless this is arranged in advance.
If you do your arrangement through a trekking agency, you should expect to pay around Rs 150 to Rs 400 for a porter and Rs 150 to Rs 200 for a guide. If you arrange a guide or porter yourself, you can expect to pay a lower price.

Porters are especially helpful at high-elevations and essential if you are going off the beaten track, where tents and foods have to be brought. You can ask at the hotel you are staying at to help you get a porter or guide. If you are willing to spend more it is best to hire a guide or porter through a reputable travel agency or lodge. At least if something goes wrong you will know who to go back to.

It is easy to find a guide or porter, but it is not easy to know if they are honest or any good. If you hire a porter or guide, it is best to hire them through a trekking agency, equipment rental place or lodge, or if you get a recommendation from a reputable person. A porter or guide that you hire on the street can easily disappear with all your possessions. Trekking agencies are usually the most professional and have good porter, but they often mark up a porter’s fee up to 100%.
A porter from the area where you are trekking is usually preferable because the porter will know people in the area.

Before hiring a porter you should make sure you set the conditions. You should set a daily payment, what will be carried, how long a porter will be hired for, and what you will supply during the way. You should definitely make sure you set the time you will be hiring a porter, especially if you are going a high pass such as Thorung La. Sometimes porters decide not to cross the high passes and return home.

Often payment is a daily fee, plus the expenses of a guide and sometime a porter during the trek, such as their food and lodging. Usually you pay for a guide’s food and a porter pays for their own food. If paying for food, it is usually best to set a fixed amount for food and drink for a porter or guide, as if you pay for whatever they eat, you may be billed for a huge amount of food (even food that is not eaten).

You should not pay too much in advance, 50% is standard. Expect to give a tip about equal to the cost of one day’s work per week extra. You can also give the tip in clothing or trekking gear.

You may have to supply your guide or porters with gear for cold weather. If going to a place where you may encounter snow, you must make sure that porters have shoes, sunglasses, proper clothing and proper accommodations. You may have to rent equipment for them. If you hire a porter, you are legally held responsible for their safely. It is not just a moral issue. If you lend them sometimes for the trek, porter may think you are giving it to them. You should not hire someone that is too young.
Women traveling alone (not advised) should be careful when choosing a guide, as some have very bad reputations. Also if you a women by yourself you may be attacked. Women should definitely be careful on choosing who they trek with.

If you decide to hire a porter in the middle of a trek, you can often find one. Porters can often be found through a local lodge in larger village or near an airstrip, where often porters have just ended a trek with an organized trek and are looking for another job.

Copyright ©2001 John Howley and Spiritual Guides