Important Phone Numbers and Emergency Contacts for Trekking in Nepal

One of the most useful things you can do before you fly to Nepal has nothing to do with gear or fitness. It is saving the right phone numbers and email addresses in a place you can actually reach them, on your phone, written on paper, and shared with your guide. Nepal is a safe country for trekkers, and most trips pass without incident, but a bad connection, a lost bag, a stomach bug, or a genuine emergency all go smoother when you already know exactly who to call. This guide brings together every number and email a trekker in Nepal is realistically likely to need, from national emergency services to your own trekking company.

Quick Reference: Save These Before You Fly

Save these as contacts in your phone before you leave home, screenshot this page, and give a printed copy to whoever is tracking your trip back home. A dead or lost phone is exactly the moment you will need a written backup.

National Emergency Numbers

These are Nepal’s core emergency lines, valid anywhere you have signal, including Kathmandu, Pokhara, and most lower trekking villages with mobile coverage. Response times and service quality vary a great deal outside the Kathmandu Valley, so treat these as your first call, not your only plan.

The Tourist Police is the number most worth remembering as a trekker. It exists specifically for foreign visitors and operates in English, unlike the general police line which may not. They handle everything from a stolen bag in Thamel to helping you file a report for an insurance claim after a trek.

Tourist Police Offices

Tourist Police desks operate 24 hours a day inside the Kathmandu Valley and in Pokhara. Outside these two cities, coverage becomes patchy, which is one more reason your trekking guide and your travel insurance company become your primary contacts once you are on the trail.

Your Embassy or Consulate in Kathmandu

If you lose your passport, face a serious legal problem, or are dealing with the death or serious injury of a family member on a trek, your embassy is who you contact next, after immediate medical or police needs are handled. Register your trip with your government’s travel registration service before you leave home if one exists, since that is often how an embassy first learns you are in the country and how to reach you.

This is not a complete list of every embassy in Kathmandu. If your country is not listed here, search for your government’s official foreign affairs website and look for its Nepal or Kathmandu mission page before you travel, and save the number it gives you. Most Western governments also run a travel registration program, similar to the United States’ STEP program, that is worth signing up for regardless of your nationality.

Hospitals in Kathmandu

If you need real medical care in Nepal, these are the hospitals most used by trekkers, expedition teams, and the international community, generally chosen for their experience treating altitude related illness and their familiarity with foreign insurance.

CIWEC is the clinic most commonly used by foreign visitors and the one most experienced with treating returning trekkers, including altitude sickness, traveler’s diarrhea, and dog bite risk assessment for rabies. It is worth saving as your first call for any non critical medical concern that comes up during your time in Kathmandu.

Hospitals in Pokhara

If your trek starts or ends in Pokhara, or if you are evacuated there rather than Kathmandu, these are the facilities most commonly used.

Himalayan Rescue Association Aid Posts

The Himalayan Rescue Association Nepal runs seasonal aid posts staffed by volunteer doctors at Pheriche on the Everest Base Camp route and at Manang on the Annapurna Circuit, typically open during the spring and autumn trekking seasons. These posts are a genuine, walk in resource for altitude sickness assessment and general trekking injuries, and they also run daily altitude sickness talks during peak season that are worth attending even if you feel fine.

Because these are seasonal volunteer posts, their contact numbers can change from year to year and are not reliably published in advance. Your guide will know the current season’s aid post details, and this is exactly the kind of information a licensed trekking company keeps current. Ask your guide to point out the aid post location as you pass through Pheriche or Manang, and treat it as a resource you can walk into rather than one you call ahead.

Helicopter Evacuation: Who to Actually Call

This is the part trekkers most often get wrong. In a genuine high altitude emergency, you do not start by calling a helicopter company directly. The correct sequence is your travel insurance emergency assistance line first, and your trekking guide at the same time. Your guide coordinates the actual helicopter dispatch with a company they already work with, and your insurer confirms the guarantee of payment that Nepali helicopter operators increasingly require before they will fly. Calling a helicopter company cold, without insurance confirmation or a guide coordinating on the ground, often causes delays rather than preventing them.

This is why the single most important number in this entire guide is not a hospital or embassy. It is the 24 hour emergency assistance number printed on your own travel insurance policy. Write it down, keep a copy on paper, and make sure your guide has it too. If you are trekking with Next Trip Nepal, we confirm your insurance details and emergency line during your pre departure briefing in Kathmandu, and our guides carry a satellite phone or reliable communication device on remote sections of the route specifically for this reason.

Nepal Tourism Board

The Tourism Board is not an emergency service, but it is a useful first stop if you have general questions about permits, trekking regulations, or need a recommendation for a licensed operator before you commit to a trek.

Your Bank and Card Issuer

Before you leave home, write down the international collect call number on the back of your debit and credit cards, or find it on your bank’s website. If a card is lost or stolen in Nepal, this is the number that actually matters, and it is one number almost every trekker forgets to save until they need it. Our guide to money in Nepal covers what to do if you run short on cash mid trek.

Next Trip Nepal: Your Contact Throughout the Trip

If you are trekking with us, we are the number you should reach for first for almost anything that comes up before, during, or after your trip, from a question about your itinerary to a genuine emergency on the trail. We stay reachable by WhatsApp for the full length of your trek, and your guide carries a way to reach our Kathmandu office at all times.

Save this number before you arrive in Nepal, and message us on WhatsApp as soon as you land. During your pre departure briefing in Kathmandu, we go through your itinerary, confirm your travel insurance and its emergency line, brief you on altitude awareness, and make sure you and your guide are both carrying working contact information for each other and for us. If anything changes once you are on the trail, from a delayed flight to a health concern, this is the number that reaches a real person who already knows your trip.

How to Prepare This List Before You Fly

• Save every number in this guide as a contact in your phone, not just a note you might lose.
• Print a paper copy and pack it separately from your phone, since a dead battery or lost phone is exactly when you need a written backup.
• Write your travel insurance policy number and its 24 hour emergency line on the same paper copy.
• Give a copy of this list, along with your itinerary, to a family member or friend back home.
• Register your trip with your home country’s travel registration service if one exists.
• Confirm your guide has your emergency contact back home, and that you have a working number for your guide and for us.
• Bring a small amount of local cash specifically for phone credit and emergency calls, since card payment is rarely an option in a genuine emergency.

How to Dial These Numbers

Nepal’s country code is +977. If you are calling a Nepal number from abroad, dial +977 followed by the number as listed, dropping any leading zero. If you are calling from inside Nepal on a local SIM, drop the +977 and dial the number as printed, including the leading 01 for Kathmandu landlines where shown. Numbers written with nine digits and no leading zero, such as the ones for Next Trip Nepal and the Tourist Police offices, are mobile numbers and can be reached directly from any Nepali SIM or by WhatsApp from anywhere in the world with data.

Most trekkers pick up a local SIM on arrival at Tribhuvan International Airport or in Thamel. NTC, Nepal’s state telecom provider, has the most reliable rural coverage along trekking routes, which matters more than price when you are choosing a provider for a trek rather than a city stay.

What to Say When You Call an Emergency Number

In the stress of an actual emergency, people forget basic details that dispatchers need immediately. Before you call, try to have ready your exact location or the name of the nearest village or landmark, the nature of the emergency, how many people are affected, and a callback number. If you are trekking with a guide, let them make the call whenever possible, since they can communicate the location and situation in Nepali and are familiar with how local dispatch and rescue coordination actually works on the ground.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the single most important number to save before a trek in Nepal?

The 24 hour emergency assistance line on your travel insurance policy. It is the number that actually gets a helicopter evacuation moving, ahead of any hospital or embassy contact.

Does mobile signal work on the trekking routes?

Coverage is generally good in lower villages and gets patchy or disappears entirely near high passes and remote camps. Many trekkers carry an NTC SIM card, which has the widest rural coverage of Nepal’s mobile networks.

Should I call the Tourist Police for a medical emergency?

No. Call the ambulance number or your travel insurance emergency line first. The Tourist Police is the right call for theft, scams, lost documents, or disputes, not medical emergencies.

Can I call a helicopter company directly if I need evacuation?

You can, but it is not the recommended first step. Your guide and your insurance company coordinate this faster and more reliably, since Nepali helicopter operators typically require a guarantee of payment before dispatching, which your insurer provides.

What if my country’s embassy is not listed in this guide?

Search your government’s official foreign affairs website for its Nepal or Kathmandu mission page before you travel, and save the number it provides. Most missions publish an emergency contact even where public phone access is limited.

Is it worth registering my trip with my embassy before I leave?

Yes. Programs like the United States’ STEP program, and similar registration services run by other governments, are how an embassy first learns you are in the country and how to reach you in a genuine emergency.

Final Word

Most treks in Nepal go by without needing a single number on this list beyond the one for your trekking company. But the trips where something does go wrong are exactly the ones where having these numbers already saved, already written down, and already shared with your guide makes the difference between a stressful hour and a genuinely dangerous delay. Take the ten minutes to save this list before you fly. If you are planning a trip with us, save our number first and message us on WhatsApp with any question, before or during your trek.

Related Reading

• Money in Nepal: A Trekker’s Guide to Currency, ATMs, and Cash
• What Vaccines and Health Preparation Do You Need Before Trekking in Nepal?
• Is Nepal Safe for Solo Female Trekkers? A Practical Safety Guide
• How Much Should You Tip Your Guide and Porter in Nepal?