During our stay in Nepal, Breakfree Adventures proved reliable, hospitable, informative and creative – all at a good price. Bharat Sapkota and his people were where they said they would be every time.
Our Kathmandu guide, Bijay Ramal, patiently fielded our questions and made sure we saw the four big sites: Durbar Square, Swayambhunath, Boudhanath and Pastupinath.
But it was in doing what it could to salvage our trek that Breakfree proved its worth.
We had a five day window to trek in the Everest area, but an unprecedented return of the monsoon shut down flights to the starting point, Lukla, for the entire time. After our flight was grounded the first morning, Bharat and trekking guide Ramesh Duwadi, anticipating events, got our tickets switched to Pokhara for that afternoon, so we could trek in the Annapurna area.
Unfortunately, the weather was bad there, too, so we trekked five days in clouds and rain. But Ramesh was invaluable. He grew up in a small village, so he could explain everything we saw, from architecture to farming practices to hydroelectric projects. He sometimes went ahead to get us a room at a tea house before the crowds showed up. His English was excellent and he made friends with everybody we met along the way.
Breakfree even threw in two extra nights at a nice hotel in Pokhara and Ramesh finally managed to get us a view of the Himalayas from Sarangkot the morning before our flight back to Kathmandu. Then, even though we didnt leave Nepal until five days later, Bharat picked us up from our hotel at 6 am and drove us to the airport.
