Can I Trek With Small Children?

By David Reed, author of The Rough Guide to Nepal

On our last trip to Nepal, my wife and I brought our daughter, who was almost five, with us on a trek in the Annapurna region. It was the best thing we've ever done as a family, bar none.

I'm sure that when Lily is older, that trek will remain one of her earliest and most vivid childhood memories. It was eight days of age-appropriate fun and adventure. Around every corner, it seemed, there was something to delight a four-year-old: chickens, goats, jingling donkey trains; frogs, bugs and other creepy crawlies; waterfalls and caves, temples and prayer wheels, leaves and sticks and shaligrams (fossil-bearing stones) for the finding. All that plus being the center of attention everywhere she went and getting to sleep with mom and dad every night.

True, the trek was a much tamer one than we parents would have done without Lily, but still thoroughly enjoyable.

Maybe we were lucky that everything went as well as it did-a good time can't be guaranteed in the Himalaya. If you're thinking of trekking with small children, go with realistic expectations. Here are some tips:

Routes. Treks in Nepal can range from easy to extremely strenuous, depending on distance, elevation, remoteness, and so on. With children, stick to the easy ones, at least on your first outing. I wouldn't take a young child above 12,000 feet or so due to the risks of acute mountain sickness. The standard "teahouse" routes generally offer more comforts and easier access to emergency services, although it's not out of the question to take children off the beaten track with the help of a good agency.

On our trek, we flew into Jomosom, at an elevation of about 10,000 feet, and after a two-day side trip a bit further up the valley, spent the rest of the time gradually descending to the road at Beni.

Pace. How fast you trek will depend on the age and sportiness of your youngest. Play it safe and plan on very modest days, stopping by mid-afternoon and allowing the occasional rest day. Not knowing what to expect with our four-year-old, we gave ourselves up to ten days to do a trek that would take a normally fit adult four or five days; we were pleasantly surprised that we did it in eight days, at what seemed a very leisurely pace and with one rest day.

Weather. Obviously you'll want to minimize the risk of bad weather. Unfortunately, the best trekking seasons-spring and fall-don't coincide with school vacations. Summer is the monsoon-definitely not a good time to take children trekking-while Christmastime is cold and can be snowy at all but the lowest elevations. That said, I wouldn't hesitate to take a child out of school for such an educational experience.

Health and safety. Trekking carries most of the same hazards as a weekend camping trip at home, requiring the same precautions and things to bring. The extra concern is tummy bugs. Drum it into children to drink only boiled or purified water, keep hands and foreign objects out of mouths, and wash hands frequently (sanitary wipes come in handy). You'll also need to set clear ground rules about not wandering off, not running, not venturing close to dropoffs, and staying well clear of animals, especially dogs.

Bathroom arrangements in the more primitive trekking inns may put children off. I wouldn't take a child trekking if he or she isn't potty trained-partly because of the diaper dimension, partly because of the extra risks and hassles a child that young would pose.

Food and drink. Some kids love daal bhaat (the standard Nepali dish of rice, lentils and curried vegetables)-they can eat it with their fingers-but many turn up their noses. Fortunately, it's never a problem to get common western dishes (pizza, noodles, fries, etc.) on the teahouse routes. Keep kids well hydrated!

Sleeping arrangements. Kids will usually be much less squeamish than their parents about accommodations. Most trekking inns have private rooms, though they may be very small and poorly partitioned. The beds are narrow, but you can push two together. If you're trekking with an agency, you'll probably camp in tents with plenty of home comforts.

Transportation. Many trekking trailheads can be reached by bus or hired taxi. But the buses can be extremely uncomfortable, and the taxis are often in bad shape-with kids, a couple of hours on winding mountain roads in one of these is a recipe for carsickness. If possible, rent a better taxi or minivan, or fly.

Agencies. Many agencies can arrange family treks. Two U.S.-based ones that I'm aware of are Friends in High Places (800-OK-NEPAL) and Journeys (800-255-8735). In Kathmandu, Guiding and Trekking Expedition Services (GATES, gates@dendi.mos.com.np) is well-known as a family-trek specialist; Pokhara-based Three Sisters Adventure Trekking (sisters3@cnet.wlink.com.np), with its women porters, would probably also be good.

Porters. I don't have space to go into the ins and outs of hiring porters, but suffice to say that you'll almost certainly want a porter for each child. Like all Nepalis, porters love children and are great playmates/babysitters, despite the language barrier. The porter carries the child in a doko (backpack-basket) that's been customized to let the legs dangle out the back; agencies usually have deluxe versions on hand, but any doko can be modified on the spot. Our daughter was content to ride in the doko about half the time, and walked the rest; a younger child would want to ride more, an older child less; I suppose anyone over the age of about eight wouldn't want to ride at all.

Naturally you'll want to be very careful about the porter you hire to carry your child along precarious trails. You'll have more than the usual incentive to make sure he or she is agile, conscientious and sober, and to treat him or her well. We agreed to pay our porters more than the standard daily wage, bought them shoes, and made sure they knew we would tip them well at the end.

What to bring. You'll need the same range of clothes for your child as for yourself, only more and warmer. Bring just a few games, cards, modeling clay or beeswax or other toys that have a lot of play value per ounce and aren't too flashy. You'll kick yourself if you don't bring a video camera, or at least a still camera. A handheld tape recorder is also useful, both for recording and for playing story tapes. You won't need as many story books as you might think (bedtime comes early).

Finally, if possible, bring friends! We teamed up with an American friend of ours and her four-year-old daughter, and it made all the difference. The girls shared endless adventures together; solo, Lily probably would have rather stayed home.