How to check a registered trekking agency in Nepal

Checking a trekking agency in Nepal comes down to asking for its documents and confirming them with the people who issued them. We did not find a public, searchable register of licensed trekking agencies on an official page in October 2026, so the reliable method is to ask for the company registration, the tourism licence and the tax number, check any claim of membership of the Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal (TAAN) on its website, and confirm the licence with the Department of Tourism. If your trek is in a restricted area, such as Manaslu, Upper Mustang or Upper Dolpo, an agency is not optional: the Restricted Area Permit is issued by the Department of Immigration through a registered trekking agency.

This guide covers what registration means, which treks need an agency, the documents to ask for, red flags, how to sanity-check a quote with our cost data, and how to pay. It is a checklist, not legal advice, and the sources behind it are listed below.

What registration means

Registering a travel or trekking business in Nepal is described by law-firm pages as a sequence: the company is registered with the Office of the Company Registrar, obtains a tax number, and then applies to the Department of Tourism for a licence, which may involve an inspection of the office. Sources disagree about the exact governing instrument, so we do not cite one; the Department of Tourism can confirm the current rules and whether a given licence is valid. Separately, TAAN is the trade body: Wikipedia describes it as the national umbrella organisation of trekking agencies, founded in 1978, with more than 2,000 member agencies, and as administering trekking permits for national parks and protected areas with the help of the TIMS system.

Two things follow. A licence and a TAAN membership are different documents from different bodies, and you can ask for both. And none of them guarantees good service, so they are a first filter, not a substitute for the checks below.

Which treks need an agency

Individual foreigners have been able to apply for restricted-area permits since 22 March 2026, but a licensed guide through a registered agency is still required; the Department of Immigration restated this in June 2026 (checked 19 October 2026). The Nepal Tourism Board announced in April 2023 that foreign trekkers must use a licensed guide in national parks and conservation areas; 2026 operator reports say checkpoints enforce it in Annapurna and Langtang but not in Khumbu. See our guide rule explainer and the guide rule page.

The documents to ask for

Ask for these before you pay anything, as photos or PDFs:

1. Company registration certificate. It shows the company name, number and date. The name on the certificate should match the name on the invoice and the bank account.
2. Tourism business licence for trekking. It should be current. Ask for the licence number and the date it is valid to.
3. Tax registration. The company's tax number should appear on its invoice.
4. TAAN membership, if claimed. TAAN publishes member pages on its site; look for the agency's name there rather than trusting a logo.
5. A physical address and a landline or office phone in Kathmandu or Pokhara, as well as WhatsApp.
6. The name and licence of the guide the agency proposes. Our guide licence verification guide explains how to check it.

Then check. Call or email the issuing body to confirm the licence number is valid and belongs to that company. Our searches found no public lookup, so expect this to be a phone call or email rather than a click. Look the company up on the TAAN site, search its name with the word "complaint" and read recent reviews on more than one platform.

Red flags

• No office address, or one that does not match. If you are in Kathmandu, visit and see for yourself whether it is a working office.
• Pressure to pay everything now, in cash or to a personal account.
• Reluctance to share documents or the guide's name.
• A price far below the permits and flights. See the next section.
• Promises that are wrong on the rules, such as saying a restricted-area permit can be bought on arrival at the trailhead.

More general advice on partners and operators is in trekking partner red flags and the vetting checklist.

Price sanity checks from our cost data

An agency quote has fixed lines you can verify, as of October 2026 and at NPR 134 to the dollar:

Our full lines are in the Upper Mustang and Manaslu Circuit cost guides. If a quote for Upper Mustang is below the permit plus the flights, ask what has been omitted. If it asks for a very large deposit before it has shown a licence, walk away.

Paying safely

Ask for an itemised written quote that lists the permits, the guide, the porter, transport, lodging and any service fee, and for an invoice in the company's name. Pay by a traceable method to an account in the company's name, keep every receipt, and pay the balance only when the services are delivered, if the agency agrees. Be careful with deposits and with any request to pay a staff member privately. Our guide to what to agree with partners covers how to share these payments.

What an agency does for you

An agency's useful work is the paperwork and the logistics: the Restricted Area Permit, the TIMS card, flights and vehicles, the licensed guide and the emergency plan. Ask who will actually be in the field with you, what happens if the guide or a porter falls ill, who calls the helicopter and how your insurance claim is supported. For the permit steps in a restricted area see the Manaslu restricted-area permit guide and the Upper Mustang permit guide.

Questions to ask on the call

A short call or message will tell you a lot. Ask who will be your guide and what licence he or she holds, who the agency's owner or manager is, how long it has operated and on which routes, what its emergency procedure is and who calls a helicopter, how it handles a change of guide or a flight delay, and what its cancellation and refund terms are. Ask for the answers in writing, and compare them with what a second agency says. An agency that answers quickly, specifically and in writing is showing the habits that matter on the trail, and one that dodges the licence number or the emergency plan has told you what you needed to know.

Check the answers against our other guides. The guide licence guide covers the guide, the permit guide shows which permits the agency should name, and the guide rule explainer tells you what is required where.

Sharing an agency with partners

A group that shares an agency shares the permit paperwork, the guide and the transport, so it is worth agreeing as a group on the agency before anyone pays. Everyone's details must be on the permit application, so late joiners and early leavers cost time. For finding partners, read how to find a trekking partner in Nepal safely, then see the Manaslu Circuit partner page and the Upper Mustang partner page, and browse the Manaslu and Upper Mustang regions. More rules guides are in the permits and rules hub.