Nepal eSIM

Not the whole way. Mobile service appears in pockets around larger villages with a mast, such as Namche Bazaar, and is usually absent between them, in deep valleys and on pass days. Lodges on the Everest trail often sell prepaid Wi-Fi packages whose speed depends on the weather. Download your maps and permit documents to the phone before you set off.

Those flights depend on mountain visibility, so they slip or cancel through the day. Keep your agent's and the airline's numbers and chat channels on the phone, leave at least a day or two of buffer before an international departure, and have working data so you can extend a room or switch to a shared helicopter if it comes to that.

For a normal trip, no. A local SIM needs your passport and a photo and a trip to a shop, which costs you the first morning, while an eSIM is live when you land. Some people doing multi-week treks in remote areas carry both to switch between them, though neither guarantees service at every point on the trail.

Many trail lodges charge by the hour and run on solar, so an overcast day means less power to give. Carry a high-capacity power bank, keep the phone inside your jacket at night because cold drains the battery, and switch to airplane mode while walking through stretches you already know have no service.

Most plans here start when the phone first connects to a network at the destination, so you can install in advance at home and switch it on after landing. Each plan page states its own rule.

No. The eSIM is a second line, so you keep your home number for SMS OTP. Turn off roaming data on the home line and set the eSIM as the data line.